Pharmacy Gains Workflow Efficiencies, Enhances Patient Care, Cuts Costs

Dylan Reno, Pharmacy tech, uses a new automated medication dispensing storage and retrieval carousel

When NKCH’s Pharmacy Department needed to comply with U.S. Pharmacopeia practice and quality standards for handling hazardous drugs, the staff did more than create a safer sterile compounding area. They completed a full-scale redesign and rebuild.

Automation

With 8,000 brand-name and generic prescription drugs to manage, the hospital’s Pharmacy and Nursing departments needed to improve patient medication delivery and nursing workflow. The solution came as a new computerized medication inventory management and storage control system.

Lindsay McGrannahan, RN, 8th Floor Pavilion, retrieves medication from a dispensing cabinet on her unit.

The system’s components integrate via software that communicates with the hospital’s EMR system, which reduces labor-intensive work through:

• Automated medication-dispensing storage and retrieval systems, called carousels, in the central Pharmacy
• Automated medication-dispensing cabinets in patient care areas

Inventory Control

When medication shipments arrived previously, techs hand counted, recorded and placed medications on shelving carts. Now techs use rotating vertical carousels, which are integrated with the Pharmacy wholesaler and the automated dispensing cabinets in patient care areas.

The techs simply confirm orders by scanning barcodes on arriving medications, which alerts the carousel to show pick-to-light technology for each medication bin. The tech scans the barcode on the bin to complete the process. The process is similar when techs retrieve medications for refilling cabinets on patient care units.

Derek Adler, Pharmacy tech, works under a laminar airflow hood in a new sterile compounding area.

“This reduces dispensing errors, improves workflow and saves time, which allows our techs to provide more services to patient care providers,” Director of Pharmacy Denny Fugate, PharmD, explained.

With the automatic perpetual inventory control system, the Pharmacy Department reduced inventory costs by $750,000 over nine months. The inventory system manages and tracks the carousels, a controlled substance room and five refrigerators in the Pharmacy, and Nursing medication-dispensing cabinets and refrigerators.

For controlled substances, a tech tracks arriving medications and delivers them to another tech in the new controlled substance room, a dedicated, locked, badge-only area monitored by cameras.

The Pharmacy Department also acquired TraySafe, a system that instantly tracks crash cart inventory, which previously was a manual process. TraySafe scans barcodes to ensure predetermined items are in the tray.

Impact

Fugate recognizes the hospital’s willingness to fund the project.

“This project helps Pharmacy and Nursing staff know they are appreciated. The organization believed in this effort, especially during a trying time,” Fugate said. “The staff see the commitment from the organization.”