COMPUTER USE

IN HOSPITAL
PHARMACY
GROUP-1
 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.
 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 the design of small molecules that are complementary in shape and charge to
the 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 and manufacturing of drugs
• Inventory control
• Collaboration of pharmacist with other professionals – essential for research
• Provides solutions for time-consuming manual tasks
 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
 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
 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 patient’s 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 a read-
only basis.
 ADVANTAGES OF
PATIENT RECORD DATABASE

• The access of the 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
• Helps a Cardiology pharmacy specialist with the blood pressure values from the physical
examination in order to assess the effectiveness of the 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 speeds the flow of information throughout the health
care services.
• A longer-term information storage system supports 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.
 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 the quality of care.
DISADVANTAGE
EXAMPLE OF COMPUTERIZE
PRESCRIBER ORDER
ENTRY (CPOE) SYSTEM
 PRINCIPLES IN KEEPING
RECORDS

• Minimum records
• Review the records periodically
• Simple, useful, legible
• Confidential
 MEDICATION ORDER
ENTRY

• It is 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
• A drug label is a written, printed, or graphic matter upon any
drug or any of its containers, 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
 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.
 DRUG LISTS

• A 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 available 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.