St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay, Wis., on Jan. 17 began using in its emergency department a 24-hour automated system that expedites the process of distributing drugs to patients, the Green Bay Press Gazette reports.
Emergency department physicians at St. Mary's offer patients the option of receiving a standard, paper prescription or to use the automated machine, called InstyMeds. Physicians give patients a unique security code to access the system, and patients also must enter their date of birth for the machine to process their insurance.
The machine triple checks the medication's bar codes and then the pre-packaged, pre-measured medication is dispensed with written instructions. The system dispenses 40 of the most common drugs for ED patients in both pill and liquid form, according to Martin Landa of St. Mary's ED. If the machine is not functioning properly, an InstyMeds technician can assess the problem through a built-in camera inside the machine, the Press Gazette reports (Van Enkenvoort, Green Bay Press Gazette, 1/30.)