Emergency code boxes, also known as crash carts, contain life-saving medications and emergency supplies. The kits are placed in emergency rooms and other health-care settings for quick access when a patient is in need of resuscitation or emergency response.
The system is being developed and marketed by Lakeshore Health under the name Urgicode. It uses cellular and Web technology to tell medical staff members whether medicine in a kit has been used or is reaching its expiration date. The system is capable of notifying pharmacies via Internet or Intranet when medications need to be replaced.
The product’s official launch is planned for January.
This is a software solution for hospital pharmacies “so that they can manage their day- to-day operations more efficiently and accurately and improve safety,” said HooShang Sheikhi, Lakeshore’s founder and Healthcare Resource Director. The concept is new enough that the group recently filed a patent application.
Health systems are increasingly using bar codes, RFID and other wireless technologies to track inventory. But Sheikhi said health-care providers don’t have a system in place that instantly notifies pharmacies when a code box has been used. Urgicode offers “something that is applicable to just about any hospital that has a pharmacy.”
The system works like this: A code box is embedded with technology that connects the kit to the Urgicode system via cellular network. When a kit is used, the wireless technology notifies the Urgicode system, which alerts the appropriate pharmacy staff through a Web-based portal. A technician then dispatches a runner to retrieve the kit and replace it with a new one.
The opened kit is then brought back to the pharmacy where it is unpacked. A hand-held device with a bar code scanner is used to restock the kit, allowing the pharmacy to scan and catalog the medications, keeping track of their quantities and expiration dates via web portal.
The system enables the pharmacy to better manage code boxes, maintaining a current list of those that have been used and those with medications due to expire, Sheikh said. It is also helpful in tracking kits containing medications that have been recalled, he added. The system is customized based on the client’s needs.
Sheikhi, a licensed pharmacist by training, said he first identified the need for an Urgicode-like system while working as a pharmacy supervisor at a Cleveland-area hospital in the mid 90s. He recalled having to routinely take inventory and replace the contents contained in the hospital’s numerous crash carts. Keeping the requisite paper record could take time and occupy staff.
Urgicode is designed to make the process much simpler and more accurate, eliminating the potential for human error and facilitating the quick replacement of drugs used from the kits, Sheikhi said.
“We believe (Urgicode) will enhance the existing systems that are currently tracked by paper documentation” Sheikhi said.
It’s a system Sheikhi said could benefit most mid to large-sized health care systems, given the number of crash carts they have to manage. A large health system could have as many as 300 emergency code boxes to administer, he estimates. Furthermore, hospitals are audited for how they maintain crash carts and whether the drugs within the emergency kits are current or expired.
The real-time features and use of bar-code technology to track a health system’s inventory of crash carts are designed to be powerful.
“There is accountability for where the kits are (in the system), what’s in the kits and the status of the contents in the kit,” said Dan Young, founder of DXY Solutions, the Cleveland mobile technology firm that developed software for the wireless crash cart.
Urgicode was presented last month at Health Connect Partners, a trade show for pharmacy directors which took place in Tampa, Fla. Lakeshore Health System is presently working to arrange to test system at local hospitals and lists MetroHealth Medical Center as a participating hospital on its Web site.
The unveiling of Urgicode adds a new dimension to Lakeshore Health System, which was incorporated in 2003. Aside from Urgicode, the 15-employee firm comprises eLakeshore, a medical staffing division; eCheckmark, a compliance tracking system; PharmLearn, a competency exam system and StaffProfessional, a comprehensive software system used by staffing companies to manage employee scheduling and job postings.
