ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Omnicell, Inc. , a leading provider of patient safety solutions preferred by nurses, today offered a look at the future of patient safety technology to those attending the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting being held this week in Orlando.
Already a leader in cutting-edge patient safety technology, Omnicell's development team demonstrated prototypes that will help nurses and pharmacists safeguard patients against medication errors.
"These new features will add safety, improve communication between caregivers and make government reporting more efficient for hospitals," said Dianne Smart, product manager, medication systems.
Three of the new patient safety features will enhance Omnicell's OmniRx(R) medication dispensing cabinets; a fourth is linked to OmniLinkRx(TM), the company's physician order management solution used in hospitals across the U.S.
New OmniRx Features
Omnicell's MedGuard(TM) line of medication-use process solutions is already a highly integrated group of products with bar code and other patient safety technologies built in. These new features will further enhance patient safety and product integration:
-- Allergy alerts will use known patient drug allergies, already in the hospital's clinical information system, to warn the nurse if she tries to remove the drug from the cabinet to administer to the patient.
-- Dispensing alerts will improve safety and quality assurance compliance by questioning the nurse about a patient's condition and requiring the answers before administering high-risk medications, such as anti-coagulants or blood pressure altering drugs. Based on the nurse's answers, the system will provide pharmacist recommendations for diluting a medication or issue a warning against administering it at all.
-- Due times, another planned OmniRx cabinet feature, will enable a nurse to select a patient and see all the medications currently approved and due for administration.
OmniLinkRx-OmniRx Integration
Currently, OmniLinkRx automates and organizes the process of sending physician orders to the hospital pharmacy for review. A planned feature allows a nurse, with the press of a button at the cabinet, to determine the status of a physician order in the pharmacy review process, such as whether the approval has been delayed because the pharmacist has contacted the physician to clarify an order before approving it for administration to a patient. This feature is an integration of OmniRx cabinets with OmniLinkRx.
About Omnicell
Established in 1992, Omnicell is a leading provider of patient safety solutions preferred by nurses. Improving patient care by enhancing operational efficiency, Omnicell solutions are used throughout the healthcare facility -- in the pharmacy, nursing units, surgical services, cath lab, and all the way to the patient's bedside. The company's MedGuard line of solutions for the medication-use process includes systems for physician order management, automated pharmacy retrieval, medication packaging, medication dispensing, and nursing workflow automation with bar code medication administration. For the medical-surgical supply chain, Omnicell's OptiFlex(TM) product line provides open bar code systems, cabinet-based supply management, integrated open and cabinet-based systems, and Web-based procurement. More than 1,500 healthcare facilities use Omnicell solutions to help reduce medication errors, operate more efficiently, and decrease costs -- ultimately contributing to improved clinical and financial outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.omnicell.com/.
Omnicell, Inc.CONTACT: Bruce Lewis of Lewis & Summers Public Relations,+1-707-964-3844, or bruce@prwebsite.com, for Omnicell, Inc.
Web site: http://www.omnicell.com/