Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 10 No 3 p94
March 2003

News summary

Notebook computers being used by ward pharmacy staff at Sandwell to speed up the delivery of treatment to patients

Hand-held Sony notebook computers are being used by ward pharmacists and technicians at Sandwell Hospital, West Bromwich, to reduce the time involved in dispensing inpatient and discharge prescriptions (TTOs).

Anthony Sinclair, senior pharmacist and information technology specialist at Sandwell Hospital, told Hospital Pharmacist that the pharmacy has completed a six-week pilot which involved pharmacists and technicians using notebook computers to order patients' medication at the bedside.

Mr Sinclair said that the computer network enables the pharmacist or technician to check a patient's clinical status, eg, urea and electrolyte levels, before entering their drug history on to the system and ordering the required inpatient or discharge medication. Orders made via the computer network are automatically printed off as drug labels on system printers in the dispensary.

Mr Sinclair said that the national average time taken to dispense a TTO has been reported as four hours, and use of the computers at Sandwell has reduced this time to between two and a half and three hours.

Use of the notebook computers will now be rolled out to all ward pharmacists and technicians at Sandwell, he said.