BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sinai Hospital, a member of the LifeBridge Health System in Baltimore, reduced pharmacy medication delivery time by 45 percent, experienced significant labor savings, and dramatically decreased the number of missing doses through its use of autonomous mobile robots and an automated medication tracking solution. Lisa Polinsky, interim director of pharmacy, presented the benefits of Sinai Hospital’s pharmacy automation program to attendees at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists 2011 midyear conference in New Orleans. The presentation, “New Directions in Medication Tracking,” revealed strategies for improving security, accountability, efficiency, satisfaction and reporting within hospital pharmacies.
By implementing both the TUG® autonomous mobile robots and MedEx™ medication tracking system, both of which were developed by Pittsburgh-based Aethon, the hospital reported that medication delivery time dropped from 60 to 33 minutes, while eliminating the need for the 6.2 full-time equivalents associated with their former manual delivery process. Additionally, upon implementing MedEx, their missing medication doses immediately decreased 20 percent resulting in an annualized savings of $150,000.
“Sinai Hospital of Baltimore is consistently seeking ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs that best meet the needs of our patients,” said Polinsky. “Aethon’s TUG robots along with its MedEx system have been instrumental in helping us meet our goals in the pharmacy.”
MedEx is a comprehensive medication tracking and documentation system that integrates all forms of medication delivery within a hospital. It offers point-to-point medication tracking, medication barcode scanning, passive radio frequency identification, biometric scanning, and a user-friendly dashboard that allows the pharmacy and nurses to track the status of medications in real time. Though MedEx can be utilized for all forms of delivery, including manual couriers and pneumatic tube, when used in conjunction with the TUG robots, MedEx is the industry’s only completely autonomous medication delivery system. Its all-inclusive tracking function records the progress of every dose from the moment the prescription is filled until the administering nurse retrieves it.
“The MedEx system is the first technology solution that I have ever installed that people not only immediately thanked me for but wished we had installed it sooner,” noted Polinsky. “It has demonstrated immediate benefits to both pharmacy and nursing.”
Aethon provides industry-leading, technology-based logistics solutions to hospitals with MedEx and TUG robots. More than 400 TUG self-guided robots can currently be found in 135 hospitals transporting medication, meals, equipment, supplies, linens, lab specimens and more. Collectively, these robots log 50,000 deliveries weekly. More information about Aethon is available at aethon.com.
CONTACT:
for Aethon
Carol Stevenson, 818-597-8453, x3
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America Louisiana Maryland Pennsylvania
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Technology Data Management Other Technology Practice Management Health Hospitals Pharmaceutical Other Health Nursing General Health
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