Reduction in order turnaround time, telephone calls, and trips to the pharmacy by means of facsimile transceivers.

The facsimile transceiver (FAX) was trialed at Beverly Hospital, Beverly Massachusetts, on the Intensive Care Unit and the Pediatric Floor from March 13 to April 27, 1987. Beverly Hospital is a 233 bed non profit community hospital. The facsimile unit was used to transmit medication orders to the pharmacy over existing telephone lines. The purpose of the trial was to determine the time saved between the writing of the medication order and the arrival of the medication on the nursing unit. This time was considered as medication turnaround time. During the trial period, a total of 1767 medication order sheets were processed via the FAX machine. The results of the trial showed that medication turnaround time has improved by an average of 90 minutes for each order placed. In addition, it was found that a total of 60 phone calls and 14 trips to the pharmacy, per day, were eliminated from both trial units combined. This resulted in an estimated time savings of 6.5 staff hours per day on these two units alone. On a hospital-wide basis, this would result in considerable labor savings for nursing staff on the floors. In addition, supply costs of medication order sheets will be reduced by approximately $3200 per year if the FAX units were used throughout the hospital. As a result of the trial, Beverly Hospital purchased 9 units, at a cost of $17,325 and implemented a hospital-wide policy of sending medication orders to the pharmacy using this equipment. This will result in improved ability of the pharmacy to respond to new orders in a more timely manner, supply cost reductions and improved use of staff.