Omnicell Installs Enhanced Physician Order Management System at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Southern California
New System Will Save Time, Improve Pharmacy Productivity and Increase Patient Privacy
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 5 / -- Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL) today announced the installation of its newly enhanced OmniLinkRx(TM) physician order management system at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.
The announcement was made during a news conference held at the 2005 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting.
The latest version of OmniLinkRx uses bar codes to automatically associate patients with physician orders, adds new HIPAA patient privacy protections, and gives nurses additional access to the status of pharmacy medication order approval.
"Previously, digitized physician orders had to be opened and then associated with patients, which was time-consuming and a challenge to pharmacy productivity," explained Brad Blackwell, Omnicell pharmacy product manager. "By automating the patient association process and using bar code technology, productivity is increased, as is patient safety."
Another major enhancement in use at Torrance Memorial allows nurses to view the status of a physician order not only from any PC with Internet access but also from an Omnicell OmniRx(R) medication dispensing cabinet.
This is a major productivity improvement for nurses and pharmacists, according to Blackwell, who noted, "In the past, the pharmacy might approve four of five physician-ordered drugs for use, while holding back a fifth drug for physician clarification. With the new OmniLinkRx technology, nurses can actually open the pharmacist's note and find the reason why the medication order was put on hold without having to call pharmacy. Both pharmacy and nursing productivity is thus increased as unnecessary phone calls are reduced.
A third key feature added to OmniLinkRx is the ability to restrict access to patient orders for pharmacy and nursing users. Blackwell said that patients with behavioral disorders or infectious diseases are examples of how this "need to know" feature helps protects a patient's right to privacy.
How OmniLinkRx Works
Nurses use OmniLinkRx to scan physician orders and send an electronic image to the pharmacy for immediate verification. The system offers priority queuing capabilities such as STAT and ASAP as well as QA and productivity measurements. to facilitate faster turnaround times and increased productivity.
A Baylor University hospital pharmacy study unveiled earlier this year showed that OmniLinkRx reduced the time pharmacists spend filling prescriptions by an average of 35%. The study was based on the use of the remote order scanning system to electronically process an average of 3,000 orders in the central pharmacy each month from 40 different nursing stations within Baylor University Health Care System compared with faxing and hand-processing paper copies of physician orders.
About Torrance Memorial
As the South Bay's first hospital, Torrance Memorial Medical Center was founded by Jared Torrance in 1925 and moved to its present 24-acre site in 1971. Torrance Memorial is a fully accredited, full-service, 377-bed, nonprofit community medical center. Torrance Memorial received the highest recognition in the community for quality and state-of-the-art medical services in a 2004 survey conducted by National Research Corporation, and it was selected as a Top 100 U.S. Hospital by Solucient in 2004.
About Omnicell
Established in 1992, Omnicell is a leading provider of patient safety solutions preferred by nurses. Improving patient care by enhancing operational efficiency, Omnicell solutions are used throughout the healthcare facility -- in the pharmacy, nursing units, surgical services, cath lab, and all the way to the patient's bedside. The company's MedGuard(TM) line of solutions for the medication-use process includes systems for physician order management, automated pharmacy retrieval, medication packaging, medication dispensing, and nursing workflow automation with bar code medication administration. For the medical-surgical supply chain, Omnicell provides open bar code systems, cabinet-based supply management, integrated open and cabinet-based systems, and Web-based procurement. More than 1,600 healthcare facilities use Omnicell solutions to help reduce medication errors, operate more efficiently, and decrease costs -- ultimately contributing to improved clinical and financial outcomes. For more information, visit www.omnicell.com.
Source: Omnicell, Inc.
CONTACT: Bruce Lewis of Lewis & Summers Public Relations,
+1-707-964-3844, or bruce@prwebsite.com, for Omnicell, Inc.
Web site: www.omnicell.com/
