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| A Spoonful of Sugar… and a Dose of Safety |
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 HID Global solution helps an Ohio medical center gain secure control of access to patient
medication.
With safety and privacy driving change in the market, many hospitals and healthcare facilities are turning to technology as a means of reducing patient incidents. In the United States, it is estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 patients lose their lives due to preventable medical errors, including wrongful administration of medication, according to The Institute of Medicine (IOM).
One hospital adopting new technologies to safeguard its patients is Southern Ohio Medical Center (SOMC) in Portsmouth, Ohio. This 22-bed hospital provides emergency and surgical care, as well as a wide range of other healthcare-related services. SOMC took preemptive measures to ensure a higher standard of care for its patients by modifying its existing medication-dispensing systems.
To accomplish this, SOMC’s IT department was tasked with finding a way to integrate the wall stations with an access control system that was equipped with an access-controlled lock and reader. The new solution, which utilizes a Carstens WALLaroo® 2000 wall-mounted station, features a cabinet mounted outside each patient’s room to temporarily stock the non-narcotic medications prior to dispensing.
However, using the WALLaroo for medication dispensing would also require additional systems to be installed to protect against tampering or theft of medication.
“When we started our quest for an access control solution, we looked for two things,” said Dennis Ward, information services and applications manager for SOMC. “First, we needed a solution that would be centrally networked with the current eMAR system, as well as have a main power source. Additionally, we needed to replace the magnetic strip on employee badges with a more effective technology.”
To accomplish this, Ward found SecuriCo’s Securus Web™ software solution. It operates with an HID EdgeReader® coupled with iCLASS® 2K (37-bit) smart cards and Rutherford Controls 3513 Lock.
“As I conducted product research in the security information space, I noted that most available solutions were HID-compatible,” Ward described. “This was important since the hospital was growing and our security needs would grow, too. HID Global has a great industry reputation so it was a natural and easy decision to select the company’s solutions and OEM partner, SecuriCo Inc.”
This solution also enables pharmacy technicians to deliver bar-coded, 24-hour scheduled, non-narcotic medications to the secured wall-mounted stations. Using their authorized HID iCLASS smart cards, the nursing staff is then able to access and administer the medication. – Contributed by HID Global |
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