CIOTechOutlook >> Magazine >> November - 2015 issue

Ameliorate patient safety with Information Technology

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Columbia Asia Hospitals, with Management Office in Bangalore, is an international healthcare group owned by more than 150 private equity companies, fund management organizations and individual investors.

Over the past 40 years, information technology has had a major impact on the working lives of millions of people. Many industries have embraced computer technology with the inherent benefits of automated information processing. These include enabling routine, repetitive and monotonous tasks to be conducted with consistent accuracy; standardization and consistent use of terminology and nomenclature; and mass customization (the capacity of information technology to provide services to a large population, yet in a way that can be customized to the individual).

Pharmacists rely heavily on technology to help them do tasks that are often complex. Pharmacy have a broad spectrum been categorized as “Stand Alone Pharmacy” and “Hospital Based Pharmacy”. Indian Stand Alone Pharmacies work on various IT systems, which primarily confines towards Stock Management and Billing only, however technology have taken a wide spectrum shape in the Hospitals, from a miniscule usage to a wide spectrum usage and enabling integration amongst intra departments

For prescribers and pharmacists, IT can enable the storage of structured patient records, facilitate the electronic prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines, automate the handling of medicines in the supply chain and provide tools for monitoring the efficacy and safety of medicines in use. IT can therefore improve patient safety, enable professionals to provide high quality care and help patients make the most of their medicines.

In the past, providers had to choose between a stand-alone product from a best-of-breed vendor and a vendor that offered an integrated system. While the best stand-alone programs may provide automated medication-dispensing cabinets, barcode technology, and the like, most providers are nevertheless opting for an integrated approach, which enables a 360 degree tightening of the Medication system.

In Columbia Asia Hospitals, one of the Best Technology is in use, completely developed In house which gives a plethora of user friendly attributes that culminates into a World Class Pharmacy Management, and at the same time churning the most sophisticated reports from Business Intelligence perspective. In India very few Hospitals have scaled up towards the usage of Barcoding in the Drugs, which recently Columbia Asia have adapted and have successfully implemented in all its Hospitals, thereby scaling up towards a Better Drug Management. Bar codes on the bottles and the containers allow the pharmacies to record the drugs and the compounds which they have on hand and the quantities of them, they help to confirm that the right product has been delivered, stored, retrieved and dispensed to the customers.

IT in Columbia Asia plays a significant role right from the order management interface, Re Order level tracking, drug entry in the Hospital, Intra departmental drug movements, Storage, Inventory management and dispensing to the patients. Along with the above inventory management functions, the entire journey of a Medicine, both in Outpatient and Inpatient is fully automated and IT enabled, thereby ensuring Highest Standards of Patient Safety. To strengthen Patient Safety, Columbia Asia, has interfaced its core software Care21 with CIMS Drug Libraries for real-time alerts and warnings to the clinicians at the time of prescribing drugs. Alerts against patient’s allergies, drug to drug interactions, food and environmental issues are provided to the doctors at the point of care. Columbia Asia is progressing a step further by adding the advanced drug alert modules from CIMS.

Health care experts increasingly agree that Pharmacists on chronic care delivery teams can improve care and reduce the costs of treating chronic illnesses. The prevalence of adults who have multiple chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, arthritis, Diabetes, and asthma, is increasing in India, most individuals have at least one chronic disease. As the number of medications rises, many patients have trouble adhering to medication regimens for multiple reasons. The rate of unfilled prescriptions and prescriptions that patients fill but fail to pick up also has trended upwards in India. The consequences of low or non-adherence to medication therapy can be serious, including medical complications and increased health hazards.

With the layers of complexity surrounding the pharmacists’ expanding scope of practice in the move towards a more effective and efficient healthcare system, perhaps another avenue to solidify the pharmacists’ key position is to spark the spirit of a much elevated and evolved technological innovation, our in house team is further working on a much higher IT Platform aiming in a much higher and advanced work flow for the Gen Next ahead.

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