The increase incidence of adverse drug reactions among ambulatory and hospitalized patients calls for the need of pharmacy information system (PIS).
By definition pharmacy information system is a complex computer system that has been designed to meet the needs of a pharmacy department. It will allow pharmacists to supervise and have inputs on how medication is used in a hospital.
By definition pharmacy information system is a complex computer system that has been designed to meet the needs of a pharmacy department. It will allow pharmacists to supervise and have inputs on how medication is used in a hospital.
The activities which Pharmacy Information Systems have been employed in pharmacy departments include:
1. Clinical Screening: PIS detects the occurrence of drug interactions, drug allergies and other possible medication-related complications.
Once a prescription is ordered, the system will check to see if there are any possible interactions between two or more drugs taken by the patient simultaneously or with any typical food, any known allergies to the drug, and if the appropriate dosage has been given based on the patient’s age, weight and other physiologic factors. If the system pick up any of these then the sytem will give an alert or so.
2. Prescription Management: PIS is also used to manage prescription for inpatients and/or outpatients. When a prescription is made and drug is order the computer system accordingly and dispense such drug. This will allow easy tracking of the prescriber, date and time drug was dispensed. Labels are also made, bearing instructions on how drug is to be taken based on the prescription.
3. Inventory Management: PIS conducts inventory every now and then to ensure that drugs do not go out of stock especially if there are many dispensing points as in the case of decentralized pharmacy. This is an easier approach to inventory compared to that of the manual one, although some pharmacy conduct inventory and counter checking using the computer and manual system.
4. Patient Drug Profiles: PIS contains details of their current and past medications, known allergies and physiological parameters. They are used for clinical screening whenever a prescription is ordered.
5. Report Generation:PIS generates report like determining medication usage patterns in the hospital to the cost of drugs purchased and /or dispensed.
4. Patient Drug Profiles: PIS contains details of their current and past medications, known allergies and physiological parameters. They are used for clinical screening whenever a prescription is ordered.
5. Report Generation:PIS generates report like determining medication usage patterns in the hospital to the cost of drugs purchased and /or dispensed.
6. Interactivity with other systems: PIS interacts with other available systems such as the clinical information systems to receive prescription orders and financial information system for billing and charging.