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Meds on Wheels
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Business New Haven
6/24/2002
By: Melissa Nicefaro
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NEW HAVEN - The Hospital of Saint Raphael has become the first in the nation to employ a state-of-the-art computerized system on wheels that virtually eliminates the use of paper in prescribing and administering medications and is safer, quicker and more efficient, hospital officials say.
Last month the hospital began using the new mobile medication carts in seven patient-care units. By summer's end 66 carts will be in use.
The carts are stocked with medications and fitted with portable
computers. Nurses roll the cart to patients' rooms, look up their medication requirements on the computer and, using a code, retrieve medicines. Nurses then enter the time and date of medication administration into the portable computer.
“The goal of the system is to enhance patient safety in medication administration,” explains Janet Kozakiewicz, director of Saint Raphael's pharmacy department. “It also helps get medication to patients more quickly, which is important in their treatment and comfort.”
Before the computerized order-entry program, physicians wrote medication orders that were delivered or faxed to the hospital pharmacy, which filled the orders and delivered medications to patient-care units. Nurses distributed medications from a centrally located cabinet and wrote the time and date of administration in patients' medication administration records.
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