Medication Management (eMAR)

eMAR stands for Electronic Medication Administration Record  

eMAR is a digital version of a paper MAR chart used by care providers to track medication administration.  

A host of advantages make eMAR an excellent alternative to traditional MAR charts. eMAR software facilitates the safe and efficient distribution, tracking, and ordering of medications and treatments. By eliminating paper-based records, medication inventories and identification procedures are more secure. In addition, eMAR serves as a legal record of the medicine administered to each resident by a health care professional. 

eMAR systems remove the need for paper-based MAR charts. Digitally linking care homes to GP’s and pharmacy dispensing systems, giving care providers a safe and efficient way to request medication directly from GPs, and manage their medication rounds. 

eMAR systems help organisations transform how residents and carers experience and deliver care, from tracking medication administration to managing stock and inventory medications in real-time. Person Centred Software’s eMAR system, an NHS-accredited system, massively decreases the potential risk of medication errors. It also gives carers more time to spend with residents instead of completing and checking paperwork or making phone calls regarding medication. 

One of the advantages of eMAR in health and social care is its flexibility; resident records are stored on a centralised, digital system, allowing for easier access among staff. Care home residents tend to have multiple medical conditions and therefore require specific types of medication. It is essential that all staff can access resident records so they can tailor care to individual residents’ needs.  

There are several features in an eMAR system that helps improve areas of medication administration including documentation, reporting, time management, and restocking medication. Here are some of the features on Person Centred Software’s eMAR system: 

• Barcode Technology 
• Centralised Dashboard 
• Group Reporting 
• Stock Control
• Pharmacy Integration
• Medication Ordering 

View all the features here 

• Using a handheld device, care staff can log in to see what medication is due per resident. 
• Using barcode technology staff can ensure all medication rights of the resident are upheld. 
• Bringing together the pharmacy, GP and care home in one place allows for efficient reordering of medication. 
• eMAR systems integrate with many other systems, such as care planning, pain management and medicines information services. 

Watch a 60 sec video of how Person Centred Software’s eMAR system works. 

It is important to be able to give your staff the right tools to succeed in effectively managing your resident’s medicines ensuring that they are given the best quality of care possible. 

Paper records will not be able to allow you to safely and efficiently request medication directly from GPs and manage resident’s medication rounds, which not only will affect the delivery of care but also will impact regulatory compliance of your organisation. 

Person Centred Software’s eMAR system has the highest safety checks and has been proven to eradicate 21 out of 23 error types compared to manual systems. Several alerts ensure that medicines are always accounted for, leading to effective care. Resident’s needs, preferences and individualised care are recorded and prompted by the system. Managers can provide evidence that the care home is well led through the Group Reporting tool, which has performance monitoring dashboards. The Group Reporting tool that enables the monitoring, prediction and improvement in care represent the innovative use of technology which is a key requirement to achieve an “Outstanding” regulatory rating. 

Having an eMAR system in place will always help your organisation be ready for a CQC inspection at any time.  

Person Centred Software’s eMAR system supports CQC audits and guidelines by allowing care staff to: 

• Provide evidence when it comes to CQC inspections. 

• Provide CQC inspectors with detailed information which is easy to interpret and follow. 
• Give CQC a good understanding of the level of care residents are receiving 

It has been shown that eMAR systems significantly improve CQC ratings because it gives care providers and CQC all the information they need, making it easy to keep an audit trail.  

With Person Centred Software’s eMAR, you can demonstrate to the CQC that your organisation is safe, responsive and well-led in your medication administration. 

There is a wealth of benefits to having an eMAR system, here are some: 

• Saves you time when booking in of medication, reordering of monthly medication, and auditing your home. 
• Reduces risk of medication errors. 
• Continual monitoring of resident’s wellbeing. 

• Unique barcode technology ensures safety of medicines administration. 
• Instant access to information at the palm of your hand. 
• Complete oversight of all medication transactions through a centralised dashboard. 

Hear from a care provider, Fewcott House, explaining the benefits they have found since using Person Centred Software’s eMAR system. Watch here. 

Choosing or changing your medicines management system is a very important decision and one that should be considered carefully. Electronic medicines administration systems can offer advantages but not all eMAR systems are the same. 

It is important that you consider all the options available to you and not just the ones offered by your pharmacy supplier or the add-on module to your electronic care plans. An eMAR system must work for you and achieve your objectives rather than suit the pharmacy supplier or tick a box. 

Common objectives of choosing an eMAR system:  

• Ensuring safety 

• Increasing accountability  
• Reducing the burden of stock control and prescription management 

It is important to understand how each eMAR system works to achieve the above objectives. 

Want to find out more? Check out our in-depth guide on how to choose an eMAR system for your organisation - A guide on choosing an eMAR System - Person Centred Software 

Data breaches could lead to 4% fines of the overall turnover of a company; therefore, the information security infrastructure and mitigation of data breaches are very important considerations when choosing an eMAR.  

Most eMAR systems in the market should be GDPR compliant as resident’s data is confidential and it is in the supplier’s interest and top priority to protect it. 

Person Centred Software’s eMAR system has achieved an international standard in Information Security called ISO 27001. This means that you can rest assured that the eMAR system is very secure, and the processes adopted for data protection are to the highest standards. 

The medicines administration process with any eMAR system should not take longer or be any shorter because the greatest proportion of time in the process is spent with the resident administering and observing medicines taken. Independent evaluation of Person Centred Software’s eMAR has shown no difference in the time for the administration. Still, an average of 65 staff hours are saved per month on the whole medicine management process. 

In an ideal world, care home providers would be able to choose the best technology for each aspect of care and have the ability to have data from all systems in one place. Currently, several eMAR systems on the market do not integrate with a number of different care planning systems. Some have no integration at all, while others only integrate with one care planning system. 

Person Centred Software’s eMAR has an open Application Programming Interface (API) which specifies how other technologies could integrate and share data, making the eMAR system flexible to integrate with several care planning systems and other technologies - this is unique in the market. The only barrier to integration would be the political will of the companies involved.