Allina Health
The Challenge
Like many health systems, Allina Health has prioritized risk mitigation strategies to address potential drug diversions with the goal of keeping patients and staff safe. Diversion can occur across all practice settings where medications are stored and used, and can involve anyone who can access or obtain those medications. Diversion events such as a CRNA diverting propofol from the OR, an EMS paramedic tampering with and replacing medications, and a patient's family member stealing a morphine bag prompted Allina to take action. While their formal drug diversion program was initiated years ago, access and availability of controlled substances continued to be major factors impacting the incidence of drug diversion by staff.
The Solution
Allina standardized its approach across the health system. Pharmacy leadership and audit services formed a multidisciplinary team to transform medication management through best practice standards, monthly monitoring, and education and awareness. The program incorporated Omnicell technology, including intelligent software analytics, to support automated diversion monitoring systemwide.
The Impact
Omnicell intelligence solutions contributed to delivering a full picture of medication inventory for automatic monthly monitoring with a documentation accuracy of greater than 98%, reduced audit time to assess discrepancies from two months to just over two days, and improvement in medication dispense to administration time — reduced to an average of 12 minutes within just six months. Administration to waste time was reduced to an average of 45 minutes, with visibility into these rates allowing Allina to monitor trends and identify gaps over time.
With an oversight committee and technology in place, Allina Health's drug diversion program has been able to focus on proactive mitigation, reactive mitigation, and education. "Diversion is and will continue to happen in health systems, but by leveraging intelligent software to help streamline the process of monitoring for potential drug diversion across the health system, we have more peace of mind," said JoAnne Myhre, CPht, FMSHP, BA, Drug Diversion Program Manager at Allina Health.
Visit Omnicell.com to learn more today.