New Bar Code Technology Enhances Quality at Piedmont Newnan Hospital

Hospital Uses Latest in “Five Rights” Meds Software

NEWNAN, Ga. (June 2, 2010) – Nurses at Piedmont Newnan Hospital are among the first in the metro Atlanta area to use the next generation in bar-code technology to verify the “five rights” of medication safety, helping to ensure that the right medication goes to the right patient in the right dose at the right time via the right route – whether by mouth, intravenous injection, or other means. Piedmont Newnan Hospital recently implemented MEDITECH’s Bedside Medication Verification system. The software helps providers ensure patient safety and enhance quality of care.

Other Piedmont Healthcare hospitals embrace the bar-coding technology. Piedmont Hospital adopted it in October 2009, Piedmont Fayette Hospital transitioned in December 2009 and Piedmont Mountainside in January 2010.

“Piedmont Newnan Hospital is committed to embracing technological advances that improve the patient care experience,” said Sandra Romanow, director of MIS at Piedmont Newnan Hospital.  “We have had a great deal of success with this bar-code scanning technology and are pleased that it enables us to continue to provide top level patient care and fulfill our commitment to clinical excellence.”

With the new Admin-RxTM system, before giving a medication, nurses use a handheld device to scan their own employee ID, then scan the medication and the patient’s wristband. An alert triggers if one of the five rights of medication safety is not met, and if the patient has allergies to the medication, prompting the nurse to check the patient’s chart and the doctor’s order.

Because the system automatically updates the patient’s electronic medication administration record, patient information is instantly available to all members of the care team. As a result, physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other caregivers can monitor the therapeutic effectiveness of a particular drug treatment and make alterations in the patient’s treatment for the most successful outcomes. 

To learn more about Piedmont Newnan Hospital, visit piedmontnewnan.org.