Jerry Fahrni

Author: Jerry Fahrni

  • Barcode symbologies….what’s in your pharmacy.

    I had a brief exchange with a colleague a few days back and the subject of where manufacturers were headed with barcoding came up. It’s an interesting discussion. As mentioned in a previous post the number of available barcode ready, unit-dosed medications has been slowly shrinking. As manufacturers work with government agencies and pharmacy organizations to come up with a standardized barcode format, it appears that they have put their unit-dosed, barcode ready medications on the back burner.

    Manufacturers have a lot of barcode options to choose from, which may be contributing to the difficulty in developing a standard. However, it is important for the pharmaceutical industry to realize that the need for a barcode standard is ultimately driven by a goal for patient safety.
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  • Something cool is coming to pharmacy…soon.

    I had the unexpected pleasure of previewing an exciting development for pharmacists the other day. I’ve been sworn to secrecy, but am allowed to show you the following screen shot, errrr….I mean photo

    .screenshot

  • Even the best things can be improved.

    I had the opportunity to speak with a nice young lady from Talyst this morning about extending our barcoding system to our pharmacy satellites. She had great insight into what we wanted to do and offered some very helpful tips. The conversation took an interesting turn when she asked me how I liked the system and where I thought improvements could be made. After the initial shock of a vendor asking me my opinion, we spent a few minutes discussing the system and how our workflow has changed for the better.

    Overall, we have been very pleased with our barcoding system. I wish all platforms ran as smoothly as our Talyst products. However, there is always room for improvement. I understand that Talyst is currently working on a “big” new release of their AutoPharm software that is focused on patient safety. I don’t have specifics, but it is possible that some of the items listed here are already in the works.
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  • Google outage raises questions about cloud computing.

    ZDNet: “On Thursday, a major outage affecting 14% of Google users caused widespread panic, and raised questions about cloud computing in general. This outage happened just when the US Goverment began discussing how cloud computing fits into their $78 billion IT budget for 2010.

    Running companies (and the Goverment for that matter) in the cloud is risky business. In theory it sounds interesting, but in reality you better know what you’re getting into.” – I’ve become quite interested in clound computing lately. The healthcare industry is ripe for this type of technology, especially with all the hype over EMRs. It’s obvious, however that there are issues that remain to be worked out.

  • “What’d I miss?” -Week of May 11th

    As usual there were a lot of things happening this week in healthcare, and not all of it was technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I browsed this week.
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  • Cool Technology For Pharmacy

    Sentri7 is a clinical rules engine by PharmacyOneSource that offers real-time identification and alerts for possible intervention opportunities. The software is web-based and can function with existing hospital software to analyze medicaiton lists, laboratory results and patient data to provide pharmacists with automated clinical monitoring.
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  • Update on Pharmacy 2.0..or should I say “Pharmacy Web 2.0”

    A few days back I posted a small blog on pharmacy and the entire 2.0 (two-point-oh) movement. The article generated a couple of comments that brought my attention to an excellent article by Todd Eury describing the use of WEB 2.0 and pharmacy. Eury (of PTR) does a good job of getting to the essence of the Web 2.0 movement.

    In his blog Eury states that “According to Tim O’Reilly: “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. ”

    These tools provide you with a unique approach to forming better ties to your customers. Blogging is a great way to start…You could feature biographies on your (willing) staff and create a common place for customer comments and interaction. Interaction is the key. It’s a social medium that enables you to reach out to your customers as creatively as you want.”

    Examples of internet social medium given include Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook.  All very popular and effective tools for communication.

    An article in InformationWeek on social networking in large companies tends to agree with Eury’s assessment that Web 2.0 technology and social networking has its place.

  • Be efficient with project meetings.

    The nature of an IT pharmacist’s job involves being part of a lot of projects, teams, committees, etc. The reason is obvious. Technology used to improve medication distribution and administration is an essential component of any medication safety plan.
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  • Extending the reach of AutoPharm/AutoCarousel with “the wall”

    In March of 2008 our hospital implemented a system to meet a district wide initiative for 100% barcoded medications in the pharmacy. The barcoding project for the pharmacy was immense, involving a pharmacy remodel, hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds (if not thousands) of man hours.

    The project included the implementation of an automated bulk packager capable of creating unit-dosed, barcode ready medications (AutoPack), a barcode labeling system (AutoLabel) and an automated medication storage and retrieval system (AutoCarousel with AutoPharm software). All products were purchased from Talyst, who is headquartered in Bellevue, WA.

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  • Pharmacy could use the Palm Pre

    There is an interesting little article in this month’s issue of Hospital Pharmacy (not available online yet – volume 44(5), pp 429-430, May 2009) entitled “The Palm Pre: A Beginning of an Ending?” The author, Brent Fox, has been writing articles on Palm powered devices (PDAs) for several years. In the article he address the upcoming release of the new Palm Pre , a smartphone with slick new hardware and software that is supposed to compete with the iPhone and BlackBerry devices.
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