CENTENNIAL MEDICAL CENTER ROLLS OUT BAR CODE TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT MEDICATION ERRORS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Anna Ross
615-342-1900
Anna.Ross1@HCAHealthcare.com

CENTENNIAL MEDICAL CENTER ROLLS OUT BAR CODE TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT MEDICATION ERRORS

NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 17, 2003 – A hospital patient should be able to completely trust that the medications they receive in the hospital will help treat and cure them, not hurt them. The fact is medication errors represent one of the largest areas of preventable injury to hospital patients.

On Thursday, July 17 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., Centennial Medical Center will hold a reception in its Rehab and SACU areas in celebration of the launch of eMAR (electronic medication administration record) a major patient safety initiative to prevent medication errors from happening.

Here’s how eMAR works. When a doctor orders a medication, it is sent to the pharmacy where the order is entered into a computer system. The pharmacy fills the prescription by individually shrink-wrapping each dose of the medication and labeling it with a bar code, like the bar codes used to scan products in retail stores. The bar code on the medicine connects to a bar code the patient wears on his wristband.

When it is time for the nurse to administer the medication, she wheels a cart with a wireless computer and a scanner to the patient’s bedside. The nurse then scans both the patient’s wristband bar code and the medication bar code and the computer confirms it is the right medicine, correct dosage, it is being administered at the proper time, the patient is not known to be allergic to the medication and that it won’t interfere or interact with any other medication the patient has already been given. The first time the nurse scans a medication, the computer requires her to confirm that the medication provided by the pharmacy matches the order written by the doctor.

Later, when a doctor considers changing a patient’s prescription, he is able to push a button on the computer and see -- at a glance -- a patient’s record of medication. The computer documents every drug taken with the dosage and time received. This is a tremendous advantage over flipping through a chart filled with papers that contain handwritten notes about which drugs have been given and when.
The computer is set up to alert nurses as medications become due, adding another safeguard to ensure patients receive medications on schedule.

Finally, through the bar coding technology, the patient’s account is charged at the time the medication is administered, increasing the accuracy of billing.

The major benefits of eMAR include:

Helps to prevent costly and potentially dangerous medication mistakes
The computer system is set up to alert nurses to errors before the drug is administered and provides specific checks for potential allergic reactions, possible adverse interaction to other medications, accuracy of dosage and correct scheduling of medication intake.

Documents and provides real time information for healthcare professionals
Each medication is recorded as it is administered, providing accurate, legible charting of all medication activity and enabling healthcare providers, including physicians, nurse and the pharmacy, to review a patient’s entire medication history during a hospital stay with one push of a computer button.

Enables nurses to focus on patient care instead of paperwork
The wireless computers on carts allow nurses to spend more time at the patient’s bedside while preparing and administering medications, enabling more interaction with the patient. The ease of an electronic system also cuts down on the amount of time that would be spent charting medications.

The eMAR system, which was launched July 8, is the second technology implemented at Centennial in the past twelve months to prevent medication errors. In November, the hospital converted its pharmacy to a robotic pharmacy unit. The robotic pharmacy increases the accuracy of the medications by utilizing barcode technology to identify proper medications and check the doseage and shelf life of every prescription administered through the hospital. The addition of eMAR with the robotic pharmacy further increases the safety to the patient by checking the drug again against the patient profile.

Centennial Medical Center, part of TriStar Health System, is a 688-bed tertiary facility that has been accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Centennial Medical Center has been recognized as one of the country’s 100 Top Hospitals in cardiovascular, stroke, orthopedics and breast cancer management consecutively, an honor received by less than one percent of hospitals nationwide. For more information, call TriStar Medline at 615-342-1919 or 800-242-5662.

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