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38

BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – May/June 2017

These numbers from the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration generate immediate attention:

Medication errors cause at least one death every

day and injure nearly 1.3 million people annually in

the United States.

The FDA asserts problems can occur anywhere in

the distribution system, including prescription,

repackaging, dispensing, administering or monitoring.

With human error one of the factors in play, hospitals

are turning to automation in their pharmacies.

Around the carousel

For Hancock Regional Hospital in Greenfield, the Omnicell

10-pan vertical carousel, which holds about 2,100 drugs, was a new

addition when the hospital expanded to a 4,300-square-foot pharmacy

last fall.

“Some of the bigger facilities in the state use it (the carousel) –

like larger hospitals in Indianapolis,” explains Tim Livesay, pharmacy

director. “It probably is more unique for a hospital our size (a nearly

70-bed hospital with 20 pharmacy staff).”

Previously, Hancock Regional’s nursing units relied on printouts

to guide restocking efforts.

“We’d grab a piece of paper, go to all the shelves, and pull and

have it lined up,” Livesay says. “The carousel automates all that – the

cabinets integrate and talk to the carousel. It sends it to the computer

and comes up on a monitor, and we fill off of this monitor now.”

Livesay lists patient safety as the primary reason for investing in

the carousel. He doesn’t disclose what Hancock Regional paid for its

model, but reveals carousels can cost as much as $500,000 with full

amenities in place. Beyond the added safety, he is also pleased with its

boost to inventory control management.

“We cut our annual inventory from eight hours to about four

hours at the end of last year,” he recalls. “With this, we do monthly

counts on specific drugs.”

Livesay adds, “We never want to do away with the human

looking at it to make sure you’re getting the right thing, but it’s a

check to make sure you’re getting the right medication.”

Community Hospital in Munster (part of the Community Healthcare

System) has two carousels in its inpatient pharmacy, according to

Elizabeth Clements, director of pharmacy.

“Basically, I use them to manage all my inventory,” she notes.

“Everything that comes in gets assigned a spot in my carousel, whether

it’s in the physical or a remote location like a refrigerator. It keeps a

perpetual inventory of everything I have on the shelf and then it also

allows us to bar code products in and back out again for patients.”

Retail relevance

Community Hospital includes another machine for automation in

its retail pharmacy, as a Script Pro robotic prescription dispensing

system fills its bottles. (The pharmacy recently upgraded to a ScriptPro

SP 200 from the 100 model; the numbers relate to how many cassettes

of drugs they hold.)

“If it’s one of the drugs that’s entered into the pharmacy

information system in retail, it will identify that’s how it gets filled,

send it to the robot, the robot will fill a bottle with the prescribed

number of doses, label it and put it into a conveyor belt for us to pull,”

Clements outlines.

The robot condenses the inventory space that’s needed and

Hospitals Add Robotic Assistance

MEDICATION

MANAGEMENT

By Matt Ottinger

Indiana Vision 2025:

Attractive Business Climate