Jerry Fahrni

Tag: BCMA

  • Hey, anyone seen a unit-dose around here?

    When you ask a pharmacist what a unit-dose is you may get a funny look. Actually, you will get a funny look. I know because I asked one of the pharmacists I work with that very question today and she gave me a look that could only be described as a cross between concern and pity. She thought the answer to my question was obvious and who could blame her.
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  • Interesting similarity, don’t you think?

    I finally got around to digging into the article on bar code medication administration (BCMA) in the most recent issue of the NEJM. It’s and interesting article that has already receiving a lot of press. It will probably be tossed around for months.

    One thing I found amusing in the article was figure 1 on page 1706 (bottom image). I’ve had a similar visual on one of my office whiteboards (top image) for nearly a year. I like being on the same page with intelligent people.

  • Cool Technology for Pharmacy – CHS 7X

    Bar-Code Point-Of-Care (BPOC), also known as Bar-Code Medication Administration (BCMA) has been a hot topic in health care for a while now. Some people love it while others hate it. Regardless of how you feel about bar-coding it is here to stay for a while and the technology, both hardware and software, is pretty cool.
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  • Motion C5 tablet gets a ride

    Motion Computing makes several Mobile Clinical Assistants (MCA), including the popular Motion C5 tablet. Don’t be confused by the MCA moniker, a MCA is simply a rugged tablet PC with some additional features like a barcode or RFID scanner and a digital camera. You can get more information on MCAs at the Intel website.

    I’ve been fairly critical of this class of device in the past for several reasons. After using the Motion C5 for several weeks last year I found the 10.4 inch screen much too small for everyday use. In addition the design of the placement for the barcode scanner in the handle made the MCA too cumbersome to be really effective in patient care areas; it required too much manipulation to scan patient wrist bands. The nurses I’ve worked with tend to agree.
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  • BCMA Implementation checklist and lessons learned

    First off let me start by saying that I think BCMA is a worthwhile endeavor. It can have a positive impact on a healthcare system, not only in terms of safety, but with inventory management and billing . The other nice benefit is the ability to see the medication administration in “real-time”. Pharmacists can look at vancomycin and aminoglycoside administration times online now instead of going to the paper chart, for example. And isn’t that the whole idea behind electronic documentation? I think so.

    Our facility went live with out first BCMA unit last week. It’s still early, but my initial take is that things went fairly well. We had a few minor issues, but nothing that couldn’t be handled easily and quickly. No matter how well you plan for something there will always be some bumps in the road, and that is important to note.

    Below are some things that I picked up along the road to implementation. Some of these things we did well and some we didn’t do at all. This list is my opinion and not the gospel on BCMA implementation by any stretch of the imagination. Please remember that as you read through it.
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  • Talyst goes live with new customer portal

    Talyst has been beta-testing a new customer portal for several months now. The idea was introduced to Talyst customers at their user group meeting during the ASHP Summer Meeting in Chicago last June. Beta-testing took place between the summer meeting and December 2009 when Talyst unveiled the portal to a larger user group meeting in Las Vegas at the ASHP Midyear. Attendees were given a demonstration of the portal and offered an opportunity to provide feedback on possible issues or features they’d like to see. Well, it appears that the portal is out of the beta phase and ready for use.


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  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of February 14th

    As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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  • Cool Technology for Pharmacy

    The DoseEdge Pharmacy Workflow Manager, formerly IntelliFlowRx Workload Management Software by Baxa, is a system designed to track and manage intravenous (IV) medication dosages prepared by pharmacy personnel in a clean room environment. The system is touted as “The world’s first and only fully integrated workflow manager for the IV room.”

    The system is designed to flow something like this:

    – IV medication orders entered by the pharmacist, or other healthcare professional, are sent to the DoseEdge system where they appear on the DoseEdge touchscreen.
    – When the technician, or pharmacist in some cases, accesses the order via the touchscreen instructions for preparation of the product are displayed.
    – The product label is generated.
    – The barcode on each injectable ingredient used for the preparation of the IV product is scanned to ensure the correct medications have been selected. Items identified as incorrect result in an audible message of “product not allowed for this dose.”
    – The barcode on the IV product label generated by the pharmacy is scanned to ensure that ingredients are appropriately matched.
    – Each ingredient is drawn into a syringe.
    – An image of the syringe with appropriately drawn medication is taken for review by the pharmacist, or technician, whichever the case may be. This is a nice feature as it allows one to see the actual amount of drug drawn into the syringe prior to shooting it into the fluid bag.
    – Ingredients are injected into the fluid bag and an image of the final product is taken.
    – A final scan of the product barcode is done to complete the fill.

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  • Code Corp bar code scanners

    As I’ve mentioned before our AutoCarousel system from Talyst utilizes barcode scanners from Code Corp, specifically the Code Reader 3.0 (CR3). As you my or not be aware, I’ve been working with Code Corp and Talyst over the past several months in an attempt to replace our aging CR3 with Code Corps newest version of the scanner, the Code Reader 3500.

    The Code Reader 3500 uses newer technology over the CR3 and performs much better with our carousel. The reader is easier to use due to its wider target area and “reflection and glare reducing illumination”. It’s also quite a bit faster. The technicians love it.
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  • Sad, but all too common experiences with healthcare

    I read Warner Crocker’s musings at GottaBeMobile as well as his Tweets via the @LPH/tablet-pc-enthusiasts list on Twitter. Warner also has a second blog called Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2, which I do not read with any regularity. I was, however, driven toward his personal blog secondary to a Twitter post. The post, titled Rush and My Mom: Two Different Care Experiences, talks a little about his experiences with his mothers medical care. She is apparently very ill with lung cancer. I sympathize with Warner as my mother-in-law, Mary Lou, succumbed to lung cancer in December of 2008. I also understand much of what he is talking about as my wife and I experienced similar problems during Mary Lou’s chemotherapy, pain management and surgeries.
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