Greater Glasgow and Clyde Medicines

HEPMA Update – September 2022

This is the first in a series of blogs that will be used to highlight changes, new features and safety awareness with HEPMA.  

Please contact nhsggc.hepma@ggc.scot.nhs.uk if you have any ideas for future blogs.

 

Changes to dosing units for antibiotics 

  • To ensure safe prescribing in paediatrics, the dosing units of some antibiotics have recently changed from grams to milligrams.  

  • A warning note is attached to all drugs involved.  

  • Please take care that you have used the correct dosage when prescribing and administering (e.g. 1000mg=1g). 

  • Drug descriptions will show both mg and grams.

 

Choosing penicillins as an allergy – confusion with penicillamine

  • There are a large number of records with the rarely used drug, penicillamine, recorded as an allergy. 

  • Penicillamine is used for rheumatoid arthritis and Wilson’s disease and should not be confused with penicillin. 

  • Please note penicillin is not a drug, but a drug group.  

  • The individual drugs names e.g phenoxymethylpenicillin, benzylpenicillin can also be used and will cross reference to other penicillins. 

  • The system also offers a link to the correct item when penicillin is typed as a drug (see screenshot below). 

  • The HEPMA team is monitoring new additions of penicillamine as an allergy and may contact users to update the record if it is thought to be incorrect.

(switch to landscape if viewing on a mobile device)

 

HEPMA Dashboards

The following five HEPMA dashboards are available to clinical users via HEPMA Command Centre. MicroStrategy (GGC Network access required)

  1. Missed doses by ward for each week
  2. Patients on antibiotics in a ward with duration (red, amber, green coding)
  3. Patients on a ward with undetermined allergy status
  4. Non-formulary prescribing
  5. Patients on Lithium with a summary of if they have a Lithium level and eGFR within 6 months

 

Staff who don’t have a HEPMA username, but wish to access the dashboards, should contact nhsggc.hepma@ggc.scot.nhs.uk with network username, role and reason for accessing this information.

 

Further information on HEPMA, including links to guides and training videos, can be found on StaffNet (GGC Network access required).

Previous Medicines Update blogs on HEPMA can be found by searching ‘HEPMA’ on GGC Medicines: Home.

 

Published 09/09/2022. Medicines Update blogs are correct at the time of publication.