Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Pharmacy Technology

  • IV room technology …just sayin’

    From a recent article in August 2012 issue of Pharmacy Practice News:

    Within the first month of implementation [of a bar-code medication preparation (BCMP) system], 85% of all IV drugs in the children’s hospital IV room were covered by the BCMP system, which does the following: “prints” labels to a touchscreen computer from which a technician can pick which dose he or she wants to prepare; verifies via bar-code technology that the correct medication and diluent were chosen, provides instructions to technicians about how make the preparation, allows technicians to take pictures of the preparation process and automatically time stamps each step in that process for future record keeping and management reporting.

    The unique bar code that is assigned to each product then can be used to track the medication to the nursing unit, or whatever end location has been provided, with a location bar code.

    Since the implementation of the BCMP IV system, which both Drs. Fortier and Maughan describe as a “best practice for the near future,” MUSC staff have seen “eight to 10 medications a day that could have been an error [with] the old system,” according to Dr. Maughan. “That represents 1.3% to 3% of the total number of doses dispensed.”

    It’s no secret that I think the IV room is an area that pharmacy has yet to address properly when it comes to automation and technology. We simple haven’t developed a product that will change the way pharmacy compounds IV’s. I have some thoughts on that, but will keep them offline for now. If you’re interested in talking about the future of IV room practice feel free to drop me a line. Sorry, I digress.
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  • RFID tracking of refrigerated meds in the pharmacy

    I don’t understand why RFID technology isn’t used more frequently in pharmacies. I’ve talked with a few people about RFID technology, and there’s really not much interest. It’s a shame really.

    Consider this:
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  • RFID refrigerated storage

    Think high-value items in a pharmacy refrigerator. Just sayin’

     

  • Thinking about pharmacy refrigerators

    I love the Yanko Design website. It has so many cool concepts. Recently while browsing the site I cam across the Grabit, “a door handle fitted with a fingerprint scanner” (image to the right). I immediately thought of pharmacy. It would be cool to see one of these attached to all the refrigerators in the pharmacy. Anytime you wanted to get something out of the fridge you’d simply place your thumb on the fingerprint scanner as you grabbed the handle to open the door. The Grabit handle would register your fingerprint and identify you as someone that had access. And if not, you wouldn’t be able to get in. This would work well for high dollar items that you wanted to track or controlled substances that require refrigeration.
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  • Cool Pharmacy Tech – Phocus Rx

    Ever heard of Phocus Rx? Neither had I until a couple of days ago when my boss sent me a link to this story about Children’s Hospital Los Angeles receiving Phocus Rx as a charitable donation.

    Phocus Rx is camera system used in pharmacy clean rooms to document and validate the IV compounding process. It consists of two compact 5 megapixel cameras mounted outside the hood in the clean room ceiling or on articulated arm and workflow management software. That’s quite a departure from the other systems I’ve seen where the camera sits in the hood. In addition Phocus Rx includes the obligatory image capture that allows pharmacists to remotely review the compounding process. Pretty cool stuff.

    By my count we now have four of these systems on the market, including PHOCUS Rx. Getting pretty crowded in there. Although I have to say that DoseEdge is far and away the most talked about of the IV workflow management systems on the market today. I’d love to play with them side by side to compare features and functionality.

    The other systems that I’m aware of include:

    From the PHOCUS Rx website:

    PHOCUS Rx is a powerful camera verification system combining hardware and software. It enables pharmacists and technicians to remotely document and validate the preparation of IV drugs. Two ultra compact 5 megapixel cameras are located outside the hood in the clean room ceiling or on articulated arm. Bi-directional communication software enables pharmacists to review high resolution images and validate or send a warning message.

    FEATURES

    • scalable and modular system
    • non invasive – no wires or devices in hood
    • server located outside compounding area
    • validate and store images
    • barcode recognition
    • based on client/server structure
    • simple workflow screens
    • historical and activity reports

  • We’re asking the wrong questions

    thoughtful_monkeyA couple of weeks ago I spent the morning with a friend of mine. He also happens to be a pharmacist and the director of a pharmacy IT group for a medium-sized healthcare system. As one might imagine we have similar interests, which means we spend most of our time together talking about pharmacy; where we’ve been, where we’re going, how to make it better, and so on. We both think that pharmacy is moving at a glacial pace when it comes to making important changes and any real change will likely occur long after we’re both retired.

    One thing that occurred to us during the conversation was that we always seem to ask the same questions, which always results in the same answers.

    • How do make a process faster [to free up pharmacist’s time]?
    • How do we make a process more efficient [to free up pharmacist’s time]?
    • How do we make a process better [to free up pharmacist’s time]?
    • Etcetera

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  • Cool Pharmacy Technology – ZiuZ Inspector

    The ZiuZ Inspector – or is it the Foresee Inspector – is an interesting system designed to inspect the contents of unit dose packages produced by high-speed unit dose packagers. I don’t think there’s much need for this in most acute care pharmacy operations here in the U.S. because we don’t unit dose enough tablets and/or capsules to make it worth while, but I do think it may have potential in some long-term care pharmacies using a central dispensing model. Who knows, that’s not really my area of expertise.
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  • Cool Pharmacy Technology – Eyecon Pill Counter

    1. Scan the bottle
    2. Pour the tablets onto the Eyecon Pill Counter counting platter. The Eyecon Pill Counter uses “Machine vision technology” to count the tablets.
    3. Package the tablets

    That’s pretty simple. Sure beats the heck out of counting the tablets by hand. 5…10…15…20….

    More information on the Eyecon Pill Counter can be found here.

  • Technology in the IV room – its time has come

    The cleanroom environment, a.k.a. the IV room, is one of my favorite areas inside an acute care pharmacy. It is often alive with activity, and can often be the busiest area of the pharmacy. It is also a unique place since the use of intravenous (IV) medications is vital to the successful outcomes of patients, but at the same time can result in some of the most egregious errors in healthcare. While the IV compounding process is under tight control as demanded by USP guidelines, the method of preparation and distribution is decidedly more conventional, i.e. IV rooms often rely heavily on humans. It’s an interesting dichotomy found nowhere else in the pharmacy. It is for these reasons that I find it interesting that pharmacy IV rooms have lagged behind other areas of pharmacy operations in automation and technology. However, that’s beginning to change.

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  • Cool Pharmacy Technology–DAP Personal Med Manager

    I came across the HealthOneMed Dispense-A-Pill (DAP) Personal Medication Manager while surfing the ‘net one afternoon earlier this week. It’s basically a miniature ADU with pie-shaped wedge slots for personal medications. I thought it was pretty slick.

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