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25.10.2010
Thrifty Scots: hospital lowers costs by
€ 800,000 with Rowa
Kelberg – According to a television report by the BBC, the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in the town of Larbert in Scotland was already able to achieve very significant financial savings only a few months after installing a Rowa storage and dispensing system and the error rate in dispensing medications was substantially reduced.
Since the middle of this year, the hospital has had a Rowa system with a maximum capacity of at least 30,000 packages and a fully-automated ProLog inputting system in place. Three integrated refrigerated units guarantee that the Rowa system can offer a full range of functions. These systems from the market leader for the automatic handling of goods in hospitals store and administer the hospital’s medication stock with a minimum number of staff. The time gained in this way enables the staff to devote themselves more intensively to caring for the patients.
Jann Davidson, Lead Pharmacist at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital, is really enthusiastic. The medication errors have been clearly reduced and the stock could be scaled down significantly – resulting in cost savings of € 800,000, and the system has already been more than amortised within a few months. “The automatic line reduced errors at the point of picking and dispensing and our staff are now able to work up beside the patients,” says the Lead Pharmacist.
The ProLog system also makes the work easier: the medications are simply tipped onto the six-metre long buffer belt and then separated out, scanned and stored fully automatically in the Rowa system. The employees in the hospital pharmacy use the time freed up to work on the wards with the patients and to check medications for newly-arriving patients.
The ordering system on the wards was also connected to the fully automatic storage system. Orders are no longer made by hand using a paper prescription, but rather online through mobile tablet PCs that send the order directly to the Rowa storage and dispensing system. Errors that could arise through human intervention are eliminated in this way.
According to the BBC, the hospital operator is also absolutely satisfied with the new system: financial leeway has resulted from the significant cost savings and the reduced error rate.
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Picture 1: Lean medication management for hospital pharmacies
Picture 2: The Forth Valley Royal Hospital