Dispensing includes all of the steps
necessary to translate a medication order (prescription) into an individualized
medication supply that is both safe and appropriate. In recent years,
progress has been made toward the development of a fully automated system for
the purpose of medicine dispensing. In addition,
dispensing support systems using mobile information terminals, and the like, have
also been employed as measures to prevent dispensing errors. Automating the
dispensing, or having it replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) will not,
however, eradicate human error. Thus, measures against human error will
continue to serve as an important topic. And hospitals are required to improve
the efficiency of the pharmacy department. For these purposes, attention has
now shifted to Supply Processing and Distribution (SPD).
In this study, the
authors measured for the gaze of the pharmacist and SPD, and examined the
factors affecting dispensing error; moreover, they examined prevention of the
human error. 78 pharmacists and 12 SPD members were enrolled and the
investigation was conducted from July 1 to 31, 2018. The pharmacist’s
average age was 29.4 ± 4.2 years old (one male and 4 female, their incumbency 2
- 15 years). The SPD member’s average age was 32.5 ± 5.0 years old (all female,
their incumbency less than a year). The authors conducted an eye tracking study
to evaluate the picking by the subjects, during their regular work activity.
In the results of
the eye tracking, SPD members tended to spend a greater number of gaze time and
gaze counts, for each medicine, on “medicines” and “picking lists,” than
pharmacists. On the other hand, when pharmacists picking medicines, they
performed various work operations in parallel, such as checking the
prescription and looking the next shelf location. It was conjectured that SPD
members had more clearly defined items to check when picking, compared to pharmacists.
This may have possibly led to a lower chance of dispensing errors being
introduced by SPD members.
These results
suggest that the process of selection is not a mandatory requirement of
pharmacists during the action of dispensing. Instead, SPD members, pharmacy
assistants, or automatic dispensing devices could serve as substitutes for
picking. It is suggested that pharmacists should spend more time and effort on
prescription inspection, medicines checking and dosing operations.
Article by Yuka
Miyachi, et al, from Kinjo Gakuin University, Moriyama-ku, Nagoya, Japan.
Full access: http://t.cn/E4Mx5xn
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