Case Study: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust improves pharmacy referrals with Lyniate Rhapsody

Rhapsody enables rapid electronic referral from hospital to community pharmacy

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust worked with Lyniate to address a long-standing challenge in improving communication between hospital and community pharmacy teams. The trust needed a rapid, electronic way to refer patients at discharge so community pharmacists could provide timely follow-up, support medicines adherence, and reduce problems caused by medication changes after leaving hospital. Lyniate’s Rhapsody integration engine underpinned the initiative.

Lyniate implemented the Refer-to-Pharmacy solution using Rhapsody On-Premise to integrate multiple third-party systems, automatically populate referral details, confirm discharge timing, and attach electronic discharge letters. The programme generated 2,572 referrals in the first half of 2016 and was associated with a drop in 28-day readmissions for medical patients from 4% to 2.5%, equal to 70 fewer patients. Lyniate’s solution also helped reduce medicines waste and dispensing time in community pharmacy.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

Julia Hulland-Vernon

Pharmacy Technician