How the XR2 System Reduced Dispensing Errors by 92% for Summa Health

John Feucht
Vice President of Pharmacy Services, Summa Health

Summa Health is an integrated delivery network located in northeast Ohio, with all facilities located within a 15-mile radius. With multiple distribution processes at each of our facilities, many of which were manual, we were seeing significant inefficiencies and pharmacy dispensing errors. We recognized that we needed to reevaluate and completely redesign our medication management processes across the system. Our goal was to improve efficiency and patient safety while allowing our pharmacists and technicians to focus more on clinical care.

We had a long history with pharmacy automation at the individual hospital level – from carousels to cabinets – but required a new solution that would not only standardize operations, but help us achieve our high-level goals, including:

• Patient safety – reducing errors associated with manual medication dispensing processes
• Inventory savings – increasing visibility and reducing medication waste
• Redeploy resources to patient care – enabling pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to practice at the top of their license

After evaluating our technology options, we presented our vision and gained senior leadership buy-in to move forward with implementing Omnicell’s XR2 Automated Central Pharmacy System. XR2 offered two key advantages – flexibility to support multiple distribution models including centralized, decentralized, or hybrid, and the ability to store and dispense many different form factors in their native manufacturer packaging.

One of the most exciting features of XR2 is the dispensing accuracy. In January 2020, the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy approved a check waiver for Summa Health after we demonstrated an accuracy rate exceeding 99.8%, with zero incorrect medications picked for 95,793 doses.

Previously, our pharmacists were checking 2,930 doses per day, but with the check waiver requiring just 10% of doses dispensed to be checked by a pharmacist, we have freed up approximately 2-3 hours of pharmacist checking time per day, allowing them to perform other tasks and duties. The amount of time saved will grow exponentially when the centralized fill strategy using XR2 is expanded across the entire health system.

The XR2 system has been a game changer for our medication management strategy, helping us to achieve our ultimate goal of enabling pharmacists and technicians to practice at the top of their licenses.

To learn more about how the XR2 automated pharmacy dispensing system has helped us to increase medication safety, improve efficiency, maximize inventory control, and enhance patient care, read my recent Pharmacy Purchasing & Products white paper Automated Central Pharmacy Medication Management.

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