Cardinal Health launches Pyxis® Medstation® 4000; Introduces industry-first service to interpret dispensing and infusion data

New analytics service interprets Pyxis® MedStation® and Alaris® System data to provide hospitals customized, actionable recommendations to improve patient safety, medication management

ORLANDO, Fla. — Building on its flagship suite of medication and infusion management platforms, Cardinal Health today launched the Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 and an industry-first Performance Analytics Service that provides hospitals with customized, actionable recommendations to help improve medication safety.

The Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 automated medication dispensing system offers new features that can help hospitals increase the security of high-alert medications and reduce medication errors. Key new features include:

* Enhanced barcode scanning technology – Provides the option to require clinicians to scan medications upon removal to help ensure they’ve retrieved the right medication for the right patient and alert them to incorrect dosage or other potential errors. The built-in scanner is also used during restocking to help ensure the right medications are loaded into the right drawer location.
* Ability to block loading of specific medications – Provides an option to reject certain medications from being loaded into a specific Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 system, helping to protect against certain types of medication errors. For example, adult-sized doses of medication can be programmed from the pharmacy console to never be accepted at a Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 located in a neonatal unit.
* User-specific tracking of undocumented waste – When specific users remove more of a medication than prescribed, the Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 system tracks and reminds the user of the need to document the waste. The information can be used to identify possible incidence of diversion.

Cardinal Health also launched its new Performance Analytics Service, which securely transmits medication dispensing data from the Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 and infusion data from the Alaris® System to Cardinal Health experts for review and analysis. Based on data specific to an individual hospital, Cardinal Health medication management experts provide customized recommendations that can be used to help improve medication safety and clinical practice at the facility.

This first-of-its-kind service for hospitals lessens raw data review by hospital staff to allow more time for patient care and eliminates the need to outsource costly device data management to a third party. The new Performance Analytics Service also alerts health care providers to potential risks of drug diversion and identifies opportunities to improve inventory management efficiency.

“The Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 builds on our leadership in helping prevent medication errors that lead to patient harm and higher costs for hospitals,” said David Schlotterbeck, vice chairman of Cardinal Health and CEO of its Clinical and Medical Products segment. “Our new Performance Analytics Service leverages decades of Cardinal Health’s medication management expertise to provide hospitals with recommendations to improve their dispensing and infusion processes to ensure optimal patient safety.”

Cardinal Health highlighted these and other key medication management solutions at the 43rd Mid-Year Clinical Meeting and Exhibition for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), taking place December 7-11 in Orlando, Fla.

Other key offerings highlighted by Cardinal Health at the industry event include:

* A new version of the Pyxis PARx® pharmacy auto-replenishment system, to help ensure the accuracy of medications picked in the pharmacy and delivered to the Pyxis® MedStation® 4000 system through automated scanning technology;
* New STAT identification features and advanced reporting capabilities for the new version of the Pyxis® Connect physician order management system, to help pharmacists efficiently evaluate the safety and appropriateness of medication orders;
* Sentinel RCMTM and eRecovery Web-based technologies that help hospitals compliantly and time-efficiently tap into significant drug discounts offered by the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program;
* ReadyScanTM medication bar coding solution and CardinalASSIST® automated medication replenishment technology, which streamline medication logistics and help improve medication safety.