(MINNEAPOLIS) As of the January 1, over 2,700 long-term care facilities across North America will have access to a technology that will revolutionize how they administer medication to residents, reduce potentially lethal accidents and increase the amount of time nurses are able to spend with patients.
This is good news for an industry where medication-related errors alone account for up to 7,000 deaths and over 770,000 patient injuries every year in the United States alone.
“The mass distribution of drugs in a tight timeframe is a high risk process,” said Jayne Warwick, a registered nurse who worked in long-term care for over 20 years and was the Director of Resident Care for a 200-bed facility. She now works for PointClickCare as Director Clinical Product Consultants and was an integral part of the creation of their e-MAR solution. “Missing meds has a huge consequence for residents. So does taking the wrong medication. This happens largely because of glitches in a manual system and because nurses are so pressed for time.”
PointClickCare is the first company to produce a tested Electronic Medication Administration Record (e-MAR) for mass distribution that integrates, in real-time, patient records and medication administration, doctor’s notes, prescriptions and pharmacy orders.
This is an important step toward the adoption of Electronic Health Records, a complex goal for the healthcare industry being aggressively pursued by governments.
In the average nursing home, medication is administered to approximately 100 residents a day, most of who are on upwards of 10 medications each. These numerous drugs are given out in a short timeframe which is critical for safety and efficacy.
Until now, the challenge facing nursing homes was the amount of time to prepare for a ‘med pass’ which resulted in a rushed distribution process. It reduced the time for providing care and monitoring unregulated workers. Also, when tracked on paper, errors were difficult to flag.
“As a result of this system, nurses can spend more time with residents, they see how they are swallowing and ask how they feel,” said Mike Wessinger, PointClickCare President and CEO. “The program’s simplicity is what makes it easy to use so nurses want to use it. They then work more efficiently and in a much safer manner.”
PointClickCare’s e-MAR can connect resident charts to the pharmacy to reorder medication and
feeds directly into resident progress notes. It forces nurses to document as they go, eliminating
the need to remember required pharmacy orders and the common tendency to write temporary notes on their hands until files can be updated.
“Our industry works on what is called ‘The Five Rights’: Right resident, right medication, right route, right dose, right time,” said Warwick. “PointClickCare’s system ensures two more, the right rationale for giving a medication and the right documentation.”
The e-MAR is delivered via a touch screen tablet that rests on the top of a medicine cart and shows nurses at a glance what was done, what was missed, and what still needs doing through color codes that are organized by time slots. Photos of each resident are also included as a visual identification.
The system provides an additional element of safety for high-risk drugs, preventing nurses from continuing their medication round until vital signs are checked and entered. The e-MAR is simultaneously routed to the desk of the Nurse Manager who in real time can monitor the med pass in the entire building and flag any problems. Pharmacies, with restricted patient information access, can log on and see what is happening with the medication they have dispensed and what new orders have been written.
PointClickCare’s eight-month pilot project was conducted with Victoria Village, a 128-bed nursing home in Ontario. It is nurse tested for practicability and was developed in conjunction with the Medical Pharmacy Group, one of the country’s largest pharmacies dealing in long-term care.
Two versions of PointClickCare’s eMAR will be offered; one with, and one without, pharmacy integration. This will be available to all PointClickCare clients now totaling 2,700 homes across North America.
ABOUT POINTCLICKCARE:
PointClickCare is the leading electronic medical records and business office software for the Long-Term Care industry. PointClickCare Software-as-a Service (SaaS) has been online serving providers of all sizes since 2000 and is used by over 2,700 Long-Term Care centers in 40 U.S. states and across Canada serving over 300,000 residents.
Contact: Ryan Smith
Steinreich Communications
201-498-1600
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Ed Croze, Ph.D., Director of Translational Research at Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, to give presentation at GTCbio’s 5th Annual Biological Therapeutics Research and Development Conference in San Francisco, CA on Oct. 20-22, 2010
