Q&A: Cloud-Based Systems Modernize Medication Management

Medication management in health systems across the US is running on a foundation that was never built to scale. For the nurses, pharmacists, and technicians navigating multiple logins, disconnected servers, and fragmented data systems every day, the inefficiency is not just frustrating, it is a patient safety concern.

“In some cases, especially as health systems get bigger and merge more, a nurse might move from hospital to hospital,” Rick Couldry, MS/HSPA, senior vice president and chief pharmacy and clinical officer at Omnicell, told Drug Topics®. “He or she might experience 2, 3, 4 logins to the same sort of device to access, dispense, or manage medications in their area. The shift from the site-based to cloud-based, or cloud-native, software really helps solve that problem for frontline clinical providers who are dealing with patients’ medications on a day-in, day-out basis.”

In part 2 of our interview with Couldry, he breaks down what the shift from site-based to cloud-native medication management actually looks like in practice, why it matters for health systems that are growing through acquisitions and mergers, and how a more connected infrastructure can provide a clearer, real-time picture of medications across every site of care.

From the simple analogy of updating an app on your phone to the very real consequences of a disconnected on-site server, Couldry makes a compelling case for why this technological shift is not just an IT upgrade but a fundamental reimagining of how health systems manage one of their most critical and expensive assets.

READ MORE: Medication Management Lags Due to Fragmented Data Systems

Drug Topics: Can you explain what the shift to cloud-first medication management entails?

Rick Couldry: I take it from the perspective of; think about a nurse or a pharmacy technician or a pharmacist in a health system. When you take it from that perspective, what you'll come to understand is, in the pharmacy, sometimes the pharmacist is touching 2, 3, 4 systems in order to manage medications and dispense them, get them out to wherever they need to be. From a nurse perspective, that nurse might change nursing units. Or even in some cases, especially as health systems get bigger and merge more, that nurse might move from hospital to hospital. He or she might experience 2, 3, 4 logins to the same sort of device to access, dispense, or manage medications in their area.

The shift from the site-based to cloud-based, or cloud-native, software really helps solve that problem for frontline clinical providers who are dealing with patients’ medications on a day-in, day-out basis. It helps support health systems who do not have line of sight, visibility, or understanding of their medications or where they are throughout their entire health system. It's a broken system that's fragmented across multiple systems and sites. Pulling that information and data together not only improves the ability of the health system to manage incredibly expensive, important assets for patient care, but it also creates a much more modern experience for our providers. I think everybody's probably had that experience of, “I have to log in again. Are you kidding me?” Cloud-native helps solve that problem from the frontline all the way to the top of the health system.

Drug Topics: What are some of the biggest downfalls of traditional medication management and what type of improvements does cloud-first management provide?

Rick Couldry: A good way to talk about that is just by example. A very common example that's happening in the US right now: Say a large health system either acquires or divests a hospital or a set of hospitals. In the acquisition mode, now they have a hospital that has a data system that's run by a server that is probably on site. So, it's broken. It’s disconnected. They have no visibility to that and there's no real way to get it connected because it's on the physical location. That creates all the issues and problems that we've been talking about already for today.

Cloud-native means that the software driving all of those equipment is available anywhere. At least in my mind, the easiest analogy for me is your phone. Everybody's got a phone. You get a notification from your provider, Apple, or whomever. You sign in for an update, and you just update your device, and then it happens overnight or in the moment. That kind of connectivity with systems that manage medication management is what's going to drive us forward and create a huge advantage that we don't have now, compared with the broken systems of on-site servers and separate data storage.

READ MORE: Technology and Data Resource Center