Cape Regional Medical Center
The Challenge
Nurses at Cape Regional Medical Center are vocal supporters of the hospital's medication distribution model. For more than a decade, nurses have gathered PRNs and controlled medications from unit-based automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) while retrieving daily medications delivered by pharmacy to wall cabinets inside patient rooms — avoiding lines at ADCs and making medication passes more efficient.
To prepare for an upgrade to a new-generation technology, pharmacy leadership partnered with nursing, finance, and hospital administration to lead a detailed assessment of their medication distribution model, with the goal of preserving nursing's preferred workflow while modernizing the underlying automation.
The Solution
Ultimately, the leadership team chose the Omnicell XR2 Automated Central Pharmacy System and a Pharmacy Carousel. The XR2 system enables 100 percent barcode scanning to eliminate human error, supports both cart fill and cartless medication distribution, leverages manufacturer unit-dose barcodes to reduce reliance on repackaging, and uses advanced algorithms to reduce waste and maintain accurate inventory.
To minimize disruption, pharmacy leaders followed an aggressive timeline — installing the new XR2 system and carousel in the same space as the previous robotic and carousel systems. Uninterrupted medication distribution was achieved by flexing old and new technologies, augmented by existing staff performing some manual processes.
The Impact
The XR2 system automates storage, retrieval, and inventory management for more than 90 percent of non-IV and non-narcotic formulary. Soon, the XR2 was dispensing 2,500 non-IV cart fill and first doses per day in patient-specific sealed bags with oversight from a single technician. The XR2 met Cape Regional's core project objectives by reducing overall medication repackaging by more than 90%, aligning all systems on the Central Pharmacy Manager software and OmniCenter platform, and optimizing pharmacists' 5% medication checking of robotic-dispensed doses.
"First and foremost, with XR2 we gained an important safety feature by significantly reducing repackaging touches by techs and pharmacists. Ordering direct from the manufacturer in unit dose form eliminates a huge hole in the Swiss cheese for potential medication errors. That's a big advantage," said Richard J. Artymowicz, PharmD, Director of Pharmacy Services. Pharmacy leadership stressed that its strong partnership with nursing — involving stakeholder groups in key decisions, open communications, and thorough contingency planning — was pivotal to the project's success.
Visit Omnicell.com/XR2 to learn more today.