Tonight’s ASHP activity consisted of attending the Talyst User Group. It was a pretty big turnout, probably three times the size of the one I attended in Chicago in June.
The User Group was made up of representatives from several hospitals across the country: California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania among others. There were IT pharmacists, operation managers, pharmacy directors and one medication safety pharmacist. A good mix.
Topics covered included how to manage multiple NDC numbers for products stored in an automated carousel, an introduction to the new Talyst customer portal, an introduction to the new Talyst report writing service and an update on patient safety. Most of these items were hot topics at the June meeting, and it’s nice to see Talyst taking note of the customer feedback they received.
The new customer portal is a good thing for Talyst customers. If used properly it will become a place for customers to connect to discuss issues and best practices. In addition the new portal gives users access to customer support as well as ordering consumables.
Like many other hospital pharmacies, Kaweah Delta relies heavily of various reports to analyze dispensing trends, inventory control, clinical activity, etc. Even though our AutoPharm and AutoPack systems offer several model reports, they don’t cover all areas we like to look at. The new Talyst report writing service offers customers the opportunity to ask for custom reports to fit their individualized practice. In addition, reports created for customers will be placed in a library where other customers can access them.
Patient safety is always a big topic when a group of pharmacists get together to discuss automation. Talyst is working on several new safety features, including lot number and expiration tracking, high alert medication information, and multi-part labels for special needs medications.
Overall the User Group was a positive experience and certainly a good use of time. I picked up quite a bit of information and made contact with some really smart people; always a good thing.
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