At Cedar Crest Hospital in Belton, Texas, pharmacy leadership spent the past year focused on one core shift: modernizing medication distribution to improve safety in a high-risk psychiatric setting.
Edith Okolo, PharmD, director of pharmacy, said 2025 marked a major technology upgrade for the hospital, as it transitioned from legacy dispensing machines to new automated medication cabinets. Dr. Okolo described the change as resource-intensive but transformational.
The rollout required staging and staff training, programming medication cabinets and managing inventory transfers across units. All pharmacy employees were trained on the new system, and technicians supported programming and deployment.
Dr. Okolo said the new machines expanded the pharmacy’s ability to monitor medication use, improve accuracy and strengthen diversion oversight.
“With those machines, you have real-life tracking of monitoring diversion potentials,” she said. “They also reduce errors.”
The upgraded cabinets introduced barcode scanning for all stocked medications, allowing pharmacy teams to verify that the correct drug is placed in the correct location — and that the right medication reaches the right patient at the right time.
“We have a scanning system that scans every medication that goes into the machine,” Dr. Okolo said, adding that the technology helps ensure accuracy at each step of the medication-use process.
She said the system has made pharmacy operations smoother now that Cedar Crest has moved past the launch and post-implementation phases.
Beyond technology, Dr. Okolo said her top priority heading into 2026 is patient safety — particularly ensuring timely, accurate medication delivery and minimizing errors in a psychiatric care environment.
“At the end of the day, when we have patients, we expect them to be safe,” she said. “We don’t want patients getting worse under our care.”
That focus extends to workflow efficiency and staff productivity, with an emphasis on reducing obstacles that could delay patient care.
Dr. Okolo highlighted an initiative aimed at improving access to long-acting injectable psychiatric medications, which can be prohibitively expensive for some patients. Cedar Crest has begun working to provide these medications in house so clinicians can monitor patient response before discharge and help determine whether the therapy is appropriate long term.
Looking ahead, Dr. Okolo said medication shortages remain one of the most difficult operational challenges Cedar Crest will face. She pointed to a recent shortage of injectable lorazepam — a critical drug in psychiatric settings for seizures, agitation and emergency use — as an example of how supply disruptions can quickly become a clinical risk.
“When we are short, it’s a crisis issue,” she said, adding that it is important for the hospital to collaborate with other clinicians to identify safe alternatives.
She also cited rising drug costs and budget pressure as ongoing financial headwinds.
Despite those challenges, Dr. Okolo said Cedar Crest sees opportunity for growth — particularly as demand for mental health services continues to rise nationwide. She pointed to community education, expansion of youth residential services and broader mental health awareness as areas where the organization hopes to expand impact.
