A new software product in the Campbell County Memorial Hospital
Pharmacy called
DoseEdge is making intravenous (IV) medications safer for patients.
IV medications are introduced directly into a patient’s vein and
work quickly. This makes them a very effective way to give antibiotics,
chemotherapy agents and other medications. Because they work so quickly, IV medications
have a greater potential for an adverse outcome, even with only small
variances in their preparation. They are usually also clear fluids, along
with the liquids they are mixed with.
“Pills have different shapes, colors and markings to help identify
them,” said Robert Quintana, RPh, Pharmacy Director.
The DoseEdge software incorporates bar code scanning into the process of
routing, preparing, inspecting, tracking and reporting on IV doses. It
supplements the knowledge, judgement and expertise of the pharmacist and
pharmacy technician in their preparation of IV mixtures, ultimately increasing
patient safety.
The pharmacist can even verify the mixture from a remote desktop location
because the software photographs the completed IV dose, saving the time
it would take the technician to gown up and enter the sterile preparation
room. Nurses benefit too, and can see when their IV medications will be
completed and schedule the patient's treatment or administration accordingly.
“The new software improves on the human-based safeguards we already
have in place,” says Quintana. “Bar coding reduces the variability
of IV medication preparation even more. It’s a great improvement
for our patients.”
The
CCMH Pharmacy department is the first in Wyoming to implement this system.
Robert Quintana fully expects that bar coding of IV preparations to become
the standard of care for hospitals like CCMH, which dispenses over 44,000
doses of chemotherapy and IV medications annually.