Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Pharmacy Practice

  • #CareFusion jumps into the IV room with new Pyxis IV system

    You can add another player to already crowded IV workflow management system space.

    I heard a rumor that CareFusion had some new technology in their booth at ASHP Midyear this year. Since I’m at ASHP Midyear I decided to wonder over there to take a look, and lo and behold they did indeed have some new stuff. One of the things that caught my eye was their new IV room system.

    The system is like many that I’ve seen, complete with camera and barcode scanning for IV medication preparation. I didn’t have much time to evaluate the system, and it’s virtually impossible to do so in the span of a short demo, but overall the Pyxis IV system hits all the major safety checkpoints for this kind of stuff.

    CareFusion is playing things pretty smart by moving into the IV room. They’re taking a broad approach to managing the entire inpatient pharmacy, i.e. they now have products that cover medication distribution from back door to the patient, including both IV and non-IV medications. Well played.

    So what’s the over-under on how long it will take Omnicell to build or buy an IV room system?

    From the CareFusion newsroom:

    While the greatest percentage of a hospital pharmacy budget is the cost of IV medication, it is estimated that fewer than 10 percent of hospitals use automation within their IV room where infused medication is compounded. The new Pyxis IV system* helps standardize the workflow in the central pharmacy IV room to securely manage a closed-loop pick, prep and check process, while driving efficiency in pharmacy activities. This standardization also helps improve the accuracy and error rate reduction of the IV compounding process, as well as free up pharmacy staff to redeploy to clinical activities. The new Pyxis IV system consists of monitors in the IV room that walk clinicians through each compounding step. The system organizes all similar orders and recommends the proper vial size to use when compounding to help minimize waste. The system also has video cameras to record compounding components to help facilitate remote checking by a pharmacist, which saves time by eliminating the need for clean room entrance and exit processes

  • Saturday morning coffee [November 23 2013]

    “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” ― Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

    So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

    MUG_SMC
    (more…)

  • Thoughts on implementing #DoseEdge in an acute care pharmacy

    Over the past twelve months or so DoseEdge has become the most popular IV Room Workflow Management System on the market. Why I cannot say, but my guess would be a combination of timing – the NECC tragedy – and name recognition. If you were to ask acute care pharmacy IT folks about IV Room Workflow Management Systems I doubt many of them could name more than one or two, and of those that could, I assure you one of their answers would be DoseEdge. Pharmacy is a small world and word of mouth carries tremendous weight, and DoseEdge clearly has the advantage in that respect.

    DoseEdge System at Boston Children's Hospital
    DoseEdge System at Boston Children’s Hospital

    (more…)

  • Weighing in on gravimetrics

    I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on i.v. workflow management system. In fact, I’ve been able to spend time observing several of these systems in operation in real healthcare facilities. If you really want to see how something works in a pharmacy spend some time watching a technician work and talking to them about it. You can only learn so much from marketing material, which is, shall we say, less than completely forthcoming with information.

    Each system I’ve reviewed has fundamentally the same concept, but different approaches. One of the most distinct differences I’ve encountered is the inclusion or exclusion of gravimetric analysis during the i.v. compounding process. Some have it, some don’t.
    (more…)

  • Saturday morning coffee [November 2 2013]

    “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” ― Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

    So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

    The coffee mug below comes straight from the corporate offices of ScriptPro in Mission, Kansas. I found myself there earlier this week. It’s an impressive place. The ScriptPro campus encompasses several city blocks housing everything from administrative personnel, to warehouses full of ScriptPro hardware, and even research and development. Most of you probably know ScriptPro as the maker of systems for outpatient pharmacy prescription filling, but that’s not all they do. I was surprised to learn that they do a lot lot more, not only in the outpatient space, but in the inpatient space as well. When I first arrived a nice young lady offered me coffee, which I gratefully accepted. During my conversation with the President and CEO of the company, Michael Coughlin, I mentioned that the coffee mug I was using reminded me of a pharmacy mortar. He said “if you like it, keep it”. Now it’s part of the Fahrni coffee mug museum.

    MUG_ScriptPro
    (more…)

  • IT pharmacists need more practical pharmacy experience

    I’ve laid out my pharmacy career on this site many times in the past. In a nutshell I’ve been a pharmacist for about 16 years. The first 10 years was a mix of “clinical pharmacy” and operations. The last 6 have been spent on the technology side of things; IT pharmacist for about 3 years followed by approximately 3 years with a pharmacy technology vendor.

    I will state this as clearly as possible: the time I spent as a clinician combined with my time in operations made me a better IT pharmacist.

    (more…)

  • What are you looking for in a “workflow management system” for the IV room?

    A recent “I’ve been thinking…” by Mark Neuenschwander got me thinking; no pun intended. Mark and I have been working on a barcode medication preparation (BCMP) project for the last couple of months. My interest in pharmacy automation and technology coupled with his passion for barcoding in healthcare and patient safety have created a good working relationship. We’re currently looking at the state of BCMP as it relates to compounding in the IV room.
    (more…)

  • Getting creative with pharmacy labels: dosing calculations

    I was searching for inpatient pharmacy label examples, specifically IV label examples, for a project that I’m working on and came across a site called RxLabelToolkit.com. It’s a neat little site that offers quite a bit of information on label design. I don’t know if the business is still active as the most recent post I can find on their blog is from December, but it’s worth a few minutes of your time to stop and have a look.

    RxLabelToolkit.com: “One of the most valuable features of BarTender for pharmacy, is the ability to perform pharmaceutical calculations right within the label application. This allows us to build a label that can calculate a dose, an infusion rate, expiration date or a taper schedule. Any mathematical formula needed can be performed right in the label application.”

    The site has some pretty cool examples. The ampicillin label below is my favorite. There’s also a brief slide presentation that walks you through all the fields on the example label.

    Ampicillin1gmLabel

     

  • The future of 340B, my perspective

    The snippets below are taken from a recent article in Pharmacy Times: The Future of 340B: It’s All About Perspective

    “Established more than 20 years ago [the 340B Drug Discount Program], this legislation was enacted to assist different health care settings in providing excellent care for indigent and vulnerable patients. To allow this to happen, safety net providers have access to discounted outpatient drugs from manufacturers. By being able to purchase the discounted medications, these qualifying organizations are able to utilize the savings to provide care for those uninsured and underinsured patients. “ – The 340B Drug Discount Program can be a great thing for healthcare systems that care for a lot of ‘uninsured’ or ‘underinsured’ patients. These are often time indigent patients.
    (more…)

  • What’s the single most important technology introduced into pharmacy operations in last 10 years?

    I asked this question on Twitter today looking for opinions from the countless number of people roaming the internet. Alas, I received not a single response. Not one. I’m starting to think that Twitter, and most other social media, is worthless as a way of gathering information from people. Oh sure, my Twitter feed is great for consuming an endless string of articles and links, but the few times I’ve actually reached out to the Twittersphere with a question I’ve ended up with bupkis.
    (more…)