Unit Dose System
Unit Dose System
History
50 years ago:
Space was small
Few personnel
Pharmacists role - purchase and prepare
medications
Two distribution methods:
1. Floor stock system
2. Patient prescription system
Distribution Methods: Floor Stock System
Consisted of individual storage area on each nursing unit called drug
room
Pharmacist responsible for stocking
- never sees the physicians order
Nurse reads the physicians order
- selects the drug
- prepares medication
- administer to the patient
Required minimal pharmacy resources
Assumed safe
Patients charged for drugs administered to them/billed per diem
Distribution Methods: Patient Prescription System
Medication is
Pharmacist Nurse
delivered to the
receives the administers the
unit by courier,
order and medication to
pneumatic tube,
reviews it the patient
or by a nurse
Nurse records
the when and
Order is entered Technician fills
how the drug
to the patients the order and
was
medication checked by
administered to
profile pharmacist
the patients
MAR
Order Delivery
Courier
Pneumatic Tube System: pressurized tubes that
move small containers throughout institutions
Decentralized pharmacy satellites
Computerized Prescription Order Entry (CPOE):
Pharmacists can review order any place they have
computer access to patient specific information
Will most likely become the primary form of order
delivery
Medication Administration Record
Updated on the nursing unit
Linked with the patients medication profile
In completely computerized record keeping system:
MAR is instantaneously updated with each new order
entered in the pharmacy medication profile
Some cases: a hard copy of MAR is printed every 24
hours with each new order
Unit of Use Package
Aka Unit dose packages
Reduces the burden of nurses in the administration
process
Contains:
Correct dose
Ready-to-administer form
Label:
Name of the drug
Strength
Expiration Date
Bar code identifier
On the nursing unit
Robot scans
barcode
Next patient
Automate
d Decentrali
Dispensin Nursin zed
g Cabinet g Unit Pharmacy
Central
IN SOURCING Pharmacy
Pharmacists value