Optimising medicines management for AUSMAT with mSupply
09 Dec 2024
Written by Carly Perry
Effective medicine management is essential for Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) to ensure the delivery of high-quality pharmaceuticals to patients. This requires reliable and safe practices at every stage of the medication management pathway - including procurement, supply, storage, prescribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring. However, achieving this can be particularly challenging in field hospital settings. The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre’s (NCCTRC) Pharmacy Team is continuously looking for ways to improve, so that they meet the World Health Organization (WHO) EMT minimum standards while also adhering to Australian legislative requirements and best practice guidelines. To enhance the safe provision of medicines by AUSMAT, the NCCTRC undertook a project to implement an electronic stock management and dispensing program, mSupply.
mSupply is a pharmaceutical supply chain management system designed primarily for use in low-and-middle income countries. Implemented in over 30 countries globally and widely used across the Pacific, it delivers robust inventory control, pharmacy dispensing capabilities, with reporting functions. Seamless synchronisation between stores, facilitates easy stock transfers to and from warehouses. The Pharmacy Team at the NCCTRC is able to efficiently monitor field stock levels, track usage, and guide resupply efforts in conjunction with the AUSMAT pharmacist, during AUSMAT deployments - even in areas with intermittent power and internet connectivity.
Electronic prescription dispensing further supports AUSMAT pharmacists to provide optimal patient care. With mSupply, prescription details including allergies are recorded to build comprehensive patient histories. The system flags potential drug interactions, streamlines prescription entry through abbreviations and tailored default directions, and automatically generated labels with optional multilingual instructions This ensures accessible, accurate information and eliminates the need for manual stock tracking by adjusting inventory levels after each dispense. As a result, AUSMAT can provide Ministries of Health with complete dispensing records in a functional package whenever necessary.
To fully leverage mSupply’s capabilities, the Pharmacy Team worked closely with the system’s developers to configure and customise features that addressed the unique inventory control requirements of AUSMAT and NCCTRC. During deployments, when the AUSMAT pharmacist fulfils both clinical pharmacist and technical supply roles, these adaptations ensure that mSupply’s inventory control functions effectively support their dual responsibilities.
This level of customisation is critical given the scope and complexity of the NCCTRC medicine cache. With approximately 2000 stock lines and a value of around $200,000, medicines are organised into kits for every possible AUSMAT field hospital configuration, ensuring they can be rapidly deployed. Managing these tiered and complex storage arrangements required a custom mSupply solution that simplifies stock transfers and returns. Automated variance reports continuously compare on-hand quantities with required levels for each kit, ensuring the entire cache remains readily deployable.
In addition to maintaining readiness, preventing medicine wastage is a key priority. The Pharmacy Team achieves this by rotating stock through the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) Pharmacy Department whenever possible. An automated report identifies items nearing their best-before dates, simplifying the selection and rotation of stock lines. Given that more than $100,000 worth of stock is rotated annually, these efficiencies significantly improve routine workflow. Beyond stock management, a range of other custom reports such as deployment manifests, medicine lists for customs declarations and kit contents lists further enhance team operations.
To safeguard medicine quality, the NCCTRC has also integrated mSupply’s Cold Chain application. Bluetooth temperature sensors placed in each kit, fridge, and cold chain bag enabling real-time, automated monitoring. These sensors provide immediate alerts for temperature breaches, track single and cumulative exposures, and enable data to be linked to specific medicine batches. With over 40 temperature sensors in use, a central computer dashboard consolidates all data for easy access. This set-up allows the Pharmacy Team to proactively manage potential temperature issues, helping to ensure medicines remain effective even under challenging field conditions. By continuously refining processes and embracing advanced systems, the NCCTRC affirms its commitment safe, high-quality patient care.
