Pharmacy Automation Robotics
When electronic medication management systems are disconnected from other elements of the medication supply chain, some dispensing and administration tasks become labour intensive and error prone.
The limited availability of clinical pharmacists along with high workloads, transient staff, and the use of agency nurses increases the risk of medication related errors. Furthermore, the process of documenting medication source is manual and knowledge dependent. Nurses are distracted from direct patient care and clinical pharmacists from higher value tasks.
By joining up the elements of the medication supply chain there is opportunity to not only improve patient safety but also efficiency. Instead of wondering if a drug will be available, doctors can prescribe with confidence knowing that only available options will be presented and that the drug will be promptly and automatically supplied either from imprest or from pharmacy stock. Nurses and pharmacists would no longer need to laboriously determine and record the source of each medication which means greater focus on core duties and high value productive actions enabling greater workflow efficiencies.
DXC's position on closing the medication management loop:
DXC is committed to helping close the inpatient medication management loop. We provide end-to-end medication solutions that reduce effort, error and complexity. Customised solutions can include medication management, pharmacy management, automated dispensing, anti-microbial stewardship and integration to enable the sharing of medicines information along the supply chain and for automated generation of accurate medication summaries at patient discharge.
To further enhance DXC's Closed Loop Electronic Medication Management (CLEMM) solutions, DXC is working with Meditec to provide our customers with the Omnicell range of automated pharmacy robotics in Australia and New Zealand. These advanced, flexible and user-friendly solutions include picking robots, automated drug cabinets (ADC’s) and controlled substance management solution. This partnership, provides DXC customers scope to procure and to obtain support for the end-to-end integrated solution.
Pharmacy Automation Components:
Automated Drug Cabinents
With advanced technology, Meditec's range of Omnicell cabinets offer flexible, adaptable and user friendly solutions. These cabinets are configured to the specific mix of medications they’ll be holding and come with a range of market leading technologies as standard and include lights to guide users to the selected medication, ability to have drawers and shelves in the same frame, capacity to sign-on with bio-metric scanning only.
These feature-rich cabinents offer hospitals offer a range of benefits that include:
- Improved patient safety with the cabinets guiding lights limiting the scope for selection errors.
- Reduced nursing time spent managing the removal, counting and issuing of medications.
- Reduced pharmacy time spent managing inventory and restocking of medications.
- Increased nursing time spent at the bed-side via remote queuing of medications.
Pharmacy Robots
Offering the most flexible and advanced technology available, Meditec’s range of Omnicell pharmacy robots offer a range of significant benefits to how a hospitals central pharmacy can manage medications. For larger hospitals, the RDS robot comprises chaotic and channel technology into a single system through which you can manage both your fast and slow-moving medications while also enjoying the benefits of autoloading. For smaller sites, the RDXe provides a more standardised solution at a significantly lower price point. Either way, the RDS and RDXe offer a full spectrum of choice as a step to allowing a hospital to better manage inventory, simplify dispensing and allow the pharmacy team to better focus on higher-value tasks.
Omnicell RDS
Process of Pharmacy Automation Flows
Omnicell RDXe
Controlled Substance (CSM) Managers
Placed in central pharmacy, the CSM uses hardware & software to provide a next generation solution for managing controlled medications and their associated movement in (from wholesalers) and out (to ward). This solution includes a mix of important security features that have been developed to help ensure various regulators requirements are met. Whether working as a stand-alone solution or in conjunction with cabinets in ward areas, a CSM offers a hospital an exceptionally efficient approach to managing controlled medications by delivering an electronic register, lighted technology to guide users to the selected medication together with a cabinet which meets the definition of a “safe”.
Explore more about our Medication Management, Pharmacy and Robotic Solutions.