Improved Pharmaceutical Administration Through Optimization of Pharmacy Function Modules

OBJECTIVE To improve pharmaceutical administration through optimizing and developing functional modules of inpatient pharmacy based on a new hospital information system(HIS). METHODS A series of measures were put into effect to optimize inpatient pharmacy function modules, including to compute ratios for drug inventory/lower limit and inventory/consumption, upgrade features for recording and querying of drug validity and availability, provide alerts for configuring prescription specifications/inventory definitions for new drugs and addressing abnormal drug availability status, develop an interface to manage drugs purchased for specific patients, and preset parameters in relation to safe medication, such as prohibited or most frequently used routes, frequencies, highest single/daily dose, maximum usage days, and so on. RESULTS By implementation of the above-mentioned measures, the number of unplanned drug requisition per week was decreased from (4.2±1.2) to (2.5±0.6), drug turnover day cut down from (8.4±0.4)d to (7.4±0.6)d, number of recorded irrational medical order per month reduced from (22.2±3.2) to (5.3±1.1), managerial quality in drug requisition, valid date and availability improved, and the working efficiency of pharmacists enhanced effectively. CONCLUSION Optimization and development of inpatient pharmacy function modules based on the new hospital information system can improve pharmaceutical administration and provide guarantee for medicinal treatment of patients.