Officials at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie are tracking the meds

In the wake of three recent arrests of BMH nurses accused of stealing medications – and ingesting those drugs while on duty – officials in a recent interview detailed the technological advances that allow them to monitor the dispensation of controlled substances in the Muncie hospital.

While the nurses’ arrests have no doubt resulted in heartache for the defendants and those who care about them, and created the kind of publicity any hospital would prefer to avoid, they would also appear to indicate BMH’s drug security system is working.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Zach Craig – who filed the recent charges against the nurses, and handled a similar case against a BMH anesthesiologist – said the hospital’s narcotics-monitoring system is “one of the best in the state.”

Tracking the meds

Tina Love, BMH director of pharmacy, said the hospital has been doing “proactive diversion monitoring” since 2003.

The hospital has a Pyxis system consisting of more than 40 “automated (medicine) dispensing cabinets” located throughout the facility, and a C-II safe in the pharmacy, Love said.

“All those Pyxis machines can talk to each other,” she said, and the system produces reports on what medications each machine has dispensed.

“We used them to verify activity for our pharmacy staff, when they go to refill all of these machines, and removal activity for the nursing staff and anesthesiologist staff.”

Last year, the Pyxis system was upgraded, producing “much more sophisticated” analysis of the dispensing of drugs.

“It looks at all activity, comparing users to their peers in a certain areas, as well as looking at their activity compared to everyone in the hospital.

“It certainly has a much more broad capability, to dig in deeper, and identify activity that might not have been flagged prior.”

Love said the upgraded system has been “very helpful,” but also “overwhelming,” producing a monthly report that can exceed 1,000 pages.