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Swedish Medical Center’s PharmASSIST-Driven Workflow Increases Efficiency and Improves Customer Service
Seattle Area Institution’s Outpatient Pharmacy Thriving with Transformed Workflow Process

JOHNSON CITY, NY - January 11, 2005 - Innovation Associates announces that Swedish Medical Center of Seattle, Washington has successfully implemented a PharmASSIST® Symphony+ System to address their need for structure, efficiency, and accountability in their pharmacy workflow. Swedish evaluated various automated dispensing, robotic, and workflow management systems and selected the PharmASSIST technology because of its comprehensive workflow management capabilities, small overall footprint, and positive reference site visits.

“Our PharmASSIST system has enabled us to implement a standardized and greatly improved workflow that helps our staff fill prescriptions faster, more accurately, and much more efficiently. A key to our improvement is the system’s Rx imaging and tracking capabilities, which provide quick and easy access to prescription orders and status,” says Dick Ferrell, R.Ph and system ambulatory pharmacy manager. “Our staff now has defined roles within the workflow, which helps speed up the process and makes everyone accountable for their specific task. All of this is critical to us as we are on a tight leash when it comes to wait times. With PharmASSIST, we are achieving our goal for “walk-up” wait times by filling and delivering a prescription in 20 minutes or less.”

Swedish Medical Center’s outpatient pharmacy fills approximately 450-500 prescriptions a day with peak periods of 550-600 prescriptions daily. The hospital’s PharmASSIST Symphony+ System is comprised of 2 PharmASSIST cabinets, 100 dispensers, and 7 workstations for Order Entry/Rx Imaging, Auto-Fill/Manual-Fill, Rx Verification, Will Call Bin Management, and Electronic Signature Capture. The PharmASSIST system is integrated with their Health Business Systems (HBS) pharmacy management system, ensuring real-time prescription order flow for all Rx fulfillment tasks.

“Another key to our getting up and running quickly was the compact size and modularity of the PharmASSIST cabinets. We have very limited space and did not have the room to install a robotic system,” says Ferrell. “The small footprint of the cabinets enabled us to install them as end caps on the ends of our shelves. So instead of losing shelf space and getting into major renovations, we very easily fit the cabinets into our existing layout.”

Swedish Medical Center is the largest, most comprehensive, nonprofit health provider in the Pacific Northwest. It is comprised of three hospital campuses (First Hill, Providence and Ballard), Swedish Home Care Services and Swedish Physicians – a network of 11 primary-care clinics. In addition to general medical and surgical care, Swedish is known as a regional referral center, providing specialized treatment in areas such as cardiac care, oncology, orthopedics, high-risk obstetrics, neurological care, sleep medicine, pediatrics, organ transplantation and clinical research. For more information, visit www.swedish.org

Innovation Associates, Inc., a leader in the world of automated prescription dispensing, offers the PharmASSIST family of products to address the prescription growth, quality assurance, pharmacy workflow, and cost control challenges of all size pharmacies. With over three decades of broad-based, business experience, Innovation Associates is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality pharmacy automation products to the pharmacy industry. For more information on Innovation Associates, Inc., visit www.innovat.com.

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