DC DOC Adopts Electronic Medication System by ACCUflo

By Roxanne Squires

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia Department of Corrections (DC DOC) implemented Creative Strategies’ ACCUflo, an electronic medication system designed to efficiently oversee intake of medication among inmates in its correctional facilities.

ACCUflo is an intuitive, electronic medication administration record system designed to automate the manual paper-based system. It tracks every step in the medication administration process and integrates with the pharmacy system to help improve patient care, minimize medication errors and improve compliance in our installed facilities.

ACCUflo provides an efficient electronic medication administration record (EMAR) system by simplifying caregivers’ duties and workflow through allowing easy and safe access to residents’ medical records, medication and treatments. The system supports barcode scanning of medication packages to confirm proper resident, drug and dosage, and gives time prior to administration while notifying caregivers when medication or treatments are due. ACCUflo tracks when, and by whom, the medication is accessed while reporting, in real time, back to the pharmacy for a streamlined approach that reduces manual paperwork while saving time and money, according to a statement.

DC DOC sought to improve its medication administration process prior to the installation of ACCUflo, with the former process taking upwards of nine hours per medication pass. The DC DOC has now been using the ACCUflo medication management software for more than a year, with a population of approximately 1,000 in total being served.

“[Creative Strategies] first met DC DOC personnel at the NCHCC trade show and demonstrated our system. We provided them with two of our other jail clients as references. We are not the first to implement this in the corrections environment, but our system is unique in how it handles the integration with the pharmacy dispensing systems and flow of information while out in the units,” said John Carroll, president and founder of Creative Strategies.

The checks in the system are advantageous for correctional staff in helping to prevent a medication error, according to Carroll. The system also provides the nursing administrative staff with analytics to determine what level of compliance is being achieved and can identify issues with staffing or process. The inmates benefit by receiving the appropriate medication at the appropriate time and in the appropriate dosage.

Dr. Beth Mynett, medical director for DC DOC, explained that ACCUflo assures that they are providing the safest possible medication administration process for their inmates. “We specifically chose ACCUflo because it was already well-proven in comparable correctional settings, and we had high confidence that the Creative Strategies team would help us achieve valuable efficiency and cost improvements,” said Mynett.

The cost of implementing the system is dependent on the number of administration locations and inmates being served by the system. In the case of DC DOC, it has reduced the amount of time required to perform the medication pass and its associated preparation time by over half. This is in addition to the other process improvements identified on the pharmacy side, which reduced its medication cost by one-third.

“We are justly proud that the DC Department of Corrections has chosen ACCUflo as their go-to solution for managing point-of-care administration of medication to their inmate population,” said Carroll. “We share a commitment with the DC Department of Corrections in achieving clinical excellence while also improving work flow, reducing costs and limiting liability across their sizable correctional operations.”

Check out the entire article published in the November/Decemebr issue of Correctional News magazine.