Automated Dispensing Units (ADUs), also referred to as Automated Dispensing Cabinets (ADCs), are nothing new to hospital pharmacy. Over 80% of hospital pharmacies use ADUs. The most common is a product from Cardinal called Pyxis MedStation. Others include Omnicell SinglePointe, McKessen AutoDose-Rx and medDISPENSE (part of Emerson Electric Co.). Currently Pyxis is the clear front runner, and for good reason. They offer a great product.
(more…)
Category: Medication Safety
-
Thinking about a better Automated Dispensing Unit (ADU)
-
Local anesthetic allergies.
This has nothing to do with pharmacy technology, but I thought it would be worth posting. Questions about cross reactivity of one local anesthetic to another don’t come along often, but when they do it’s never easy to formulate a quick answer. Lucky for me I’m an electronic pack-rat and saved a small drug information consult I did a few years ago regarding the issue. Remember, this is for entertainment purposes only. ;-)
(more…) -
Tablet recognition for safe dispensing…why not?
I recently spied a Twitter post regarding a “pill geometry” database. The idea of a database that houses the geometry of prescription tablets piqued my interest and sent my brain into overdrive. I don’t think that was the intention of the Twitter post, but it jump started by brain nonetheless.
(more…) -
Safest and most efficient distribution model
Cardinalhealth.com: “The findings of this analysis demonstrated that in a decentralized medication distribution model, as the percentage of medications in an automated dispensing cabinet (ADC) is increased, there is a direct correlation with:
- Decreased time to initial dose
- Decreased missing doses
- Decreased pharmacist and pharmacy technician labor
- Decreased non value added nursing activities
- Increased predictability “
This is no surprise as many leaders in the pharmacy world have been trying to move to a decentralized distribution model for years. The biggest roadblock thus far has been cost and lack of automation. As automation improves and becomes more available and less costly, the decentralized scenario becomes more and more likely.
-
Pharmacists aren’t completely worthless after all.
An article in the most recent issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reports the results of adding a pharmacist to a health care team to offer up expertise on appropriate use of medication in heart failure and hypertension.
The results showed a 35% reduction in adverse drug events, a 48% reduction in preventable adverse drug events and a 37% reduction in medication errors. They did not analyze the economic impact. However, medication errors occur in at least 1.5 million people annually and add somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.5 billion a year to the cost of healthcare.
Now, about that raise….
-
Digital Medicine Article in Business Week
A Business Week article this week took a look at the current state of electronic medical records (EMRs) and technology in healthcare. The author managed to deliver a mixed message without clearly differentiating between electronic medical records and patient safety issues. The article clearly focuses on the negative.
(more…)