26. Apr 2009 00:00 26. Jan 2010 17:04

Pillpick System For St. Olav

The Hospital Apothecaries of Central Norway have signed a contract with Swisslog AS for NOK 30 million to deliver a Pillpick pharmacy automation system.

26. Jan 2010 16:43 26. Jan 2010 16:49

26. Jan 2010 16:43 26. Jan 2010 16:43

The system will be installed in 2010, and is a complete system for automated production and delivery of medicine in single doses to the entire St. Olavs Hospital.

The equipment consists of a packaging machine for medicine in single doses (popularly called "Pille-Trille") along with a newly developed transfer automat that places patient-specific medicine dosages in pneumatic tubes.

This equipment is an updated and considerably larger version of equipment that has already been delivered and is in operation at Nye Ahus. The two projects have had clear advantages from cooperation and exchange of experiences even though their schedules were separate.

	A big contract - in every sense of the word. CEO Gunn Fredriksen checks details before signing the deal.

At the same time, a separate prescribing module is being developed in the electronic patient journal (a separate project), as well as a logistics/messaging package (Delta, developed in conjunction with the Hospital Apothecaries South-East). These two units deliver ”orders” to the packaging machine. After packaging, patient-specific medicine will be sent directly to the correct department by pneumatic tubes. In total, over 13,000 single doses of medicine are foreseen per day, and over 10,000 of these are in pill form.

The new system will therefore be an important link in the chain, which above all, will reduce the number of erroneous dosages, but will also reduce waste due to medicine becoming too old, and reduce the amount of work nurses use each day on handling medicines.

“Such an advanced system requires a hospital of a certain size, but for us the investment will pay for itself in under ten years. For the hospital this is a moneymaker from day one”, says Managing Director Gunn Fredriksen with the Hospital Apothecaries of Central Norway.

“We are a small and flat organization. Making use of an organization that views such contracts as routine is incredibly assuring”, says Managing Director Gunn Fredriksen with the Hospital Apothecaries of Central Norway (Sykehusapotekene i Midt-Norge), referring to a contract for project management signed with the Hospital Development Project for Central Norway (Helsebygg Midt-Norge).

For its part, Swisslog uses the concern’s factory in Italy as a subcontractor of the system, and views the delivery as considerable also in an international connection.

	From left to right: Project Manager Gabriele Bianconi and Nordic Sales Manager Helge Jordal from Swisslog, Direktør Gunn Fredriksen from the Hospital Apothecaries of Central Norway, Project Manager Bjørn Bakken from the Hospital Development Project for Central Norway.

“We are very proud that St. Olavs Hospital continues to use Swisslog as partner for all important logistics systems, since our first installation of pneumatic tubes in 2001. Where integrated logistics are concerned, this innovative hospital clearly represents the most advanced in the field”, says Charlie Kegley, President of Swisslog’s Healthcare Solutions Division.

“The greatest measure of uncertainty at the moment lies outside the equipment project, in the program package for prescription from the electronic patient journal. After that, experience shows that it is a big step from functioning system to successful operation on a daily basis. Therefore, we choose to introduce the system after the main move is completed, and take it one department at a time, with careful training in advance and evaluation afterwards”, says Project Manager Bjørn Bakken with the Hospital Development Project for Central Norway.