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Lakeshore General gets high-tech meds dispenser
Hospital says machine will generate hundreds of thousands in medication savings
Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Lorne and Louise Trottier of the Trottier Family Foundation.
The Lakeshore General Hospital has a new member on its pharmaceutical team: a semi-automated medication distribution system, much like a high-tech vending machine, designed to not only save money but to reduce human error.
“This machine can package medication individually, without human manipulation. This way, surplus tablets can be reused, representing approximate savings of $150,000 per year,” said Pierre Gendreau, head of the Pointe Claire hospital’s pharmacy department.
Hospital spokesman Louis-Pascal Cyr said that under the old system, patient prescriptions were prepared by hand for four to six-day periods.
“And if a patient left before those periods were up, we’d have to throw away the leftover medication,” he said.
“With the new system, patient medications are prepared in sealed packets on a daily basis,” Cyr said. “And that translates into less loss of medication,” he said.
Suzanne Turmel, executive director of the West Island Health and Social Services Centre – which groups together the CLSC de Pierrefonds, CLSC du Lac-Saint-Louis, Centre d’hébergement Denis-Benjamin-Viger and the Lakeshore General Hospital – said the tailor-made computerized system that prepares customized medicine dosages for each hospital patient is safer for patients.
“Automating the process reduces the risk of error, and this plays a significant role in improving the health and well-being of patients,” she said.
Manufacturers of the technology say it also frees up pharmacists to spend more time working with patients and doctors.
Thuy-Uyen Dao, assistant chief pharmacist at the hospital, said the machine, a PACMED500, has been in use since July.
“And we are using it only at 10-per-cent capacity,” she said. “At full capacity, it can store up to 500 different medications.”
Dao said the robot, which cost $300,000 will not be used at full capacity until the 15-member pharmacy department, on the hospital’s third floor, is redesigned next year.
Dao explained that instead of a pharmacist getting doctor’s prescription and preparing it manually, counting out the pills, the pharmacist instead types in the patient’s name and prescription and the PACMED500 prepares a sealed medication packet, along with both the generic and trade names of the drugs.
“It is much safer than counting out pills by hand,” she said.
Cyr said there is always a chance of error – for example, someone could accidentally type in the wrong medication or name. But he added that because of bedside verification by nurses or doctors, the odds of an error are slim.
“They check the medication next to the patient’s chart in the room and the sealed packets are so clearly labelled, it would take a lot to make a mistake.”
The new technology was made possible due to a $1.5-million donation made by the Trottier Family Foundation established in 2000 to promote science, technology, education, health care and Third World economic development. The remainder of the donation is slated to be used to renovate the pharmacy department. Foundation founder Lorne Trottier and his wife, Louise, were present last week when the machine was officially unveiled.