Cool Pharmacy Technology–KitCheck

Anyone that’s ever worked in an acute care pharmacy knows about med trays, code trays, transport boxes, intubation kits, etc. They’re a bit of a headache because all the medications inside each kit has to be manually manipulated and tracked, including the dreaded lot number and expiration date of everything in the trays.

Well, KitCheck is a system that uses RFID technology to track the medications found in all those different med trays, code boxes, etc. I thought it was pretty cool. It’s a great idea. Wish I would have thought of it.

From the website:

The KitCheck solution utilizes Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to accurately determine exactly what is in a kit, what has been consumed or missing and which items are expired.

Pharmacies start by tagging product upon bulk receiving in the hospital. The KitCheck solution makes this process fast and painless by utilizing the bar codes present on most items currently in the pharmacy code kits.

Pharmacists build kits by placing items physically into the kit. When they are finished, rather than manually checking each expiration date and quantity, the user simply puts the kit into the RFID reading station for verification. The kit contents and expiry dates are validated in less than 15 seconds. Any problems with the kit contents are reported and the pharmacist can quickly correct any issues. A control log with the kit contents and expirations is automatically generated.

When the kit is complete, simply seal it up as you would normally. The kit is now ready to be deployed for use in the hospital.

After a kit is broken open for use, simply bring it back to the RFID scanning station. The KitCheck station will show you in less than 15 seconds which items have been consumed as well as which items were erroneously put into the kit. Kit use information is updated in the system to be used for patient billing or supply ordering purposes.Simply rebuild the kit using the automatically generated report, and then you are ready to deploy the kit again for another use.