Technology advancements lead to better patient care at our Hospital
Guelph General Hospital is always looking for ways to help healthcare workers carry out their patient care responsibilities with greater ease and efficiency.
When healthcare workers can perform their tasks with greater ease and efficiency, they can spend as much time as possible at their patient’s bedside where they are needed most.
Thankfully today, technological advancements in patient care equipment are often designed with this goal in mind.
About fifteen years ago, our Hospital received generous donations that funded the Hospital’s entire fleet of Omnicells.
What’s an Omnicell?
An Omnicell is a highly advanced automated medication dispensing cabinet that allows medications to be available in a secure area within each of the Hospital’s patient care units and accessible to nurses when and where they are needed.
With a long list of safety and functionality features, these Omnicells have a massive impact on patient care at our Hospital, leading to a safer, simpler medication process that reduces time spent acquiring and managing medications and allows more time to care for patients.
Fifteen years later, the impact of this donor-funded technology continues to escalate as software and hardware advancements are continually released.
About a year ago a donor-funded software upgrade called Anywhere RN was installed which allows nurses to queue up their medications from any computer, rather than at the Omnicell unit. This reduces line-ups and wasted time during busy periods. By enabling nurses to choose any computer console in a quiet area where they can focus and not feel hurried by a line-up, this software upgrade also helps to reduce medication errors even further.
Right now, the Hospital is implementing another upgrade to the Omnicells that will increase efficiency once again – fingerprint scanning.
Fingerprint scanning means nurses no longer need to enter their password each and every time they access the cabinet. Instead they will simply enter their name and scan their fingerprint to be able to retrieve medications from the Omnicell
The primary benefit of this new feature is time saved by not having to enter a long password. It is especially important in times of crisis when seconds can mean the difference between life and death.
At the time these Omnicells were first purchased, it would have been impossible to describe their impact at the Hospital. But over time, their value to improved patient care has been revealed time and again and their value has increased exponentially with every upgrade.
Whether it be replacement equipment or advancements to existing equipment, our Hospital depends on financial gifts to purchase almost every piece of patient care equipment at our Hospital.
