Hospital Drug Dispensing ?

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In a discussion with my cousin (former Chief Deputy Coroner, current EMT, Paramedic, LifeFlight, etc) he mentioned a system for dispensing drugs at a regional health provider (one of the largest and best known in the country) called pixa (unsure of spelling). This system consists of many "safe-like" cabinets linked to the hospitals server. The records of all patient's currently in the hospital are available at these units for dispensing any medication. The Dr. enters the necessary prescription into the system and when approved through the system, a drawer opens containing the exact dosage prescribed. His concern was that if this system were to "go down" (Y2K or not), the dispensing of medication would (at minimum) be delayed quite a bit.

Anyone know any more about this system ?

BTW-This facility has also issued memoranda which disallows any vacation periods during the Y2K rollover.

-- WebRNot (webrnot@ncap13k.com), April 25, 1999

Answers

The Y2K committee at our hospital OK'd the system for use in our pharmacy. They are installing it next month. They'll be OK as long as there's power and the server system they are hooked to is Y2K OK.

LM

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), April 25, 1999.


WebRNot, we used the PYXIS (spelling?) system when we worked the Cancer Care/Bone Marrow Transplant/float whole hospital. It was NOT Y2K compliant. Not only the meds, but all supplies go thru PYXIS.

Each staff member authorized has an ID code & #, and enters that for every transaction. One punches in or selects the name of pt & # of supplies so the inventory is theoretically automated to facilitate $$ and resupplying.

However, it does not always work as desired, and can be an incredible mess. Hospitals use a wide variety of supplies. Interns, nurses, specialists, on all floors, in a rush, punch thru the system and frequently grab more than they enter because they're in a hurry. So the system may *say* we have X many more Cath Kits, when in fact there are none left in the tray and we have to beg & borrow from another floor until our PYXIS is restocked. And the error shows up on *our* record for having to punch in "0."

Also, there is a space shortage and large items tend not to be actually stored in the drawers. Workers just grab those things (sharps containers, depends, 240 urine collection jugs, boxes of gloves, ostomy kits, etc) on the run, and restocking has to be hand-ordered. The secretaries are supposed to do that but are frequently too busy, so it falls on the night shift, who is assumed to be "just sitting around," so they get all the loose ends plus all the patients wigging out and getting anxious and sick all night, plus emergency admissions, regular rounds, and all nursing, secretarial, and housekeeping duties.

The PYXIS went down for some reason or other every day, as did the lab tube system. Ashton & I would crawl up to the top of the PYXIS and override the locks to get critical supplies when it was "down." For the meds, one has to have a co-sign "witness" anyway, and we would just run to the pharmacy. The problem is, everything is computerized, from the bed weights to the lab tests to the vitals to charting, all of which feeds into the Drs' decisions and orders for more of all the same.

Noncompliant hospitals will have to go back to the triplicate carbon paper - running system, which will take 4X current staffing, and there will be horrendous mistakes, and the hospitals will close for insurance and $$ drain reasons.

PYXIS is a good system in theory but has many bugs. One problem -- supplies are not listed or named logically. Sometimes it is impossible to find things! You'll see Drs peering in the doors and punching in an item just to get in for something else they can't find the name for -- inventory is really screwed up.

Hope this helps ;^)

xxxxxxx xxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 25, 1999.


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