Donna Brooten of MedActionPlan.com and MyMedSchedule.com joined the Donate Life groups from around the country for the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on New Year's Day. The float, New Life Rises, honors the new life that emerges when donors make the gift of life possible through organ, eye and tissue donations. Twenty-four riders are on the float representing transplant recipients and deceased donor families. Floragraphs, made of herbs, spices, and floral materials illustrate the loved ones who gave life to those in need. Donna says, "It was an inspiring event, very humbling and hopefully this float, seen on the parade route and on national television, made more people aware of how critical the need is for organ, tissue and eye donations."

To see KTLA’s Rose Parade broadcast featuring the Donate Life float, go to this page and click on Part 1, where Donate Life appears at the 13:15 mark. 

View photos of the float and parade on MyMedSchedule's Facebook page.

A new study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine shows that a large number of hospital patients do not know which medications they are taking, according to an article at HealthDay.com. Dr. Ethan Cumbler, author of the study, explains why this can be a serious problem:

If the patient knows what medicines they're supposed to be getting and when, then they're sort of one extra layer of protection to make sure that things go well. If they don't know what medicines they're supposed to be getting or when, then they are dependent on hospital systems to work flawlessly, and the sad fact is that hospital systems in any hospital don't work flawlessly.

The HealthDay article includes some suggestions for patients from Kevin Colgan, corporate director of pharmacy at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago:

• Keep a list of medications you take so you can provide an accurate medication history when you check into the hospital.
• During your stay, ask: "What's that name of the drug you're giving me? What will it do? And what adverse drug reactions should I expect?"
• Before discharge, learn about any medications you'll be taking at home.

Read the whole article here.

“Our patients’ survival rate is 15 percent higher than the national average for patients three years post transplant, at an exceptional 96.8 percent. Our outcomes reflect care, planning and attention to detail along with a step-by step analysis of all of our processes, including education tools. MedActionPlan is part of our ‘continuum of care.’”

“We use MedActionPlan for every patient discharge, and we appreciate the program upgrades and the rapid response of your IT department.”

Pam Hester, RN
Manager, Heart Transplant
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
Spokane, WA

MedActionPlan users have been really busy! We were just looking at some statistics and thought you might find these interesting:

• MedActionPlan is now used in over 500 healthcare facilities in the U.S.
• Over 400,000 regimens have been created and saved in MedActionPlan since 2005.
• Those regimens included over 4 million medications.

As impressive as those numbers are, we think the best news is that thousands of patients each year are finding it a little easier to understand and adhere to their medication regimens.

MedActionPlan for Medication Reconciliation is a new premium service that adds sophisticated new tools to MedActionPlan programs. With this innovative solution, a facility easily documents each patient’s medications, recording when each is started, stopped, or continued. It also notes the provider and the reason for every change. This application provides an efficient, comprehensive medication reconciliation solution for hospitals adhering to the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals.

In addition to all the great features currently available in version 5.0, MedActionPlan for Medication Reconciliation includes special features to help create an efficient, flexible workflow for each facility. With new HL7 support, MedActionPlan can now interface with your existing EMR, admissions, labs, or other information systems, reducing double entry and saving time throughout your system.

For pricing and a free demonstration of MedActionPlan for Medication Reconciliation, please call us at 800-543-2230.

Hi—and welcome to our new blog! This will be the place to get the latest news and announcements, plus helpful tips for using MedActionPlan and MyMedSchedule. If you have any questions that you'd like to see answered here, click Contact Us and drop us an email. We look forward to providing interesting and useful information in the coming weeks.

Regards,

The MedActionPlan Team