Medical Center Activates SafetyMed RN

Omnicell Inc's SafetyMed RN is fully operational at Jeff Anderson Regional Medical (Meridian, Miss). The software-based patient safety technology automates medication administration, verifies the "5 Rights of Medication" (Right medication, Right dose, Right time, Right patient, and Right route), and conducts drug interaction checks. The system also uses a thin-client wireless network that protects patient privacy. To date, >60 nurses in 3 units have been trained on, and are using, SafetyMed RN.

The hospital is the nation's first health care facility to use all of Omnicell Inc's bar codeenabled patient safety solutions from the central pharmacy to the patient bedside. It is also the first location to capitalize on the integration of the SafetyMed RN with the OmniRx medication dispensing cabinets. The implementation adds to patient safety and improves nursing workflow, streamlining the process to obtain medications at the cabinet, with confirmation of the medication taking place at the patient's bedside with SafetyMed RN. The incorporation also allows the generation of dispense versus administration reports, allowing the pharmacy to improve cost capture.

Ken Nicholas, PharmD, the hospital's director of pharmacy, said that Omnicell's MedGuard solutions have reduced medication errors and significantly improved productivity for pharmacists and nurses, while adding new layers of patient safety.

Additional MedGuard technology at the hospital includes OmniLinkRx and Omnicell Pharmacy Central. OmniLinkRx is a physician order management system that allows the nurses to send electronic images of handwritten physician orders to the hospital pharmacy for immediate verification and filling. The Omnicell Pharmacy Central is an automated pharmacy storage and retrieval system.