Optum ePMA Integration

Trusted by NHS organisations, healthcare providers, and healthtech innovators, 6B delivers full-lifecycle Optum ePMA integration, from discovery and architecture through development, testing, deployment, and ongoing support. We build secure, scalable integrations for clinical decision support, medicines reconciliation, pharmacy workflows, patient engagement, and prescribing analytics.

Our team combines medicines management knowledge with expertise in healthcare APIs, HL7 FHIR, HL7 messaging, dm+d terminology, identity management, and clinical safety. We support established prescribing and administration workflows while protecting data integrity, maintaining auditability, and enabling safe clinical decisions.

Understanding Optum ePMA

Optum ePMA is an electronic prescribing and medicines administration platform used in NHS environments to replace paper drug charts with structured digital workflows.

The platform supports prescribing, clinical review, medication administration, auditing, configuration, upgrades, and downtime procedures across inpatient, community, mental health, secure, and specialist care settings.

Authorised users can create and maintain electronic medication records, review treatment, and document administrations or omissions. Pharmacy and medicines optimisation teams can review prescriptions, monitor activity, manage local formularies, and support data quality and configuration.

Depending on the deployment, Optum ePMA may operate alongside EPR, PAS, pharmacy, laboratory, observations, and reporting systems.

Our Optum ePMA Integration Process

We begin with structured discovery involving pharmacy, medical, nursing, digital, technical, and governance stakeholders. Together, we define workflows, users, data requirements, safety constraints, and intended outcomes.

Typical integrations include active medication records, allergy information, medicines reconciliation, laboratory and observation data, pharmacy workflows, prescribing alerts, and analytics.

We map patient identifiers, encounters, allergies, medication orders, dose instructions, routes, frequencies, administrations, omissions, discontinuations, pharmacy reviews, and discharge medicines.

Architecture may use FHIR, REST APIs, HL7 messages, integration engines, secure web services, database interfaces, scheduled exchange, or event-driven messaging. We also define mappings for dm+d, local drug dictionaries, formularies, dose units, routes, frequencies, prescribing statuses, and administration outcomes.

Authentication can support OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, NHS CIS2, single sign-on, service accounts, and role-based access.

Reusable components accelerate delivery, including medication handlers, FHIR components, HL7 parsers, validation rules, and routing pipelines. Secure testing validates patient matching, medication coding, dose instructions, permissions, sequencing, performance, audit trails, failure recovery, and downtime reconciliation.

Before launch, we coordinate acceptance testing, clinical safety review, deployment, and documentation. After go-live, we monitor performance, resolve issues, and maintain compatibility with platform and NHS changes.

Benefits of Optum ePMA Integration

Prescribers gain connected access to allergies, active medicines, laboratory results, observations, and decision support at the point of prescribing.

Pharmacists benefit from timely prescription information, reduced rekeying, improved status visibility, and more efficient clinical review and medicines optimisation.

Nurses gain accurate schedules, dose instructions, administration records, and omission reasons. Connections with observations and escalation tools can support safer administration.

Patients benefit from more coordinated medicines management and fewer discrepancies when moving between services.

Operational teams gain visibility of prescribing, administrations, omitted doses, antimicrobial use, medicine expenditure, and pharmacy workload. Where supported, Electronic Prescription Service workflows can also enable prescriptions to reach a chosen dispenser electronically.

For healthtech vendors, Optum ePMA integration provides reusable, standards-based access to established NHS medication workflows.

Why Choose 6B for Optum ePMA Integration?

6B designs around the complete medication lifecycle, keeping information accurate, traceable, and clinically meaningful from reconciliation through discharge.

Our specialists understand HL7 FHIR, HL7 v2, APIs, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, NHS CIS2, integration engines, secure web services, and event-driven messaging.

We manage complex medicines terminology, including dm+d, drug dictionaries, formularies, dose units, routes, frequencies, medication statuses, allergies, and system mappings.

Reusable medication handlers, authentication flows, transformation frameworks, validation tools, connectors, and monitoring components accelerate delivery without compromising quality.

Security, governance, and clinical safety are embedded through encryption, role-based access, service permissions, audit logging, data minimisation, and retention controls.

We support DCB0129 and DCB0160 through hazard management, validation, alerting, reconciliation, downtime processes, and operational controls.

From discovery to maintenance, 6B provides one accountable partner for operational resilience and dependable NHS ePMA integration.

Optum ePMA Integration FAQs

What is Optum ePMA?

Optum ePMA is an electronic prescribing and medicines administration solution for hospital and mental health settings. It gives clinicians access to real-time medication information and supports digital prescribing, clinical review, administration, and medicines management.

Can Optum ePMA integrate with third-party systems?

Yes. Optum ePMA can connect with EPR, PAS, hospital pharmacy, stock-control, dispensing, diagnostic, and reporting systems. The interfaces available depend on the organisation’s deployed products, configuration, and supplier agreements.

What information can be exchanged with Optum ePMA?

An integration may exchange patient demographics, admissions, transfers, discharges, allergies, medication orders, administration records, pharmacy supply requests, clinical alerts, prescription statuses, and discharge medication information.

Can Optum ePMA integrate with hospital pharmacy systems?

Yes. Optum offers hospital pharmacy and electronic medicines-management products alongside ePMA. Integrations can support pharmacy clinical screening, medicines supply, dispensing, stock-control, and closed-loop workflows.

Does Optum ePMA support clinical decision-making?

Yes. Optum ePMA provides clinicians with current medication information and can support prescribing guidance, alerts, and structured checks. The rules and warnings presented will depend on the organisation’s configuration and medicines policies.

Can Optum ePMA replace paper drug charts?

Yes. The system provides an interactive electronic drug chart for prescribing and recording medicines administration, helping organisations reduce reliance on paper charts and improve access to medication information.

How do you keep an Optum ePMA integration clinically safe?

We use patient-matching controls, medicines and dose validation, role-based access, audit trails, exception handling, reconciliation, downtime procedures, and structured testing. We also support applicable DCB0129 and DCB0160 clinical safety responsibilities.

How long does an Optum ePMA integration take?

Timescales depend on the number of interfaces, prescribing workflows, medicines mappings, pharmacy connections, supplier coordination, governance approvals, and testing scope. A focused interface may take several weeks, while a wider medicines integration programme may take several months.

Readiness checklist for Optum ePMA Integration

Define the medicines workflows and use cases your integration will support, such as prescribing, administration, medicines reconciliation, pharmacy review, dispensing, EPS, or analytics.
Identify the Optum ePMA modules, EPR, PAS, pharmacy, laboratory, observations, and third-party systems involved in each workflow.
Confirm which APIs, HL7 messages, FHIR resources, integration-engine connections, database interfaces, or secure transfer methods are available within the target deployment.
Map patient identifiers, encounters, allergies, medication orders, dose instructions, administrations, omissions, discontinuations, pharmacy reviews, and discharge medicines across connected systems.
Confirm how dm+d identifiers, local drug dictionaries, formularies, routes, dose units, frequencies, and medication statuses will be mapped and validated.
Define which system will act as the source of truth for each data type and how corrections, duplicate records, conflicting updates, and downtime reconciliation will be managed.
Confirm authentication, authorisation, NHS CIS2, single sign-on, role-based access, encryption, service-account, and audit-logging requirements.
Prepare governance and clinical safety documentation, including your lawful basis, DPIA, DSPT position, and applicable DCB0129 or DCB0160 responsibilities.
Develop a testing plan covering synthetic data, allergy conflicts, duplicate prescriptions, dose changes, omitted administrations, discontinued medicines, patient transfers, high volumes, downtime, and clinical user acceptance.
Agree deployment, training, monitoring, incident management, supplier coordination, configuration change control, upgrades, and ongoing support arrangements before production go-live.