Matching Patients with Meds Avoids Mistakes

The process of delivering the right medications to patients in a hospital environment has been consistently improving. However, there is always room for further improvement. To provide this next level of consistency and safety, Omnicell developed automated, patient-specific software called SinglePointe. The software allows hospitals to manage drug dispensing, stocking, restocking and more, essentially a one-stop approach to the medication lifecycle.

Prior approaches addressed commonly used medications covering only 80 percent of patients' requirements. In contrast to these medication dispensing systems, the new software addresses medications that are not routinely stocked in the dispensing system through an auto-assign process that matches patient-specific locations with patients and their medications. This allows the patient to continue to take previously prescribed medications, as well as those prescribed during the hospital visit and virtually eliminates missing doses. To reduce the potential for medication errors, clinical and profile checks are applied to all patient medications.

The software is compatible with existing bedside medication verification, as well as other existing methods of drug distribution such as nurse server, mobile carts and more. In addition to reducing the risk of medication errors, the software addresses time-consuming, inconsistent and labor-intensive medication management procedures in hospitals. Providing a single point of access for all patient medications simplifies the workload of both nurses and pharmacists.

The technique allows continuity of the current system with medications that are not patient-specific stored in a general area in the mobile medical cart and patient-specific medications stored in a specific location. Tied into other hospital entities such as the pharmacy, medicine carts and bar code readers, the software allows complete medicine management. With the bar code reader, access for high-risk medicines can be granted or restricted as required. Consumed drugs are calculated and conveyed for restocking. At the end of the patient's hospital stay or as drugs become dated, the software provides improved control and accountability of these patient-specific medications.

The thorough management of the drug-dispensing process avoids billing discrepancies and the potential for fraud and abuse.

	Omnicell SinglePointe patient-specific software works with the company’s automated dispensing software and existing hospital infrastructure items such as mobile medicine carts and Omnicell barcode readers to provide an easy and consistent means of providing medicine to patients.