Technology enhances medical care at CCH

The Columbus Community Hospital (CCH) is implementing new technologies to enhance patient safety and increase efficiency of operations at the hospital.

CCH recently introduced AcuDose-Rx cabinets and “Smart Pumps” as part of its effort to improve accuracy in administering medicines and infusions to patients. The local hospital has also installed a patient tracking system in the surgical services department to electronically track patients, not only by staff, but also by friends and family of the patient.

Amy Brandt, a pharmacist at CCH, said the AcuDose-Rx is an automated medicine cabinet.

Because the hospital’s pharmacy is only open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., a pharmacist was required to be on call to fill prescriptions after hours, Brandt said.

The new cabinets “allow nurses to take medications out so a pharmacist doesn’t have to come in at night,” she said.

Each cabinet consists of multiple shelves with many compartments in each shelf that provide secure storage for medications. The cabinet is able to track all medications administered by type, patient and caregiver.

For example, a nurse must log-in to the system and enter the name of the patient that will receive the medication. Once the patient’s name is entered, a list of authorized medications comes onto the screen and once the nurse has selected the appropriate medication the appropriate shelf unlocks but only the cabinet with the selected medication is accessible, the rest remain locked.

It electronically records all transactions related to the medication storage and retrieval process, Brandt said. The AcuDose-Rx cabinet also includes safety features such as allergy alerts, medication override alerts and override reasons.

A profiling feature is included on the hospital’s second floor AcuDose cabinets, which are networked with the pharmacy. When the pharmacy has entered an order into the pharmacy information system it will cross over to the AcuDose cabinet and appear under the patient's profile.

This is a way for the nursing staff to know the pharmacy has verified the patient order and there are no problems with allergies or drug interactions, Brandt said.

“It enhances communication between the nurses and pharmacists” because it tracks each and every transaction, thus minimizing the potential for duplicate medication or administering conflicting medications, she said. “It adds to patient safety (by) providing more safety features and profile dispensing.”

The MedNet IV (intravenous) pumps are another tool being used by CCH to help ensure patient safety and faculty accuracy when administering medication.

Kristin Koehlmoos, a CCH pharmacist, said, like the AcuDose cabinets, the MedNet IV pumps also rely on a medication library created by the hospital pharmacy. The IV medications are entered in the pump library by a pharmacist and each IV pump has a computer medication library.

“With the library, the nurse is able to pick from a list of medications for the IV therapy being ordered for the patient,” Koehlmoos said. “The IV pumps alert the nursing staff if IV rates are too fast and could be harmful to the patient. With this new software, we are able to enter new medications and to update the medication library.”

The pharmacy is also able to monitor nursing staff usage of the IV pumps and assess if medication rates need to be changed, she said.

Sue Dyke, emergency room director, said the new infusion pumps will allow staff to enter restricted flow rate limits to prevent overmedicating a patient.

“The drug libraries allow us to create rules and parameters for all infusions,” creating safety limits, Dyke said.

The MedNet IV pumps act as an added security precaution because those preset limits cannot be exceeded should an infusion accidentally be administered more than prescribed, she said, thus helping to eliminate the potential for human error.

With further advancement, the new pumps will “eventually allow us to feed into a bar coding system,” she said. That system “will allow us to give the right patient with the right ID the right treatment.”

In addition to enhanced interdepartmental communication and efficiency, the hospital is also trying to keep the lines of communication open with family and friends of patients.

Cindy Ullery, director of surgical services, said the hospital has installed a patient tracking board and system that will allow friends and family to monitor a patient’s progress through surgery, from pre-operation to post-operation.

Ullery said in addition to keeping loved ones aware of the status of a patient it also improves the flow of the surgical services department because staff can track progression of all the surgeries and coordinate movement of patients.

The board is similar to flight information boards. The family will receive a code specific to the patient and those relatives can follow the status of the patient as they enter, undergo and recover from surgery with information updates along the way.

“The family will now be able to keep up with the state of their loved one,” she said.

Dyke said these are all instruments that help make care at CCH as safe and as concise as possible.