Reducing the waiting time of parkinson's patients in outpatient pharmacy by improving EMR and workflow

Choi, Dan-Hee; Yim, Ji-Yoon; Lee, Yong-Hwa

doi:2014.20.1.28

Qual Improv Health Care > Volume 20(1); 2014 > Article

Quality Improvement in Health Care 2014;20(1): 28.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14371/QIH.2014.20.1.28 Published online July 30, 2014.

외래약국에서 파킨슨병 환자 투약대기시간 단축을 위한 전산 및 업무 흐름 개선

최단희, 임지윤, 이용화

서울특별시보라매병원 약제부

Reducing the waiting time of parkinson's patients in outpatient pharmacy by improving EMR and workflow

Dan-Hee Choi, Ji-Yoon Yim, Yong-Hwa Lee

Department of Pharmacy, Boramae Medical Center

Abstract

Objectives
Prescriptions for Parkinson's can be dispensed at the outpatient pharmacy. In general, the treatment of Parkinson's disease requires a multitude of drugs, sometimes taken 4 to 6 times a day at specific times as prescribed by the medical practitioner. Said "time-specific therapy" is one of the major reasons of dispensing delay observed at the outpatient pharmacy. Because our establishment lacked a computerized system to support time-specific prescriptions, they were not recognized electronically. They had to be issued and dispensed manually, which required a greater amount of time than the automated process. To solve the problem, a new sig code was developed to handle time-specific prescriptions with a comprehensive automated dispensing system to support it. This study aims to create electronic programs and streamline the process to increase dispensing performance. And thus, ensure greater patient safety and dispensing accuracy within a shorter dispensing time and also increase employee satisfaction through a decreased workload.
Methods
After identifying the problems caused by non-electronic prescriptions an automated system that allowed the issuance of time-specific prescriptions was developed. A new sig code was created that could be recognized by the Pharmacy electronic medical program, the label printer to group medications by administration times and the Automatic Tablet Counter(ATC) to count the grouped drugs accordingly.
Result
With the new sig code, the practitioner became able to electronically select the times of drug administration while issuing the prescription. This 'time-specific prescription' can now be recognized by the pharmacy electronic medical program, the label printer and the ATC like any other prescription.
Conclusion
The developed program started operating on September 2013. Although not all Parkinson's patients have been issued with the new electronic 'time-specific prescription', the overall dispensing process has become more streamlined and accurate. As the medical team continues to integrate the new system in their practice an additional decrease of the dispensing time is predicted. Future program upgrades and other new time-saving approaches are scheduled, which are expected to further increase the service quality of our outpatient pharmacy.

Key words Waiting time;Prescriptions for Parkinson's;Pharmacy workflow;EMR;