Nurses have hand-held devices that alert them when it is time for a patient’s medication. “If a nurse delivers medication late, it will ask why, and it gives canned reasons the nurse can choose from…If it is early, then it says, `This medication is early. Do you want to give it anyway?
I seem to remember automated pharmacy systems being tried out in the UK. However, this hospital in New Mexico seems to have taken it to heart. “Rosie…is an intermingling of rails, hydraulic limbs and conveyor belts. Her accuracy rate – 99.9 percent – is hoped to prevent medication errors, a problem that claims 7,000 lives annually, according to the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine. Complementing Rosie’s efficiency, the nurses also have hand-held devices that alert them when it is time for a patient’s medication. “If a nurse delivers medication late, it will ask why, and it gives canned reasons the nurse can choose from…If it is early, then it says, `This medication is early. Do you want to give it anyway?’ ” Read more.