No More Drug Charts!

Good Shepherd Aged Services Inc. has three facilities (2 hostels and 1 nursing home) located in Melbourne. Dean Gemmill is the Quality Manager for Good Shepherd Aged Services and in the following article Dean explains how medication administration and his job to audit and maintain quality has been improved by the introduction of a new system that has eliminated pharmacy errors and made medication documentation fast, efficient and complete.

Good Shepherd Aged Services Inc. uses a pre-packaged, individualised medication system that is maintained by a local Pharmacist and packed by MPS Australia. This system packs medications into MPS Packettes to achieve safer administration of medications. The MPS Packettes are manufactured in one of three TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) licenced Dose Manufacturing Facilities located in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. These facilities operate in a controlled environment, under the guidelines of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The MPS Packettes are sealed and contain all of the medicines for one resident, for that dose time. They are stored in consecutive dose order.

The pharmacist simply places an order with MPS and the MPS Packettes are delivered to the Pharmacy, checked by the Pharmacist and then delivered to Good Shepherd Aged Services. The contents are delivered and administered to the resident by Nursing and/or Care Staff specifically trained and competency tested in this area. This provides an added level of safety for the resident. For nurses and carers, the system is easy to use. The MPS Packettes are lightweight and easy to store. This means faster, safer medication rounds.

To compliment this system Good Shepherd Aged Service Inc uses leading edge information technology called RX Right to implement the medication system. Prior to administering the contents of the MPS Packette, Nursing and/or Care Staff check on the mobile computer (Handunit) photo identification of the resident, individual resident medication assessment and photo identification of the medication. Each Nursing and /or Care Staff Member has a secured login and signature. Medication administered is electronically signed for on the Handunit. These features have made the process of doing medication documentation audits faster and easier. Another benefit is that communication with the pharmacy is now conducted via the computer console and has virtually eliminated any need for faxing.

According to Dean, there have been no significant problems with either hardware or software for staff using the system. However, it should be noted that Good Shepherd Aged Services has been an innovator when it comes to the introduction of new systems and in particular computer technology. Consequently, staff members are skilled in moving ahead with new technology and systems.

There is a system for entering and managing PRN medication and the system will alert staff if insufficient time has elapsed between doses. Dean envisages further development of the system including eventual alerts for medication contra-indications. The process of doing medication audits has been made much more efficient and it is now possible to undertake an electronic audit and generate a report for our 142 residents in less than a minute.