There has been a big push for automation of healthcare functions to increase patient safety and reduce medical errors, said Jason Hess, director of business development for Orem, Utah-based KLAS Enterprises. The current emphasis on patient safety has highlighted the importance of pharmacy information systems, which reduce medical errors, improve communications between nurses and the pharmacy department, and provide integration and interoperability in closed-loop medication administration. The key component to the management of pharmaceutical therapy across multiple care providers is the opportunity for direct physician order entry of pharmacy orders. This provides the ideal solution for closed-loop medication administration and the assurance of patients' Five Rights (right patient, right medication, right time, right route and right dose). The pharmacy information system buyers guide is based on the KLAS Mid-Year Report 2005.
LARGE FACILITIES
GE Healthcare
Centricity Pharmacy
KLAS Rank No. 1
Features: Centricity Pharmacy, GE Healthcare's widely installed and proven flagship pharmacy solution, provides flexibility for organizational change and helps enable dramatic productivity and quality of care improvements. Using Windows client/server architecture, and supporting extensive integration with ancillary systems and third-party knowledge databases, Centricity Pharmacy provides powerful clinical and management decision-making support. For more than 30 years, GE Healthcare has successfully implemented and supported some of North America's most complex pharmacy systems. With a depth of resources and a commitment to pharmacy computing, GE provides unsurpassed product reliability. The combination of knowledge-rich personnel and extensive customer input lets GE develop industry-leading products that satisfy a variety of pharmacy needs. GE's expertise in network services, systems integration, project management, user training and support, as well as Pharmacy Information Consulting, provides a strong partner to help achieve current and future goals.Functionality: Do you provide online MAR, positive patient ID, and real-time knowledge management tools? The Centricity Pharmacy system has an optional Medication Administration module, which is a mobile bar code enabled bedside point-of-care application that provides electronic verification and record of the medication administration process.
Which pieces in the closed-loop medication administration do you provide or interface to (CPOE system, decentralized medical dispensing cabinet, medical administration at the bedside)? The Centricity Pharmacy system can be deployed with the Centricity CPOE and bar-code enabled Centricity Medication Administration Record (MAR) to complete a closed-loop medication management suite that is designed to aid in the practice of evidence-based care while streamlining workflow. Centricity Pharmacy can also be deployed with existing, third party, CPOE and electronic MAR solutions to help ensure consistent delivery of safe and efficient care within the institution.
Cerner
Cerner Millennium PharmNet and Cerner PowerPOC
KLAS Rank No. 2
Features: Cerner Millennium Pharm –Net is the foundation of the community medication process, giving pharmacies the ability to increase safety and productivity while providing knowledge to better manage pharmaceutical utilization. At the bedside, PowerPOC enhances patient safety with bar-coded medication administration and improves clinical workflow with auto-documentation of tasks and bar-code driven workflow. All of Cerner's pharmacy and bedside care solutions seamlessly work with other Cerner Millennium solutions to "close the loop" in Cerner's truly unified medication process. Inpatient: Automates clinical and departmental pharmacy processes; EasyScript: Provides physicians ePrescribing capability; Retail: Enables integrated prescription dispensing and clinical documentation; Order Imaging: Digitizes paper orders and transmits them electronically to the pharmacy; ClinDoc: Documents pharmacy interventions and disease management; Clinically Driven Supply Chain: Provides inventory and supply chain management as a by-product of the clinical process; ADE Prevention Alerts: Predefines rules that address drug-lab, drug-demographic and drug-radiology interactions in real time.
Functionality: Do you provide online MAR, positive patient ID, and real-time knowledge management tools? Yes.
McKesson
Horizon Meds Manager
KLAS Rank No. 3
Features: Horizon Meds Manager is a proven pharmacy information management solution that helps healthcare providers to improve hospital pharmacy workflow and advance patient safety efforts. It integrates with computerized provider order entry (CPOE) applications so that the pharmacy can electronically receive, verify and send medication orders to automated dispensing and administration applications, eliminating the need for any manual transcription. Horizon Meds Manager manages medication use in both inpatient and outpatient settings and links encounters to create a patient medication profile across facilities. Its advanced tools, including laboratory integration, robust clinical documentation and a user-defined rules engine, let pharmacists reduce costs, maximize productivity and play a more active role in patient care. Horizon Meds Manager, a key component of the McKesson Medication Safety Advantage, also helps reduce medication errors through integration with knowledge bases for compliance monitoring, allergy screening, drug-dose checking and drug-drug and drug-disease interactions.
Functionality: Do you provide online MAR, positive patient ID, and real-time knowledge management tools? Yes. An optional application that can be integrated with Horizon Meds Manager is Horizon Admin-Rx, McKesson's wireless point-of-care solution that improves medication safety through bar-code scanning of medications and IVs prior to administration to help ensure positive patient ID through "five rights" checking. The solution also automatically documents the process in an electronic MAR and can be deployed on a variety of devices to meet the needs of the clinician and care setting.
Which pieces in the closed-loop medication administration do you provide or interface to (CPOE system, decentralized medical dispensing cabinet, medical administration at the bedside)? CPOE, Pharmacy, electronic medication administration record at the bedside, point of care bar coding and device integration.
Siemens Medical Solutions
Siemens Pharmacy and Med Administration Check
KLAS Rank No. 4
Features: Siemens medication management solution helps automate, track and quality assure each step of the medication use process. The comprehensive solution provides an electronic, closed-loop medication use process that consists of Siemens Pharmacy, Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and Med Administration Check, a bar code point-of-care solution with industry-leading clinical decision support and communication tools for nurses. Together, these powerful tools deliver a great example of how an integrated IT solution helps providers promote patient-safety initiatives across the medication administration process. The Siemens solution supports the entire medication-use process, including medication ordering, clinical checking, drug dispensing, positive patient and drug identification at the time of administration, and online clinical documentation. Supporting technologies such as wireless networks, point-of-care computing devices and bar-code scanners seamlessly deliver the functions to nurses, physicians and pharmacists. By taking a holistic approach to medication management, Siemens helps healthcare organizations achieve greater efficiencies, reduce cycle time and the risk of error, and improve patient safety.
Functionality: Do you provide online MAR, positive patient ID, and real-time knowledge management tools? Med Administration Check provides an online prospective and retrospective MAR that closes the loop on the medication use process by allowing nurses to verify and document the medication administration process. This bar-code point-of-care solution alerts the nurse in real time to potential administration errors regarding drug, dose, route, time or patient. Administration details are captured at the point of care and automatically documented in the patient's electronic health record, as is additional patient information such as injection site, vital signs and pain assessments. Med administration Check enhances communication between pharmacy and nursing though an online messaging feature, and through shared documentation of clinical interventions. Documentation of clinical interventions together improves communication dramatically between pharmacy and nursing that provides a positive impact on clinical workflow and reduction of medication errors. In addition to enabling better clinical decisions, the real-time administration documentation also helps to enhance the accuracy of the billing process.
Which pieces in the closed-loop medication administration do you provide or interface to (CPOE system, decentralized medical dispensing cabinet, medical administration at the bedside)? All of them. McKesson is the only single-source provider of integrated software, automation, packaging, distribution and consulting solutions that help organizations prevent medication errors and improve efficiency across both the clinical process and supply chain.
