Performance evaluation of hospital pharmacy information systems in Isfahan

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Sakineh saghaeiannejad Isfahani 1
Ahmadreza raeisi 2
Hassan Jannesari 3
Asghar Ehteshami 4
Awat feiz 5
razieh mirzaeian 6
1 Lecturer, Medical Records, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
2 Assistant professor, Medical and Health Services Management, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
3 Pharm.D, Noor & Ali Asqar hospitals, Isfahan, Iran
4 Lecturer, Medical Records Teaching, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
5 Assistant Professor, Biology Statistics. University of Medical Sciences,Isfahan,Iran
6 MSc, Medical Records Teaching, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: Supporting a therapeutic approach and medication therapy management, pharmacy information system acts as one of the central pillars of hospital information system. This ensures that medication therapy is being supported and evaluated with an optimal level of safety and quality similar to other treatments and services. Methods: The present study was an applied, descriptive and analytical study which was conducted on the pharmacy information system in use in the selected hospitals. The research population included all the users of pharmacy information system. The research sample is the same as the research population. The data collection instrument was self designed checklist developed following the guidelines of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Australia pharmaceutical Society and Therapeutic guidelines of the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association. The checklist validity was assessed by research supervisors and pharmacy information system pharmacists and users. results: The findings of the study on the pharmacy information system revealed that the degree of meeting the standards given in the guidelines issued by the Society of Pharmacists, the highest rank in observing the input standards belonged to Social Services hospitals with a mean score 32.75. While teachingEducational hospitals gained the highest score both in processing standards with a mean score of 29.15 and output standards with a mean score 43.95 and the private hospitals had the lowest mean score of (23.32,17.78, 24.25) in input, process and output standards respectively. Conclusion: Pharmacy Information System (PIS) is composed of three data banks, namely patient information, medication information (managerial, financial and scientific data) and medication prescriber information. It is expected that this system be effective in three fields of operational management, financial management and scientific support to the medication services in hospitals. In addition, it is also expected that administering and using these data banks entail reduction of errors and increase of the speed of managing the orders and dispensing the medications. Hence, when PIS is to be administered, informational requirements and hardware, software, manpower and educational resources needed for establishing the medications plans, standards, policies and laws must be taken into account. In sum, the findings of the present research showed that among the 8 information systems in question, the Social Services System and Pouya Samaneh gained the highest ranks in observing the input standards, while the highest mean score in meeting the standards related to processing and output standards belonged to Sayan Rayan e Ekbatan System and Modiriat e Amar System respectively.  It is worth noting that due to inattention to such system's capabilities, all of them suffer from some deficiencies that need to be obviated Since one of the most significant and effective elements of PIS, i.e. medication's scientific data bank has been ignored and the PISs in question have not been equipped with some software suitable for providing the prescriber with scientific backup in his/her making decision process, the prescribers have just contented themselves to their own information making medication errors in health care domain inevitable. Before designing and administering PIS, due attention must be given to the users' informational requirements as well as their expectations from the system. The availability of informational elements effective on managing and monitoring the medication related complications, reducing medication errors, checking the medication therapy information to ensure the suitability of medication regimen and medication warns to identify drug allergies, system potential relation with other systems supporting physicians in their making decisions and at last, recording the prescribers' orders are some capabilities that can promote this system so that it can be regarded as a clinical system with a treatment approach. Keywords: Evaluation; Pharmacy; Information Systems; Performance Assessment

Keywords

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Health Information Management
Volume 10, Issue 5 - Serial Number 5
Autumn 2013
Pages 655-664