Moving Forward with eMAR
BWH's trailblazing rollout of eMAR to all the medical-surgical step down and critical care units in the Tower and post-partum floors in Connors Center will be complete by the end of July. eMAR will arrive on Labor and Delivery, PACU, NICU and ED in the fall of 2006. BWH continues to lead national patient safety efforts with this comprehensive system linking medication order entry, pharmacy and medication administration in one seamless electronic record.
Staff will be met with many additional enhancements when eMAR reaches Hematology and Oncology in March 2006. “During the rollout, we discovered practices we were able to accommodate in the paper world that would not be the safest way to prescribe and administer medications without an electronic system,” said Judy Hayes, RN, director, Professional Practice, Quality and Staff Development. By March, eMAR will include approximately 40 upgrades from the current system.
Also, the clinician's screen view of eMAR will be upgraded and easier to read by next March, said Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, director of Patient Safety in General Medicine and Primary Care.
In the meantime, Gandhi offers a list of eMAR tips:
- The Default or Daily View screen that launches when you log in displays a list of the patient's current medications. Clicking on “View eMAR” in the top navigation bar to select the “Maintenance” and “PRN” views allows you to see medication administrations over time. Administration times are documented, and medications that are not given are shown in brackets. If you mouse over the time, it shows why the medication was not given.
- To see the administration history of medications (particularly useful for PRNs with ranges and scales such as insulin, K or Mg), click on the button with a clock face under the medication name, which will launch the “Administration Hx Log.”
- To view results, click on the results tab on the upper navigation bar. This allows you to see all inpatient and outpatient results for the patient.
- To write orders, click on the “OE” tab. To launch BICS from the eMAR interface, click the button in the upper right hand corner labeled “System.”
Physicians are urged to take advantage of the streamlined, computer-based training model to learn the eMAR system. They can find the training session on their own PCs by going to “Partners Applications” under “Start,” then Clinical References to CBT Courses to eMAR CBT.