Prospective Study On Factors Affecting Dispensing Delay In Outpatient Pharmacy, Hospital Tuanku Fauziah (HTF)

Introduction Patients spend substantial amount of time in the outpatient department waiting for services to be delivered by physicians and other allied health professionals. (Oche and Adamu, 2013). A study done by Erhun and Afolabi in 2003, concluded that patient’s level of satisfaction with services provided strongly influenced by the quality of the waiting experience. For the purpose of this study, patient waiting time is defined as the length of time from when the prescription received by the pharmacist until patient received their medication. Objective To determine factors influencing dispensing delay in Outpatient Pharmacy HTF. To measure actual time taken in each step of prescription processing in Outpatient Pharmacy HTF. Materials and Methods [Refer to Poster]. Results [Refer to Poster]. Discussion and Conclusion From the result in Table 1, it was found that majority of the prescription sat idle during transcribing and dispensing process. Factors contributing to the delay in transcribing process; High burden of prescriptions when multiple clinics were in operation led to congestion (Loh et al., 2017). Phone call. More than million calls from pharmacists to physicians and nurses, asking for clarification which is a time consuming process (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2000). Handling error. Prescribing error and interpreting illegible prescription is a major cause of delay in the transcribing process (Ker et al., 2013). Factors contributing to the delay in dispensing process; Interruption. Patient come to claim their medication (Pickup Later) or demand VAS soon after they received their medication. Interruptions can be disruptive and can often hinder healthcare professionals from successfully completing their tasks (Rivera and Karsh, 2010). Filling error, for example wrong quantity of medication. Handling prescription errors would propel a longer processing time (Loh et al., 2017