Abstract

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CONVENTIONAL PHARMACY MANAGEMENT WITH E- PHARMACY IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Sowmya M. S., Nanjundaswamy, Manjunath and Dr. Basavanna P. L.*

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Abstract

Background: As part of the Digital India initiative, the National Informatics Centre (NIC), has developed the e-Hospital, e-BloodBank and Online Registration System (ORS) applications1. The e-Hospital system connects patients, hospitals and doctors on a single digital platform. This project was developed to improve the healthcare services in the country, it has brought a novel change in functioning of various hospital functions and transparency in data records. Objectives: The primary objective was to compare the process of documentation in Pharmacy main store, sub-stores and wards and secondary objective was to evaluate, pharmacist’s satisfaction or difficulties while implementing E-Pharmacy. Methodology: This was a Mixed Methods Study (Cross Sectional & Qualitative Assessment) conducted at Tertiary care hospital – Krishna Rajendra Hospital, Mysuru, which was carried out for a period of 3 months. Results: According to 85% of pharmacists in our study group, e-pharmacy reduces the manpower required when compared to conventional methods and 90% of the pharmacists felt that e-pharmacy is best. However, 65% of the participants feel that lack of computer training programs or workshops is a major drawback, as a result of which they are spending more time on computer system. While using E-pharmacy, around 30% of people complained about network issues and 20% sighted server problems and lack of computer knowledge. Conclusion: Our study concludes that e-pharmacy is more effective than conventional documentation and has many advantages like data storage, security, less manipulations of inventory, drug alerts, ease of workflow, effective data exchange, etc. However, there are also some challenges, like server and network issues, system updates, lack of computer knowledge, etc., which have to be overcome, to optimise the usage of e-pharmacy.

Keywords: NIC, National Informatics Centre, e-Pharmacy, e-Hospital, digitalization, new trends, pharmacy, Digital India, Challenges in e-pharmacy.