Automated Dispensing System with Data Analytics Service
Cardinal Health announces the Pyxis MedStation 4000 automated medication dispensing system which offers new features including enhanced barcode scanning technology, the ability to block loading of specific medications, and user-specific tracking of undocumented waste. Cardinal Health concurrently announces their Performance Analytics Service, which securely transmits medication-dispensing data from the Pyxis MedStation 4000 (and infusion data from the Alaris System) to Cardinal Health experts for review and analysis. Customizeable for an individual hospital, the medication management experts provide recommendations that can assist in improving medication safety and clinical practice.

Cardinal Health, Inc visit www.cardinalhealth.com

Toxicology Resource                                                                                       Lexi-Comp introduces Lexi-Tox, available as a web-based and mobile application, providing the point-of-care information needed for acute treatment of pa­tients during toxicologic emergencies. Lexi-Tox combines monographs for the most commonly encountered exposures to poisons and nontoxic agents, as well as antidotes and decontaminants, household products, toxicology-specific calculators, and drug identification, all in one application. Lexi-Tox will be released in January 2009.

Lexi-Comp, Inc visit www.lexi.com

Cleanroom Wiper Dispensers
S-Curve Technologies offers a complete line of clean room wiper dispensers to assist pharmacies in meeting the requirements of USP Chapter <797>. Designed to keep the wipers clean and ready to use, these dispensers can be freestanding or wall mounted. Available in ¼” clear acrylic or IPA friendly ¼” PETG material, dispensers are available for gloves, frocks, smocks, bouffant covers, and safety glasses. Review the website for a complete listing of S-Curve dispensers.

S-Curve Technologies visit www.s-curve.com

Low Temperature Storage Freezer
Sanyo Commercial Solutions, Biomedical Division announces the ECONO Plus Series ultralow freezer product line. The ECONO Plus Series provides integrated storage solutions and long-term preservation of biologics, reagents, specimens, components and testing. ECONO Plus ultra-low temperature freezers maintain internal temperatures as low as -86°C (-123°F) and the sound abatement feature minimizes intrusive operating noise. Manu­factured with foamed-in-place insulation and featuring a microprocessor temperature control system with a digital display, the units have a power failure warning system with built-in audible and visible indicators, double insulation polyurethane walls and an easy open and close hinged outer door latch. Available in 17.1 and 23.5 cu.ft. capacities.

SANYO Commercial Solutions visit www.sanyobiomedical.com

Medication Reconciliation
Standard Register introduces its Rx History Capture service, an automated solution that combines prescription data from SureScripts, Rx Hub’s information network and a hospital’s own health information system to generate a snapshot of each patient’s prescription medication history. Rx History Capture provides clinicians with a list of “as-filled” prescription medications, which gives details such as prescription dosage and strength. The objective data also helps to avoid confusion over similarly named drugs.

Standard Register visit www.standardregister.com

Outsourced Compounding Services
Central Admixture Pharmacy Services (CAPS), a B. Braun Medical Inc company, announces a number of advances to its products and services, including enhanced dose labeling, extended Beyond-Use-Dating (BUD) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) color-coding for its new anesthesia syringe product line. ASTM standard color-coding on anesthesia syringes and easy-to-read labeling aids in safer, standardized legibility of compounded sterile preparations (CSPs). CAPS is offering extended BUD, which will assist in ordering outsourced CSPs. CAPS pharmacies compound and locally deliver TPN, cardioplegia and other CSPs to more than 1,000 hospitals of all sizes nationwide.

B. Braun Medical Inc visit www.bbraunusa.com

Patient Identification
EPS announces a line of identification bands, pens and surgical skin markers. ID bands are available in both Mother/Infant and Mother/Father/ Infant styles and matching serial numbers provide for infant and parents to be properly correlated. They are available in both 3and 4-part styles in white, pink or blue. EPS Speedi-Bands have permanent ink and are resistant to water, alcohol and smears. They are available in blue, green, red and black. EPS Secureline Surgical Skin Markers are available in both sterile and non-sterile styles, and are packaged in a plastic, peel-down, non-fiber shedding package. Available with labels and rulers, all EPS Surgical Skin Markers use a non-toxic gentian violent ink.

EPS, Inc visit www.medidose.com

Synthetic Upright Broom
Perfex Lite-N-Tite Upright Brooms have color-coded poly fibers angled for uniform surface contact. Poly­propylene fibers are fused onto high impact resistant polymer blocks, eliminating premature fiber fallout and areas for contaminants to collect. Compatible polymer handles are available in various colors also.

Perfex Corporation visit www.perfexonline.com

Heparin-Focused Educational Website
APP Pharmaceuticals introduces a safety initiative on their website, “Working Together for Patient Safety.” This first phase of the program captures APP’s efforts to ensure a safe supply of heparin—from safety and quality measures in the manufacturing process, to helping prevent medical errors in hospitals with cap, label, and bar code enhancements. After working with the FDA, APP has implemented additional testing procedures and more than doubled its manufacturing capabilities to provide an uninterrupted supply of heparin. APP currently plans to expand this initiative to include safety information, packaging and label enhancements for other high-alert products with the goal of providing information that may help reduce medical errors.

APP Pharmaceuticals, LLC visit www.APPpharma.com/safety

Pneumatic Tube Delivery System
Pevco announces the recently launched Pevco Tracker, a tracking system that aids accountability and transparency for pneumatic tube system transactions while providing timely, critical delivery information to healthcare staff. Pevco Tracker uses a barcode reader-equipped PDA, which provides front-line hospital professionals with real-time send and receive data from pneumatic tube transactions. If a transaction is delayed, an alert is sent to the person who initiated the transaction, allowing reaction time, and the Tracker documents each transaction creating a closed-loop audit trail. The Pevco Tracker PDAs can be added to as many pneumatic tube stations as a facility needs.

Pevco Systems International, Inc visit www.pevco.com

Online Drug Reference
Wolters Kluwer Health has launched Facts & Comparisons Online for Health Systems, an online drug information reference. In addition to the ability to search for both trade and generic drug name products in Trissel’s IV-Chek, the solution’s IV compatibility tool, Facts & Comparisons Online now features an interactive tools section that includes convenient access to drug interaction and disease profile screening, broader medication safety screening, side-by-side monograph comparisons and comparative tables of drug data. The online reference also has the ability to link directly to pertinent FDA Medwatch articles from monographs as well as current drug and industry news, including drug recalls and warnings, from the product website.

Wolters Kluwer Health visit www.WKHealth.com

Revenue Capture Application
Craneware has launched Pharmacy ChargeLink version 2, a software application that allows hospitals to capture revenue they are currently missing due to absent, incomplete or incorrect pharmacy data in their billing systems. By linking hospital-pharmacy purchase history with the hospital’s main charge description master (CDM), Pharmacy ChargeLink version 2 helps improve financial performance for critical-access, medium and large hospitals, health systems, and clinics. Version 2 allows hospitals to identify additional revenue opportunities, track the financial impact of purchasing generic alternatives, and aids in pharmacists’ operational efficiency. New system functionalities include rapid volume reconciliation by tying billable quantities of drugs purchased to the actual quantities billed, matching of pharmaceuticals by their description, and benchmarking of pharmaceutical purchasing against the Average Sales Price (ASP).

Craneware, Inc visit www.craneware.com

Survey of Hospital Pharmacy Performance
McKesson Corporation announces the results of its first annual survey of hospital pharmacy performance in the United State—the McKesson Hospital Pharmacy Performance Index. The 2008 Index results were compiled based on more than 250 self-assessments conducted from December 2007 to November 2008 by US-based directors of pharmacy using the online High Performance Pharmacy Assessment Tool on the High Performance Pharmacy website. The McKesson Hospital Pharmacy Performance Index gauges how well US hospital pharmacies are performing by measuring how thoroughly they have implemented the proven best practices of the High Performance Pharmacy framework. McKesson plans to release the findings of its survey annually to help hospital pharmacies continuously gauge and improve performance.

McKesson Corporation visit www.highperformancepharmacy.com

Hard Surface Wipes
Williams Medical Company releases its Sterile TexChlor point-of-use “bleach” wetted wiper. Using 100% polyester AlphaLite material and an NaDCC solution, which provides free available chlorine in the form of HOCI, the delivery system is easy to use and presents the end user with a freshly made NaDCC solution at a concentration of 1000 ppm available chlorine with an effective use time of 8-10 hours. Each package comes with 10 individually quarter-folded 9”x9” polyester knit wipers which are terminally sterilized, double-bagged to maintain sterility and cleanliness, and contain an almost neutral pH.

Williams Medical Company visit www.williamsmedical.com

Environmentally Friendly Wipes
Friendlygreen.org, a resource created to offer commercial clients alternatives in sustainable, green technologies and operational efficiency enhancements, introduces a line of environmentally friendly wipes, which are low-linting, absorbent, soft, and will not scratch. Made of 100% recycled cellulose, the wipes come in two sizes; “the big one,” a large single-ply wipe measuring 15 x 16.6”, and “the little one,” also single-ply, measuring 4.4 x 8.3”. The wipes are biodegradable, made of a cotton nonwoven fabric, and come in an easy release dispenser for one-at-a-time dispensing.

High-Tech Conversions, Inc visit www.friendlygreen.org

Colored Syringe Labels
Baxa Corporation announces the addition of colored syringe labels to its Rapid-Fill Automated Syringe Filler offering. Syringe labels are now available in eight new colors (in addition to the original white). This additional capability allows customers to extend the Rapid-Fill ASF automation to broader applications in pharmacy filling, including anesthesiology syringes. Each Syringe Strip contains 200 sterile, 10 mL luer lock syringes with tip caps, banded together with label material. 

Baxa Corporation visit www.baxa.com

Inventory Management
PHACTS has launched an Inventory Management and Workflow Administration system known as Pharmogistics. Windows-based Pharmogistics operates with existing or newly purchased automated carousel shelving and maintains a perpetual inventory in all storage areas including static shelving and refrigerators. The system comes with set-up wizards to help prevent errors while providing pharmacy directors with a means to manage their inventory and assets across the entire health system network, in real time, from their own desktop computers.

PHACTS, LLC visit www.pharmogistics.com

Wireless Temperature Monitoring
Veriteq Instruments introduces viewLinc 3.3, the newest version of their monitoring and alarming software. Building on the previous version, viewLinc features connectivity via WiFi or standard Ethernet. Users can remotely monitor environmental conditions from any PC on a network. With increased capabilities in multi-stage alarm settings, viewLinc sends alerts to cell phone, text, pager or PC display on the existing network. Power outages or communication failures will trigger an immediate alarm to designated personnel, and the on-board power and memory in each sensor allow for continuous recording of data during any network or power failure.

Veriteq Instruments Inc visit www.veriteq.com

Anticoagulation Management
Standing Stone announces the addition of enhanced inpatient anticoagulation management features to its product, CoagClinic. Unfractionated heparin infusion has been added to the warfarin and low molecular weight (LMW) heparin facilities to provide a single anticoagulation management solution for all inpatient and outpatient needs. Clinicians can now manage, track, and analyze warfarin, LMW heparin and unfractionated heparin patient populations from a single, web-based application.

Standing Stone, Inc visit www.standingstoneinc.com

Counting and Verifying System                                                                       Kirby Lester introduces the KL20, a counting and verification system for ambulatory pharmacies that includes dispensing tracking software, interfacing to a pharmacy management system, and built-in workflow software. With the new software, large touch-screen, and user-friendly directions, orders are accurately counted, verified, and processed for pick-up. Customization is available and the KL20 works with any pharmacy workflow system.

Kirby Lester, LLC visit www.kirbylester.com