McKesson signs multi-product automation agreement with novation
McKesson signs multi-product automation agreement with novation
Keywords: Robotics, Pharmaceutical industry
Advancedautomation solutions for pharmacy and nursing available at a savings to VHA Inc. and UHC members
McKesson has announced that it has signed a three-year agreement with novation, the healthcare contracting services company of VHA Inc. and University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), for advanced automation solutions for pharmacy and nursing.
McKesson is the world's largest healthcare services, automation and information technology company. The company's bar-coded medication administration solutions, which incorporate bar-code scanning, software and automation, recently received the “most often considered”designation in the KLAS® Closed Loop Medication Management Solutions report published in December 2005 by KLAS Enterprises, L.L.C.
The agreement enables more than 2,500 member hospitals to systematically implement components of the McKesson Medication Safety Advantage(SM), a comprehensive suite of solutions that integrates software, automation,packaging, distribution and consulting solutions to help providers reduce medication errors at every step where they can occur – prescribing,transcribing, dispensing, administering and monitoring. Specifically, Novation customers will have the option to purchase McKesson's pharmacy automation solutions (ROBOT-Rx® MedCarousel® FulFill-Rx(SM)),packaging technologies (including PACMED™ and PakPlus-Rx®),and bar-coded medication administration solution (Horizon Admin-Rxe), which has been shown to reduce medication administration errors by as much as 87 per cent. In fact, in a review of nearly 100 hospitals where McKesson's medication administration solutions are in place, clinicians use them to scan more than 63 million medications each year – resulting in 475,000 weekly warnings that help to prevent 96,000 potential errors.
The new agreement also includes automation solutions for outpatient pharmacies, including advanced dispensing and robotics, and workflow software.
Novation selected McKesson's ROBOT-Rx as the single source for pharmacy robotics. As the only proven robotic inpatient pharmacy system based on more than a decade of pharmacy automation expertise, ROBOT-Rx operates successfully in hundreds of hospital pharmacies. These robots dispense a total of 325 million doses per year. McKesson is also the only company to provide inventory management integration with pharmaceutical customers through FulFill-Rx and McKesson Health Systems. Orders can be placed electronically and restocked at the shelf level through bar- coded tote delivery from McKesson's distribution centers.
For more information: http://mpt.mckesson.com
