Like other hospitals around the country, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore deals with the often competing goals of improving patient safety and satisfaction, nurse satisfaction and nursing efficiency, all while controlling costs. A recent project – the installation of single-patient, automated medication cabinets in each patient room – has resulted in improvements in all of these areas.
The initial goal of the project was to decrease the potential for error during medication administration by moving the entire process to the patient’s bedside. The IP network enabled medication cabinets are in the patient’s room, thus eliminating the need for the Registered Nurse to make repeated trips to a centralised medication storage point, such as a medication cart. According to Bonnie Hartley Faust, MS, MBA, RN, Director of Patient Care Services for Sinai Hospital, “The new cabinets were a hit with our nurses from the start. Having the patient’s medications right at the bedside has not only improved efficiency, but it has afforded us an added level of medication safety. The nurse is better able to ensure that the correct meds are dispensed to the correct patient at the correct time. This added security has made the cabinets quite successful with our patients as well.”
