edication dispensing is a patient care service that supports reasonable medication usage and access to medications. Evidence on the influence of drug distribution on patients' health outcomes is lacking, nevertheless. The goal of this study was to evaluate how drug dispensing affected patients who visited community pharmacies in terms of their clinical, humanistic, and financial results.
Dispensing is the act of preparing and administering medication to a specific individual in accordance with a prescription. It entails accurately preparing and labelling medicine for patient usage as well as correctly interpreting the prescriber's instructions. Any mistake or failure in the correct dosage can have a significant impact on the patient's care, regardless of where it is done or who administers it. One of the essential components of rational drug use is dispensing.
Preparing and distributing medication for a customer to take later, taking measures to ensure the medication is pharmaceutically and therapeutically appropriate for its intended use, and taking measures to assure its usage are all included in dispensing. Nurses dispense either with or without a pharmacist's assistance.
Pharmacist involvement in Dispensing
Nurses make ensuring a drug is used properly once a pharmacy has already examined its suitability and prescribed it to the client. Examples of dispensing that involves a pharmacist include:
Giving a client who is departing on a day pass medication to use while they are gone
Providing a health care worker who is assisting a client to a meeting outside the organisation with medicines for the client to take while away from the organisation as part of an outpatient treatment programme with medication provided by a provincial agency (e.g., BC Renal Agency, BC Centre for Disease Control).
Giving a patient medication (such an antibiotic or inhaler) to bring home after being released from an inpatient ward.
Pharmacist’s not involved in Dispensing
The pharmacological and therapeutic compatibility of the drug for the client and its proper usage are ensured by nurses when a pharmacist has not assessed the medication's suitability (or when it is unclear if this was done). Cases of dispensing without the assistance of a pharmacist include:
Giving a patient who has just left the ER enough pain medicine to get them through until the drugstore opens the following day
Giving a patient at a treatment facility an antibiotic course to treat an infection
Correct Dispensing Procedure
Verify that the prescriber's name and signature are on the prescription.
Verify that the medication is dated and includes the patient's name.
Prevent dispensing from unlicensed prescribers or without a prescription.
Compare the title of the prescription medication with the name on the packaging.
Verify the container's expiration date.
Where relevant, determine the overall price of the medication to be dispensed based on the prescription.
Explain to the patient how much the medication will cost.
Provide receipts for each payment.
Return the medicine that was dispensed.
Inform the patient about dosage and medication adherence.
Reduced Medicine Mistakes By An Automated Medication Dispenser
These technologies assist clinical environments like doctor's offices in providing safe dispensation to as many customers as feasible at the point of care. By including, features like: It creates a solid barrier against drug errors by integrating the good judgement of pharmacists with characteristics like:
Absolute minimum and maximum safe dosing; clinical significance scoring
lookalike/sound-alike (LASA) prescription medication pair screenings
medication dose checking
National Drug Code (NDC) numbers
dispensing quantities
days' supplies
medication dose screening for paediatric (14 years old and under) and senile (age 65 and older) patients
true safe medication messaging for pharmaceutical companies, health professionals, and patients at the point of dispense
Medication Dispensing Errors
Medication mistakes can happen at various points in the patient care process, from buying the medication through giving it to the patient. Errors with medications typically happen at one of these locations:
Ordering/prescribing
Transcribing
Documenting
Administering
Dispensing
Monitoring
Most medication mistakes occur during the purchasing or prescribing process. Typical mistakes include prescribing the incorrect prescription, using the incorrect route, dose, or frequency. Almost 50% of drug errors are caused by these ordering blunders. Statistics demonstrate that between 30% and 70% of prescription ordering errors are caught by nurses and pharmacists. It is clear that pharmaceutical errors are a widespread issue, but for the most part, the issue may be avoided.
Medication Errors Types
Prescribing
Omission
Wrong time
Unauthorized drug
Improper dose
Including failing to account for the patient's liver and kidney function
Failing to document an allergy or the possibility of a drug interaction.
Monitoring errors such as not taking into consideration the patient's liver and kidney function
Failing to document the allergy or the potential for a drug interaction.
Compliance errors such as failing to adhere to the protocol or rules formed for dispensing and medicating medications.
Medication Errors Causes
Expired Product
Usually happens because of incorrect preparation storage, which causes deterioration or the usage of expired materials.
Inaccurate Time
When medication is taken for a longer or a shorter amount of time than recommended, duration mistakes arise.
Incorrect Planning
Blending or some other sort of preparations before the final injection frequently causes this problem. An illustration would be selecting the improper constituent diluent.
Incorrect Strength
Numerous stages of the drug procedure could result in the wrong strength. When identical bottles or needles with the wrong strength are chosen, it typically happens because of human mistake.
Inaccurate Rate
Most frequently happens when drugs are infused or pushed into the IV. This can have serious adverse drug effects and is particularly risky with several medications. Examples include red man syndrome from the quick dose of vancomycin or tachycardia from rapid IV epinephrine.
Incorrect Timing
It can be difficult to give planned doses exactly on time, both at home and in institutions. The issue is that taking some medications with or without meals might drastically affect how well they are absorbed. As a result, it's crucial to keep to the prescribed timings because failing to do so could result in under- or overdose.
Unsuitable Dose
This mistake comprises an excess dose, an overdose, and a dosage miscalculation. Errors of omission occur when a pharmaceutical dose that was scheduled to be administered not done and wrong route administration of a medication is all examples of erroneous doses. The most common causes of errors resulting from inappropriate routes include poor labelling or tubing that is adaptable to multiple connectors/lines of access.