Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan KW (1), Lo YL (1)
Affiliation :
(1)Pharmacy Department, North District Hospital
Introduction :
Ad-hoc drug replenishment is commonly encountered when stock of medications are not enough during daily dispensing activities. Previously, SOPD Pharmacy staff is required to give a telephone call to Substore Pharmacy staff and the request has to be made verbally. During the process, manual transcription of the request is needed and the replenish record has to be made manually. This process will lead to several challenges: 1. Verbal and manual interpretation is needed through telephone, staff may misunderstand the request which will lead to wrong item being picked, especially medications with multi-strength that are prone to errors. 2. The efficiency is very low if phone call is needed, it takes time for the staff to pick up the phone and record down the ad-hoc request. 3. Essential information may not be complete on the written record.
Objectives :
This improvement project aims to: 1. Improve medication safety by replacing the verbal ad-hoc replenishment request by a computerized system. 2. Improve the efficiency of the replenishment process. 3. Maintain a clear and complete record by the computerized replenishment request printout.
Methodology :
A computerized system has been designed and implemented in order to replace verbal and manual ad-hoc replenishment request. The requesting staff only needs to scan the barcode on the label, input the requested quantity and a click, the computerized system will generate a duplicate request printout in substore instantly. The request printout will also include batch and expiry date information on the label in order to facilitate the replenishment process. Substore staff is then pick the requested item by referencing the item name, quantity required, batch number, expiry date and most importantly the location of the items printed on the request printout. One of the duplicate is then kept in the substore for record keeping while the other is returned to the requester.
Result & Outcome :
The computerized system can highly improve medication safety and operation efficiency on the ad-hoc replenishment process. After implementation of the new computerized system, there is no incidence of wrong picking of ad-hoc drug replenishment from substore. It is highly due to the reduction of verbal and manual communication as well as the location stated on the request printout. SOPD Pharmacy staff and substore staff are both interviewed on the acceptance and usefulness of the new system, the feedbacks are all positive to this new system. All staff agree that the new system can both enhance the medication safety as well as the operation efficiency.
