University of Kansas Hospital Deploys NeoFax from Thomson Reuters for Electronic Neonatal Drug Dosing to Support Medication Safety
The University of Kansas Hospital is a 575-bed academic medical center that specializes in heart disease, cancer treatment and prevention, neurology, kidney disease, urology, liver and kidney transplantation, and pain management. It has a licensed 35-bed, level-III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) providing care to infants with severe prematurity and respiratory, gastrointestinal or cardiac anomalies. The hospital chose to deploy the electronic version of NeoFax to reduce the chance of medication errors.
"Prior to deployment, nurses administering drugs to patients would check the patient chart at the bedside, go to the drug cabinet to withdraw the medication, go to the counter to use the dosing book to check the dose, and then go to the bedside to administer the medicine," said Leasa Clemons, BSN, RN. "With NeoFax Online, we bring the medication to the bedside. With the bedside computer we re-check the patient chart, check the patient's gestational age and the dosing, and administer."
The new workflow eliminates several steps that can lead to medication errors and provides online dosing calculations that account for infants' ever-changing weight.
NeoFax Online also assists with the hospital's ongoing infection control initiative. Books are difficult to clean and can carry and transfer infections. Removing contact with a book during the administration of medication eliminates this potential source of infection within the NICU.
NeoFax Online is available via the internet and through intranet deployments. Handheld versions are available for Palm and Windows Mobile-based PDAs.
The University of Kansas Hospital worked with Form Web Productions, a Kansas City-based company, to integrate NeoFax with their NICU systems.
Thomson Reuters
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About The University of Kansas Hospital
The University of Kansas Hospital is the region's premier academic medical center, providing a full range of care. The hospital is affiliated with the University of Kansas Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health, and their various leading edge research projects. The constantly growing facility contains 574 staffed beds and serves more than 21,000 inpatients annually. The University of Kansas Hospital comprehensive heart program is ranked 34th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and is housed in the state of the art Center for Advanced Heart Care. The cancer program is part of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, based in the region's largest outpatient cancer facility, the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion, located in Westwood, Kansas, 1 1/2 miles from the main hospital. The hospital has received Magnet nursing designation, reflecting the quality of care throughout the hospital, an honor awarded to only 3.5 percent of the hospitals nationwide. The hospital also houses the region's only burn center and the area's only nationally accredited Level I Trauma Center.
SOURCE Thomson Reuters
http://www.thomsonreuters.com