10 October 2018

Customer Presentation and Needs

Le Parc Hospital Complex is a rehabilitation and follow-up care centre comprising 120 beds for Cardiology and Pulmonology patients. This hospital's Pharmacy prepares doses to be administered and carries out nominative dispensing on a daily basis using prescription software rolled out throughout the establishment. Each treatment department has a medication cabinet for emergency treatment. This stock is managed by the Pharmacy which replenishes it every week.

Although this department-based cabinet was managed by the pharmaceutical team, it caused many organization issues: preparers having to move to the treatment unit to manage stock, inventory and out-of-date products, which was rarely handled by the department nurses, pharmaceutical specialities almost always with blister packs opened, medication wafers without any expiry date.

In spite of the fact that the Pharmacy invested heavily, non-conformities systematically stand out when the cabinets are visited or when the Pharmacy and cabinets are inspected. As preparers could not be allocated extra time for this, the decision was taken to look for innovating technical solutions. Several solutions were studied including the ELECTROCLASS SUPPLYPOINT.

"The solution was set up in the Pharmacy in just ½ a day: the cabinet was configured, management tools tailored, drawers stocked. For Cardiology, the SUPPLYPOINT was set up in the treatment room. Training was carried out quickly for the departments in charge of configuring biometric identification."

Customer results and account:

The ELECTROCLASS solution had several advantages: easy to roll out: mono-column cabinet with IT already set up, mono-medication drawer, departments' consumption access restricted to the doses required, easy to use, reduced cost. The SUPPLYPOINT was set up in a cardiology unit of 30 beds. This unit was selected based on several criteria used to reduce risks: very little life-threatening emergency, relatively low medication rotation, reduced pharmaceutical speciality allocation required which enabled setting up a single mono-column cabinet, weekend closure which reduces issues in the event of malfunction.

We installed a mono-column cabinet comprising 46 drawers, each containing a single medication. WiFi-connected to begin with to the establishment's network. Biometric recognition (fingerprint) was implemented for caregivers to reduce the risk of error. This installation was used as a test for the future set-up of the system throughout the establishment.

"The SupplyPoint led to reducing emergency-treatment allocation cabinet stock. Consequently, costs were reduced for this technical solution; Cabinets containing narcotics can be rolled out in any establishment which has computerized patient records. This application totally recoups investment very quickly."

Comments made by Jean-Luc PONS, Pharmacy Head at the Hospital in TAVERNY