Description
Omnicell is an American multinational healthcare technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It manufactures automated systems for medication management in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and medication adherence packaging and patient engagement software used by retail pharmacies. Its products are sold under the brand names Omnicell and EnlivenHealth.
History
1992-1999
Omnicell Technologies, Inc. was founded in September 1992 by Randall A. Lipps after his daughter was hospitalized at birth and he observed nurses had difficulty locating medical supplies. With the help of graduate students from Stanford University, he developed a prototype of a system that automated inventory management tasks performed manually by nurses.
With Lipps as the chairman of the company, it commercially began developing automated supply cabinets in 1993. The cabinets were capable of tracking transaction data, inventory levels, expenses, and patient billing. Sales figures reached $7.7 million by the end of 1995 and increased the following year to $21.5 million. The company expanded services by developing pharmacy automation systems for dispensing medications in 1996. They expanded their product line in 1999 by acquiring the SureMed line of pharmacy cabinets from Baxter Healthcare Corp.
2000-2020
By the end of the 1990s, the company had installed more than 14,000 automated dispensing cabinets in more than 1,300 healthcare facilities, and sales grew to $50 million. Omnicell went public in August 2001, changing the company’s name to Omnicell, Inc.
In 2002 Lipps assumed the role of CEO, replacing Sheldon D. Asher. In 2003, Omnicell acquired BCX Technology, Inc., a maker of wireless, handheld bar-code scanners that could track pharmaceutical dispensation. The company further expanded with more acquisitions. Its purchase of MTS Technologies added multiple-dose medication blister cards used by retail pharmacies to encourage medication adherence. The acquisition of Aesynt Inc. added pharmacy robots for inventory management, specialized IV compounding robots to remove human error, and pharmacy data intelligence software. The acquisition of Ateb, Inc., which provided patient engagement and patient communication systems to retail pharmacies, led to the formation of the EnlivenHealth business segment in 2020.
