Enhancing patient care: Introducing state-of-the-art anesthesia workstations at Lions Gate Hospital

Each Lions Gate Hospital (LGH) operating room (OR) is now equipped with a state-of-the-art anesthesia workstation that securely stores and automatically dispenses all of the medications required by anesthesiologists for the day's surgical cases.

“Having essential medications available at all times in the OR – rather than having to go to the centrally located automated dispensing cabinet to retrieve controlled medications – is a big win," says Dr. Jacqui Hudson, LGH Anesthesiologist and Physician Lead for the LGH Redevelopment Project.

The new workstations promotes better stewardship of controlled medications:

• Creates an electronic record of all medications that have been issued and wasted.
• Attributes medications to a specific patient and anesthesiologist, including tracking what is unused and returned.
• Prints barcode labels for medications obtained from the device, allowing the anesthesiologist to double-check the medication in hand is correct.
• Notifies Pharmacy immediately of any supplies that need to be restocked.

The new workstation also support safe high-quality patient care:

• Reduces medication errors in the OR.
• Provides immediate access for the anesthesiologist in responding to a patient's changing condition during surgery.
• Enables anesthesiologists and clinicians to spend more time with patients and less time locating medications.
• Improves on-time surgery starts and reduces case delays and cancellations.

“While the workstation significantly changes anesthesiologist workflows, having all the supplies we need in a modern, well-organized accountable system is the way forward," says Dr. Hudson. “We've needed a better system for controlled substances, and this system certainly provides it."