Global Hospital & Healthcare Management

Hospitals facing increased pressure to improve safety and efficiency, the comprehensive analysis of performance data has become even more critical. The new software release of McKesson’s Automation Decision Support ™ – an advanced analytics solution – is designed to help hospitals using McKesson automation solutions more quickly and easily detect medication dispensing issues and improve inventory management and pharmacy productivity.

While other analytics tools focus only on nursing solutions, Automation Decision Support consolidates information from automation solutions in the pharmacy, nursing and surgical suites. This approach is designed to enable more complete data collection and better informed decision-making.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, located in Winston-Salem, N.C., was a beta test site for the latest software release of Automation Decision Support. The medical center will use the tool to evaluate data generated by McKesson’s medication dispensing robot, automated dispensing cabinets, carousel technology, and narcotics storage and tracking system, as well as cost information from McKesson’s medication ordering software.

David Breeze, technology systems coordinator in the pharmacy department at Wake Forest Baptist said, We are excited about the new capabilities of Automation Decision Support,” said David Breeze, technology systems coordinator in the pharmacy department at Wake Forest Baptist. Our medical center uses several McKesson automation solutions, so using the new analytics software that combines the data from all of them into one place was a logical step for us. This should make our analysis much easier and help us make more informed decisions so that we can refine our processes and continuously improve our performance and productivity.

Automation Decision Support, powered by McKesson’s Performance Analytics solution, combines and organizes data from McKesson Automation solutions from one or multiple hospital facilities. This provides hospital administrators with a single source of information for strategic decision-making. Users obtain graphical and statistical views of key benchmarks and information to identify trends, isolate variances and analyze discrepancies. Advanced drill-down capabilities enable users to segregate root causes and determine the appropriate actions for issue resolution and process improvement.

With the improved diversion monitoring capability and a variety of new reports, users can look at different dispensing patterns from McKesson’s automated anesthesia carts and medication dispensing cabinets to identify potential diversion issues. The system also tracks unauthorized openings of drawers and pockets within the anesthesia carts and cabinets. Additionally, Automation Decision Support improves inventory management by providing clear visibility into inventory levels, showing users an overview of medication usage, including unused inventory, waste transactions, medication stock outs, and restocked medications.

With Automation Decision Support, hospitals can assess the overall daily performance and efficiency of their McKesson Automation solutions by comparing detailed dispense activity in the pharmacy. Users also can determine the amount of time it takes to complete a medication pick from McKesson’s carousel system. That information enables the pharmacy to evaluate current processes, turnaround time, and technician efficiency to make any necessary adjustments for improved productivity.

David Souerwine, president, McKesson Automation Solutions said, “Having accurate information at one’s fingertips is key to making solid, strategic decisions.  For customers like Wake Forest Baptist, this new update to our analytics solution will help them make their processes more efficient and save time by providing the information they need to make informed decisions on a single dashboard.

More information about McKesson’s Automation Decision Support solution is available at www.mckesson.com /automationdecisionsupport.