Higher medication safety for patients and greater flexibility – this is what Lycksele Municipality hopes to achieve after the introduction of Evondos medicine-dispensing robots in a nursing home in December.
Lycksele, which already has robots in-home care, has started using robots in nursing homes using a feature called Evondos in "assisted mode". The assisted mode means that the robot is locked for the user, but that staff can take out medication and distribute it to the right person. The robot is silent and does not alarm or disturb the caretaker in any way. However, Evondos alerts the staff as usual if the medicine is not taken out. In this way, delegated staff and nurses can refill the robot with the right medication, but the actual handing over of medication to patients can be done by staff trained on the robot – regardless of delegation or not.
"This increases the safety and adherence of medication – the right medicine at the right time, for the right person. In the past, we had a high proportion of medication deviations, which sometimes was caused by a lack of staff: a single staff member was responsible for the medicines for all residents on the ward. With the help of Evondos, we hope to achieve safer medication management and a reduction in deviations. Evondos gives us a good reminder function to avoid missing a dose and is a good tool to improve the quality and safety of medication delivery, says Johanna Tossman, Head of Unit for Support, Health and Social Care in Lycksele Municipality.
The medicine-dispensing robots also increase flexibility for staff and facilitate scheduling as they are less dependent on staff with delegation.
"We have chosen Evondos medicine-dispensing robots to increase flexibility in planning. Quite simply, more staff should be able to do more. Using assisted mode means that people who, for various reasons, are not approved to delegate medication can still, with the robots' help, administer medication," says Johanna Tossman.
At the facility, there are always delegated staff on site and in the event of an alarm, it is a nurse who decides on which action to take. Making it safe but easier to share the responsibility amongst the staff.
