One Platform, Actionable Insight: A Comprehensive Approach to Diversion ManagementOne Platform, Actionable Insight: A Comprehensive Approach to Diversion Management
Drug Diversion Insights with Terri Vidals
Conversation with Omnicell’s Rick Couldry and Jay Patel about integrated diversion management tools, Omnisphere’s connected platform, and how proactive, data-driven systems can support safer controlled substance handling. Aimed at healthcare teams, it outlines practical workflows, common challenges and key questions for evaluating diversion technology.
30:09•2 Sept 2026
One Platform, Less Guesswork: Smarter Drug Diversion Management
Episode Overview
- Reactive diversion programmes increase risk for providers, patients, families and communities, making earlier risk identification crucial.
- Integrating diversion management directly with Omnicell data reduces IT burden and improves data quality compared with standalone tools.
- A ranked worklist with risk scores, peer comparison and flagged events helps diversion specialists prioritise who to review first.
- Cloud-based platforms like Omnisphere allow health systems to see diversion risk and controlled substance use across multiple hospitals in one place.
- Pharmacy leaders are encouraged to ask who designs the product and what the future roadmap is, to ensure it will keep pace with changing technology.
“You can’t solve a connected problem with disconnected tools.”
What drives someone to seek a safer, smarter way to manage controlled substances in hospitals? This conversation with Omnicell’s team digs into exactly that, giving pharmacy leaders and diversion specialists a practical look at how technology can support safer care. Host Terri Vidals chats with Rick Couldry, Chief Pharmacy and Clinical Officer, and Jay Patel, Product Manager for Diversion Management, about why traditional diversion programmes so often feel one step behind.
Rick shares how he went from paper counts and endless spreadsheets to modern analytics, and why a reactive approach puts “providers, their family, their community and their patients at risk.” Jay walks through Omnicell’s diversion management tool from the user’s point of view. Instead of being buried in alerts, a diversion specialist logs into a ranked worklist, with caregivers scored and colour-coded by risk.
They can drill into peer comparisons, flagged events over a 90‑day window, and quickly move from triage to investigate, escalate or resolve. It’s all designed so, as Jay phrases it, “you can’t solve a connected problem with disconnected tools.” A big chunk of the chat focuses on Omnisphere, Omnicell’s cloud-based platform.
Rick explains how bringing data from multiple hospitals into one place gives a single, consistent view of controlled substance use and diversion risk, while Jay stresses that diversion management is available now, even for sites not yet on Omnisphere. For anyone in healthcare trying to reduce diversion, this conversation offers straightforward questions to ask vendors, examples of clunky manual work (purple-paper reports, anyone?), and a clear picture of how an integrated platform can support safer practice.
It’s technical, but grounded firmly in real-world headaches. If you’re juggling spreadsheets, false positives and limited staff time, this might get you thinking about what kind of system you want backing your diversion programme next.
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