Omnicell Expands its Unity Platform to Further Integrate Workflows

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Omnicell, Inc. (OMCL) will be exhibiting at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists 2013 Mid-Year Meeting in Orlando. Omnicell's 2013 theme, "How Far Can You Reach?" reflects the company's solutions designed to support healthcare systems' patient management initiatives that increasingly extend from acute care to post-acute care environments.

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Omnicell will highlight its scalable Unity medication and supply automation platform that hospitals are using to coordinate patient care and bring safety, efficiency and cost savings across the enterprise. In addition, Omnicell will introduce the new Central Pharmacy 1.0 built on the Unity platform and will showcase its suite of Pandora^® analytics with metrics for all core Omnicell solutions. Recognizing the importance of improving medication compliance in any care setting, the company will feature its MTS medication adherence packaging solutions for use across the continuum of care.

The Unity platform is the premier automation solution that features five product families for use in a wide range of patient care venues throughout the healthcare facility connected through a single, shared database. Integrating multiple solutions across the healthcare enterprise via one shared system can save clinician time and help reduce errors by eliminating redundant data entry. Omnicell solutions that are part of the Unity platform include the fourth generation (G4) medication and supply dispensing cabinets, controlled substance management, anesthesia, and mobile medication workstations.

Omnicell continues to introduce innovations for this platform, and more than 1,000 healthcare facilities are already using the proven G4 systems. Some of the advances to be demonstrated at ASHP include Pandora analytics new drug shortage management capability, Meaningful Use 2 Certification and advanced Omnicell/electronic health record (EHR) interoperability.

Pandora now aggregates supply data across the hospital as well as medication data from central pharmacy, anesthesia and dispensing systems used in the nursing units. This integration provides facility-wide visibility of usage and inventory, enabling more informed clinical decisions and improved management of drug shortage items. In addition, the pairing of Omnicell's Controlled Substance Management system (CSM) and Pandora analytics offers a more  complete and actionable view of inventory activity to help clinicians reduce the risk of drug diversion.

To help assure data integrity with meaningful use-compliant EHR systems, Omnicell recently received Meaningful Use 2 EHR Modular certification for the company's latest 18.0 software release for the Unity platform. All Omnicell solutions on the Unity platform offer a consistent and secure operating system experience, standardized on Microsoft Windows 7.

Omnicell will highlight additional user-preference features designed to offer increased flexibility and ease of use for pharmacy, nursing and IT users, including guided cycle count, scan to restock and active user management.

At ASHP Omnicell will also demonstrate the interoperability between Omnicell and hospitals' electronic medical records systems that allows Omnicell automated dispensing cabinet functionality to be accessed directly through the EMR. This interoperable solution, currently in use at Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana, has resulted in new efficiencies in medication administration workflow that benefit nurses and can lead to increased patient safety. Representatives from Billings Clinic will be on hand in the Omnicell booth to discuss this implementation.

The next product line to be added to the Omnicell Unity platform, Central Pharmacy inventory management solutions, will bring real-time communication between medication dispensing and central distribution. This new integration is currently in use at selected customer sites. 

"Each year at ASHP we have the opportunity to meet with clinical professionals and share not only our vision of solutions for the healthcare continuum but also show concrete product innovations progressing towards that end," said Marga Ortigas-Wedekind, Omnicell executive vice president, global marketing and product development. "We are excited to discuss our single-database platform with solutions that address the needs of our customers across the full range of care settings – in other words, the entire healthcare enterprise.

"As healthcare organizations increasingly focus on population health management, Omnicell is dedicated to developing solutions that will help our clinicians meet the challenges of a rapidly changing healthcare environment," added Ortigas-Wedekind.

Visit Omnicell at ASHP 2013 in booth #101.

About Omnicell
Since 1992, Omnicell (NASDAQ: OMCL) has been creating new efficiencies to improve patient care, anywhere it is delivered. Omnicell is a leading supplier of comprehensive automation and business analytics software for patient-centric medication and supply management across the entire healthcare continuum— from the acute care hospital setting to post-acute skilled nursing and long-term care facilities to the home.

More than 2,700 Acute Care customers worldwide have utilized Omnicell's medication automation, supply chain and analytics solutions to increase operational efficiency, reduce errors, deliver actionable intelligence and improve patient safety. Omnicell Non-Acute Care solutions, including its MTS Medication Technologies brand, provide innovative medication adherence packaging solutions to help reduce costly hospital readmissions. In addition, these solutions enable approximately 6,000 institutional and retail pharmacies worldwide to maintain high accuracy and quality standards in medication dispensing and administration while optimizing productivity and controlling costs.

For more information about Omnicell, Inc. please visit www.omnicell.com.

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