How Dispensing the Exact Amount of Pills Improves Healthcare?
Physician dispensing is a term that has been doing rounds in the medical circle for a while. What does it mean, and what is all the noise about? In this blog, we will define physician dispensing (also having several other names like in-office dispensing, point-of-care dispensing, and prepackaged medication dispensing) along with its many benefits. We will also talk about one particular benefit in detail, aka how dispensing the exact number of pills required has improved healthcare.
What Is Prepackaged Medication Dispensing?
Prepackaged medication dispensing is a method where patients can avail of the prescription drugs right at the physician’s clinic through in-office preparation. Dispensing technologies today have advanced far enough that healthcare providers can control inventory, dosage details, and dispensing with the click of a few buttons. From its humble beginnings, prepackaged medication dispensing has evolved into a safe, effective, and cost-efficient alternative for patients and doctors, alike to manage their treatment plans.
What Are Some Benefits of the System?
A marked decrease in the prevalence of medication errors - Physician dispensing systems are very effective against LASA (look-alike/sound-alike) drug pairs. It also checks the medication dosage, NDC (National Drug CodeI numbers, and dispensing quantities.) Healthcare professionals can also program dispensing systems to dispense only a day’s supply of medication at a time.
Prepackaged medication dispensing systems improve patient care - Adding the provision of point-of-care dispensing to a clinic is a great way to improve patient compliance and adherence. Better and upgraded patient care means more returning visits as well.
Doctors can tap into new potential revenue streams - The automation of dispensing systems allows physicians to tap into additional streams of revenue. This also lets them diverge resources from mundane, repetitive tasks and focus on one-on-one patient relations. When used right, medication dispensing systems can help clinics grow exponentially fast.
Automatic dispensing systems dispense the exact number of pills required - This helps with drug wastage and introduces true split-fills. Dispensing the exact amount has also shown a remarkable boost in patient compliance. We will discuss more this below.
How Is Dispensing the Exact Number of Pills Beneficial?
When a system only dispenses the exact number of pills mentioned in the prescription, it brings about a massive improvement in the field of drug wastage. Case in point: Consider drugs that are applicable in cancer treatment. 30-day fills are the norm, but in sensitive treatments like cancer, doctors can often advise patients to delay or discontinue certain drugs due to intolerance, side effects, or tumor progression. Cancer drugs cost an arm and a leg sometimes, and if physician dispensing provides a way to minimize drug wastage by dispensing only the exact number of pills in a course, then we should take it.
The second important reason why this is such a big deal is that it can significantly reduce the risk of drug misuse, say via self-medication.
A very interesting case study to note in this regard is that of France. A recent study found that the French population had one of the highest indicators of antibiotic resistance. How does this relate to physician dispensing, you ask? Well, France dispenses packaged drugs without caring about the number. Caught on yet? The availability of excess drugs leads to a plausible overuse of antibiotics. The increased antibiotic consumption, in turn, rendered a majority of the population resistant to antibiotics.
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**Disclaimer: The information on this page is not intended to be a doctor's advice, nor does it create any form of the patient-doctor relationship.