It's personal - Community Memorial Health System

“It was more than a yearof work, but the endresult is yet anotherlevel of patient safety.”CMHSSCANSFORPATIESAFECommunity Memorial Health Systemcontinues to use technology to change the worldfor its patients, most recently with the implementationof a state-of-the-art Bedside MedicationVerification (BMV) and electronic MedicationAdministration Record (eMAR) system.More simply put, Community MemorialHospital, Ojai Valley Community Hospital, aswell as OVCH’s Continuing Care Center, havesuccessfully implemented a new “BMV PatientCare System” employing barcode scanning toprevent medication errors.“This is a way to further improve our caringperformance and safety by assuring the Patient’sFive Rights of Safe Medication Administration:Right Patient, Right Medication, Right Dose,Right Time, and Right Route of Delivery,”says Meg Larramendy, RN, CMH Director ofNursing Resources.“It was a Herculean effort,” adds GeneDay, CMH Director of Pharmacy, notingthat this immense project began more than ayear and a half prior to successfully going liveat CMH this past March 1 and at OVCHon April 19.Indeed, among the countless tasks includedin the BMV project was ensuring that everydrug in both Hospitals’ Pharmacies is assigneda unique computer barcode. With more than3,000 different drugs on site, this was indeeda challenge.“It was more than a year of work,” Daysays, “but the end result is yet another level ofpatient safety.”The safety guardrails incorporated into theBMV system are numerous, from identifyingeach patient with a unique barcoded wristbandto securely dispensing medication with a hightechPyxis MedStation System.About the size of a photocopy machine,Pyxis can be thought of as a computerizedvending machine for medication – albeit a highlysecure one that requires nurses to log-in witheither fingerprint identification or personal password.Furthermore, these newest-generationPyxis MedStations – of which CMH has 20 locatedthroughout the hospital while OVCH andits Continuing Care Center have six – also usebarcode scanning to help ensure patient safety.Each Pyxis cabinet can contain up to300 different drugs, with the contents varyingaccording to the need of the patients it serves.Interface technology allows the CMH andOVCH Pharmacies to monitor the contents inreal time.The “chain of custody” of every drug iscontinually tracked, beginning in the Pharmacyto the Pyxis station; to when a nurse loads it intoa computerized Bedside Mobile Workstation(BMW) cart with a scanner attached; to whenthe medication is administered to the patient atthe bedside.In total, CMHS has invested in 70 stateof-the-artBMW carts with scanners for CMH,OVCH and Ojai’s CCC. For infectious patientswho require isolation, a number of rooms atCMH are fitted with wall-mounted computerswith scanners. Additionally, BMWs are availableto be dedicated to single rooms.Like the Pyxis stations, the BMWs alsorequire a secure log-in and feature a statusboard view that shows a pertinent profile foreach patient assigned to the nurse using thatcart and scanner. This “Bedside MedicationVerification” information includes themedications ordered; the time to be given; thedose prescribed, along with other specificmedication instructions.20 CARING | COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM