The Tribune

THE Princess Margaret Hospital drastically improved its medication management system this year with the introduction of state-of-the-art technology that is reducing wastage and saving money, while setting the stage for improved clinical outcomes for patients, officials said.

The Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) commissioned the Commonwealth Drugs & Medical Supplies Co Ltd to implement a system that would efficiently service the Critical Care block as well as the Accident and Emergency (A&E) section.

It is a part of a series of steps being taken by the PHA to upgrade and improve the management of public healthcare. CDM Group introduced the CareFusion Medication Management System into the hospital in February, 2015, and completed installation in May. Marked improvements in the delivery and administering of medications have already been noted since the CareFusion system was implemented. The critical care wards, including theatres, Intensive Care Unit, Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit, and A&E are outfitted with Pyxis MedStation systems, which can safely and effectively dispense millions of medications every day. The system is also being used in the A&E section of the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama.

The PHA invested some $2m into the CareFusion system, which researchers say has the ability to pay for itself within the first year to year-and-a-half of proper use. The CareFusion system had to be interfaced into the current hospital software for maximum benefit.

Philip Gray, general manager/pharmacy consultant of hospital and home health services for the CDM Group, oversaw the installation, calling it an “exciting venture.”

“This was a major transition for the PHA in their whole medication delivery system and process, that allows greater access for the patients, greater inventory controls, and frees up the pharmacist to do more clinical work, which proves very prudent,” he said.

“All the things you need for inventory management and making astute clinical decisions in terms of what medications are best served and used from the hospital can be had from the machines themselves.”

CDM reports that hospital staff have adjusted well to the technology and is using it effectively.

“Usually when there is a paradigm shift, it is initially approached with cautious enthusiasm,” said Mr Gray. “As CDM led the training process for the systems, guiding physicians, nurses and pharmacists through the various aspects of their responsibilities, fears dropped when they realised that the system is actually user-friendly and something they can utilise by rote.”

“The collation of data calls for a different level of analysis, but it’s what we as pharmacists are trained to do to make the necessary recommendations going forth,” he added.

Hospitals which have implemented the system report that it has allowed patients to receive their medications more quickly and for them to be taken at the appropriate times to increase effectiveness.