Danville Regional Health System
Danville Regional Health System (DRHS) is a leader in harnessing the power of technology to prevent potential medical errors and increase patient safety.
Situation
Danville Regional Health System (DRHS) is the most comprehensive provider of healthcare in the Dan River Region of Virginia and North Carolina. With its roots dating back to 1884, DRHS has one simple mission: Providing healthcare excellence close to home. DRHS is a leader in harnessing the power of technology to prevent potential medical errors and increase patient safety.
Solution
The DRHS clinical staff began implementing Siemens Medical Solutions’ bar code medication administration product, Med Administration CheckTM, in 2000 to support the entire workflow of medication delivery. Med Administration Check is an application that helps nurses verify and document medication administration at the point of care. Using wireless computers containing electronic medical records and wireless bar code scanners, nurses scan the bar code on a patient’s ID badge, which displays on online medication administration work list on the computer. The bar code on the medication is then scanned, and the system automatically checks the scanned medication vs. the medication ordered.
The computer then verifies that the five ‘rights” of administration are accurate – right medication, right dose, right time, right route, and right patient. If there is a discrepancy - for example, the medication that was scanned is the incorrect medication for the patient – an alert appears on the computer screen, warning the nurse that one of the five rights is being breached, preventing a potentially fatal error.
Better Health and Lower Costs
DRHS has documented an average of 118 potential medication errors avoided each month, and an average annual savings of $943, 805 due to increased efficiency. Through its online messaging capability, it has eliminated approximately 98 time-consuming phone calls to the pharmacy each month. Because of these positive results, all in-patient nursing units at Danville Regional Medical Center now use the system.
