John Muir Health Progress Report 2006/2007 - (Page 8) Ensuring Unsurpassed Saf e t y A nd Qual i t y Martin Iyoya, Pharm.D. Director of Pharmacy Services At John Muir Health our commitment to patient safety is a key driver in our efforts to continuously improve the quality of the care we provide. We are in the midst of a multi-year, $41 million program to improve safety throughout our operations, which includes installing valuable new technology tools to help reduce medical errors. New highly advanced robotic technology ensures that we dispense drugs more accurately in all of our pharmacies, and a new medication-management system uses advanced software and bar-code scanning hardware at the bedside to ensure patients in our medical centers receive the proper medications and doses. Since implementing this system, John Muir Health virtually eliminated medication errors causing harm by the first quarter of 2007. We also are proactively improving patient outcomes by anticipating and intervening in potential medical problems. Our next-generation eICU (electronic intensive care unit) will add another layer of vigilance to strengthen on-site staff with centralized, around-the-clock monitoring and assessment of intensive care patients in both medical centers by physicians who are critical care specialists. We have also adopted innovative programs to improve safety and quality of care for our frail elderly patients. CareAdvance™ software helps doctors, nurses, and other caregivers communicate more frequently and effectively with patients at home. The system tracks patient progress, follows up on office visits, checks on medication regimens, and can even take daily readings over the Internet of patient blood pressure, blood sugar, or other critical health data. In a related initiative aimed at improving care for the frail elderly and other less-mobile patients, John Muir Health is collaborating with ten other California medical providers in developing a model for successful transition from hospital to home. This Care Transitions program gives patients the needed information and tools to succeed in managing much of their own healthcare in their homes, while also providing adequate oversight and involvement by their physicians and case management teams. This kind of hospital-to-home model will be increasingly important for an aging population. John Muir Health is taking the lead in finding solutions that will ensure these new models of care deliver the maximum combination of patient safety and healthcare quality. Medicines are one of the most powerful therapeutic tools physicians can use in treating their patients. But the wrong prescription or wrong dosage can cause serious problems. So Martin Iyoya, Pharm.D., the director of John Muir Health pharmacy operations, aims for 100 percent accuracy. “John Muir Health has always had an excellent safety track record in the pharmacy,” he says. “Still, we wanted to do the best we possibly could, and that’s why we installed the McKesson Robot-RX™ in the Walnut Creek Campus’ hospital pharmacy.” This $1.2 million robot has revolutionized how the hospital dispenses medications for inpatients. Entirely automated order-filling begins with a reading of bar-coded doctors’ orders, picking and packaging 24-hours worth of medications for each patient, and delivering a sealed 8
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.