Present innovates with medication safety

Elderly care organization Present has taken major steps in increasing medication safety. They were one of the first to anticipate two major bottlenecks in elderly care: the double check of high-risk medication and the interim adjustment of the contents of the medication roll. By automating this with MedEye's medication safety system, they not only work more safely, but also more efficiently.

Heleen Griffioen, director at Present and responsible for, among other things, Care & Quality within the organization, thinks this innovation is very normal: “We want to provide safe care for our residents and that also includes medication safety. I don't see it as a competition, it is much more important that the medication process is done in a safe, efficient and easy way.” Quality nurse Niesje Donkersloot-van Rees agrees: “As a resident of Present you must be able to trust that the medication is provided, administered and registered correctly. The resident gives us this piece of trust, and we want to do this in the safest way possible. MedEye contributes to that safety.”

Double-check high-risk medications
One of the biggest bottlenecks in (elderly) care is the double check of high-risk medication, where a second person checks whether the correct medicine is given. This double check is sometimes difficult to implement, especially due to limited staffing. Within Present, MedEye takes over that second control where possible. This makes Present a leader in the Netherlands and not only does it work more safely, but it also saves valuable time for the caregiver/nurse. “It also provides ease of use for our colleagues, because always having a second colleague nearby for double checking is impossible,” says director Heleen Griffioen.

Fully automatic control of anticoagulants
An example is the fully automatic control of high-risk medications such as anticoagulants (anticoagulants such as acenocoumarol and phenprocoumon). By linking to the electronic prescription system Medimo, MedEye receives the correct information about which dosage should be given after the measured INR value. Because this can fluctuate, this medication is often not supplied in the medication roll, but is turned off manually. MedEye helps the nurse verify the correct medication and dosage by scanning the medication using AI (Artificial Intelligence). Quality nurse Donkersloot-van Rees is pleased that this no longer requires a second caregiver/nurse: “It is more efficient that the double check can be done by MedEye, because even with a double check by a second caregiver/nurse, errors could not always be prevented . So not only does it save time, but it is also more accurate.”

Adjusting medicine bags
Another bottleneck in elderly care is the interim adjustment of the medicine bags when the doctor's prescription changes. Some institutions choose to provide one bag per medication, but this does not improve sustainability and efficiency. Present works with so-called multi-dose medicine bags in which different medications are packed in one bag. “Previously, if a medication had to be placed in a multi-dose bag, we had to check it with two colleagues to ensure that we removed the correct tablet,” says quality nurse Donkersloot-van Rees. “Now we can only handle this with the support of the MedEye scanner, which is not only time-saving but also much safer. The MedEye scanner can accurately identify the correct medication that needs to be removed, and that gives confidence.”

Innovation and trust
In addition to medication safety and workload reduction, trusting an extra helper who will look over your shoulder is also important. “It is nice to work with a party that is accessible and thinks along with current work processes,” says Donkersloot-van Rees. “When we work with MedEye, it gives you self-confidence, you have the extra control from the systems you can rely on. You can also work more efficiently because we can scan the medicine bags and in many cases no longer have to have a double check carried out by a second colleague. It is great that Present has the opportunity to work with this, that innovations are being looked at.”

More patient safety and less medication waste in CWZ

The Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ) has recently started working with modern AMiS-PRO medication carts from Alphatron Medical and the smart medication safety system from MedEye. Thanks to the automated double checks built into this, the control of medication before administration to patients is now almost completely digital. This leads to higher safety for the patient and less wastage of medication. Both the system and the carts are also linked to the EPD, making CWZ one of the first hospitals in the Netherlands with a 'closed loop' medication management system. Read more

HagaZiekenhuis is a leader in the field of medication safety in the Netherlands

Medication safety is of paramount importance at HagaZiekenhuis. In recent months, they have taken an extra step to increase medication safety. They are one of the first hospitals in the Netherlands to actively use risk-based monitoring when administering medication. This makes HagaZiekenhuis a leader in the field of medication safety in the Netherlands.

Watch the video they made of their process here.

Errors during administration are most difficult to resolve

Errors during medication administration are the most common, but are also the most difficult to resolve. MedEye is the only solution on the market that specializes in administration verification. Using risk-based analysis, MedEye helps nurses focus on areas prone to errors. The system can help verify dose, rate, route and any other aspect of administration. Read more about the 2021 medication incidents report here.

Innovation also takes patient safety at Juliana Children's Hospital to a higher level

The HagaZiekenhuis was one of the first hospitals to choose MedEye at the beginning of 2017. And since this year, the Juliana Children's Hospital (JKZ), the first children's hospital worldwide, has also been using the innovative system. MedEye supports nurses in safely administering medication. During Patient Safety Week, hospital pharmacist Maisa Sjak Shie discusses the latest developments and next steps for the future. Read more here.

Interzorg and “Nursinghome of the future” challenge

Interzorg has made a very informative video on their use of MedEye and how it helps them drive efficiency and improve safety around handling of medications at the same time.

MedEye and Interzorg have been working together to implement MedEye and address the unique challenges of nursing homes when it comes to automating workflow and improving safety, especially around handling multi dose medications. In this video, you can see some of the highlights and results.

To get auto-translated subtitles, choose “CC” in the lower right corner of the player, and set the correct language in the settings menu of the player.

Maasziekenhuis Pantein uses the innovative MedEye medication safety system for medication control

Maasziekenhuis Pantein will use the MedEye medication safety system to perform a second check of medication for patients. The system verifies the medication just prior to administration to the patient. It supports nurses in the medication process and allows them to digitally verify medication at the patient's bedside, thereby increasing the safety when administering the medication. The system thus fits in well with the hospital's strategy to provide safe care and relieves the burden on nurses.

Second check of medication
The introduction of a digital, closed-loop medication process makes the administration of medicines safer. In addition to the latest digital check of medication, MedEye is also used to take over the required second check by a second nurse for parenteral medication(medicines that are injected). MedEye ensures that any errors are recognized in time so that they do not reach the patient. This makes the administration of tablets but also of parenteral medication demonstrably safer and easier. An innovative way to increase medication safety in the hospital and relieve nurses.

Chairman of the Board Pauline Terwijn is enthusiastic about the development: “MedEye supports the good quality of care that we, as Maasziekenhuis Pantein, stand for. The chance of medication errors decreases. Moreover, MedEye largely replaces the four-eyes principle, which reduces the burden of registration and the workload for nurses. As a result, they can better focus on direct patient care. ”

Checking medications in Maasstad Hospital done with automated medication safety system MedEye

Maasstad Hospital will use a medication safety system to perform a second check of medications for patients. The first medication check is done by the nurse, after which the medication safety system MedEye checks whether the correct medication is being given to the right patient. An innovative way to increase medication safety in the hospital.

Normally the second check for high risk medication is performed by two nurses and minimize the risk of errors. In Maasstad Hospital, the second check of the medicines is now automated with MedEye, saving time and improving accuracy. The system uses smart computer vision technology, barcodes and a verification rules mechanism to carefully and efficiently verify medicines at the bedside. MedEye digitally checks whether the right medicines are being given to the right patient at the right time.

Successful pilot
In the spring of 2020, Maasstad Hospital started a pilot with the MedEye system in two nursing units. Few days later, the first Covid-19 wave hit the hospital but that did not impact the schedule. The help MedEye provided in performing second check and ensure safe medication administration was a strong motivator for the nursing staff to continue the pilot during those difficult times. "MedEye supports us and makes it easier to carry out the correct checks for high risk medication, including parenteral medication such as IVs and syringes," says nurse Imelda van Houwelingen.

In addition, the MedEye user interface supports nurses to keep an overview and to easily handle the registration for all types of medication. The administration of "high risk" medication becomes easier and more efficient for nurses, because they no longer need a colleague for the second check.

Investing in medication safety
After this successful pilot, the system is now being rolled out hospital-wide for all medication. “This is a great innovation that improves the quality of care and reduces the registration burden for our nurses, which is why we are enthusiastic about this development,” said Peter Langenbach, chairman of the board of Maasstad Hospital.

Most medication errors (68%) in hospitals occur during administration

Findings from the Norwegian Incident Reporting System: Most medication errors (68%) in hospitals occur during administration. Of those, 38% were dosing errors, 23% omissions and 15% wrong drug. Over half of all errors were harmful (62%), of which 5.2% caused severe harm, and 0.8% were fatal. By using MedEye at the bedside, those errors can be stopped - preventing patient harm and saving time for nurses as well.

Read more in The European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy.

Overcoming challenges of implementing technical innovations in Dutch hospitals

Last Monday we said goodbye to our intern Willem Sloet. Willem’s internship showed that nurses are happy with MedEye (8 average) and his research gave a good insight in the essential mechanisms that can be used to improve implementations of technical innovations like MedEye.

Willem did his second internship at MedEye for his master Management, Policy Analysis and Entrepreneurship in Health and Life Sciences. This is a multidisciplinary study of the VU University Amsterdam to solve complex issues from different angles and perspectives. The research was mainly about the question what the facilitators and barriers of Normalization Process Theory (NPT) mechanisms are and how they can be used to improve the process of implementation.

Resources and infrastructure essential
The study shows that resource availability, including infrastructure, are essential to implementation and should be considered thoroughly before the implementation process by the relevant stakeholders. Additionally, this study shows that support by management is an important factor for resources and being able to work independently, although the relationship with normalization success is unclear.

Nurses satisfied
Different hospitals were invited for the quantitative survey. In the survey of nurses, MedEye received an 8 for adoption and satisfaction. The survey results indicate a correlation of management support with being able to work independent, and management support with resource availability. This is supported in the literature, where Mabert et al. (2003) and Ross et al. (2016) found similar relations between management and implementations that were on-time and on or under budget. For appointment of a department for a pilot or first department for implementation should be appropriate in terms of time and motivation.

Interzorg and MedEye nominated for the "Nursing home of the Future challenge”.

Interzorg, a long term care nursing organization, and the MedEye medication safety system are one of ten projects selected to compete in the "Nursing home of the Future challenge". With this competition Zorgverzekeraars Nederland (ZN), an umbrella organization of ten health insurers in The Netherlands, hopes to increase adoption of new technology and stimulate the use of existing technology in nursing homes.

A professional jury has selected ten projects to compete for the "Nursing Home of the Future". The projects will start in 2020 with the goal to implement new technology or scale up existing technological innovations. The work is done under the supervision of the consultancy firm Vilans. With this competition, ZN aims to increase and encourage the use of technology in nursing homes. The focus is not on the technology itself, but on the integration of technological innovation with daily work processes.

MedEye for medication safety
Interzorg was the first nursing home to implement MedEye in elderly care. Working In cooperation with the Wilhelmina Hospital, which provides supervisory pharmacy services. MedEye enables nurses to verify automatically, using computer vision, that the correct medications are given to the correct patient at the correct time. With MedEye the nurses can safely deal with prescription changes while using medications packaged in multidose pouches and safely handle double-checking of high-risk medications. The level and complexity of care provided by Interzorg is increasing rapidly and medication safety is top priority.

The competition stimulates innovation
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport launched the first competition in 2018. The aim was to stimulate the implementation of technical innovations in nursing homes. Eight projects were selected in the first competition. This year, at the request of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, ZN is coordinating the competition. ZN represents the health insurers that purchase long-term care services. The competition fits with the policy of health insurers to stimulate learning, new technology and to promote knowledge sharing among care providers.

MedEye and SynMed sign partnership deal to bring MedEye’s breakthrough medication safety technology to the US market

MedEye and SynMed sign partnership deal to bring MedEye’s breakthrough medication safety technology to the US market

Amsterdam, Netherlands - December 10th 2019 – MedEye, an innovative Dutch-Icelandic medtech company with an AI-powered medication verification system, and Canada-based Synergy Medical (SynMed) have announced a collaboration to introduce MedEye’s medication verification technology to the North American long-term care market.

MedEye ensures that a patient’s medication is correct at the bedside, just before it is administered, drastically reducing the chance of medication errors and saving nurses time. SynMed makes logistics processes for healthcare institutions faster and safer through the use of automated packaging systems. Combined, the two systems ensure that minimal effort is needed to accurately adjust medications for optimal patient treatment.

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Gauti Reynisson (co-founder of MedEye) and Jean Jean Boutin, (President and Founder of Synergy Medical) shake hands on their new collaboration during ASHP Conference in Las Vegas.

50% reduction in medication errors saves resources for hospitals
The most common mistakes made in hospitals and long-term care facilities are medication errors. Almost every patient receives medication several times a day and management of this complex process constitutes a large proportion of the workload for nurses, doctors and pharmacists. Research has found medication error rates vary between 8 and 20 percent, including hundreds of avoidable fatal incidents and thousands of urgent hospital admissions. MedEye has shown that at least 50% of errors can be prevented using this technology, while reducing medication handling time for nurses by up to 40%. The collaboration with SynMed will further improve those results by focusing not only on stopping errors at the bedside but engineering the entire medication chain to be as error free and as cost-effective as possible.

Taking best practices even further
Gauti Reynisson, co-founder of MedEye: “MedEye has already been adopted across a number of facilities in Europe, resulting in an immediate positive impact on medication safety. We have found that hospitals already following best practices showed improvement under the MedEye system. MedEye started as an idea while we were doing our studies in Boston and while our first customers are in Europe we have always known that MedEye has a job to do in the USA, the world’s largest and most demanding market. Through this exciting collaboration with Synergy Medical, we can optimize the whole medication process with our combined product offering, improving safety from the pharmacy all the way to the bedside.”

Great leap forward
Jean Boutin, President and Founder of Synergy Medical: “We have always believed that good medication management needs to involve both logistics and support for nurses at the bedside.  The combination of multi-dose blister packs filled by SynMed and MedEye at the bedside will allow our customers to be in full control of this key activity in patient care. We firmly believe that this represents the biggest improvement in medication safety at the bedside since the introduction of barcodes on medications 25 years ago.”

SynMed: Automated medication processes
Synergy Medical is based in Longueuil, Quebec, and from 2008 has been designing, manufacturing and installing automated systems which allow pharmacies to efficiently and accurately prepare compliance packs; specialized pill boxes that enable patients to adhere to their medication regimens. Synergy Medical has installed close to 500 SynMed® XF and SynMed® ULTRA systems throughout North America and in Europe, in independent pharmacies as well as in centralized production facilities for pharmacy chains.  The client list of this leader in automated dispensing already includes the largest pharmacy chains in Canada: Shoppers Drug Mart, and the US: CVS/Omnicare.

MedEye: Assisting nurses in making sure medications are correct
MedEye is an AI powered optical verification system that accurately and efficiently identifies medications at the bedside, ensuring correct medication administration and registration.  MedEye acts as a second nurse for faster and safer verification, while saving time and costs for hospitals and long-term care facilities. 

MedEye chosen by elderly-care organization Present to enhance medication safety

• MedEye system enables 65% decrease in recorded medication incidents after six-week trial in elderly care setting

• Present to roll out MedEye medication verification system to all twelve departments of its small-scale living facilities

MedEye, an innovative healthtech company with a state-of-the-art medication verification system, is pleased to announce that Present, a Netherlands-based elderly-care organization, has opted to roll-out MedEye’s medication verification system. The system will be installed across all twelve of Present’s small-scale living facilities after a positive pilot scheme which showed, in the first month, a 66% reduction in recorded medication incidents. In the following month no medication incidents were reported anymore.  

Digitally integrated system enhances safety and quality
With MedEye’s system, Present’s entire medication process is now done digitally via an integration with a local pharmacy and the electronic prescription system.

Director Janneke Louisa-Muller of Present, commented: “From a quality point of view, safety is very important to our residents and medication safety is an essential part of that. MedEye is a means for us to prevent errors and makes it easier for our employees. The pilot went very positively on both of these points. Present therefore has chosen to use MedEye more widely for all groups for small-scale living."

Greater efficiency leads to better patient care
During the summer period Present conducted a six-week trial with the system in different departments. Nurse and project leader Lieke Kwakernaak commented: “There was a significant reduction in recorded medication incidents in the first month and the nurses who have worked with MedEye are very enthusiastic about the benefits of the system. The medication process is safer and more efficient now, we don’t have paper checklists anymore and we don’t have to set actions on recorded medication incidents reports any more. This gives us more time to spend on care.”

Leading the way in the elderly care sector
At elderly-care organization Present, the medication is first organized into bags for each separate administration. MedEye checks whether the content of the bag corresponds to the prescribed medication and indicates if further verification is needed, and if so, the medication is placed in a special medication scanner that uses AI to identify the drug. The system enables an extra check that gives extra certainty that the right patient is getting the right medication with the right dose. With this innovative process, Present is one of the first elderly care organizations in The Netherlands to have its entire medication process done digitally via a MedEye link with both the local pharmacy and the Medimo electronic prescription system.

Jort Kooistra, Chief Executive Officer at Medeye, commented: “We’re excited by the potential for our technology to assist professionals not only in the hospital setting but in the elderly care sector. This partnership is an important step as we expand the reach of our system. We’re particularly pleased that errors reduced so significantly – two thirds – in just six weeks. MedEye’s aim is to increase efficiency and accuracy, so that nurses and caregivers can have confidence as they administer medication at the bedside. It is therefore extremely encouraging to hear the overwhelmingly positive responses of nurses using MedEye’s system.”

Interzorg medication safety project nominated for "IT project of the year in Healthcare"

Elderly care organization Interzorg, MedEye and the Wilhelmina Hospital Assen (WZA) have been nominated for the Computable Awards 2019 in the "IT project of the year in Healthcare" category. The joint project for better medication safety has been selected, with four other nominees, from dozens of entries. By using the MedEye system, healthcare providers can better verify medication administration and prevent errors. Readers of Computable can vote until Sunday 6 October via https://awards.computable.nl/stem/.

Jury report: IT innovation leads to better healthcare
Computable, an online magazine for information technology professionals, selects appealing and remarkable achievements in the field of ICT every year. In the jury report, Computable describes the medication project as follows: “In cooperation with WZA and MedEye, Interzorg enables its employees to verify electronically whether medication is correct and still up-to-date when supplying the medication to the patient. Every tablet is recognized and compared with the current prescription via the MedEye scanner. The automated verification of medication is an innovation that directly leads to better care through the reduction of medication errors. The jury of the Computable Awards 2019 was impressed that Interzorg took the entire process into consideration.” 

Innovation for elderly care
Interzorg was the first to introduce MedEye in elderly care. The level and complexity of care demanded by clients of Interzorg is increasing rapidly, so medication safety has top priority for Interzorg. Karin van der Baan is a nurse at Interzorg’s location ‘Nieuw Graswijk’ in Assen and she is enthusiastic: “More and more clients use multiple types of medication and changes are sometimes necessary. MedEye supports us in keeping an overview, partly through the digital registration. It provides structure, offers an important foundation and therefore a safe feeling, also in the case of medication changes. With this solution, Interzorg ensures error-free administration”. 

IT innovation ensures medication safety
The hospital pharmacy of the Wilhelmina Hospital (WZA) in Assen supervised the implementation of MedEye at Interzorg. Hospital pharmacist Yvonne Dijsselbloem is the supervisory pharmacist for Interzorg and is happy with the nomination: “I am very happy with this recognition, because it shows that innovation in the field of ICT also makes an important contribution to medication safety in elderly care. During the implementation of the "safe principles in the medication chain",  changes in medication pouches and double-checking of high-risk drugs proved to be two major bottlenecks. MedEye offers a great solution for both”.

Pleasant cooperation
“We believe that patients and clients are entitled to the right medication and that healthcare professionals deserve the right tools to help them achieve that. That is why we have built MedEye. Our medication safety system demonstrably reduces the number of errors considerably. We are therefore very proud of this nomination together with Interzorg and WZA. Our collaboration with them has always been very pleasant”, says Gauti Reynisson, CEO of MedEye.

MedEye releases version 3.8

MedEye Release 3.8

MedEye has released version 3.8 of MedEye. With this release MedEye is taking a major step forward in helping nurses and pharmacists handle complex verifications and product substitutions, which are essential for fast and safe bedside medication verification.

Version 3.8 also greatly enhances feedback to users about the use and impact of MedEye. Customers gain valuable insights into how MedEye is being used and where processes can be improved to support medication safety at the bedside.

Some of the highlights:

MedEye Verification Rules and High Risk Medication

MedEye Verification Rules mechanism will keep track of each individual check and how it is performed, without any extra work for the nurse. Checks that can be monitored include dose, product, timing, patient, route, rate and other checks that the hospital uses for ensuring best practises.

With MedEye pill-scanning, barcode scanning and visual verification, almost all checks can be automated, saving the nurse time and making sure that best practices are followed for every administration.

MedEye Substitutions

Substitutions are common in hospitals but can be difficult to perform, which leads to unnecessary errors. With this version of MedEye, nurses will now be assisted by MedEye in handling those substitutions and be able to do them safely and in shorter time.

MedEye Pre-Verification

With MedEye Pre-Verification, customers can now implement workflows where some medications are verified before the medication round, and then safely tracked and traced to the patient at the correct time - cutting time spent on medication verification at the bedside bin half.

MedEye Visual Verification

In 2016, MedEye revolutionised bedside verification with the introduction of MedEye pill-scanning technology. In version 3.8, customers can now start using MedEye Visual Verification. With this module, MedEye can use pictures to verify everything from insulin pen settings, to infusions pump rate and volume in syringes. With this module, hospitals can automate virtually all medication related double checks done in the hospital.

Improved feedback

MedEye has helped prevent more than 200.000 medication errors since introduction in 2016. With release 3.8 MedEye can collect more detailed, anonymous usage data which will help hospitals detect gaps in the process and generate reports that will help identify ways to improve medication safety in the hospital.

Visit us at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress in London - Booth F60

Medication errors happen for various reasons and MedEye, a patented solution, helps nurses to stop them. MedEye automatically collects information at the patient’s bedside and guides the nurse to give the right medication at the right time.  Through simplifying information, MedEye provides insights that enables pharmacists, doctors, and nurses to work together to continuously improve the medication process to prevent future medication errors.

Stop by to talk about how we can help you prevent and stop medication errors with bedside verification. Come visit us at booth F60 at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress (Junel 7th - 8th 2019 - Excel London). More information

Visit us at the EAHP for Hospital pharmacists in Barcelona - Booth 36

Medication errors happen for various reasons and MedEye, a patented solution, helps nurses to stop them. MedEye automatically collects information at the patient’s bedside and guides the nurse to give the right medication at the right time.  Through simplifying information, MedEye provides insights that enables pharmacists, doctors, and nurses to work together to continuously improve the medication process to prevent future medication errors.

Stop by to talk about how we can help you prevent and stop medication errors with bedside verification. Come visit us at booth #36 at the EAHP (March 27th - 29th 2019 – Barcelona). More information: http://www.eahp.eu/congresses

MedEye partners with med-id Pty Ltd to introduce automated bedside medication verification to the Australian market

As of February 1st 2019, MedEye, a revolutionary medication verification tool to support nurses with medication administration to patients, will be introduced to healthcare facilities in Australia and New Zealand. MedEye has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with med-id Pty Ltd to bring to market MedEye’s automated medication verification that will help increase medication safety in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

Dr. Paul Gooden, co-founder or med-id: “We are very excited to bring this cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to hospitals in our region. After visiting a number of leading hospitals in Europe, where MedEye is already in use, we were convinced that MedEye would change the life of all medical professionals that administer medication to patients.”

Strong partner
Also Gauti Reynisson, CEO of MedEye is excited about the collaboration: “After introduction of MedEye in a number of European countries, we are very happy to have found a strong partner for Australia and New Zealand. The knowledge, experience and network med-id bring are of great value to us. To make sure nurses can use a sophisticated tool like MedEye to help them deliver the best care possible to their patients, we need a partner that knows healthcare and how to introduce new technology to its workers. With med-id we have found just that.”

Medication errors are never ok
Michael Beck, co-founder of med-id: “At med-id, we believe that medication errors are never okay. Patients are at the center of our mission and we now can make sure that nurses have the tool to help them be perfect at delivering the right medication at the right time and with the right dose, all the time.”

More than 50% of nurses do not have enough time for medication administration

In an extensive survey, more than half of the nurses from hospitals (54%) and nursing homes (53%) indicated that they do not have enough time to give medication. MedEye conducted this survey on medication safety during the Nursing Experience Congress held in the Netherlands in December 2018 amongst more than 500 nurses. 

Administration of drug is the most critical moment
The majority (90%) of the nurses indicated that they are disturbed regularly during the process of medication administration. Disruptions during this complex process can lead to mistakes. The administration of a medicine is in fact the most critical moment in the medication distribution process, because afterwards errors can only be repaired by an alert patient. Research shows that in situations in which the patient is unable to recognize and / or intervene with errors, this last check* disappears. Nearly three-quarters of hospital nurses indicated that they sometimes make mistakes.

Administration errors still a problem
In healthcare, medication administration errors are still a problem. Other medication errors, such as transcription and prescription errors, have been reduced since 1 January 2014 due to the introduction of the Electronic Prescription Directive. As of that date, care providers and prescribers of medicines, such as doctors, dentists, midwives and nurses, had to prescribe medication electronically in the Netherlands. However, delivery errors are not yet sufficiently under control. Despite the introduction of the VMS theme High Risk, which focuses on the human double check of high-risk medication, research shows that more than a quarter of the nurses in hospitals and nursing homes do not always carry out this second check.

Stress during administration
The survey also showed that more than 65% of nurses experience stress during medication administration. Earlier, the V & VN nurses association held a survey ** among more than a thousand nurses, which showed that high work pressure regularly leads to errors. And that making a mistake results in sleepless nights for nurses, even if the error did not cause any harm to the patient. The study was repeated with nearly 17,000 members of Nurses & Caregivers in the Netherlands. Results of that study were published last January and showed that 69% of respondents indicated that the workload has increased even further in the past year.

Nurses can discuss mistakes in their organization
If an error is made with the medication, 88% of all nurses indicated that this can be discussed in the organization. The vast majority (> 80%) of nurses in hospitals and nursing homes indicated that they would like to have access to technology that supports them in the safe administration of medication.

* 1 Gossen SA, van den Bemt PMLA, Brouwers JRBJ. Fouten bij de toediening van geneesmiddelen. Pharm Weekbl 2001;136(38):1428-33.

2 van den Bemt PMLA, Egberts ACG. Drug-related problems: definitions and classification. Eur J Hospital Pharm Pract 2007;13(1):62-4 

**https://zorgnu.avrotros.nl/uitzending/04-10-2016/gevolgen-van-een-hoge-werkdruk-verpleegkundigen/

 ***https://www.venvn.nl/Portals/1/Downloads/Rapport%20Arbeidsmarkt%202019.pdf

Tergooi Hospital has chosen MedEye to strengthen medication safety

Quality is central to Tergooi’s mission.  As such, it has selected MedEye medication safety system to help nurses ensure medication safety at the bedside.  Tergooi believes this step will further improve safety and efficiency at the hospitals.

Hospital pharmacist Jolande van der Wildt is pleased with the new system: "The use of MedEye has already proven success in several hospitals. The system supports the nurse to verify the medication administered is in accordance with the physician order, thus improving quality.  In addition, like the result from other hospitals, I expect MedEye to help simplify the identification and registration of medication and reduce nurse’s workload”.

In Tergooi, approximately 1 million medication administrations are given to patients each year. This is a complex and risky process that consists of several steps, from prescription and preparation to the final administration. International studies have shown that one in five drug administrations are incorrect. In recent years, Tergooi has successfully reduced the number of errors within the process by means of digital control moments (implementing computerized physician order entry and eMAR). However, the last step of the administration at the bedside remained manual until now.  This is why Tergooi is adding MedEye to ensure digital verification will stop errors and avoid human mistakes.

The MedEye AI system uses image recognition to verify medications at the bedside before administration, and simultaneously register them through the integration into the hospital information system. This process helps nurses to work more accurately and efficiently. It is especially important with high-risk medication where a second nurse is required for double check.  MedEye has significantly improved both safety and efficiency for these hospitals.

MedEye is another good example of the continuous focus Tergooi places on optimally leveraging technologies to improve patient outcome.  Tergooi is also exploring other projects to assist patients closer to home.  An example would be telemonitoring heart patients.