Hi,

We are in the process of reviewing our downtime workflows for automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) and are seeking input around how other organizations are managing medication dispensing and override access during periods when the ADCs are functional, but are not receiving updates from the EHR (e.g., interface down, EHR downtime, etc).

1. During downtime, do you direct team members to pull needed medications that are available in the ADC as override or do you redirect dispensing to the pharmacy?
2. If pulling as override, does this apply universally to all stocked medications or do you have restrictions around which medications may be pulled (e.g., emergency medications only)?
3. What criteria do you use to determine whether a cabinet is placed in critical override status (as in all medications are accessible via override, even if overrides are normally restricted for a specific medication)?
4. Does your organization enable automatic critical override? If so, what thresholds do you use for entering and exiting critical override status?

Thanks in advance for your help with this. If you're willing to share your ADC downtime policies, please attach to your reply or send to sara.mirzaei@childrenscolorado.org.

I am happy to post a summary of responses as well.

Thank you,

Sara

Sara Mirzaei, PharmD, BCPS ' Clinical Pharmacist 13123 East 16th Avenue, Box 375 ' Aurora, CO 80045 Connect with Children's Hospital Colorado ' childrenscolorado.org ' Facebook ' Twitter ' Pinterest