Omnicell, Inc. (OMCL), today announced that Billings Clinic is the first hospital to integrate Omnicell and Cerner remote cabinet functionality. The interoperability between the Omnicell automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) and Cerner Millennium(®) EHR, via the CareAware iBus(®), has resulted in new efficiencies in the medication administration workflow. This collaboration has enabled nurses to issue, view availability and waste medications in a single view, saving nursing time and leading to increased patient safety.

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The interoperability efforts between the two companies is planned to expand to include direct connectivity between Omnicell and Cerner systems via Cerner's CareAware iBus, and extend to include supply and anesthesia systems integration.

A recent analysis from the West Health Institute estimates that improving interoperability between medical devices and electronic health records (EHRs) in hospitals could save more than $30 billion a year while improving patient care and safety. The report stated that among the sources of savings could be increased clinician productivity, because of less time spent entering device data manually into EHRs ($12 billion), and the reduction of adverse events, because of  "safety interlocks" ($2 billion).(1.)

"At Billings Clinic one of our primary missions is to ensure that we get medications to our patients safely and efficiently," said Kyle Townsend, director of pharmacy. "We are excited to be a partner with these two leading healthcare technology companies to find innovative ways to improve our medication delivery and demonstrate the efficiencies that interoperability is bringing to healthcare."

Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana, is a 285-bed hospital with a 90-bed skilled nursing and assisted living facility. Billings Clinic is a Magnet-designated hospital and Accountable Care Organization. The healthcare facility continually strives to provide their clinicians with the most up-to-date technology for ensuring quality patient care.

"We are delighted to collaborate with Cerner to provide customers like Billings with interoperable solutions that will improve the quality of care for their patients and ease the workflow for caregivers," said Jorge Taborga, executive vice president of engineering at Omnicell. "Interoperability that allows access to information from multiple sources and systems across the care continuum has become increasingly vital to improving care coordination."

"In the year since announcing our alliance, the Omnicell and Cerner teams have done tremendous work to develop an interoperable solution that saves steps in the medication process, all facilitated by the CareAware iBus platform," said Randy Lantz, vice president of engineering for Cerner DeviceWorks. "We look forward to continuing to execute on our roadmap with Omnicell to deliver additional value for our customers."

For more information about the Omnicell and Billings collaboration, please click here.