St. Clair Hospital Saves Lives With SoMo™ 650 Handheld Computer And VeriScan

When nurses give pills, intravenous fluids or other medications to patients, there are many risks involved, such as providing the wrong type of medication, the incorrect dosage or administering it at the improper time. The Institute of Medicine estimates that more than 44,000 Americans die each year in hospitals from medical errors, with 7,000 resulting from medication- related errors alone.

The Five Rights Medication Verification System checks five conditions whenever a medication is administered. Specifically, it aims to ensure that the right patient receives the right medication and the right dose at the right time, using the right form of administration.

Eliminating medication errors also saves hospital staff the time and effort of documenting mistakes, which involves a lot of paperwork. With most medication errors eliminated, the need to re-educate nurses in error prevention is also minimized.

By using RFID technology, nurses can quickly and easily scan their badges and patients' wristbands by simply waving the SoMo 650 within 3 inches (8 cm) of the RFID tag, and the CompactFlash RFID Reader-Scan Card 6M will instantly read the information. Unlike bar code scanning, no line of sight is needed, so nurses can read data without removing blankets or bothering sleeping patients to turn their wrists. Eliminating physical contact also helps to prevent infections from spreading.