Software to Protect Against Medication Errors

New software for medication-dispensing units is designed to increase patient safety by minimizing the opportunity for human error while enhancing nursing and pharmacy efficiency.

This software upgrade, Omnicell 8000, is for the OmniRx and OmiSupplier medications dispensing units. Using Omnicell 8000, the nurse goes to the cabinet, identifies a particular patient, and is presented with a list of medications ordered by the patient's doctor and approved by the hospital pharmacist. The nurse can only access those medications for which there is a medication order, helping ensure that the patient gets the right medication,” explained Ray Vrabel, director of medication safety systems at Omnicell, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA, USA; www.omnicell.com).

Other enhancements include the addition of bar coding that contributes to the placement of the right drug in the right cabinet storage location at the time of restocking; a fingerprint scanner that identifies the person accessing the dispensing unit; real-time communication between the Omnicell PharmacyCentral automation system and the hospital's medication cabinet restocking and dispensing units. In addition, the integration of Omnicell's SafetyMed bedside scanner for medication administration with Omnicall drug storage cabinets enables real-time communication between the two systems.




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