Maximize Savings and Safety with Torbal's High-Tech Pharmacy Equipment

The 2013 Summer Meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, recently held in Minneapolis, highlighted some innovative technology that improves medication safety while decreasing costs and waste. The key factors discussed at the meeting are also featured components in our Torbal pharmacy equipment.

There's no doubt, barcode scanning has become a factor in safely tracking lot numbers, drug expiration dates, and more. The potential for errors is significantly reduced thanks to the handheld barcode scanner with automatic activation. Improvements have been made, especially in compounding, allowing the pharmacist to scan information instead of manually walking over to the preparation area to verify the compounding drug, then manually recording the information. I mean, who handwrites letters (or anything for that matter) anymore?

According to Pharmacy Practice News, Indiana University Health's prep time was reduced by using a barcode scanner. Their preparation time went from 27 minutes down to just 18 minutes. Stephen L. Speth, RPh, MS, estimated that the pharmacy also prevented about $10,000 in waste, from intercepted sterile and non-sterile compounding errors, within the first five months of 2013. The handheld barcode scanner increased their safety, time, and money.

NDC verification is another important security and safety feature implemented in prescription digital balances. This detail verifies that the supply bottle has the same NDC Code as called for in the script label package. After all, the most common cause of medication errors is the confusion between the names of similar sounding drugs. You say Vioxx, I say Zyvox.

A study, done by the Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Pharmacy, was conducted where the most commonly confused drugs were identified. And the results of the study were fluticasone/fluticasone nasal (86%), metoprolol/metoclopramide (9%), nitroprusside/nitroglycerin (3.4%) and propranolol/propofol (2.8%). Luckily, NDC verification prevents the wrong medications from being dispensed that could have life-threatening effects.

These are just a couple leading edge advantages of Torbal's pharmacy balances. Contact us to learn more about other benefits that are included in our pharmacy equipment. Learn about LOT number labeling, NDC date entry reminders, advanced pill counting accuracy, the PS/2 external keyboard port, and more.