Pharmacy Management
Optimization of intelligent management of outpatient pharmacy based on reducing patients' waiting time for drugs during peak hours
Wang Tieshan, Lin Zhicheng, Du Zhanying, Tang Qianjie
Published 2021-05-15
Cite as IMHGN, 2021, 27(10): 1576-1580. DOI: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.1007-1245.2021.10.042
Abstract
ObjectiveTo reduce the waiting time for drugs of patients during peak hours by improving the Hospital Information System (HIS) functions and optimizing automation equipment of outpatient pharmacy, and to provide experiences for women and children hospitals.
MethodsWe used retrospective statistical analysis and chose the prescriptions of outpatient pharmacy in every December from 2017 to 2019 as the observation period for the evaluation indexes. We compared the impacts of drug-dispensing and screen-recording rates in different time periods (more or less than ten minutes) by improving HIS functions and optimizing automation equipment of outpatient pharmacy, respectively. Furthermore, we compared the impacts of drug-dispensing time and waiting time for drugs during peak hours by optimizing intelligent management of outpatient pharmacy.
ResultsThrough improving the HIS functions, including color label management, statistics of drug-dispensing time and the work efficiency of pharmacists, combined with optimizing automation equipment with semi-automatic counting machine and automatic drug-dispensing machine, the drug-dispensing and screen-recording rates in "0 min < drug-dispensing time ≤ 10 min" time interval was increased from 95% to over 99% ( P<0.05). The pharmacists' drug-dispensing and screen-recording time was reduced from (5.69±1.65) min to (2.52±0.27) min during peak hours, the patients' waiting time for drugs was reduced from (9.11±1.00) min to (7.20±0.57) min (bothP<0.05).
ConclusionsThrough improving the HIS functions and optimizing automation equipment of outpatient pharmacy, the patients' waiting time for drugs during peak hours has been reduced, and the work efficiency of pharmacists has been improved. The practical experiences of optimization of intelligent management of outpatient pharmacy are effective and feasible.
Key words:
Hospital Information System (HIS); Function optimization; Waiting time for drugs; Outpatient pharmacy
Contributor Information
Wang Tieshan
Department of Pharmacy, Guangdong Women and Children Hospital, Guangzhou 511442, China
Lin Zhicheng
Department of Pharmacy, Guangdong Women and Children Hospital, Guangzhou 511442, China
Du Zhanying
Department of Pharmacy, Guangdong Women and Children Hospital, Guangzhou 511442, China
Tang Qianjie
Department of Pharmacy, Guangdong Women and Children Hospital, Guangzhou 511442, China