Froedtert Hospital
Innovation: DoseEdge Technology – computer system that automatically checks prescription compounds of chemotherapy medications
Highly skilled and trained technicians and pharmacists staff the pharmacies in hospitals all over the country. However, despite their extensive training, they are still human and sometimes make costly and devastating errors.
So, to achieve a higher level of patient safety and prescription accuracy, Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa has invested in new state-of-the-art technology that manages the pharmacy work flow more efficiently through digital record checks that occur throughout the prescription-fill process.
“Patient safety has always been our number one focus. Being absolutely positive that our patients are receiving both the correct combinations of medicines as well as the correct dosages of those medicines seemed like an obvious step for us to take,” said Mark Naumann, assistant director of pharmacy at Froedtert Hospital.
Froedtert has implemented Englewood, Colo.-based Baxa Corp.’s DoseEdge technology into its pharmacy responsible for the implementation and filling of chemotherapy prescriptions. The DoseEdge system is designed to supplement the highly skilled and highly trained technicians and pharmacists that already work in the pharmacy, Naumann said.
“Minimizing the risk of using the wrong amount of medication or even the wrong type of medication means we won’t be wasting medication by using too much or having to discard the medication if it was prepared incorrectly,” he said.
In addition to patient safety, the cost of medication used for chemotherapy can often be thousands of dollars, Naumann said. Minimizing waste of expensive medication can result in tremendous cost savings for the hospital.
With the old system, technicians would manually select the product, calculate the dosage needed and manually add it to the IV bag, Naumann said.
“The DoseEdge technology makes the calculations for the technician,” Naumann said. “The technician will select the medication needed on a touch screen computer, scan all the vials using barcodes on the medication to make sure it’s the right medication and capture photographs throughout the process to verify the dosage amount and type before it is added to the IV bag.”
The system is like adding another pharmacist to the verification process, Naumann said.
“A pharmacist always has to review the prescriptions filled by the technician during the process,” he said. “Now, a pharmacist can review the prescription, but can also pull up the digital images to see that it does indeed have the correct dosage amounts and types of medication prescribed to the patient.”
Technicians in the pharmacy must capture the digital images and scan the barcodes on the vile before they can continue with the prescription fill. It helps to prevent mistakes up front, Naumann said.
As the hospital expands its use of the technology there is an added convenience in that pharmacists can check and double check patient prescriptions remotely for even greater efficiency, he said.
“If it came down to that, at some point it’s nice to have the technology to make that a workable possibility,” he said. “It’s the next best thing to having a pharmacist standing right there as the technician fills the prescription, and because the machine is doing the work there is no way for them to calculate the dosages incorrectly.”
Froedtert was part of an early adoption program and has only implemented the technology for filling its chemotherapy medications but it can be used for absolutely anything, particularly high risk or high cost medication, Naumann said.
Froedtert has installed three DoseEdge systems and has trained 12 technicians and six pharmacists on the technology. There is no timeline for expanding the technology to the in patient pharmacy or for other prescription medications just yet, Naumann said.
“We wanted to go slow. So far the technology is doing what we think it should do,” Naumann said. “It eliminates any potential error that could occur with a prescription fill and it allows us to take better care of our patients, which is our number one priority.”
