Swisslog Healthcare signs an "Innovation Agreement" with Centre Hospitalier - Le Mans
Swisslog Healthcare and Centre Hospitalier - Le Mans enter into an innovation agreement to synergize their expertise in the field of pharmacy by means of the automated packaging and dispensing system TheraPick.
02 November 2021
Swisslog Healthcare announces the signature of the “Accord innovation en pharmacie” with Centre Hospitalier - Le Mans, a protocol of cooperation to synergize the expertise in pharmacy by means of TheraPick.
More than 1100 beds, treatment of almost 150,000 patients per year, efficient care settings and the high social and environmental responsibility standards make Centre Hospitalier - Le Mans a benchmark institution in France.
The pharmacy automation system optimizes the flow of medication handling to ensure the achievement of high patient safety standards. TheraPick portions blistered medications into Blister Unit Doses (BUD). The BUD format preserves the integrity of the medication’s primary packaging and eliminates any uncertainty regarding expiration date or contamination.
Medications are delivered to the ward in a patient-specific unit dose ring. Labelled and barcoded unit doses can be conveniently dispensed. This ensures the nursing workflow becomes more efficient and enables nurses to focus more on direct patient care.
With the agreement, Centre Hospitalier - Le Mans becomes a strategic partner of Swisslog Healthcare for product developments, training center and reference site. During the commissioning and start-up of the TheraPick, we have appreciated the deep professional know-how and collaboration with the pharmacy team, and we are excited to further share our vision to lead change for better care
Guillaume Laurent, General Manager at Centre Hospitalier - Le Mans said “I’m happy to sign this agreement, as the final step of this interesting journey. I’m very grateful to the pharmacy team for their endurance and resilience in making it happen. Pharmacy automation is an important element to improve the quality of care, to contribute to medication cost reduction, and to optimize the work of our pharmacy and nursing teams.”
The central pharmacy of Centre Hospitalier - Le Mans is currently serving approx. 200 patients per day on 7 units, with patient-specific therapies created by TheraPick. A roll-out plan to serve the whole hospital has been defined. The installation of the second TheraPick unit has started in October.
“It took us a few weeks to get used to the new process because we had to integrate new skills, learn to use the machine and discover new materials” said Hélène Perrier, pole leader of Pharmacy. “The process is going to evolve further in the coming months, as we have a second TheraPick coming in and we're also going to have to reinvent ourselves on how to use the two TheraPick at the same time to be quite coordinated. Mastering both together, is going to be a new challenge, but don't worry, it's going to happen quietly.”
TheraPick is the ideal medication management solution in European and Asian Pacific markets, where hospitals are supplied with medications in blister form. TheraPick is currently installed in several hospitals in Switzerland, France and Singapore. Additional installations at hospitals in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland, Hong-Kong and Thailand are planned or in realization.
