BELLEVUE, Wash., March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overlake Hospital Medical Center will launch a pilot program to begin implementing SafetyMed(TM) RN, the bedside patient safety automation system from Omnicell, Inc. .
The pilot project is built around placing bar codes on all medications used in the medical center with Omnicell's SafetyPak(TM) bar code packaging system, then using those bar codes to verify drugs nurses take from the point of use (the cabinet that dispenses the drug) to the point of administration (the patient bedside).
"The Veterans Administration has set the gold standard of a 70 to 80 percent reduction in medication administration errors through the use of bar codes," explained Ted Neal, RPh., MBA, director of pharmacy for Overlake. "We expect to see the same results."
"An important reason Omnicell was chosen is that they offer the only cabinet-bedside, point-to-point integration," Neal said. "That's huge in reducing errors and increasing patient safety. With the use of bar codes at the bedside, you reconfirm the five 'rights' of drug administration: right drug, right dose, right time, right patient and right route."
According to Neal, representatives from pharmacy, nursing and information systems evaluated major technologies in the marketplace before settling on SafetyMed RN.
The drug bar coding process in the hospital's pharmacy will begin in the next few weeks and take about three months to fully implement. Once the drugs are bar coded, PDA's, wireless laptops or COWS (computers on wheels) will be installed in one or two nursing units for the pilot.
Neal expects the patient care unit pilot project to last three to four months, with evaluation of the pilot in the fall and the rollout of SafetyMed RN throughout the medical center beginning next winter and spring.
Six Points of Safety
The six points of safety added by the Omnicell Point-to-Point Medication Safety solutions include:
-- SafetyStock(TM) bar code confirmation at the medication dispensing
cabinet uses bar codes to verify that the correct medication is stocked
in the correct cabinet bin.
-- SafetyStock verifies that the correct medication is obtained at the time
of issue.
-- For non-pharmacy-reviewed orders, allergy alerts are provided at both
the point of use and the point of administration.
-- OmniRx(R)-SafetyMed RN integration identifies meds that are due for
delivery, preventing errors of omission as well as errors of
duplication. The medication override process is integrated and can be
conducted either at the OmniRx cabinet or at the patient bedside with
SafetyMed RN, improving nursing efficiency and data input accuracy.
-- SafetyMed RN uses bar codes to verify the accuracy of patient
medications.
-- OmniRx-SafetyMed RN integration generates a Dispense Versus
Administration Report which tracks compliance and enhances billing
accuracy.
About Overlake
Overlake Hospital Medical Center is a nonprofit, independently operated community hospital offering, in association with medical staff, a wide range of selected health technologies and specialty services. Overlake provides healthcare services to the Greater Eastside from Bothell to Renton, and from the Cascades to Lake Washington, including Mercer Island.
About Omnicell
Established in 1992, Omnicell is a leading provider of patient safety solutions preferred by nurses. Improving patient care by enhancing operational efficiency, Omnicell solutions are used throughout the healthcare facility -- in the pharmacy, nursing units, surgical services, cath lab, and all the way to the patient's bedside. The company's MedGuard(TM) line of solutions for the medication-use process includes systems for physician order management, automated pharmacy retrieval, medication packaging, medication dispensing, and nursing workflow automation with bar code medication administration. For the medical-surgical supply chain, Omnicell provides open bar code systems, cabinet-based supply management, integrated open and cabinet-based systems, and Web-based procurement. More than 1,600 healthcare facilities use Omnicell solutions to help reduce medication errors, operate more efficiently, and decrease costs -- ultimately contributing to improved clinical and financial outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.omnicell.com/.
