By Healthcare Facilities Today

CLEVELAND - Codonics, a global leader in patient safety, medical imaging and information management solutions, today announced its partnership with Intelligent Hospital Systems (IH Systems), a medical device company focused on the design and development of automated solutions for hospital environments. IH Systems will offer Codonics Safe Label System SLS 500i as an option with its RIVA automated IV compounding system to provide customers with comprehensive barcode medication labeling. Using the system, syringes and IV medications prepared by hospital pharmacies will include a Joint Commission-compliant, full-color label that will increase patient safety in operating rooms and post-anesthesia care units. 

Codonics SLS labels are Joint Commission-compliant and color-coded according to American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) defined drug classifications. Every medication label produced by the system includes a 2D barcode, allowing for pre-administration verification with the anesthesia record and electronic record (EMR) to document the anesthesia report.

"Safe Label System was designed to increase patient safety and reduce the element of human error," said Peter Botten, president and CEO of Codonics. "The partnership between Codonics and IH Systems enables healthcare providers to significantly enhance medication safety and regulatory compliance for all syringe and IV medications prepared in pharmacy. Together we are creating an industry-leading approach for medication safety and helping to control outsourced prefill syringe costs."

Used in combination, SLS and RIVA will enable a hospital pharmacy to produce full-color, compliant labels for injectable and intravenous medications used in anesthesiology, helping to ensure that the right medication is administered to the right patient prior to, during and after surgery.

"The use of the Codonics labeling system in conjunction with RIVA has allowed Mission Hospitals to produce color-coded anesthesia syringes consistent with the American Society of Anesthesiologists recommendations," said Tracy Wilson, Pharmacy Senior Operations Manager.  "Without Codonics system, we would not have obtained buy-in from our anesthesia group.  The color-coding of syringes adds a level of patient safety that is paramount when practicing anesthesiology."

"RIVA was designed to eliminate human error and contamination in the pharmacy medication compounding process," said Dr. Niels Erik Hansen, president and CEO of IH Systems. "The addition of SLS labels to RIVA's built-in labeling system adds another level of safety by reducing the risk of mistakes in the delivery and administration of IV medications to vulnerable patients in the OR and post-anesthesia settings."

For more information visit www.codonics.com.