title: Decreasing medication turnaround time with digital scanning technology in a canadian health region.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Reducing medication turnaround time can improve efficiency, patient safety, and quality of care in the hospital setting. Digital scanning technology (DST) can be used to electronically transmit scanned prescriber orders to a pharmacy computer queue for verification and processing, which may help to improve medication turnaround time.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate medication turnaround time before and after implementation of DST for all medications and for antibiotics only.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medication turnaround times were evaluated retrospectively for periods before (June 6-10, 2011) and after (September 26-30, 2011) implementation of DST at 2 hospital sites in 1 health region. Medication turnaround time was defined as the time from composition of a medication order by the prescriber to its verification by the pharmacy (phase 1) and the time from prescriber composition to administration to the patient by a nurse (total). Median turnaround times were analyzed with SPSS software using the Mann-Whitney U test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 304 and 244 medication orders were audited before and after DST implementation, respectively. Median phase 1 turnaround time for all medications declined significantly, from 2 h 23 min before DST implementation to 1 h 33 min after DST implementation (p < 0.001). Antibiotics were also processed significantly faster (1 h 51 min versus 1 h 9 min, p = 0.015). However, total turnaround time for all medications did not differ significantly (5 h 15 min versus 5 h 0 min, p = 0.42).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Implementation of DST was associated with a 50-min decrease in medication turnaround time for the period from when an order was prescribed to the time it was processed by the pharmacy. Regular evaluation of medication turnaround times is recommended to compare with benchmarks, to ensure that hospital standards are being met, and to measure the effects of policy changes and implementation of new technology on medication-use processes.
authors.affiliation: BScPharm, MSc, is a Drug Utilization Pharmacist with the Capital District Health Authority, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Neville
authors.affiliation: BScPharm, ACPR, is a Clinical Pharmacist with the Capital District Health Authority, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nodwell
authors.affiliation: PharmD, MHI, is a Pharmacist with the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alsharif
keywords: digital scanning technology; medication turnaround time; order processing