Communal Pharmacies Select Datalogic’s Heron™ Desk Handheld Scanners to Read Bar Codes on Newly Mandated Italian Medical Prescription Pads
Overview
Admenta Italia S.p.A is the Italian holding company of the German Celesio AG, a European leader in retail and intermediate pharmaceutical distribution. Admenta Italia Spa manages 162 Communal Pharmacies in Emili, Romagna, Tuscany and Lombardy.
The Challenge
As of January 4, 2005, all Italian Communal Pharmacies and their branches and distributors are required to comply with a new law instituting a Central Database aimed at tracing pharmaceutical packages to monitor healthcare expenses. This law decree issued by the Health Ministry on July 15th 2004 was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale.
In order to be tracked in the distribution channel, packages distributed by the National Health Service are labeled with a clear identification label composed of two bar codes: an A.I.C. code identifying the single pharmaceutical compound and another ministerial code carrying the progressive compound numbering.
Prior to January 2005, it was sufficient to provide only the identifying compound bar code; however, now Italian pharmacies must have the capacity to read and track the ministerial bar code as well.
To comply with the tracking requirements, the Council Pharmacies, who is managed by Admenta, adopted Datalogic’s Heron™ Desk reader as the best solution.
The Solution
After evaluating several competitive solutions, Admenta chose the Heron Desk readers, as this particular reader is equipped with the most innovative technical features, best ease-of-use and guaranteed error-free data collection. The Heron Desk reader has been specifically designed to read the new prescription pads and to meet the new requirements of the pharmaceutical industry in Italy (hence the name ‘Farma model’).
When a patient goes to a Council Admenta Pharmacy to fill a prescription, the pharmacist can now associate the prescription with the patient and the prescribed medication. The Heron reader was the best solution for this application as it reads bar codes on patient card and on the medicine package.
“Every prescription can have up to six labels, resulting in up to 12 bar codes, as well as the prescription’s 1D bar codes. Datalogic’s Heron Desk reader captures the correct labels in any situation with its features,” according to Doctor Raffaella Pesaresi of the Central Council Pharmacy in Bologna.
The Heron Desk reader is also equipped with Datalogic’s patented ‘Green Spot’ technology, which is a great help to pharmacists. The ‘Green Spot’ confirms visual good read confirmation, which makes tracking easier, especially since there are several codes on the new prescription form.
The Heron Desk Farma model was specifically designed for the Italian pharmaceutical industry with pre-configured software, which reads one code after another and then concatenates the bar code information. This guarantees that all codes are correctly detected and prevents incorrect matches. This process also ensures that the information sent to the Central Database is correct.
The Results
“Heron Farma readers have proven to be an extremely effective and efficient solution” asserts Danilo Santi, responsible for Information Systems at Admenta Italia. “Pharmacists using the readers have said that the device can read codes quickly with a high first-pass read rates. They are also pleased with product’s easy-to-use, lightweight and ergonomic design. It is perfectly integrated into the pharmaceutical environment because of its innovative design.”
By using Heron Desk readers, the 162 Communal Pharmacies managed from Admenta, Italy are now all in compliance with the ministerial decree.
Customer
Italian Communal Pharmacies
Industries
Healthcare
Sub-Industry
Pharmacies
Application
Document Handling
Country
Italy
Datalogic Product
Heron™ Desk (Farma model)
