McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, S.C., is the first healthcare facility in the United States to implement full closed-loop medication processing using Siemens Med Administration Check (MAC), Siemens Pharmacy, and Invision Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems.
   
McLeod's use of the technology supports patient safety and integrates the electronic health record with clinical decision support, lab results, and nursing clinical documentation. A Siemens Invision customer since 1997, McLeod has been steadily working toward a goal of eliminating adverse drug events.
   
From April 2002 through June 2004, McLeod measured the following outcomes as a result of its process and technology changes:

• Steps in medication administration process decreased from 17 to 5
  
  
• Decreased harmful events to a six-month average of 0.52 per 1,000 doses (compared to the national average of 2-8 harmful events per 1,000 doses)
  
  
• Decreased time from a physician writing an order until the first dose of medication being given from 105 minutes down to 8 minutes

Siemens helped McLeod install an expanded wireless network to support mobile nurses and physicians, and upgraded the HIS to include browser technology, handheld PDAs, and the Siemens Health Enterprise Dashboard. McLeod plans to add 2 to 3 hospital units on the Med Administration Check software every three weeks through March 2005, when the entire hospital will be live on MAC. In addition, following a pilot group of five physicians, McLeod is adding two physicians every month on the CPOE application.