BROOMFIELD, Colo.—Swisslog Healthcare, a leading supplier in healthcare technology combining pharmacy and transport automation, is sharing their best practices on how healthcare systems and facilities can follow their lead to successfully transform operations to embrace the all-digital future ahead.

Albert Karas, BSc., Phm., RPh., director of Pharmacy Services at Humber River Hospital, and Young-Shin Lee, a registered nurse with Swisslog Healthcare, reveal a roadmap for action in a “fire-side chat” they shared with an audience.

As healthcare moves towards an all-digital future, proactive organizations such as Humber River Hospital – the first hospital in North America to transition into an all-digital workflow – will invest in innovation and implement automation in places where it can assist in quality improvement, job satisfaction and labor savings. Automating tasks like pharmacy services goes beyond providing medications efficiently and accurately. It adds value to the patient, organization and staff, thereby positively impacting both clinical outcomes and financial performance.

“The goal of automation is not to replace clinicians and staff, but to help them deliver better care,” says Albert Karas, BSc., Phm., RPh., director of Pharmacy Services at Humber River Hospital. “By leveraging technology and automating more mundane and repetitive tasks, you can increase the amount of human interaction that your staff have with patients.”

Using Swisslog Healthcare pharmacy automation, Humber River Hospital reports medication picking errors have been reduced by more than 50% compared to the previously manual workflow. Additionally, inventory control has increased by approximately 30%. Both improvements mean staff engagement and commitment levels have increased as well, with many staff becoming super-users to lead process and workflow improvements. Concentrating on higher-value work has increased staff outlook and job satisfaction, which in turn has led to increased levels of service to patients.

“The future of medicine is digital, and that future is a lot closer than you might think,” says Anthony Pugliese, chief commercial officer of Medication Management at Swisslog Healthcare. “There are a lot of key lessons that hospitals and healthcare systems and facilities can learn from Humber River’s transformation into a fully digital hospital. We hope this roadmap can help others make the same transformation for efficiency.”

“As healthcare moves toward an all-digital future, organizations must prioritize their investment and prepare for implementation, which can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be,” says Young-Shin Lee, registered nurse and regional sales director of Swisslog Healthcare Canada, Solutions Sales. She has supported hospitals to provide services and tools to achieve operational excellence and enhance the quality and safety of patient care. “Humber River Hospital is a best-in-practice example of leading the change for better care. This is an incredible opportunity to learn from them.”

This conversation is captured in the webinar “Maneuvering the Digital Transformation.” This and others like it are available to view on-demand.

Swisslog Healthcare provides integrated medication supply chain solutions to hospitals and health systems to assist providers in treating patients across the continuum of care. Integrating transport and pharmacy automation, value-added services, and intelligent software, Swisslog Healthcare enables healthcare providers to respond to patients’ needs quickly and with greater accuracy.

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