At Elliot Health System, we utilize EPIC as our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) for both inpatient and outpatient care areas. By using one EMR system-wide, it provides a unique benefit to the overall patient flow as outpatient medication information can be reviewed in the hospital setting. Out Pharmacy Informatics team is key in optimizing medication order entry for healthcare disciplines using the EMR.
Within the Pharmacy Department, we provide unit dose packaging for many medications that are purchased in bulk. PacMed allows us to provide a barcode to each individual dose that will be delivered to the patient care area. Unit dose medications are loaded into a robotic dispensing system (ConnectRx) which is connected with our EMR to provide daily cart-fill and first dose dispensing.
When automated delivery of medications to patient care areas in applicable, we utilize a pneumatic tube system (Swisslog).
We also utilize smart pumps (Alaris) for parenteral delivery of medications. The Pharmacy Informatics team is involved in the medication specific programming points as well as the quality review of medication infusion history. This review allows revisions to be made in the programming points, and additional education to be provided to the healthcare team when needed.
In addition, at the patient beside, every medication has a barcode for scanning which supports the correct dose being administered to the correct patient at the correct time and provided the electronic documentation in the EMR.