<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF noWrap align=right width="1%">From: </TD><TD class=msgFname noWrap width="68%">kojakbt22 <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">9:51 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 18) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>11469.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Drug process to allow more time for patients
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Automated system at NUH to dispense, pack and sort drugs also enhances safety checks </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Serene Luo
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Acting nurse clinician Myat Myint Myint Kyaing preparing drugs for patient Yeo Seng Teck, 62, yesterday after scanning his wrist-tag with her PDA to confirm his medication. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
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A NEW $4 million automated medicine management system can dispense, pack and sort drugs for hospital patients, saving nurses and pharmacists the time and effort they could better use interacting with patients.
The National University Hospital (NUH) - the first hospital in Singapore with such a comprehensive system - can now track, monitor and streamline the process from the time doctors prescribe medicine to inpatients to the point patients are served the pills in the wards.
The system reduces administrative work and ensures medicine stocks are up to date.
It will also enhance patient safety by reducing human error, said Mr Wu Tuck Seng, the hospital's deputy director of the pharmacy department.
Medication packing and retrieval are now automated or guided by machines.
One machine, in the hospital pharmacy, packs tablets individually and puts bar codes on the packets so they can be tracked and checked.
The other, which is in the wards, is a secured 'vending machine' of medicine, which nurses and pharmacists can access only through fingerprint recognition.
One benefit is that drug mix-ups, though rare, can be better avoided.
Acting nurse clinician Myat Myint Myint Kyaing, 29, said that with the traditional method of preparing medicine in the wards, 'half the time we get interrupted by patients and relatives'.
'We have to drop everything to attend to them and can't focus. By the time we return to the job, one white pill can look very much like another white pill.'
And patients sometimes have to wait for their medicine if the ward runs out of stock.
With this system, automatic prompts are sent by the machines to the pharmacy once stocks run low.
Another hospital, the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, will be testing out its own automated program in June, with the rest of the SingHealth group of hospitals to implement it by next year, a SingHealth spokesman said.
These systems will complement patients' electronic medical record systems.
The Health Ministry is now planning for such a national online record system. Seven of the 38 wards in NUH now use the new system, with the others to come on board by the end of August.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Automated system at NUH to dispense, pack and sort drugs also enhances safety checks </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Serene Luo
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Acting nurse clinician Myat Myint Myint Kyaing preparing drugs for patient Yeo Seng Teck, 62, yesterday after scanning his wrist-tag with her PDA to confirm his medication. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
A NEW $4 million automated medicine management system can dispense, pack and sort drugs for hospital patients, saving nurses and pharmacists the time and effort they could better use interacting with patients.
The National University Hospital (NUH) - the first hospital in Singapore with such a comprehensive system - can now track, monitor and streamline the process from the time doctors prescribe medicine to inpatients to the point patients are served the pills in the wards.
The system reduces administrative work and ensures medicine stocks are up to date.
It will also enhance patient safety by reducing human error, said Mr Wu Tuck Seng, the hospital's deputy director of the pharmacy department.
Medication packing and retrieval are now automated or guided by machines.
One machine, in the hospital pharmacy, packs tablets individually and puts bar codes on the packets so they can be tracked and checked.
The other, which is in the wards, is a secured 'vending machine' of medicine, which nurses and pharmacists can access only through fingerprint recognition.
One benefit is that drug mix-ups, though rare, can be better avoided.
Acting nurse clinician Myat Myint Myint Kyaing, 29, said that with the traditional method of preparing medicine in the wards, 'half the time we get interrupted by patients and relatives'.
'We have to drop everything to attend to them and can't focus. By the time we return to the job, one white pill can look very much like another white pill.'
And patients sometimes have to wait for their medicine if the ward runs out of stock.
With this system, automatic prompts are sent by the machines to the pharmacy once stocks run low.
Another hospital, the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, will be testing out its own automated program in June, with the rest of the SingHealth group of hospitals to implement it by next year, a SingHealth spokesman said.
These systems will complement patients' electronic medical record systems.
The Health Ministry is now planning for such a national online record system. Seven of the 38 wards in NUH now use the new system, with the others to come on board by the end of August.
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