The Specials Laboratory selects Episys Ultimate for its over labelling service

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The Specials Laboratory, a manufacturer of unlicensed medicines operating from three units in the UK, recently selected the Ultimate Platinum system from Episys, the global information technology solutions and services company, to fulfil its increasing over labelling needs with a proven, secure labelling system.

Paul Townsend, technical manager at The Specials Laboratory, explains, "With our old labelling system, we had issues with both the approvals and layout processes, and even slight changes such as margin adjustments meant going through a whole new design and approval process. Not only did this become too restrictive, it was also highly time-consuming".

Offering its over labelling service to an increasing number of customers in hospitals, the company found the whole system of label design and approval to be both complex and voluminous. However, on discovering the Ultimate Platinum system and its approvals modules, the company instantly recognised its benefits. Additionally, the BNF module has proved to be successful for the Specials Laboratory in ensuring that it keeps up-to-date with the latest labelling legislation. Renowned for its comprehensive system security, The Specials Laboratory was keen to capitalise straight away.

"Security of any labelling system is of utmost importance", Townsend continues, "and it's essential that each alteration made by an authorised person is documented accordingly. The Episys approvals module is particularly beneficial in this respect, as it sends notifications once the label has been designed and added to the approval process. The person in charge then gets an email notification informing that there is a change waiting to be authorised, and once that authorisation has taken place, the user then gets a notification to say that the label is ready for use and can be printed. Another great benefit of this is that it eliminates operator error, as unapproved labels simply cannot be printed or used.

Key for The Specials Laboratory was that Episys is able to meet the demands of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) with its Ultimate Platinum solution. Containing all the features of Ultimate Gold, the product also offers enhanced security, providing extensive password control and full auditing of every activity and event within the system, including the creation and printing of worksheets.

Townsend concludes, "One of the other advantages of our over labelling service is that we can purchase a large amount of stock for each specific customer. The stock is then labelled with the customer requirements and then we hold that stock on our shelves. The customers can then call off what stock they require at any one time for delivery within 24 hours".

Derek Buchanan, Episys CEO, says: "Although The Specials Laboratory only recently started using the Episys Ultimate Platinum system, the company's in-house efficiencies have already been significantly enhanced with their approval systems now faster than ever before. Over time, there are great opportunities to see cost reductions along the way too."