Acute-CDThe electronic controlled drugs register for healthcare organisations
Controlled drug records are still largely manual, paper-based and fragmented. Acute-CD records each controlled drug from pharmacy goods-in to the patient, digitally. CD management never looked so good.
Controlled drug register
Ward 12, CD cupboard
| Date and time | Received from, supplied to or patient | Qty in | Qty out | Batch | Made by | Witnessed by | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brought forward from page 13 | 4 | ||||||
2 Nov 202608:12 | Received from pharmacyRequisition R-2291, porter hand-over signed | 10 | none | MS2417exp 08/2028 | J. ReyesStaff nurse | L. HaddadSigned 08:14 | 14 |
2 Nov 202610:40 | Administered, bed 7Hospital number ending 3381 | none | 1 | MS2417 | A. OseiStaff nurse | J. ReyesSigned 10:41 | 13 |
2 Nov 202614:05 | Administered, bed 35mg given, 5mg wasted and witnessed | none | 1 | MS2417 | L. HaddadCharge nurse | A. OseiSigned 14:06 | 12 |
2 Nov 202622:00 | Stock check12 counted, matches the balance | none | none | MS2417 | A. OseiStaff nurse | L. HaddadSigned 22:03 | 12 |
Illustrative register data
Why Acute-CD
Medicines safety processes, especially for controlled drugs, are still largely manual, paper-based and fragmented. That leads to inefficiency, delays and medicines-related errors.
The route
Each stop is an entry on the register, signed by the person handing over and the person receiving. Choose a stop to see its entry.
Stop 1 of 8
A CD order is placed with the wholesaler. When the delivery arrives, pharmacy checks it against the order before it goes on the register.
CD Register: Morphine sulfate 10mg/1mL injection
Stop 2 of 8
The delivery is counted and entered on the register for this product in this cupboard. Batch, expiry and brand are recorded once, here, and travel with the stock.
CD Register: Morphine sulfate 10mg/1mL injection
Stop 3 of 8
Ward 12 asks for stock in Acute-CD instead of the carbonless requisition book, and a pharmacist approves it.
CD Register: Morphine sulfate 10mg/1mL injection
Stop 4 of 8
Ten ampoules from batch AB1234 are picked against the requisition, checked by a second person, and issued. The pharmacy page goes down by exactly what left the cupboard.
CD Register: Morphine sulfate 10mg/1mL injection
Stop 5 of 8
Pharmacy hands the sealed bag over and the porter signs for it, with their own login. The requisition’s status updates to ‘in transit’, so everyone stays in the loop.
Stop 6 of 8
Two approved members of staff open the bag, count it, and book it into the register for Ward 12’s CD cupboard.
CD Register: Morphine sulfate 10mg/1mL injection
Stop 7 of 8
One ampoule is drawn up for a prescribed 5 mg dose. The entry names the patient, the dose given and the amount left over, and the witness signs for what they saw.
CD Register: Morphine sulfate 10mg/1mL injection
Stop 8 of 8
The 5 mg left in the ampoule is recorded as wastage, denatured, and witnessed as a new entry against the patient’s administration.
CD Register: Morphine sulfate 10mg/1mL injection
Second signatures
Every entry that needs a witness is signed with the witness’s own credentials: their own login, not a typed name or a tick in a box.
Registered nurse, signed in as themselves
A second registered professional, with their own login
A witness proves who they are at the moment of signing. The entry carries a signature, not a name someone typed.
Signing as the witness doesn’t sign anyone out of the shared PC, so the person who made the entry stays where they were.
Receipts, administrations, wastage, destruction and stock checks all follow it, on every clinical area.
The clinical area’s view
Every requisition moves through the same six stages, in order. Each is stamped with who moved it and when.
Requisition R-20418
Pharmacy to Ward 12
Current stage
On its way
The porter has signed for the bag. Ward 12 knows it is coming and who is carrying it.
Illustrative tracker data
When the count is off
On paper, this is where a page gets messy. In Acute-CD it stays simple: the count goes on the register, the discrepancy is flagged, and an incident is raised.
The count is recorded exactly as it was made, by the two people who made it, and the mismatch is flagged on the register for pharmacy to see.
The incident carries the register, the count and the people involved, ready for investigation.
The count, the mismatch and every entry before it stay on the register, so the investigation starts from a full record.
| Time | Entry | In | Out | Balance | Signed | Witness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:06 | Received from pharmacy, batch AB1234 | 10 | 14 | S. Kowalski | M. Oduya | |
| 14:30 | Administered to Jane Doe | 1 | 13 | S. Kowalski | M. Oduya | |
| 22:00 | Stock check: 12 counted Does not match the balance of 13 Incident INC-0193 raised | 13 | A. Patel | D. Hughes |
For the Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer
Acute-CD mirrors how your organisation is structured: organisation, site, area, location. The CDAO sees the whole network; a clinical area sees its own cupboard.
Registers and open incidents for each site in one place.
Every entry, signature and witness for any register, in order.
You own your data and can export it at any time.
Your registers are visible to your organisation and no other.
| Site | Registers | Open discrepancies | Stock checks overdue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site A | 142 | 1 | 0 |
| Site B | 38 | 0 | 2 |
Who built it
EMESO’s founders trained at the UCL School of Pharmacy and between them spent 18 years as hospital pharmacists in North London NHS trusts before moving into technology. With experience as a Medicines Safety Officer and an EPMA Lead Pharmacist, they are well placed to tackle this area of clinical modernisation and medicines safety.
Read how EMESO started
Cynthia MbuluCo-Founder and CTO
Chandni KhanderiaCo-Founder and COO
We’d love to chat with you to understand your CD management pain points, and see how we can improve your organisation’s medicines safety outcomes.