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Vol 31 - No 07 - November/December 2005 “Insert Coins and make your Selection” - Re-Engineering the Dispensing of Drugs in a Hospital Pharmacy Have you ever put money into a drinks vending machine and made your selection; only for the machine to vend a totally different product or nothing at all? Or had a chocolate bar wrapper get entangled on one of the metal spirals leaving you to despairingly rock the vending machine from side-to-side in the vain hope of dislodging it? Now consider drugs in a hospital pharmacy being dispensed by a similar automated vending process. While non-medical individuals might conjure up images of a bulbous gumball machine adapted to dispense life-saving drugs, in contrast, Emma Pring, Associate Director of Pharmacy – Patient Services at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital Birmingham, sees the automation of pharmacy services heralding a new era of improved efficiency and effectiveness in dispensary services. Page number: 16 Word count: 1750 Related Topics: Business process re-engineering Health
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