Texas Hospital Installs Omnicell Technology

Cook Children's Health Care System is taking a 3-pronged approach to improved patient safety. The hospital, located in Fort Worth, Tex, recently installed new medication dispensing technology manufactured by Omnicell. The new dispensing hardware and software system creates "a triangle of checks and balances" for better patient care.

"The triangle is the doctor, nurse, and pharmacist," said Bob Gronberg, a senior director, health care information services at Cook. "Our new system gives us patient profiling capabilities which alert nurses to potential drug interactions or if a pharmacist hasn't reviewed a doctor's prescription orders," said Gronberg.

Omnicell's drug-dispensing cabinets were installed in the bone marrow transplant and the pediatric intensive care units of the hospital. The cabinets are password-protected, are locked, and have lights to guide nurses to the right medication bins; they were easily integrated with the hospital's new information system, according to Gronberg.

Over time, the Omnicell system will be a cost saving to Cook Children's because the systems are "configurable, use the Windows 2000 platform, and can be upgraded in the future by replacing parts rather than the whole system," noted Gronberg. The Mountain View, Calif?based Omnicell is a leading provider of safety solutions.