By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
DHM Doctor of Pharmacy makes DC presentation
FermFree-DSC 4913 edited-1
Director of the pharmacy department at Doctors Hospital, Katy Marconi, Doctor of Pharmacy, and pharmacy tech Alfred Lewis check an IV bag at their fail safe Germfree medication compounding unit using DoseEdge software, believed to be the only one in use throughout the state. - photo by GLENN KAHL

Doctors Hospital of Manteca director of the Pharmacy Department and Clinical Quality Katy Marconi, Pharm D. went to Washington, D.C., last week to share her knowledge on the safe and accurate compounding of medications used in Manteca that meet the requirements of new California legislation.

Marconi told those attending the National Patients Safety Foundation’s Patient Safety Conference that Doctors Hospital has been using the DoseEdge system for some six months that insures no errors are made in the preparations of medications in its pharmacy for intervenious (IV) use.

The system sounds an alarm if the medication or dosage does not accurately meet a physician’s prescription and the recently updated state standards.

Marconi said there were hundreds of people at the conference across the nation and from throughout the world.  Included in her audience were nurses, risk managers, quality managers, pharmacists and physicians.  They had all come to the conference to learn new ways to keep their patients safe, she said.

She explained that the new technology manages the pharmacy workflow for selecting, compounding, inspecting, tracking and the reporting of compounded doses via the use of digital photography and a computerized tracking software system.

“The use of the software programming, bar-coding and digital camera technology ensures that compounding is accurate and free of medication errors,” Marconi said.

The local doctor of pharmacy said bar-codes are used to prevent possible wrong drug medications errors, wrong dose and wrong concentration medications by use of automated doses and dilution calculators.

She added that the compounded product can be tracked back to the patient with the use of digital images and the use of bar-coding technology.   

“The digital imagery provides a real-time snapshot of the compounding process,” she noted. “Pictures are recorded in the preparation state, the admix stage and or the finished product stage.”

Marconi pointed out that the DoseEdge technology integrates with any pharmacy system to provide a compound label that incorporates bar-code technology that integrates with any bedside bar-code system, including the system currently being used by the parent Tenet Corporation.