Trillium Health Centre is first to use electronic pharmacy solution from Medirex Systems as a cost-effective way to improve efficiency, reduce errors and deliver medications faster

Toronto, Ontario – December 19, 2011 – Medications across all in-patient areas of Trillium Health Centre, a busy 790-bed community teaching hospital serving more than one million residents in southwest Toronto and Mississauga, will soon be delivered in less time and with less risk of error thanks to an innovative document management solution from Toronto-based Medirex Systems.

Developed by Medirex in partnership with Trillium, the electronic pharmacy system combines barcode and scanning technology to speed the time it takes to get physician orders into the hands of hospital pharmacists, shortening overall turnaround time for delivery of patient medications by one-third, says Allan Mills, shared director of pharmacy for The Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre.

“We knew we needed to decrease our turnaround time and we were also looking for ways to improve the entire cycle of getting doctors’ orders to the pharmacy and back out onto the floor,” explains Mills, noting that the Medirex solution, a cost-effective alternative to a full-blown computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, is in the process of being rolled out and is expected to be live before the end of the year.

“This is a fairly straightforward change that allows us to improve patient care without having to radically alter the normal pattern of behavior for clinicians,” he says.

Even though Trillium plans to implement CPOE in the future, the Medirex pharmacy system is an important  first step that will eventually serve as a backup system, he adds. “What we have found is that this is a very efficient way to decrease patient risk while we prepare for CPOE,” says Mills.

Each day, Trillium Health Centre’s 35 pharmacists fill roughly 2,200 medication orders. Prior to implementing the Medirex system, orders were handwritten on traditional carbon copy paper sets and either hand-delivered, sent by a pneumatic tube system, or faxed to the pharmacy. Not only were the copies often difficult to read, resulting in calls back to nursing stations for clarification, but the average turnaround time for completing an order was 11 hours and there was no good way to ensure “stat” or urgent orders were always at the top of the list.

Using the Medirex system, orders are still handwritten by physicians but are now scanned and sent to the pharmacy electronically as portable document format (PDF) files. All 350 of Trillium’s standardized patient order sets (pre-determined courses of therapy based on best practice) have been updated to include barcode technology so that the scanned orders become “intelligent documents,” automatically populating the pharmacy computer screens with patient information as well as information about each individual order set.  For example, if a patient is being admitted for orthopedic surgery, a physician will select the pre-orthopedic surgery order set and the barcode will contain all of the medication information specific to that order set.

Overall, the Medirex system is expected to shave as much as four hours off of the turnaround time for filling hospital prescriptions, based on the results of a pilot project conducted on Trillium’s orthopaedics unit earlier this year, says Barry Weinstein, (COO) of Medirex Systems. “Another advantage is the ability to automatically flag  stat orders which are sent to the top of the electronic queue as opposed to waiting in a pile at a fax machine,” he said, adding that pharmacists are finding the scanned orders much clearer to read and will therefore be spending less time on clarification.

“It’s our belief that by implementing this system we’re actually providing better care,” notes Mills. “We’re getting a more accurate copy and that means less room for error. We’re also getting medications back to the patients who need them more quickly.”

After receiving the scanned prescriptions, Trillium pharmacists go through the process of quality assurance, such as checking the dose and looking for possible drug or disease interactions, before filling orders, and then updating the information in the Hospital Information System (HIS). The original orders become a permanent part of the hospital’s electronic patient record, but copies will also be maintained by the Medirex system for a period of 30 days where they can easily be accessed.

“We used to have filing cabinets chock full of yellow carbon copies and when we needed to go back and clarify something, we’d have to manually sort through to find the original,” explains Mills. “Now, because Medirex identifies orders by barcoded patient ID, it’s simply a matter of an electronic search and we will be able to access those orders in seconds.”

Trillium Health Centre completed its merger with The Credit Valley Hospital on December 1, 2011.  Mills, who has been the shared director for pharmacy for both hospitals since April 2010, looks forward to rolling out the Medirex solution to Trillium’s Mississauga and West Toronto locations early in 2012, then at The Credit Valley Hospital site later in the spring of 2012.

Based on the success at Trillium Health Centre, Medirex is now looking to bring the same efficiency to other hospital pharmacies. The company’s solution is not tied to any particular  HIS  and can be used in conjunction with dedicated scanners or multi-functional printers.

“Medirex was able to tailor this solution to exactly what we wanted to achieve,” says Mills, noting that competitive products were less flexible and more cost prohibitive. “They were willing to work with us to design a system that not only meets our needs but allows us to continue to work in a way that we’re accustomed to.”

About Trillium Health Centre (www.trilliumhealthcentre.org)
Trillium Health Centre is one of Canada’s largest academically-affiliated hospitals providing quality and safe care to more than one million residents in Mississauga, southwest Toronto and the surrounding areas. Trillium is a 790-bed regional referral centre with highly-specialized, complex programs in advanced cardiac, vascular, stroke, neurosciences, orthopaedic, seniors health and sexual assault/domestic violence services. Trillium’s $462.6 million annual budget supports the 4,305 staff, 715 physicians and 1,100 volunteers who care for the 778,000 patients who visit each year. Trillium is recognized by Accreditation Canada, Excellence Canada and Ontario Health Quality Council for providing safe, high-quality health care and leadership in a healthy workplace.
Note: On December 1, 2011, Trillium Health Centre merged officially with The Credit Valley Hospital.  The Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre is one of Ontario’s largest community-based academic health networks, serving the communities of Mississauga, West Toronto and the surrounding regions. For more information, see www.partneringforpatients.ca.

About Medirex Systems Inc. (medirexsys.com)
Medirex Systems is a healthcare solutions company that integrates people, processes and technology to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. The company’s software and consulting services are designed to help clients increase the efficiency of their operations while reducing errors, streamlining processes and achieving closer integration with clients, suppliers, employees and applications. From forms & document design and intelligent document management systems to facilitating changes to hospital information systems and identifying process improvements, Medirex has more than 40 years’ experience in addressing the constantly changing needs of healthcare organizations.

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Media information:
Gail Bergman or Christina Vetro
Gail Bergman PR
Tel: (905) 886-1340 or (905) 886-3345
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