LENEXA, Ks., May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mediware Information Systems, Inc. , an acknowledged leader in clinical information and patient safety software management solutions, said two state-run hospitals in Washington have purchased the company’s new Medi-MAR product, a medication administration system designed to improve patient safety and reduce medication errors.
The two hospitals are managed by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services and include Western State Hospital (900 beds) in Lakewood, and Eastern State Hospital (300 beds) in Medical Lake. Both facilities are long time users of Medware’s WORx Pharmacy Management System.
Medi-MAR integrates seamlessly with Mediware’s WORx Pharmacy Management System, providing wireless bedside access to the same patient medication profiles and full clinical drug databases with alerts and recordkeeping that have made WORx one of the industry’s most robust and sought after pharmacy management systems.
Medi-MAR provides a tool for hospitals to monitor the administration of medications at the bedside to ensure adherence to the five rights of medication safety.
Medi-MAR operates with either wired or wireless technologies and with handheld, full screen PC, and touch-screen interfaces that confirm patient, nurse and medication identity and ensure administration of the proper medication at the proper time.
It provides fast, secure access to the information stored on a hospital’s Mediware WORx database through thin client technology. As Mediware’s latest solution to easy and efficient management of pharmacy information, it provides pharmacists, physicians, and nurses with an efficient way to access essential patient and drug data.
Medi-MAR,'s hand-held scanner and keyboard connects wirelessly via radio frequency technology to the hospital’s central WORx database. By scanning their own ID, the patient’s ID, and the medicine label, nurses instantly create a complete electronic record of the medication event. Alerts are provided if the WORx database detects any irregularities such as drug-patient mismatch, an outdated prescription, or a potential overmedication.
Mediware’s WORx system and the new Medi-MAR products were designed to provide healthcare facilities with technology to help minimize the more than one million serious medication errors each year in the US cited by The Leap Frog Group. The most common of these errors are drug interactions and allergies, overdosing resulting from decimal point errors and illegible handwriting.
According to the 1999 Institute of Medical Report, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System”, medication errors contribute to 7,000 pre-mature deaths annually.
Alerts provided by the WORx system include: patient allergy, unusual daily dose, drug duplication, drug/drug interactions, and custom criteria. The system allows monitoring of critical patient information and viewing and printing of data including: patient dosing, drug interactions, and allergies and patient monographs. Users can search the worldwide web for additional diagnosis or allergy information.
A full listing of WORx’s features are available at http://www.mediware.com/.
Mediware provides clinical information systems for hospitals and integrated healthcare delivery systems. Its products include HEMOCARE LifeLine(TM), Hemocare(R), LifeLine(R), LifeTrak(R), and HCLL(TM) (blood bank), WORx(R), MediMAR(TM), MediCOE(TM), Pharmakon(R), and Digimedics(TM) (pharmacy), Surgiware(TM), and Perioperative Solutions(TM) (operating room), as well as the JAC Stock Control System (pharmacy) in the United Kingdom. Mediware has over 1,100 systems installed in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and elsewhere.
Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as the same may be amended from time to time (the “Act”) and in releases made by the SEC from time to time. Such forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2003, which may cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update its forward-looking statements.
Contact George Barry Thomas Redington 913/307-1000 203/222-7399 http://www.mediware.com/ 212/926-1733 http://www.redingtoninc.com/
Mediware Information Systems, Inc.
CONTACT: George Barry, Mediware Information Systems, Inc.,+1-913-307-1000, Thomas Redington, +1-203-222-7399, +1-212-926-1733, forMediware Information Systems, Inc.
Web site: http://www.mediware.com/
