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Volume 353:329-331 July 28, 2005 Number 4 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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A small revolution in patient safety is taking place in the basement of our hospital. Deep underground, in a windowless room about the size of a closet, sits a 6-ft-long hydraulic machine straight out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. With the flip of a switch, it spins to life, spitting out drugs on a miniature conveyer belt. Single pills, prepackaged in foil, and bottles intermingle along the track, inching toward the end, where they are each individually bar-coded. The machine is a central part of a new hospital-wide system that is so complex it requires a multimillion-dollar budget to institute . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Drs. Wright and Katz are residents in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.

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