| IntelliDOT Corporation, a leading provider of wireless, handheld barcode point-of-care (BPOC) solutions to hospitals, today announced that IntelliDOT Bedside Medication Administration™ (IntelliDOT BMA™) is now being used by 55 U.S. hospitals. Hiawatha Community Hospital became the 55th customer to go live with the IntelliDOT System on January 20, 2009. "This milestone is testimony to the healthcare industry’s confidence in IntelliDOT’s BPOC solution as a proven patient safety initiative,” said Thomas G. Klopack, president and CEO of IntelliDOT. “From our very first customer to our 55th, our customers are proof that medication errors can be eliminated at the bedside, and patient lives are being saved, with the IntelliDOT System.” Stillwater Medical Center, Stillwater, OK, was the first hospital to implement IntelliDOT BMA in 2004. At that time, IntelliDOT and Stillwater’s nurses, pharmacists and management worked closely together to fine tune and enhance the system. For example, one of Stillwater’s nurses suggested scanning a DOT to notify the pharmacy to replace a missing medication. IntelliDOT quickly incorporated that idea, which helped make the product even more efficient for nurses. According to Bill Arrington, Director of Pharmacy at Stillwater Medical Center, the hospital has safely administered more than 1 million medications using the IntelliDOT System. “I think IntelliDOT will continue to expand the capabilities of this product, and feedback from customers will be even more important,” Arrington said. “IntelliDOT invited us to tell them what we like and don’t like about the system. That’s a good indication that IntelliDOT cares about its customers and will do everything it can to grow and improve.” As the 55th hospital to go live with IntelliDOT BMA, Hiawatha Community Hospital, a critical access hospital in Hiawatha, KS, has already seen improvements in patient safety. One key benefit is the IntelliDOT System’s ability to provide 24-hour drug interaction checking, even when the pharmacy is closed. “Hiawatha is excited to be a part of IntelliDOT’s success,” said John Moore, CEO. “We realized that there were holes in our systems that IntelliDOT’s barcoding solution could plug. Now I can go back to the community and say we’re doing everything we can do technically to make this a safe hospital.” The IntelliDOT System’s intuitive workflow works with nurses instead of against them. The system is designed to prevent workarounds, helping clients achieve 95 percent or higher user compliance rates, based on actual usage data. IntelliDOT clients use the IntelliDOT System successfully to administer more than 2 million medications each month. Client success in eliminating serious five rights-related medication errors has been documented in statistically significant observation studies completed in cooperation with clients at 10 sites, involving nearly 2,400 medication administrations. Serious errors were defined to be the administration of the wrong medication, wrong dose, or administration of a medication to the wrong patient. The IntelliDOT System is a best-of-breed wireless, workflow manager that connects caregivers with the information systems they need at the point-of-care. Designed by nurses for nurses, the IntelliDOT System enables clinicians to perform safety checks and safely administer and document medications at the bedside using a lightweight, handheld device. The IntelliDOT System satisfies Joint Commission standards for patient identification and assures accuracy by verifying the five rights of medication administration: right medication, right dose, right route, right patient, right time; as well as ensuring required follow-up documentation, such as pain scale, is performed in a timely manner and accurately recorded. |
