Hospital pharmacy is the health care service, which comprises the art, practice, and profession of choosing, preparing, storing, compounding, and dispensing medicines and medical devices, advising healthcare professionals and patients on their safe, effective and efficient use.
The computer has become a very common tool in all the areas of science and technology.
The field of pharmacy has immensely benefitted by the use of computers and will continue to do so.
The complete field of pharmacy requires computers.
2. COMPUTER SYSTEM IN HOSPITAL
PHARMACY
• Hospital pharmacy is the health care service, which comprises the art, practice, and
profession of choosing, preparing, storing, compounding, and dispensing medicines
and medical devices, advising healthcare professionals and patients on their safe,
effective and efficient use.
• The computer has become a very common tool in all the areas of science and
technology.
• The field of pharmacy has immensely benefitted by the use of computers and will
continue to do so.
• The complete field of pharmacy requires computers.
3. COMMON APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTERS IN
PHARMACY
• Drug discovery - Drug discovery is the process through which potential new medicines are
identified. Researchers have now used a computational approach to identify proteins that will
interact with potential drugs to speed up the process of drug discovery.
• Drug design – Drug design, often referred to as rational drug design , is the inventive process of
finding new medications based on the knowledge of a biological target. It involves design of small
molecules that are complementary in shape and charge to bimolecular target. Drug
design frequently relies on computer modeling techniques . This type of modeling is sometimes
referred to as computer-aided drug design
• Drug analysis
• Manufacturing of drugs
• Inventory control
• Collaboration of pharmacist with other professionals – essential for research
• Provides solutions for time consuming manual tasks
4. USE OF COMPUTERS IN HOSPITAL
PHARMACY
• In receiving and allotment of drugs
• Storing the details of every individual
• Professional supplies
• Records of dispensed drugs to inpatient and outpatient
• Information of patient records
• Patient monitoring
5. PATTERNS OF COMPUTER USE IN
HOSPITAL PHARMACY
• Patient record database management
• Medication order entry
• Drug labels
• Drug lists
• Electronic medication administration record
• Patient medication profiles
• Inventory control
• Management report and statistics
6. PATIENT RECORD DATABASE MANAGEMENT
• A patient record is a permanent written communication that documents information
relevant to the healthcare system
• It is the repository of information about a single patient.
• Primary clinical databases usually include the patients' medical records (PMRs), as well
as any separate repositories of data collected in medical offices, outpatient clinics, and
hospitals.
• Patient record databases may contain data collected over long periods of time, sometimes
for a patient's life-time
• Pharmacies are trialing access to electronic information about patients – with their
consent, mostly pulled from general practitioner(GP) records and on read only basis.
7. ADVANTAGES OF PATIENT RECORD
DATABASE
• The access of patient record database proved beneficial in identifying prescribing
errors – thus reducing the risk of patient harm
• Pharmacies would mostly access patient records to assist in the provision of
emergency supplies, to confirm what a patient was taking and at what dose
• Pharmacists review the data with several key pharmacy – related aspects in mind;
this will permit concise data collection while providing the pharmacist with
adequate information to develop recommendations to optimize pharmacotherapy
• Clinical pharmacists may dive right into the chart to seek out antibiotic orders and
laboratory data for serum drug concentrations and renal function assessments
8. • Helps a Cardiology pharmacy specialist with the blood pressure values from the
physical examination in order to assess the effectiveness of patient’s
antihypertensive regimen
• The pharmacist may find data lacking in some areas, which will require clarification
via additional patient interviewing
• The pharmacist can identify pertinent positive and negative components that are
key to the development of an assessment and plan
• A day-to-day, patient-based medical information system gradually to replace much of
the paper-based medical records, and to speed the flow of information throughout
the health care services.
• A longer-term information storage system supporting the patient medical record for
life and interfacing with all forms of medical care.
• An information base suitable for various types of clinical and administrative
analysis.
9. • Security:
• Electronic medical records are stored within secure databases where they can never be
lost or misfiled.
• For additional protection, tools like data backup ensure files are never destroyed due to
fire, disaster or other unforeseeable events.
• In addition, only authorized users may access files.
• Safety:
• Efficient regulation of medications can improve a patient’s quality of care and helps
prevent dangerous and avoidable oversights.
• When a prescription is written, the advantage a patient medical record system provides
is the automatic initiation of drug-drug and drug-to-allergy interaction checks.
• These checks reduce the risk of improper prescriptions and related issues that can
compromise quality of care.
12. PRINCIPLES IN KEEPING RECORDS
• Minimum records
• Review the records periodically
• Simple, useful, legible
• Confidential
13. MEDICATION ORDER ENTRY
• It is an electronic – based, automated order management and robust clinical
intervention tracking tool that enables hospital pharmacies to identify key safety,
quality, productivity and clinical improvements
DRUG LABELS
• Drug label is a written, printed or graphic matter upon any drugs or any of its
container, or accompanying such a drug.
• Drug labels seek to identify drug contents and to state specific instructions or
warnings for administration, storage and disposal.
E.g.: Do not drive after taking, once daily dosing
14. DRUG LISTS
• Drug list is the entire list of medications available in the pharmacy
• In the drug list the drugs are usually listed alphabetically with a search option
availability for searching a specific drug by entering a search string
ELECTRONIC MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
RECORD (eMAR)
• The Medication Administration Record (MAR) is used to document medications
taken by each individual.
15. PATIENT MEDICATION PROFILES
• A patient medication profile is a comprehensive summary of all regular medications
taken by a patient, including prescription, over-the-counter and complementary
medicines.
INVENTORY CONTROL
• Inventory control is the method of maintaining of stock at a level at which
purchasing and stocking costs are at the lowest possible without interference with
the supply.
• It is used to avoid out- of -stock situations.
16. MANAGEMENT REPORT AND STATISTICS
• The pharmacy management reports include information about the drugs that are
being dispensed to gain new insight into what you dispense, to whom, how much
and from where.
• It helps to create reports on billing payments, prescription revenue and profit
margins
