Events Calendar
In This Section
Energy upgrades for Summit, Stark
Downtown Akron restaurants serve up 79,000 pounds of cardboard for recycling
Buehler's employee hopes to bag national title
Troubled bar torn down after court's final say
Toyota recalls 437,000 Priuses, hybrids globally
Brother now says former Akron doctor admitted poisoning wife
Akron, county health departments move toward merger
Most Read Stories
Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Complaints against officer keep coming
Woman rescued after falling through rotting floor in house
Police say couple had 50 stolen hubcaps
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Strip club hosts 'Lap dances for Haiti'
Teen driver crashes into Bath Twp. home
Police: Man tries to buy crack with credit card
Man robbed at Tallmadge Avenue eatery
Cuyahoga Falls residents come home to find burning couch on balcony
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
State auditor cites Highland Athletic Booster Club
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
NBC Releases Olympics Announcer List
Akron Zips:
Zips favored on road against MAC West leader
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. New Jersey Nets
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Five local gridders to play in Big33
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Law, Love and Chocolate
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
OFCCP Report
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Hospitals turn to automation, including medication carousels, in pharmacy operations
By Cheryl Powell
Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Monday, Apr 20, 2009
Hospitals increasingly are turning to technology as a potential cure for medication errors.
Aultman Hospital in Canton, for example, is embracing automation to fill prescriptions with its new $5.7 million pharmacy.
The recently opened state-of-the-art department features a new robot stocked with unit doses of 400 of the most commonly prescribed medications.
After receiving the order electronically, the robot zips into action, picks the individually wrapped single doses and stuffs them into an envelope to be delivered to the patient.
Another 2,000 medications are stocked in a new carousel, which rotates to the location of the prescribed medication after the pharmacy technician scans the patient order.
Each dose is tagged with a bar code, which can be scanned when the order is filled and then again when the drug is administered to verify the right patient gets the right medicine.
The hospital started rolling out the bar-code system this month. It allows nurses to scan the patient's bar-coded wristband along with the medicine's bar code as an added safety check and documenting tool, said Mimi Gozdan, Aultman's clinical informatics specialist.
The information then is added to the patient's electronic medical record.
It's a much simpler and more accurate way than paper charts to track the estimated 10,000 units of medication dispensed at the hospital each day, Gozdan said.
''I can track the process from beginning to end,'' said Jim Toohey, Aultman's co-director of pharmacy. ''We want to get things to the patients as quickly as possible and as safely as we can.''
About 10 percent of hospitals nationwide have robots in their pharmacy department to fill prescriptions, according to a study by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Nearly 13 percent use automated carousel systems to manage inventory, and almost 83 percent have automated dispensing cabinets for nurses to use on patient floors, the study found.
Nationwide, an estimated 12 percent of hospitals use computerized systems for doctors to order prescriptions, according to the study. And nearly a quarter of all hospitals use bar-code systems to administer medications.
The goal is to take out the risk of human error, said Karl Gumpper, director of the section of pharmacy informatics and technology for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
According to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, an estimated 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur annually in U.S. hospitals, adding at least $3.5 billion in medical costs.
About 25 percent of the errors reported to the National Medication Error Reporting Program are caused by confusion between drugs with similar names, according to the institute.
'Five rights'
Gumpper said that automation can help hospitals adhere to what's known in the medical industry as the ''five rights'' of medications: the right patient, the right drug, the right time, the right dose and the right route of administration.
''You can prevent medication error that maybe you have the wrong tablet or the wrong dose,'' Gumpper said. ''You're able to pick up that before you administer the medication.''
Marezella McCrary of Canton said she was pleasantly surprised when nurses scanned her hospital wristband before administering medications after her recent surgery at Aultman Hospital.
''I thought it was pretty neat because it's better security,'' she said. ''You can never have too many checks.''
Several other hospitals in the area are adopting technology to boost safety.
Mercy Medical Center, Aultman's cross-town rival, recently launched a $3.7 million electronic medication administration record and wireless patient and medication bar-coding system.
''It places a computer safety system between the patient and the nurse,'' said Jim Williams, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer. ''It eliminates all the issues related to medications that sound alike, medications that look alike, patients that may have changed rooms and are now in a different room.''
In addition, Mercy has been using a robot and repackaging system since last year.
Williams estimates about 90 percent of prescription orders now are filled by the robot.
Smart IV pumps
This month, the hospital also started using ''smart'' computerized IV pumps that have limits to avoid accidental overdoses.
Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna also has had a robot in its pharmacy for several years.
Among the Akron hospitals, Akron General Medical Center has used a robot to dispense prescriptions since 1996.
The hospital also has used bar-coding technology to administer medication for about two years, Director of Pharmacy Kathleen Donley said.
''We have found it works extraordinarily well,'' she said. ''We really don't get too many 'Stop, you're doing something wrong' messages.''
Likewise, Akron Children's Hospital is preparing to start using an automated carousel system in its pharmacy this summer.
The carousel will hold 750 items and eliminate the need for pharmacy technicians to locate the proper medications among rows of shelves, said Chris Gorczycki, the hospital's pharmacy informatics coordinator.
''It will cut down on errors,'' he said.
Summa Health System's Akron City and St. Thomas hospitals use a computerized physician order system, which allows doctors to place prescriptions directly into the pharmacy's computer system.
''This has eliminated the need for paper orders, which can be misread or transcribed incorrectly from one computer system to another,'' Summa spokeswoman Julie Uehara Sur said.
Pharmacy automation can save money.
Aultman's new pharmacy, for example, also includes a high-speed repackager. The machine allows the hospital to buy medications in bulk and repackage them into doses, saving between 5 and 12 cents per dose, Toohey said.
Technology also saves time.
By using a robot to fill prescriptions, pharmacists can spend more time consulting with doctors about the best medications for patients, said Akron General's Donley.
''It helps you reallocate your staff to more important things,'' she said.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Hospitals increasingly are turning to technology as a potential cure for medication errors.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Posted 06:50 AM, 04/20/2009
They have a bad habit of giving you only half of a pill instead of whole ones.And you pay for them.Cost efficiency,not for my pocket book.And if they are loaded with the wrong Meds,which can happen,so the Machine does not know that and gets disspenced and why.Error can still happen!
Posted 09:42 AM, 04/20/2009
pharmacists go to school for a long time yet like anyone else, mistakes can be made. Just as anything else, people need to be more awar of what they are buying to help protect themselves. This is only good common sense.
Robots/ another way to for the hospitals to rake in more money than to pay a pharmacist
Akron, Oh
Posted 06:12 PM, 04/20/2009
I agree sunny florida....
Computers are known to make errors everyday. I should know, Im one one 6 days a week!!!
So I guess we're replacing human pahrmacists now too??
Akron, Oh
Posted 06:13 PM, 04/20/2009
pharmacists- sorry , didn't proofread that one...
Cuyahoga falls, oh
Posted 09:18 PM, 04/20/2009
I worry about the computer being filled with the wrong drugs, and therefore recieving the wrong meds. I prefere to deal with a live person
Posted 12:34 PM, 04/21/2009
Errors will still happen and machines will malfunction. Computers are only as perfect as their programmers, the order entry clerks and those who load the machine with the drugs to be dispensed. Unfortunately people will still get sick and one or two will still die from these errors or malfunctions.
