Hospitals under Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) will have automated pharmacy services for all patients soon, says a senior official.
Currently, the automation solutions are available for inpatient services at all hospitals, said Dr Moza Al Hail, Executive Director of Pharmacy at HMC.
The automated dispensing cabinets are implemented at each inpatient ward in all HMC hospitals, in addition to the surgical theatres which is equipped with electronic cabinets with touch screens for dispensing medicines. Those solutions helped dramatically reducing the waiting time to administer the medications and reduced the error rates because they use ‘barcodes’ to retrieve medications.
“Earlier, even with the electronic prescription the nurse had to wait for the pharmacy to deliver medicines in inpatient wards, but now she can take the medicines from a cabinet located in the patient care area controlled by pharmacy,” Dr Al Hail told The Peninsula.
The automation of pharmacy services is a part of pharmacy strategy. Pharmacy services in all hospitals will acquire fully automated dispensing solutions for inpatients and outpatients,” she said.
At present, for outpatient services, the robotic dispensing machines are available at some of the HMC hospitals.
“We have a new technology and it is still on the trial phase. It is a medication dispensing similar to ATM machine and soon will be launched,” said Dr Al Hail.
“The other type of Outpatient Robotics will automate the dispensing process inside the pharmacy to ensure patient safety by delivering the right medications to the right patient, in addition to that, it will reduce waiting time. This type is available now in most hospitals like Al Wakrah and Hamad General Hospital (HGH) and will equip all new hospitals like Communicable Disease Centre,Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City and Doha Industrial Area Hospital (DIAH),” she added.
The Pharmacy Department is working extensively to integrate the new pharmacy robots in HGH, Bone & Joint Centre and Women Hospital with the Clinical Information System (CIS) of HMC hospitals’ network to make the services available for all patients.
The service was first introduced in the Middle East at Al Wakra hospital in 2014. The project is complete now and capable to serve 600 prescriptions daily with waiting time less than 15 minutes. At HGH, the Outpatient Robotics has reduced the waiting time in the Outpatient pharmacy by half and it is currently dispensing 1,800 medication packs a day. The pharmacy at the bone and joint centre, which is part of HGH pharmacies, will soon get the service up and running.
The women’s hospital has three dispensing units which will be launched soon.
National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) will implement soon four Robotic specialized for Chemotherapy. It was specifically designed to meet the unique challenges surrounding oncology care and other toxic, patient-specific preparations. This technology improves safety for the patient and the operator, and can enhance efficiency in overall pharmacy operations.
The NCCCR also became the first hospital outside the US to implement an electronic system for chemotherapy patients in 2015.
