The Charité Hospital’s intensive care wards use Praxikett medication software throughout the clinic

At Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, medication labels have been printed with Mediaform’s practice label software in all intensive care units since the beginning of 2021. Charité is the largest university hospital in Germany and one of the first to work with a very large number of licenses. But it was a long road to get there…

It began in early 2016 when Tom Amende, head of an intensive care unit, started looking for an uncomplicated solution for the secure printing of medication labels using the point-of-care method. After extensive internet research, visits to trade fairs and intensive consultations, the choice fell on Praxikett Designer. The web-based software contains a catalog of more than 500 standardized syringe labels in accordance with the current DIVI/DGAI recommendation and guarantees a uniform label standard throughout the clinic. This not only increases patient safety, but also considerably simplifies the entire workflow in the intensive care units. To begin with, the decision was made to carry out a pilot run on this intensive care unit with a corresponding number of licenses, a touch screen and the appropriate label printer. “Everyone was immediately enthusiastic about the software. We were now able to create DIVI-compliant labels ourselves and print them out directly on the ward,” explains Amende. “Compared to other offers, the Praxikett software proved to be the better overall system. With no major downtime – especially for the printer – and no additional costs for creating your own labels.”

Capacity problems after the rebuild

Initial challenges arose in late 2016 after extensive rebuilding and renovation work at the Charité Mitte’s ward block. The rebuilding operations added more beds to the pilot ward’s intensive care beds. Logically, the existing software licences were no longer enough for simultaneous access, and in the label printing process it also became clear that the number of printers was no longer sufficient.

As Amende explains: “Relatively quickly, we had the idea of increasing not only the number of licences but also the number of label printers to enable all the Charité’s intensive care wards to use Praxikett software in future.” His suggestion was so well received by the decision-making bodies that the software licences were increased in January 2021. All the Charité’s intensive care wards are now able to create and print the individually required labels at any time and regardless of location.

Various ways of using the Praxikett software

Each intensive care unit has found its own way of using the software to make its day-to-day work easier. In the pilot intensive care unit, around 50 percent of the labels printed using Praxikett Designer are currently used for secure medication labeling. Medication labeling as defined by the DIVI – the other half is used for self-designed labels of various kinds. Amende reports:
“We most frequently print syringe and perfuser labels with the software. But we also take advantage of the free design and creative use for newly created labels in numerous other areas – such as for markings on drainages or drip chambers as well as for pipe labels, as all labels are disinfectant-resistant and smudge-proof.” Labels for various antibiotics are also printed using the Praxikett Designer. These are not included in the DIVI range, but are frequently required in intensive care units.

In addition to medicines and disinfectants, devices are also reliably labeled. For example, ventilators are labeled with an information sticker after a successful system check. “The colleagues in the various intensive care units are particularly creative when it comes to creating new labels,” says Amende. “They create two to three new labels per week and then store them in the software so that they can also be used by all other wards.”

Open to receive suggestions and requests

What is the big advantage of Praxikett software? As well as the very wide range of identification labelling options, an enormous amount of time is saved by eliminating handwritten wording on the labels, thus also considerably increasing patient safety and security at the same time. Amende explains that “We can also save additional background information in the software – e.g. an instruction about the dilution that must be employed for ready-to-use medicines or whether a darkened syringe must be used. Thus the nursing staff’s awareness is additionally increased, and time-consuming looking things up on the package insert leaflet is eliminated.” There is also no need for the nursing workforce on the wards to allow for long distances, because there is a PC or a touchscreen monitor at every intensive care bed, and a printer in the passageway in front of every patient’s room, thus enabling flexible label printing from any bed at any time.

As well as the software running almost faultlessly, Amende sees a big benefit in “the fact that in Mediaform we have a partner who responds to our requests and suggestions for improvements, and flexibly modifies and adapts the product.”

As Mediaform’s medicinal products division manager Steffen Marienfeld explains, “The Charité is a great reference customer for us. We receive enough feedback and additional input about the software, thus allowing us to undertake the continuous, steady further development of Praxikett Designer. Ultimately, all the other customers also profit from this.” Currently, a total of 150 users in the D.A.CH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) use 850 licensed accesses to work successfully with Praxikett Software.”Charité is a great reference customer for us,” explains Steffen Marienfeld, Head of the Medical Products division at Mediaform. “We receive sufficient feedback and further input on the software so that we can continue to develop the Praxikett Designer in a targeted manner. Ultimately, all other customers benefit from this too.” There are currently 150 users in the D.A.CH region with 850 licensed accesses working successfully with the Praxikett software.