Michigan Medicine will replace Omnicell with a new automated medication dispensing system. Pharmacy and Nursing will begin using new dose dispensing cabinets before January 2020. Anesthesiology will also begin using new automated storage cabinets next year.
“Our current system works pretty well, but it is not Windows 10 compliant,” said Stan Kent, Michigan Medicine chief pharmacy officer, referring to Microsoft’s announcement that it will no longer support the Windows 7 operating system beginning in January 2020.
“Since we needed to replace the equipment, we decided to look for a vendor that could provide a more integrated solution to help us with the overall medication use process and data analytics.”
Omnicell has been used by Michigan Medicine for nearly 20 years. The new system, BD Pyxis, will continue to support an efficient, safe, and standardized process for storing and handling controlled substances and other medications. New technology, including barcoding and gravimetrics, will also be incorporated to improve the safety of compounding IV solutions.
“We purchase about $400 million in drugs annually. The new technology will help us better track our inventory and usage patterns across multiple locations,” Kent said.
While the new system will look somewhat different, much of the functionality will remain essentially the same.
“We chose BD Pyxis based on input and evaluation from nursing, pharmacy, and anesthesia,” Kent said. “Nurses like how the new screens display much better.”
More information about this project are available on the HITS website.
