McKesson Expands I.V. Automation Portfolio to Include Sterile Compounding Products

Extension of Strategic Partnership with Health Robotics Announced

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- McKesson today announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Health Robotics to distribute, service and support the i.v.STATION Robot, which automates the compounding of non-hazardous I.V.s, and the i.v.SOFT Workflow Engine, which adds safety and an audit trail to manual compounding. This development comes just nine months after McKesson was selected as the exclusive North American distributor of Health Robotics’ CytoCare Robot.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country now recognize the need to automate the I.V. compounding process. There are currently more than one billion I.V. patient doses per year in the United States alone. Clinical staff shortages and a growing list of new and complex liquid medications and nutrition doses that are similar in appearance contribute to an increased focus on improving safety and efficiency.

“Our community hospital embarked ten years ago on a patient safety closed-loop philosophy, where every dose of medication is bar-code verified when purchased, received, packaged, compounded, dispensed and administered,” said Thomas Crampton, PharmD, director of pharmacy services at Allegiance Health in Jackson, Mich.

“Unit dose medications, bulk and pre-mixed I.V.s are bar-code verified 100% of the time,” Crampton said. “With i.v.STATION, we are now able to have bar-code verification for solutions, diluents, and additives with the I.V. compounding process, a patient-specific bar-code for administration, and the opportunity to extend our closed-loop philosophy to every dose of medication.”

Crampton stated that, in addition to the patient safety component, i.v.STATION provides a cost savings to his facility. “With i.v.STATION, we will be able to use more bulk medications in our I.V. compounding process and save approximately $245,000 per year,” Crampton said.

Under the terms of the agreement, McKesson and Health Robotics will cooperatively market and sell i.v.STATION and i.v.SOFT to North American hospitals and healthcare facilities. By 2011 McKesson will manufacture, install, implement and provide front-line technical support, engineering and user-training services for customers in the United States and Canada. Health Robotics will provide back-office technical support, high-availability solutions, and other services to McKesson.

“This relationship expands our portfolio of market-leading automation technologies to include solutions for the efficient, accurate and sterile compounding of medications,” stated David Souerwine, president, McKesson Provider Technologies. “In addition, it enables us to leverage our Pittsburgh-based manufacturing facilities for the benefit of Health Robotics and its customers.”

“I’m very pleased to expand our strategic relationship with McKesson to include our newest patient safety solutions,” said Werner Rainer, CEO, Health Robotics. “This expansion resulted from the strong demand in North America for both i.v.STATION and i.v.SOFT, reflecting their flexibility, safety, throughput and cost advantages. It was a very easy choice to select McKesson, with its world-class manufacturing and service organizations and its footprint in the market.”

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. McKesson has been in continuous operation for more than 175 years, making it the longest-operating company in healthcare today. Over the course of its history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information, please visit http://www.mckesson.com.

About Health Robotics

Health Robotics is the undisputed global leading supplier of life-critical intra-venous medication robots, providing healthcare facilities in 5 continents with robotics technology and software automation solutions deployed utilizing virtual high-availability technology. Its world-leading solutions CytoCare [hazardous IVs], i.v.STATION [non-hazardous IVs], i.v.SOFT [workflow engine for manual compounding, powered by MEDarchiver], and TPNstation [totally-automated parenteral nutrition] have and will greatly contribute to ease hospitals’ growing pressures to improve patient safety, increase throughput and contain costs. Through the effective and efficient production of sterile, accurate, tamper-evident and ready-to-administer IVs, Health Robotics’ solutions help hospitals eliminate life-threatening drug-exchange errors, decrease other therapy oversights and sterility risks, work more efficiently, reduce waste and controlled substances’ diversion, and diminish the gap between rising patient volume/acuity and scarce nursing and pharmacy staff. For more information, please visit http://www.health-robotics.com.



CONTACT:

Health Robotics S.r.l.
Claudia Flaim, +39 0471 200372
Marketing Coordinator
[email protected]
or
McKesson Automation Inc.
Clay Courville, 724-741-8111
Vice President, Marketing
[email protected]

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Georgia  Michigan

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Technology  Other Technology  Health  Hospitals  Pharmaceutical  Other Health

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