Cardinal Health Introduces Combined Medication, Medical Supply Management System

DUBLIN, Ohio -- Cardinal Health, a global provider of products and services that improve the safety and productivity of healthcare, has launched a new system that leverages the company's market-leading dispensing technologies to give clinicians access to a patient's medications and medical supplies from one system.

The Pyxis® DuoStation system allows clinicians to safely and accurately dispense both medications and medical supplies from a single dispensing machine, increasing workflow efficiency and cost savings opportunities through inventory reduction and increased charge capture.

The new automated dispensing system is built on the foundation of the Pyxis® MedStation® system and Pyxis SupplyStation® system. The Pyxis® DuoStation system functions similarly to Cardinal Health's existing dispensing technologies. Nurses use unique identifiers, like an employee ID number and their fingerprint, to log onto the system. After log-in, a screen appears and the nurse selects a patient and sees a list of medication orders that have already been verified by one of the hospital pharmacists. Additionally, the nurse can toggle to a medical supplies screen and select the supplies needed to care for the patient.

In addition to the safety benefits of dispensing the right medications for the right patient, the system records the medications and supplies used for each patient and then transfers the information to the hospital's billing system. The Pyxis® DuoStation system also generates reports that can be used to help identify and prevent potential diversion, optimize medication and supply utilization and manage costs.

The Pyxis® DuoStation system provides a scalable approach for non-automated hospitals, while offering larger acute care facilities a single point of access for medication and supply dispensing. The enhanced flexibility of the Pyxis® DuoStation system supports specialty care and procedural areas within acute care facilities, community hospitals, surgical centers and outpatient clinics.

The company also announced an upgrade for the Pyxis PARx® system, a pharmacy auto-replenishment product, which provides additional safety checks when picking pharmaceuticals in the pharmacy and replenishing automated dispensing systems. The wireless handheld scanner reads barcodes on the medications and barcodes on pockets within a dispensing cabinet to ensure the right medications get into the right place within a dispensing system.

The upgrade includes enhanced features such as wireless connectivity using a hospital's existing wireless network and the ability to read two-dimensional (2D) barcodes. Additionally, wireless printers are available, and the upgraded system has streamlined reporting capabilities.

Source: Cardinal Health