The E-MAR system has been designed for use by nurses to manage medication passes. Each institution establishes its own medication pass schedule. Nurses begin each pass by clicking the E-MAR icon on their touch screen.

• Displays photographs of residents on the nursing station to ensure that the medication is given to the right person.
• Keeps a running tally of how many residents still need their medication, how many are in caution mode, how many are late, and how many have been completed.
• Immediately logs dispensed medications into the database.
• Uses color coding to show at a glance whether medication has been dispensed to a resident or not, must be dispensed within the next half hour, or is overdue.
• Provides immediate access to the resident’s allergies, advance directives, attending physician information, and diagnoses.
• Displays the resident’s preferences for normal administration of drugs and precautions that must be taken when administering medication to the resident.
• Identifies residents with vision and hearing deficits.
• Ensures that the correct medication is administered by displaying pictures of the drugs.
• Links directly to a database containing precautions, interactions, dosing guidelines, and side effects of the medications.

Flags the need to take vital signs or perform glucose or PT/INR testing

• Pops up a window for recording resident vital signs, flags vital signs outside of the normal range, and displays vital signs history over the last 7, 14, or 30 days.
• Cues the nurse when taking a specific vital sign is required before giving a medication.

Provides nurses with additional tools

• Attaches progress notes to resident records.
• Alerts the nursing station when a medication needs reordering from the pharmacy.
• Identifies medications given by injection; shows an injection history and exactly where on the care receiver’s body (anterior and posterior) the injection has been given.
• Tracks PRNs (as-needed medications) that may be administered to residents and alerts the nursing station that a follow-up observation will be necessary.
• Displays all medications, not just those being administered during the current medication pass.

Meets regulatory requirements

• Supports HIPAA privacy regulations by hiding the screen when the nurse gets interrupted during a medication pass and has to walk away from the medication cart.
• Tracks the date each medication was ordered, the date the order was placed, the current administration time, and a description of the drug.
• Requires nurses to enter a reason that medication has not been administered.

For more information visit: www.ahconline.com/clinical