The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7481 p644-645
8 December 2007

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Design for a safer dispensing process

Advice on how to minimise errors in the dispensary environment has been issued by the National Patient Safety Agency. Harriet Adcock (on the staff of The Journal) reports

Related websites
National Patient Safety Agency: Design for patient safety

SUMMARY

Advice on how the dispensing process in community and hospital pharmacies can be simplified to anticipate and prevent human error has been set out in two design booklets launched last week by the National Patient Safety Agency.

The first looks at the dispensary environment, focusing on workflow and the delivery and storage of stock. The second considers the design of dispensed medicines, particularly the presentation of dispensing labels.

David Cousins, head of safe medication practice at the NPSA, believes the guides will have international as well as national importance. “The guides are unique. The NPSA is the first organisation to publish these sorts of material,” he said at their launch.

Key recommendations include:

• Design the dispensary to encourage safe and effective workflow

• Design patient waiting areas to allow confidential discussions

• Check dispensed medicines with patients

• Use bar codes on medicine packs as an aid to accuracy checking

• Ensure dispensing labels are clearly laid out, using a font size that patients can read easily

• Place labels on medicines packaging so that they do not obscure important information (including Braille information if needed by the patient)

• Use flag labels on smaller packs and tubes

• Label tubes and inhalers directly, rather than outer boxes

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