Bi-directional Integration Tool Helps Hospitals Comply with Regulatory Requirements

Officials with Baxter International Inc. have announced a new bi-directional integration between the DoseEdge Pharmacy Workflow Manager and the Epic Willow Inpatient Pharmacy System. This integration between the dedicated intravenous (IV) workflow system and the hospital electronic medical record (EMR) can help hospitals efficiently comply with requirements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other insurers that call for accuracy in the documentation of the drugs used to compound doses for patients, according to a statement from the company.

The DoseEdge Pharmacy Workflow Manager is a type of software that integrates with hardware used in medication preparation—including barcode scanners, cameras and gravimetric devices that measure final dose weight—to help automate the process of routing, inspecting, tracking and reporting on IV and oral liquid medication doses. With the DoseEdgeSystem, clinicians can conduct preproduction checks to help identify certain common medication preparation errors.

Under this new bi-directional integration, inbound medication dose orders are delivered from Epic to the DoseEdge System. Once the dose has been prepared and successfully verified by a pharmacist, the DoseEdge System sends back outbound product usage and wastage data for that dose, including National Drug Code (NDC) numbers and amounts for all source ingredients, amounts required for any overfill requested by the dose order, and amounts wasted from single-use product containers. Having this information also helps improve hospitals’ ability to submit appropriate claims to CMS and other payors.

Reference

​Baxter Announces DoseEdge Bi-Directional Integration with Epic in the Pharmacy [news release]. DEERFIELD, Ill. Baxter website. Accessed June 26, 2017 at: http://www.baxter.com/news-media/newsroom/press-releases/2017/06-26-17-bi-directional-dose-edge.page