Barcode Scanning in ALIS comprises of two features to assist with two distinct processes: Checking in order deliveries to stock the med carts, and passing medications. Use both features together or either feature separately.
About Barcode Scanning
When scanning medications packages, the scan value identifies an order or a group of orders. Most often, the scan value contains the order’s Prescription Number (Rx#), which ALIS gathers from the order message we receive from the pharmacy. When the scan matches information from the order message, ALIS confirms you are handling the correct order package with a "Successful Scan" message.
For utmost benefits of these scanning features, it is important to ensure your team regularly reviews your ALIS Pharmacy Inbox and processes order messages in a timely manner.
Barcode Scanning Benefits:
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With Check In Orders clinical teams can:
- Verify the physical medication on a med cart is linked to an active order in the ALIS eMAR.
- Ensure medications will successfully scan in Pass Meds.
- Use it as a reporting toll for the inventory of medications received in a cycle fill.
- In Pass Meds, Med Techs can verify they are administering:
- The right medication
- To the right resident
- At the right time
Enable Barcode Scanning
To enable Barcode Scanning, you must have a live pharmacy connection in ALIS. It is also strongly recommended to enable barcode scanning only after your team is 'live' on the ALIS eMAR and once you have received at ideally 2-3 cycle fills. The full enablement process typically takes around 2-3 weeks, however timing is dependent on testing and may vary based on your pharmacy's barcoding configurations.
Steps to enablement:
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Contact your ALIS Onboarding Manager, Account Manager, or our Customer Success Team to communicate interest in using this feature as well as your cycle fill frequency and desired 'go-live' timeline. Be sure to include your pharmacy in this communication.
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- ALIS does not distribute scanners, so you will need to coordinate with your pharmacy on the scanner type and purchasing responsibility. The scanner type may need to be calibrated by your pharmacy prior to use.
- Your pharmacy may use 1D or 2D barcodes, and the ALIS team will ensure that your ALIS barcode scanning feature is set up to accommodate the types of codes on your pharmacy's orders. All 1D/2D scanners models should work for ALIS scanning, however it is always helpful to communicate the scanner type to the ALIS team.
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ALIS will respond to you and your pharmacy team requesting barcode image examples. This is a crucial part of the process and required for our team to conduct proper testing and ensure that your physical orders will be recognized by ALIS when scanned.
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Be prepared to provide ALIS barcode images with these specifications:
- Only active orders (those that have been processed in your Pharmacy Inbox)
- At least 2-3 images per order type: Routine and PRN
- Both single dose and multidose packaging (any applicable for your community's orders)
- Images of orders for at least 2-3 different residents
- Ensure resident name and order details are visible in the image or indicated via email
- If there are multiple barcodes on the packaging, indicate which one your team uses to scan
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Be prepared to provide ALIS barcode images with these specifications:
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- Once testing has been completed, ALIS will coordinate with your team on specific settings and timing for full enablement of the feature (particularly if you are using scanning in Pass Meds).
Check In Orders
This feature is used as an inventory tool. Using a barcode scanner to check in orders links the active order details processed from the pharmacy to the physical orders you receive in a delivery. This process also ensures medications will be scannable in Pass Meds. Once an inventory is completed, there is a report showing details of active orders in ALIS checked in and any orders that have not been checked-in.
Check In Orders does not replace the need to process the orders on the Pharmacies page. It is required that orders are processed on the Pharmacies page before you can complete the check-in process. If a package is scanned that connects to an order message sent to ALIS but has not yet been processed in the inbox, a message will appear to explain this.
This prevents having to rely on the visual comparison of a medication package to the details on a resident's Manage Orders page. You can instead rely on the scans to be sure that the package on your med cart matches the order details in ALIS.
For more information, refer to this Check In Orders with Barcode Scanning guide.
Scanning in Pass Meds
This feature helps create administration records from a physical scan of a package. Scanning orders saves time spent otherwise searching for the correct order to document in the ALIS Pass Med page. The addition of the barcode scan ensures that these details are physically verified by the scanner at the time of administration. Instead, you simply scan the order you need to document.
Once an order is scanned, you can then select the correct outcome (Passed, Refused, Adverse Reaction, Other) and add details as needed. There is also the option to have ALIS automatically preselect an outcome when the order is scanned, and it is common to set this to "Passed". For assistance with Barcode Scanning settings, contact your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team.
For more information, refer to this Barcode Scanning in Pass Meds guide.
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