AUTOMATED DISPENSING CABINETS

WHAT ARE THESE?

- are computerized point-of-use medication-management system

that are designed to replace or support the traditional unit-dose
drug delivery system.
The rationales behind the wide acceptance of
this technology are:

Improving pharmacy productivity

 Improving nursing productivity

 Reducing costs

 Improving charge capture

 Enhancing patient quality and safety

Some documented unsafe practices with the use
of these devices are:
 Lack of pharmacy screening of medication order prior to
administration
 Choosing the wrong medication from an alphabetic pick list

 High-alert medications, placed, stored and returned to ADC’s

 Storage of medications with look-alike names and/or

packaging
SOME ISSUES TO BE CONSIDERED TO ENSURE
SAFE MEDICATION PRACTICES:
 consider purchasing a system
that allow for patient profiling
so pharmacists can enter and screen
drug orders prior to their removal and
administered.
 carefully select the drugs that will be stocked in the cabinets.

 place drugs that cannot be accessed w/o pharmacy order entry

and screening in individual matrix bins.
 use individual cabinets to separate pediatric
and adult medications.
 periodically reassess the drugs stocked in each unit-based
cabinets.
 remove only a single dose of the medication ordered.

 develop a check system to assure accurate stocking of the

cabinets.
 place allergy reminders for specific drugs,
such as antibiotics, opiates, and NSAIDs on
the cabinets.
 routinely run and analyze override reports to help track and
identify problems.