PATIENT SAFETY
technology ‘put the rationalisation into decision making’.
At Great Ormond Street Hospital, 34 medication administration cabinets are already in place, making it easier to locate and select the right medication for the right patient quickly. Looking to the future, Steve Tomlin aims to ensure that an Omnicell cabinet is on every ward at GOSH in the coming months. This will mean nurses have more time by the bedside, attendees were told. These will integrate with an electronic prescribing system to ‘close the loop’, which will help to drive patient safety. Tomlin added: “Medical professionals transfer and rota to different hospitals and in each setting, often different medication systems are used. This can be complicated and confusing for staff. A standardised system is needed across hospitals in the UK to improve patient safety, act as a vital safety net for staff and drive much needed cost efficiencies.”
Case study
Ewan Maule, deputy chief pharmacist at Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, explained that safe and effective management of medication at the Trust is essential, “due to the complex medication regimes that their patients need for our ongoing care.” The Trust first decided to look into automating the medication management process to: Improve patient safety and reduce medication dispensing and administration errors
Enhance productivity to make the best use of limited pharmacy and nursing resources
Improve patient outcome by expanding the reach of the clinical pharmacy service
Save money and develop the commercial potential.
The decision was made to implement an Omnicell VBM 200F into pharmacy to fill medication adherence packs as well as automated medication dispensing cabinets to manage medication on the wards. “Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS
Foundation Trust is a Global Digital Exemplar site which means we will share our learning and experience of technology with other Trusts,” said Maule. “The benefits we have seen since automation, coupled with the decision to move from a model of three pharmacy departments to one single dispensing hub, have been significant. “The VBM 200F has automated the
process for producing medication adherence pill packs for outpatients. Patients with mental health illness often have complex medication regimes and it’s imperative that they take the right dose, of the right medication, at the right time to ensure there are no adverse impacts on their treatment plan. “While medication adherence pill packs have a crucial role to play in this, filling them manually was particularly onerous for staff and always ran the risk of human error.” A review of the first three months of technology use within the pharmacy3 Significant reduction of medication error
found:
To help eradicate medication errors, a system to ‘close the loop’ is also needed. This includes automated dispensing, electronic confirmation of patient identity and medication administration records.
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rates for dispensing patient adherence packs: The non-automated error rate prior to installation was 0.69%. However, post implementation no errors (0%) were associated with the automated dispensing system. This meant that the machine itself provided 100% accuracy throughout the dispensing process. Reduced time taken to dispense medication adherence packs and number of staff required in the dispensing process: It had previously taken 20 minutes to manually prepare one pack. Post automation this was reduced significantly to just three minutes per pack. As a result, the pharmacy estimates that two to three WTE staff roles have been saved by the installation of the system. It has allowed staff to follow more clinical roles including the continued development of optimisation strategies to improve patient outcomes and cost effectiveness of medicines; advising patients on their medication and working as part of a multi-disciplinary
AUGUST 2019
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