RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
Anesthesia Cart Integration
Enhancing Medication Safety,
Inventory Control and Workflow Efficiency
Overview
Integrating Codonics Safe Label System (SLS) with automated anesthesia drug carts (ADCs) such as BD Pyxis, Omnicell Anesthesia Workstation (AWS), and Intelliguard Mira Care Station significantly improves medication safety, enhances charge capture, and streamlines workflows in the operating room (OR). Whether used with an automated cart or a manual anesthesia cart, SLS ensures accurate medication documentation, helps reduce stockouts, and minimizes inventory discrepancies—ultimately providing better value for your healthcare facility.
Solving Inventory and Charge Capture Challenges in the OR
The fast-paced nature of the OR often creates inventory and charge capture challenges. Even with automated drug carts in place, inventory discrepancies can arise when medications are not manually decremented from the cart. Clinicians, often in a hurry, may neglect to update the cart’s inventory, leading to stockouts and incomplete charge capture. These inefficiencies can be costly, not only from a time and labor perspective but also in missed revenue opportunities.
Codonics common log in/common scan integration solves these issues by connecting SLS with ADCs, allowing for a single sign-on and simultaneous login to both systems. Common scan provides real-time tracking and automatically updates the non-controlled inventory as medications are used. SLS helps eliminate the manual process of tracking inventory, ensuring that every item removed from the cart is decremented and the cart’s stock is accurately adjusted.
Benefits of Anesthesia Cart Integration
For Pharmacy:
- 100% Charge Capture: By automatically recording the exact NDC and documenting medication use in real-time, SLS improves charge capture, billing accuracy, and 340B compliance.
- Improved Inventory Control: SLS integrates with ADCs to ensure non-controlled inventory is automatically decremented when medications are dispensed, reducing the risk of stockouts and helping to maintain accurate inventory levels. This feature is particularly helpful for pharmacy technicians who no longer need to spend time manually restocking carts.
- Fewer Stockouts: Real-time inventory updates help prevent medication shortages, ensuring that critical drugs are available when needed.
For Anesthesia Providers:
- Safety and Efficiency: SLS provides visual and audible confirmation of the drug in hand, acting as a “second set of eyes” to ensure medication accuracy before administration. The system also generates TJC-compliant labels that include critical information, such as the drug name, concentration, and expiration and preparation time, preparer’s initials and more, improving documentation at the point of care.
- Time Savings: Clinicians spend less time manually updating inventory or looking for the right medication, thanks to SLS’s advanced scanning capabilities.
- Integrated Workflow: The SASS (Smart Advanced Scanning System) feature enables scanning and inventory management without the need for printing a label when not necessary, offering flexibility for non-drug items like syringes, gauze, and other supplies. This reduces unnecessary clicks while ensuring accurate inventory decrements.
Seamless Integration for Enhanced Medication Management
The integration of SLS with BD Pyxis, Omnicell AWS, and Mira Care represents a significant leap forward in improving medication safety and operational efficiency in the OR. By automating inventory control and medication documentation, this integration provides several advantages:
- Real-Time Documentation: SLS ensures that all medications are accurately documented in the patient’s AIMS/EHR system, including detailed information about the drug, concentration, and time stamp.
- Inventory Accuracy: Medications are tracked in real-time, preventing discrepancies and reducing the likelihood of stockouts.
- Fewer Manual Tasks: Clinicians no longer need to manually decrement cart inventory or search for the correct medication, allowing them to focus more on patient care.
- Enhanced Safety: With visual and audible safety checks and easy-to-read, on demand label output, SLS improves medication safety and reduces the chance of human error.
Proven Results in the OR:
Hospitals that have SLS integrated with ADCs have reported substantial improvements in charge capture, inventory management, and clinician efficiency. In a recent deployment at a leading children’s hospital, the integration resulted in:
- 37% improvement in missed charge capture
- $384,000 in estimated savings in the first year
- 100% TJC compliance
Anesthesia Drug Cart integration with SLS enables healthcare facilities to benefit from an automated, accurate, and efficient solution for medication labeling, inventory control, and patient safety.
