What is the Importance of Using eMAR Software for Assisted Living?
Prescription medications play a pivotal role in maintaining the overall health of most residents within assisted living units. It is estimated that at least 90 percent of elderly people take around one prescription medication on a daily basis. The more prescription medication a senior care resident is expected to take, the more complex the entire schedule can get -increasing the overall risks of committing mistakes. In this aspect, the utilization of a high-end software solution like eMAR software or Electronic Medication Administration Record can help significantly.
A number of assisted living centers offer access to top-notch medication management as one of the primary services. This is aimed at helping senior care residents take the respective medications accurately. It is one of the most commonly provided reasons for senior citizens moving to assisted living centers. However, paper-based, traditional records for medication administration can be highly complex. They are immensely time-consuming and can be filled with errors. A dedicated eMAR software solution can help in streamlining and simplifying the entire process while also improving prescription medication management and the overall quality of your assisted living center.
An Insight into eMAR
eMAR stands for Electronic Medication Administration Record. It is a specialized software solution that assists senior care living centers that helps in managing resident medications effectively while offering a high-end digital alternative to conventional paper-based documents.
A high-quality eMAR system can make it immensely simpler for the entire senior living community to keep a track of the medication information of the residents -including schedules, current medications, and exact dosing details. It also helps in streamlining and automating workflows while saving valuable time and mitigating all possible mistakes.
Reasons for Senior Care Units to Use eMAR Systems
-
Reduced Paper-based MAR
Conventional paper-based Medication Administration Record or MAR will take ample work almost every month. eMAR helps in taking away the need to explicitly extract and highlight monthly reports. Paperwork can be immensely time-consuming to ensure proper sorting. At the same time, there is an increased risk of misplacing or even losing important documents.
The use of eMAR software solution helps in minimizing the requirement for leveraging paper-based MARs. eMAR offers ample flexibility and freedom to access the MAR documents of any senior care resident for reviewing and evaluating the respective medication records within seconds.
-
Enhanced Oversight
Medication management encompasses an entire team of residents, physicians, family members, caregivers, and pharmacists. eMAR helps in centralizing all core medication information towards ensuring maximum accuracy and keeping all involved parties updated.
eMAR software solution can also help in efficiently generating audits and precise reports to go through orders like psychotropics and controlled substances. An eMAR that is available with a mobile app can help in offering even more detailed oversight of the entire senior care community.
-
Improved Efficiency
Manual charting can be intensely laborious. This, in turn, increases the room for ample errors. On the other hand, eMAR software can help in offering a clear, well-defined, and simple layout of essential medications along with crucial details for seamless administration.
Most eMARs are available with the feature of instant notification to remind staff about the upcoming medication schedule as well as alerts for any missed item. This helps in improving the overall workflow efficiency. Incorporation of a user-friendly eMAR will help in minimizing the need for redundant data entry, automating current processes, simplifying existing procedures, and keeping the entire team informed with the latest updates.
-
Reduced Medication Errors
With the high-end automation of instant alerts and notifications by eMAR, communities are able to experience a major decrease in medication-related errors. Additionally, some eMAR systems also go ahead with incorporating necessary prompts -like compliance-specific questions or vitals. Some eMAR software solutions can also include the necessary medication rights of administration during the time of medication administration. It helps in ensuring that all medications are handled effectively.
-
Pharmacy Integration
When you have a direct connection with the pharmacy, it helps in improving communication. eMAR systems offer this type of communication with the help of direct integration. The integration of pharmacy solutions offered by eMAR helps in increasing the overall accuracy of medication list of every resident.
As pharmacy units will send over medication orders directly to the respective eMAR software, it will make sure that all MARs remain up-to-date and precise.
Conclusion
If you are new to the field of senior living care, you can leverage the solutions offered by an integrated eMAR software system to minimize errors related to medication.
