Our facility is gearing up to implement bar code medication administration (BCMA) in February 2010. Part of getting ready is making sure that all the medications dispensed from the pharmacy are bar code ready. If the medication isn’t bar coded or won’t scan, then it won’t do the nurse much good at the bedside. We’re in pretty good shape secondary to our carousel install in February of 2008. Everything that gets stored in the carousel is already bar coded. I had hoped that the file stored in our AutoPharm, i.e. carousel, cross reference file could simply be dropped into our Siemens Pharmacy cross reference file, but that would have been too easy. Siemens refused to play nicely with the data.
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KLAS says providers are integrating pharmacy systems
Heathcareitnews.com:”One of the most striking examples of the impact of integration within the closed loop is Siemens, Hess notes. On one hand, providers who rated the Siemens Pharmacy product alone gave it a relatively low overall score of 70.8 out of 100. However, those providers who rated both Siemens Pharmacy and the Siemens bar-coding at the point of care product – Medication Administration Check (MAK) – scored the pharmacy product much higher, giving it an overall satisfaction rating of 83.9. That BPOC/pharmacy integration is one of the key reasons that Siemens Pharmacy earned the second-highest satisfaction score in the study.” - This was mentioned earlier in the week by Todd Eury at PTR, but I wasn’t able to get a close look at the article until now. I am a Siemens Pharmacy user and am not surprised by their low satisfaction score. The Siemens pharmacy system has a lot to be desired and their product support is seriously lacking. I am happy to see, however that the satisfaction with the system increases with MAK, which we will be implementing later this year.
