University of Pennsylvania Health System Selects Idhasoft to Integrate Tracking System

PRLog (Press Release) - Dec 11, 2008 -
The department of pharmacy dispenses approximately 2000 – 3000 doses of medication daily. These are comprised of a combination of tablets, capsules, single use liquid cups, vials/ampules, pre-filled syringes, and IV bags/bottles.  As each medication is prepared for dispensing, a label is affixed to the item to identify the patient, the drug, and the unique order number (barcode 3 of 9 or 128) which identifies the drug order for a specific patient.  Once a pharmacist checks the medication/contents the initial the label and release the item for delivery by a technician.  At set times throughout the day one or more technicians will pickup items to be delivered for “route” and deliver them.  Pickup can occur simultaneously from several locations and delivery can also occur simultaneously to several locations.
The pharmacy needed the ability to track the medication, location, time/date stamp, and the technician picking up and delivering items within the hospital. The hospital had a wireless network running in approximately 70 percent of the hospital not 100 percent coverage. The pharmacy department needed the ability to track if their technicians were delivering the medications according to hospital policy that required deliveries at specific intervals according to hospital policies. For example a “stat” order was an emergency order and had a different threshold then a standard order. The system’s main goal was to track the delivery of pharmacy items from the pharmacy out to the secure nursing dispensing stations and provide the pharmacy with accurate data to maintain their compliance to the hospital’s policy.
Idhasoft Mobility Division created a custom software solution that interfaced with the University of Pennsylvania’s legacy SQL database. Our solution created a middleware application that allowed for the use of Symbol/Motorola MC-3070 CE mobile devices with and integrated scanner, WiFi radio and full keyboard to create a chain of custody when the pharmacy order was picked up to the time that it was delivered to the nursing dispensing stations. Zebra Technology barcode printers were used to create barcode labels to create unique barcode labels for the pharmacy items as well as the technicians. We created a hybrid wireless-batch application to run on the mobile device overcome the challenge of the hospital not having 100 percent coverage in the facility. We created a thick application client that ran on the mobile device to run when the device was not in a coverage area of the hospital. When the mobile device sensed WiFi coverage it would do a send and receive to upload/download data files to the Idhasoft transaction server which was connected to the University of Pennsylvania SQL server. The Idhasoft technical team also helped the University of Pennsylvania personnel to create reports in their SQL database to prove compliance of the hospitals policies.

About University of Pennsylvania Health System:

University of Pennsylvania Health System has been named one of the top hospitals in the United States. The University of Pennsylvania Health System is dedicated to high-quality patient care and service, advancing medical science through research, and educating the next generation of leaders in medicine. UPHS includes three hospitals in Philadelphia and outpatient centers throughout the region. For more information, please visit www.pennhealth.com

About Idhasoft Ltd:
Idhasoft is a software products and IT services provider serving enterprise customers in the United States, Europe and Asia. Idhasoft provide services to industry segments including BFSI, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Public sector, retail and Telecommunication. With a reputation for high quality and reliability, Idhasoft, one of the fastest growing companies with revenue of over $150 million provides a range of IT services, from Software Application Development and Strategic IT Consulting to Recruitment Process Outsourcing, and Implementation of Third Party Enterprise-wide products including Oracle, SAP, Cognos and TIBCO. For more information, please visit www.idhasoft.com