Al Ain Hospital revamps patient profiling system

A review of medicines has led to the introduction of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) therapeutic and pharmacological classification at Al Ain Hospital. The hospital, which has recently revamped its pharmacy department, announced here on Monday all drugs are now classified as per the ASHP standards. "In a very short period of time, we have transformed our pharmacy operations into a more efficient and modern unit, with advanced technology, processes and procedures," said Professor Gerhard Schwab, the Medical Director of the hospital. The hospital has added two new pharmacies one of which is for the outpatients at the West Polyclinic and a 24 hour pharmacy at the main hospital under the revamped operations. The hospital has also introduced electronic medical management system as part of the technology changes. The system, which has replaced the manual patient profiling, gives valuable information about the patient profile, pharmacy activities, and accurate medication history to the concerned health care professionals quickly and efficiently, he said. The new electronic system checks for drug interactions and automatically prompts for conflicts, reducing the possibility of medication errors. "These changes greatly enhance patient safety," he said. Dr Mahmoud Abumandil, Head of Pharmacy Department the hospital, said an effective and consistent patient drug profile was often not complete or documentation of pharmacy activities was not as accurate as it is now. The new central dose distribution system implementation in inpatient care areas and process changes we have made have eliminated all the previous inefficiencies, he added. George Jepson, the CEO of Al Ain Hospital, said the pharmacy unit at Al Ain Hospital has a major role to play in delivering quality care and service. "Our pharmacy and technology teams have worked very hard to modernise our systems to meet our goal," he said. It was, he said, a change of culture from traditional way of dispensing medications to order verification and individual dose checking. Every patient receiving medications from the outpatient pharmacy is counselled for safe use of medications. From / Gulf News