Hamad Medical Corporation’s Al Wakra Hospital has become the first in the Middle East to introduce an intravenous (IV) station robot.
The system is expected to start servicing Al Wakra Hospital’s units this month. The technology is expected to be extended to other HMC hospitals later.
The IV station robot is intended to prepare IV admixtures without human intervention, “ensuring the highest standards of accuracy and safety”, an official said yesterday.
“The automated machine is a high-precision apparatus designed to safely manage the mixing and dispensing of in-hospital preparations,” the official explained.
“The IV robot provides user protection against direct exposure to medications and needle pricking, securing a safe work environment. Once the mixtures are prepared, they are administered by the medical staff.”
Al Wakra Hospital’s Pharmacy Department director Dr Fathia Salama said the machine had been “rigorously tested”.
“The system has been programmed to prepare IV admixtures as per the needs and requirements of our patients. The system has established conformance to international standards, and has been further tested by the Infection Control Department at HMC,” Dr Salama said.
Al Wakra Hospital’s Pharmacy Projects and Informatics manager Tamer Nabil Abbas said it took more than six months to prepare the robot to put IV admixtures in order.
“HMC engineers, their counterparts from the robot manufacturers and the head of Inpatient Pharmacy at Al Wakra Hospital worked jointly to modify the system whereby it would work in harmony with the pharmaceuticals supplied by Qatar Pharma – a local pharmaceutical company.
The robot has been successfully tested on 30 different IV admixtures,” he said.
“The robot has been designed to function in an efficient, user-safe and precise manner and provides unprecedented outcomes that serve the ultimate goal of patient safety,” Abbas added.
HMC Pharmacy Department’s executive director Dr Moza al-Hail said the overall objective in adopting the new robot system was to improve the healthcare services rendered to patients at all HMC’s facilities, ensuring the safety of all recipients.