Authors (including presenting author) :
Yuen SE(1), Kam KW(1), Mak CK(2), Mak LKK(1)(2)
Affiliation :
(1)Department of Pharmacy, Haven of Hope Hospital, (2)Department of Pharmacy, Tseung Kwan O Hospital
Introduction :
Haven of Hope Hospital (HHH) Pharmacy is a non-24 hours operating department. Emergency drug room with pre-packed medications serves the purpose of supplying medications for medication orders that arose outside pharmacy service hours. After checking the availability of medications from emergency drug list, nursing staff can retrieve the medications in emergency drug room. However, medications are placed in open shelving in emergency drug room; the manual drug-searching process must be proceeded with caution by nursing staff. The picking process may pose a threat to medication safety.
Objectives :
To enhance medication safety and efficiency for after-hours medication supply by implementing smart medication cabinet with Inpatient Medication Order Entry (IPMOE) System interface.
Methodology :
With the implementation of IPMOE at HHH in October 2018 and subsequent launch of after-hours cross-hospital IPMOE verification service supported by Tseung Kwan O Hospital (TKOH) in December 2018, which facilitate the enablement of round-the-clock IPMOE verification service; a smart medication cabinet with IPMOE-interface was implemented on 16th October 2019. Training was provided to nursing staff and pharmacy staff. Emergency drug list and user manual were posted on HHH website for staff's access. Nursing staff can retrieve medications from the cabinet by selecting individual patient drug profile showing verified medication orders browsed from IPMOE. In case of IPMOE downtime, medications can be retrieved via a separate allergy checking module. Guiding light will be shown for the chosen medication; scanning the barcode on the pre-packed label is required to ensure the right medication is picked. Emergency drug requisition form filling is not required as transactions are recorded in the cabinet.
Result & Outcome :
A total of 44 nursing staff and 12 pharmacy staff received training and were granted access right. 449 items are kept in the cabinet. From 16th October 2019 to 15th October 2020, 1,865 retrievals were made. Class of medications with highest retrieval frequency was antimicrobials at 49%. On matching the transaction records with stock in the cabinet, the picking discrepancy was found to be nil. The implementation of smart medication cabinet with IPMOE interface maximizes efficiency and enhances medication safety for after-hours medication supply.
