A study of adherence of pharmacy personnel during dispensing

Aims – To evaluate compliance level of pharmacy personnels to the Outpatient Dispensing Process SOP. Methods – Ten random prescriptions received from 10am-12noon and 2pm-3pm at every stage of the dispensing procedure i.e the registration, allocation, filling, labeling and dispensing stages, were observed during the work days of April 2013.  What was observed at each stage was compared with the SOP. The compliance at every stage was set at 100%, with the exception of the counselling referral (50%) and the separation of prescriptions by type (70%) at the registration stage. Results – A total of 300 prescriptions were checked at each stage. At the registration stage, patients’ name and identification number respectively identified 69.0% and 79.0% of prescriptions. At the filling stage, on the token number attached to the each prescription, the pharmacy personnel in charge initialled only 76.3%. Medication prepared for 78.0% of the prescriptions were counter-checked for these criteria: correct patient, correct drug, correct strength and correct quantity. More than 97% of the prescriptions were dispensed according to the SOP. Conclusions – The compliance level of pharmacy personnel to the Outpatient Pharmacy medication dispensing SOP is not satisfactory. This audit highlighted the need to improve the dispensing process and to change the perception of pharmacy personnel.