Evaluation of Development Status and Application Effect of Outpatient Pharmacy Automatic Dispensing System in Mainland China

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the current situation and effect of automatic dispensing system in the outpatient pharmacy in China, and to provide reference for developing "smart" pharmacy. METHODS CBM, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang literature databases were searched with the key words of "automatic drug distribution system" "automatic drug distribution machine" combined with "application" "effect evaluation". According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and PRISM flow diagram, valid literatures were included and analyzed. RESULTS A total of 1 372 studies were retrieved from the database, and 196 studies were finally included into the analysis after screening. At least one author in 120 hospitals introduced the construction of the automatic drug delivery system (121 units installed), or evaluated the user effect. Willach Heise, Iron and Rowa were the top three brands installed, accounting for 28.1%, 22.3% and 9.9% of the total brands, respectively. The overall automated prescription dispensing rate reached 40%-70%. Compared with the traditional manual mode, the dispensary efficiency increased by 30.0%-50.0%, the dispensary error rate decreased by 32.0%-66.0%, and the labor intensity decreased by 18.4%-65.5%, which significantly shortened the time for patients to obtaining medicine, optimized the outpatient service workflow, and improved patients' satisfaction. But at the same time, it also had many disadvantages including unstable operation and large investment cost. CONCLUSION The automatic dispensing system of outpatient service is developing rapidly and has obvious advantages over the traditional dispensing system. But there are also many disadvantages how to optimize quality control ability of automatic drug dispensing machine, reduce the failure rate and maximize the advantages of the equipment still needs to be explored and improved continuously.