Pleck, an independent pharmacy, was the first in the country to provide the Atlas, a family of eMAR products, to care home customers to help improve safety to residents. The family of products inculdes ATLAS PCS which is a hand-held, barcode-scanning device used by nurses and carers to administer medication, and links pharmacies and care homes in a way that is not possible using traditional paper-based systems.

The ATLAS eMAR offers significant benefits both to pharmacies and to care homes:

• By scanning the barcodes on dispensing labels, automated checks and controls are carried out to ensure the right medication is given to the right resident at the right time.
• ATLAS is significantly less time-consuming that traditional paper-based method, allowing staff more time for resident care beyond dispensing medications.
• ATLAS allows pharmacists to become much more proactive in medicines management in the care home the pharmacist can track dispensed medications.
• Reduced medicines waste.
• ATLAS Central provides management information to ensure regulatory compliance.

Invatech Health equipped Pleck pharmacy with an advanced dispensing and pharmacy management system enabling the pharmacy to issue patient-specific barcodes to all prescribed medicines. The pharmacy system is connected to ATLAS in the care home allowing live information on medicines to be viewed by the pharmacist.

Pleck Pharmacy’s first care home customer was Lakeview Care Home in December 2014.

Caroline Wood, Operations Director/Head of Care Services for Lakeview explains the benefits of using the ATLAS eMAR products from the care home perspective:

“Administering medication is integral in the day to day management of a care home, therefore systems and processes are required to ensure the safe and effective use of medication is maintained. We are committed to improving standards in all areas so we were delighted when we heard that ATLAS was available through a local supplying pharmacy to support us in maintaining Safe Administration practices. The ATLAS eMAR products are easy to use and provide data evidence of safe administration of medication.”

Taseen Iqbal, owner of Pleck Pharmacy, is delighted to have been able to provide this service

“Through ATLAS we are able to provide an enhanced technologically-enabled service to our customers to improve safety as never before. I believe that independent pharmacies can offer services matching those of the larger chains and provide the personal touch of a local business.”

Care homes look to their pharmacies to improve medicine safety and efficiency. Pleck Pharmacy became the chosen provider of pharmacy services to Lakeview care home because it uses the Invatech Health technology to aid pharmacists in improving the management of medicines as well as the safety and efficiency of medicines administration.

Tariq Muhammad, CEO of Invatech, said:

“We are delighted to provide the capability to care homes and local pharmacies to improve medicines management using our proven technology. We believe the role of the pharmacist in patient care can be greatly enhanced with the right technology. We congratulate both Lakeview and Pleck for their commitment to improving quality.”