Medication errors have a large impact in the overall patient safety provided by a health care organization. Discover how Baptist Health Systems was able to reduce these errors and dramatically improve medication safety using McKesson Medication Safety Advantage technology.

1. Case Study
At a Glance Baptist Health Systems
Organization
Uses Technology to Improve Medication
Baptist Health Systems
Jackson, Miss. Management, Eliminate Errors
– 640-bed Medical Center
– 25-bed acute long-term care Patient safety efforts at Baptist Hospital management recently
hospital Health Systems have focused took a harder look at protecting
– Cancer center on the reduction of medication patients throughout the entire
errors — mistakes that can quickly medication management process:
lead to serious adverse events. from prescribing to transcribing
Solution Spotlight After evaluating best practice and to dispensing to administering
– AcuDose-Rx® automation opportunities, Baptist to monitoring. With the help of
– Clinical Consulting Group selected end-to-end technologies McKesson’s Clinical Consulting
and automation solutions from Group, 40-plus nurses and
– Horizon Admin-RxTM
McKesson. The result? Baptist pharmacists participated in
– Horizon Expert achieved a medication dispensing a medication management
DocumentationTM accuracy rate of 98%, a 38% review. They assessed more than
– Horizon Expert OrdersTM reduction in medication order- 4,000 orders, and about 80
– Horizon Meds ManagerTM to-delivery time, and a bar-code staff members were involved in
– ROBOT-Rx® medication scanning rate of 94%. 150 hours of process redesign
The health system also recouped workshops.
more than 25,000 nursing hours
Critical Issues each year, saving the organization Together, the Baptist and McKesson
– Patient and medication safety $937,000 annually. team resolved more than 230
– Inefficient, manual processes process issues and redesigned
– Operational inefficiencies
Challenges 34 workflows to automate the
Jackson, Miss.-based Baptist Health medication management process.
– Financial performance After identifying risk areas
Systems includes a 640-bed medical
center, a 25-bed acute long-term through the root cause analysis,
Results care hospital, community clinics leaders realized that the health
and a nationally recognized system needed to revamp existing
– Achieved a 94% bar-code
cancer center. Patient safety and medication management processes.
scanning compliance rate, with
clinical quality have always been Such extensive analysis also
70% of nurses and pharmacists
strategic areas of focus for this made it possible to invest only in
noting the system prevented
industry leader. technologies that met the needs
mistakes
of an optimal clinical workflow.
– Eliminated pharmacy callbacks
related to legibility issues and “Patient safety has risen to the
forefront because the industry Answers
missing time/date stamps for
has counted the number of A multidisciplinary selection
medication orders
adverse events occurring during committee evaluated solutions
– Reduced medication time from hospitalization,” says Eric McVey, from multiple vendors and chose
order to delivery by 38% vice president and chief medical to implement a comprehensive
– Recouped 25,000 nursing hours officer. “There’s been somewhat medication safety solution suite
and 2,000 pharmacy hours of a body count — and that really from McKesson. Key components
annually gained the attention of providers.” of the solution include: ROBOT-Rx®,
– Saved more than $937,000 in
nursing costs alone

2. Case Study
“We will continue to assess AcuDose-Rx® and Horizon Meds time has been slashed by 38%. In
Manager™, medication dispensing addition, the organization reports
care, identify potential areas and pharmacy automation tools; completely eliminating pharmacy
for improvements and Horizon Admin-Rx™ and Horizon callbacks related to legibility issues
Expert Documentation™, a bar-code and missing time/date stamps for
implement technologies medication administration system medication orders.
and care documentation solution;
that support the optimal and Horizon Expert Orders™, a Through pharmacy automation
patient care experience. computerized physician order and robotics, Baptist also achieved:
entry/clinical decision support a medication dispensing accuracy
Our clinicians and patients (CPOE/CDS) system. rate of 98%; a 90% reduction
in medication restocking time;
deserve nothing less.” System selection was just the start. a 50% reduction in expired
The success of the initiative also medications; and a 50% reduction
required buy-in from the entire in missing dose volume. The health
Eric McVey staff — a tall order considering system also credits the McKesson
the project called for considerable technologies with saving more than
Vice President/ change. To engage staff, leaders 2,000 pharmacy hours annually.
Chief Medical Officer positioned the initiative as a pillar
of Baptist’s patient safety mission, The improvements for nursing are
Baptist Health Systems not just an ancillary IT project. also impressive. Since implementing
the bar-code administration system,
“Physician championship is essential the hospital has maintained a
to getting staff members to see the 94% compliance rate. More than
big picture,” notes Scott Groom, 70% of nurses and pharmacists
chief information officer. “We were report that the system has
fortunate to have the sponsorship helped them avoid medication
of several of our key physician errors. And by equipping nurses
leaders. Their perspective helped with medication carts stocked
everyone to see the project as much with first-dose medications
more than just an information and documentation tools, the
technology initiative.” organization has recouped more
than 25,000 nursing hours each
Results year, which translates into more
McVey and other Baptist time for patient care and $937,000
executives believe the technology in savings.
implementations and process
enhancements have paid off in “We know that the quest to
significant efficiency gains, quality provide safe patient care is never-
improvements and a stronger ending,” says McVey. “We will
financial position. continue to assess care, identify
potential areas for improvement
For example, through the and implement technologies that
combination of CPOE and support the optimal patient care
electronic medication verification experience. Our clinicians and
by pharmacists, order-to-delivery patients deserve nothing less.”
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