I am a relief pharmacist for a company with a number of premises, and I can be assigned to work as
a responsible pharmacist at any of those branches. I feel fortunate that of the branches I work across,
the majority that has clients on Opioid Substitution Therapy have installed the MethaMeasure
system to manage those patients. It is only on the occasional placement that I am forced back into
what feels like the “dark ages” and we have to manually prepare the methadone doses for the
clients. What do I like about the system? Lots, but let me mention the benefits one by one.
Initial calibration in the morning is simple, and the system takes you through the process step by
step. I’m a regular user of the system, so it has become second nature – but even those seeing the
system for the first time wouldn’t be phased. Once calibrated I can be confident that the prescribed
doses being dispensed are accurate for that day.
The home screen gives me a display of all the patients that are on the system these are colour coded
– so I can see patients with active prescriptions as well as patients with doses due for collection that
day. To dispense I simply click on the patient or ask them to use the fingerprint ID function (more on
that later) and follow the on-screen instructions. What is really useful as a locum are the alerts when
patients have missed previous doses, especially when it reaches that critical three days of omitted
dose. But the patient record clearly shows the dispensing/collection history for every patient.
Patient identification via photo image and fingerprint verification is essential as a locum. I
generally don’t know the clients at the pharmacy, as I tend to be only there for a single day, so this
proof of identity is critical to ensure the safe supply of methadone to the right patient – much better
than just checking the date of birth or address of the individual in front of you.
Entering new prescriptions on the system is well designed too, even when I’ve not undertaken that
activity for a while, I can quickly enter the schedules of dosing and take-home doses by simply
following the on-screen instructions. I really do find it is a clear and well-designed user interface for
pharmacists and the pharmacy team.
As a company we also use the online controlled drugs register ‘CD-Rx’ and we have for a number of
years. The benefit of this, is the integration of this and the MethaMeaure system, so at the end of
the day, I know we won’t have missed an entry for any of the patients who have collected. The end-of-day routine ensures I review the register entries to be made and it captures my acknowledgement
that it is a true record.
But having all this technology is great, but what happens when you come across a unique situation,
that you’re not sure how to deal with in terms of the system? This is where the MeathaMeasure
support team excel! They are there at the end of a phone, with the ability to remote onto the system
and talk you through any issues, or amendments you need to make. I’ve probably had to call the
team three times in as many years, but each and every time the team have been prompt at
answering my call, and resolved my issue or answered my questions – this saves my time, saves the
company time, and most importantly keeps these patients safe.