LENEXA, Kan., April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mediware Information Systems, Inc. , an acknowledged leader in Clinical Information and patient safety software management solutions, announced commercial availability of its new Medi-MAR product, a medication administration system designed to improve patient safety and reduce medication errors.
Medi-MAR, which integrates seamlessly with Mediware’s WORx Pharmacy Management System, provides wireless bedside access to the same patient medication profiles and full clinical drug databases with alerts and recordkeeping that have made WORx one of the industry’s most robust and sought after pharmacy management systems.
Medi-MAR provides a tool for hospitals to monitor the administration of medications at the bedside to ensure adherence to the five rights of medication safety.
Medi-MAR’s hand-held scanner and keyboard connects wirelessly via radio frequency technology to the hospital’s central WORx database. By scanning their own ID, the patient’s ID, and the medicine label, nurses instantly create a complete electronic record of the medication event. Alerts are provided if the WORx database detects any irregularities such as drug-patient mismatch, an outdated prescription, or a potential overmedication.
Late last year Mediware announced its first order for MediCOE(TM), which adds remote physician ordering to the company’s WORx Pharmacy Management System.
MediCOE (Clinician Order Entry) offers a relatively quick way for hospitals to add computerized physician order entry to WORx at a fraction of the cost of traditional CPOE solutions, which often take years to install. It is integrated with the existing WORx pharmacy system and can be fully operational in less than six months.
MediCOE enables physicians or other appropriate clinicians to enter orders on Mediware’s WORx pharmacy system using a remote PC within the facility or off-site via web-based connectivity. The orders are integrated with the patient’s medical profile, which includes laboratory, prescription, and allergy information.
The product immediately alerts physicians to any adverse effects that may occur due to the patient’s medical history and the medication prescribed. It lends itself to rapid installation and requires no third-party interfaces.
Mediware’s WORx system together with the new MediCOE and MediMAR products create a closed-loop medication management system.
The products were designed to provide healthcare facilities with technology to help minimize the more than one million serious medication errors each year in the U.S. (Source: The Leap Frog Group). The most common of these errors are drug interactions and allergies, overdosing resulting from decimal point errors, and illegible handwriting.
According to the 1999 Institute of Medicine Report, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System,” medication errors contribute to 7,000 premature deaths annually.
The costs caused by these errors increase the cost of the average hospital stay by $2,000, according to industry studies. This translates to more than $2 billion a year in nationwide hospital costs, excluding loss of worker productivity.
Alerts provided by the WORx pharmacy system include: patient allergy, unusual daily dose, drug duplication, drug/drug interactions, and custom criteria. The system allows monitoring of critical patient information and viewing and printing of data including: patient dosing, drug interactions, and allergies and patient monographs. Users can search the worldwide web for additional diagnosis or allergy information.
A full listing of the features of the WORx pharmacy system is available at http://www.mediware.com/.
A full listing of WORx’s features are available at http://www.mediware.com/.
Mediware provides clinical information systems for hospitals and integrated healthcare delivery systems. Its products include HEMOCARE LifeLine(TM), Hemocare(R), LifeLine(R), LifeTrak(R), and HCLL(TM), (blood bank), WORx(R), MediMAR(TM), MediCOE(TM), Pharmakon(R), and Digimedics(TM) (pharmacy), Surgiware(TM), Perioperative Solutions(TM) (operating room), as well as the JAC Stock Control System (pharmacy) in the United Kingdom. Mediware has over 1,100 systems installed in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and elsewhere.
Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as the same may be amended from time to time (the “Act”) and in releases made by the SEC from time to time. Such forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2003, which may cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update its forward-looking statements.
Mediware Information Systems, Inc.
CONTACT: George Barry of Mediware Information Systems, Inc.,+1-913-307-1000; or Thomas Redington, +1-203-222-7399, or +1-212-926-1733, forMediware Information Systems, Inc.