Pondadat
March 5, 2005, 04:16 PM
Ernie the robot pharmacist: Hospital calls on machine to sort prescription drugs.
This article was from January 2005. How do you feel about having robots as your neighborhood pharmacist? Im not to sure about inter social relations between man and machine. Right now, Im alittle anxious about the idea of robot dispensing my medication.
KIRKLAND, Wash. -- Getting the right drugs to hospital patients is a huge and complex task fraught with the potential for human error.
So it's not surprising more hospitals are turning to high-tech robots to sort and package drugs.
Evergreen Hospital Medical Center pharmacists estimate up to 93 percent of the hospital's drugs are now dispensed by Ernie, a $3 million robot who works around the clock and never tires.
Evergreen's robot is the second of its kind in the state, following one installed at the VA Medical Center in Seattle in 2001.
Ernie has packaged nearly 400,000 doses in the past nine months.
In that time, the number of medication errors reported by the hospital decreased 25 percent, officials said.
"We've virtually eliminated dispensing errors from the pharmacy," said Bob Blanchard, Evergreen's pharmacy director.
Before the robot, "we may send out 3,000 doses a day, and (have) a one-half of 1 percent error rate, which is tremendous, very, very good."
Now, things are even better. "The robot does not make that kind of mistake where it dispenses the wrong kind of medication," Blanchard said.
Evergreen has been bar-coding drugs for Ernie since last March. The hospital has a $3 million, seven-year lease for the robot, and 22 computerized drug dispensing cabinets.
It's nicknamed "Ernie" for "Evergreen Robot Noticeably Improving Efficiency," Blanchard said.
The robot takes up about 100 square feet, most in an enclosed octagon-shaped room with pegs for 350 kinds of drugs.
In the middle of the enclosure is a large servo-driven arm, an electronic whirling dervish, rotating and using suction cups to grab packets of barricaded doses.
Motors whine and pneumatic pumps sound like the quiet cousin of an air-nailer.
Once a drug dose is in Ernie's grip, lasers repeatedly scan the bar codes to make sure the right drug was chosen.
If a drug bar code doesn't match, Ernie flings it on the ground or dumps it in a reject bin for pharmacists to scrutinize.
The arm drops any number of doses into envelopes, each with a delivery label for a specific patient.
"It's awesome," said Cheryl Byrd, Evergreen's automation technician. "It's worth it because of the accuracy."
Ernie's spinning and grabbing movements are hypnotic, drawing lengthy stares from patients walking the hallways, and even from the pharmacists.
When not filling prescriptions, Ernie is restocking packaged doses triple-checked by pharmacists.
Blanchard and Evergreen Hospital board officials said high-tech drug systems, including bar-coded drugs, will be required in 2007 or 2008.
"We're going to be there sooner than other places in the area," Blanchard said.
Putting bar codes on every drug -- a prerequisite to using a robot like the one at Evergreen Hospital -- is not yet required by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, but nearly was, said the commission's spokeswoman, Charlene Hill.
"Part of the concern was that there wasn't enough information about the technology available," Hill said. "Machines can make errors. If you put in the wrong data, you'll get the wrong medication back. That's one of the reasons bar-coding did not become a national patient safety goal at this time.
"Will it down the road? Hard to say."
The requirement is inevitable, said Al DeYoung, Evergreen Board president.
"We felt that it's going to be mandated by the federal government within the next five years anyway, so we decided to go ahead and make the investment," DeYoung said. "We felt we had a fair price. We probably wouldn't have done it if there was not a reasonable leasing program.
"There are always going to be some errors," DeYoung said. "They would catch it down the line before it got to the patient, and count it as an error when it was shipped to the patients. We felt that this was a place where we could cut down on any kind of an error."
Sound-alike drugs such as hydroxyzine -- an antihistamine -- and hydralazine -- a blood pressure medication -- are easy mistakes for pharmacists to make, Evergreen's Blanchard said.
The same with Zyrtec and Zantac, respectively an antihistamine and H-2 blocker for heartburn, and loperamide and loratadine -- the first one treats diarrhea, the second is an antihistamine.
Bar-coding the drugs prevents both those mix-ups, as well as confusing different pills that are the same size and color, Blanchard said.
The robot frees up time for pharmacists to advise doctors and patients on drugs and drug interactions, Blanchard said.
They can now focus on writing medication orders, parental nutrition orders, advising patients on pain management and adjusting blood thinners.
The pharmacists are also responsible for entering all medication orders.
"Now we're not as rushed," Blanchard said.
The most frequent medication error was one of omission, Blanchard said: When it was time to give a patient a drug, it hadn't made its way to the nurse's station. Ernie has cut down on that, he said.
For Ernie's first two weeks, the state Board of Pharmacy required Evergreen Hospital to verify 100 percent of the robot's drug choices. The errors discovered were human, Blanchard said.
"We always found that we were wrong and robot was right," he said.
Pharmacists check the accuracy of a percentage of each morning's robotically filled batch of doses. If they're 100 percent accurate, the robot stays online.
Pharmacists and technicians continue to triple check the bar-coding of individual doses before they are put inside the robot.
"It's removed the pharmacist from the majority of dispensing tasks," Blanchard said.
"With the technology available now, you can reduce many medication errors. As perfect or as good as we think we are at dispensing things, it's a busy place and things happen."
This article was from January 2005. How do you feel about having robots as your neighborhood pharmacist? Im not to sure about inter social relations between man and machine. Right now, Im alittle anxious about the idea of robot dispensing my medication.
KIRKLAND, Wash. -- Getting the right drugs to hospital patients is a huge and complex task fraught with the potential for human error.
So it's not surprising more hospitals are turning to high-tech robots to sort and package drugs.
Evergreen Hospital Medical Center pharmacists estimate up to 93 percent of the hospital's drugs are now dispensed by Ernie, a $3 million robot who works around the clock and never tires.
Evergreen's robot is the second of its kind in the state, following one installed at the VA Medical Center in Seattle in 2001.
Ernie has packaged nearly 400,000 doses in the past nine months.
In that time, the number of medication errors reported by the hospital decreased 25 percent, officials said.
"We've virtually eliminated dispensing errors from the pharmacy," said Bob Blanchard, Evergreen's pharmacy director.
Before the robot, "we may send out 3,000 doses a day, and (have) a one-half of 1 percent error rate, which is tremendous, very, very good."
Now, things are even better. "The robot does not make that kind of mistake where it dispenses the wrong kind of medication," Blanchard said.
Evergreen has been bar-coding drugs for Ernie since last March. The hospital has a $3 million, seven-year lease for the robot, and 22 computerized drug dispensing cabinets.
It's nicknamed "Ernie" for "Evergreen Robot Noticeably Improving Efficiency," Blanchard said.
The robot takes up about 100 square feet, most in an enclosed octagon-shaped room with pegs for 350 kinds of drugs.
In the middle of the enclosure is a large servo-driven arm, an electronic whirling dervish, rotating and using suction cups to grab packets of barricaded doses.
Motors whine and pneumatic pumps sound like the quiet cousin of an air-nailer.
Once a drug dose is in Ernie's grip, lasers repeatedly scan the bar codes to make sure the right drug was chosen.
If a drug bar code doesn't match, Ernie flings it on the ground or dumps it in a reject bin for pharmacists to scrutinize.
The arm drops any number of doses into envelopes, each with a delivery label for a specific patient.
"It's awesome," said Cheryl Byrd, Evergreen's automation technician. "It's worth it because of the accuracy."
Ernie's spinning and grabbing movements are hypnotic, drawing lengthy stares from patients walking the hallways, and even from the pharmacists.
When not filling prescriptions, Ernie is restocking packaged doses triple-checked by pharmacists.
Blanchard and Evergreen Hospital board officials said high-tech drug systems, including bar-coded drugs, will be required in 2007 or 2008.
"We're going to be there sooner than other places in the area," Blanchard said.
Putting bar codes on every drug -- a prerequisite to using a robot like the one at Evergreen Hospital -- is not yet required by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, but nearly was, said the commission's spokeswoman, Charlene Hill.
"Part of the concern was that there wasn't enough information about the technology available," Hill said. "Machines can make errors. If you put in the wrong data, you'll get the wrong medication back. That's one of the reasons bar-coding did not become a national patient safety goal at this time.
"Will it down the road? Hard to say."
The requirement is inevitable, said Al DeYoung, Evergreen Board president.
"We felt that it's going to be mandated by the federal government within the next five years anyway, so we decided to go ahead and make the investment," DeYoung said. "We felt we had a fair price. We probably wouldn't have done it if there was not a reasonable leasing program.
"There are always going to be some errors," DeYoung said. "They would catch it down the line before it got to the patient, and count it as an error when it was shipped to the patients. We felt that this was a place where we could cut down on any kind of an error."
Sound-alike drugs such as hydroxyzine -- an antihistamine -- and hydralazine -- a blood pressure medication -- are easy mistakes for pharmacists to make, Evergreen's Blanchard said.
The same with Zyrtec and Zantac, respectively an antihistamine and H-2 blocker for heartburn, and loperamide and loratadine -- the first one treats diarrhea, the second is an antihistamine.
Bar-coding the drugs prevents both those mix-ups, as well as confusing different pills that are the same size and color, Blanchard said.
The robot frees up time for pharmacists to advise doctors and patients on drugs and drug interactions, Blanchard said.
They can now focus on writing medication orders, parental nutrition orders, advising patients on pain management and adjusting blood thinners.
The pharmacists are also responsible for entering all medication orders.
"Now we're not as rushed," Blanchard said.
The most frequent medication error was one of omission, Blanchard said: When it was time to give a patient a drug, it hadn't made its way to the nurse's station. Ernie has cut down on that, he said.
For Ernie's first two weeks, the state Board of Pharmacy required Evergreen Hospital to verify 100 percent of the robot's drug choices. The errors discovered were human, Blanchard said.
"We always found that we were wrong and robot was right," he said.
Pharmacists check the accuracy of a percentage of each morning's robotically filled batch of doses. If they're 100 percent accurate, the robot stays online.
Pharmacists and technicians continue to triple check the bar-coding of individual doses before they are put inside the robot.
"It's removed the pharmacist from the majority of dispensing tasks," Blanchard said.
"With the technology available now, you can reduce many medication errors. As perfect or as good as we think we are at dispensing things, it's a busy place and things happen."