How To Arrange Medical Products In Community Or Hospital Pharmacy

Arrangement of medical products

One of the most difficult challenge in starting a new community or retail pharmacy is arrangement of medical products. This challenge is not only limited to community or retail pharmacy alone. Hospital pharmacy still have a share. The only difference is that it is easy in hospital pharmacy than in community or retail pharmacy.
After renting a place, it is important to make a good plan how the drugs will be arranged. This will go along way in helping to plan the type of shelf and the store arrangement. The plan system should put into account so many factors. This will make it easy for the staffs.

Things To Consider Before Adopting A System

A store with mostly pharmacist may have a different plan from the one that will have a lot of non-pharmacist staffs. Also, a shop that stock with only brands will be easy to arrange than one with many brands or a mix of both. Another thing to consider too is the function of the business if it is wholesale, store house, hospital or retail and community pharmacy. Lastly, the size of the store and the stock will determine how to arrange the products.
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Advantages Of Good Arrangement

When the medical product are arrange properly, there are so many advantages associated with it. Some of them are;
1. It helps to prioritize work of staffs. It make it quick for new staffs to get use to products and where they are
2. It minimise wrong drug and even dosing error. A poor arrangement can cause errors whereby another product may be mistaken for another. This normally occurred when names sounds similar. A good example is sinemet that sounds like some brands of cimetidine. Also, some drugs come in two strength. It is possible to mistake one for the other if not properly arrange
3. It helps to track out of stock
4. Save time and energy because work output is high
To achieve the above, it is vital that all new staffs are introduced to the arrangement on the first day. Every staff must know about the arrangement. When there is a change to the system, all must be aware and if possible, involve.

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Types Of Medical Products Arrangement

There are several arrangement method that can be employed. Each company have to choose the one that is best suitable for their environment. However, only four are really applicable to hospital and community or retail pharmacy. The others can be use by other firms that maybe those that manufacture drugs or drug distribution centers.
1. Alphabetic order by generic name: generic name use should be the recommended international (Rinn). The arrangement involves placing drugs based on their generics in alphabetical order. The generic drug that begins with the letter A will start the shelf. Example, acetaminophen drugs will be found in the shelf with A. Its brand will be place with it. Tylenol is the brand of acetaminophen. It will be found in that area. However, stocking other brands of the generic can be a problem. This is very good arrangement for stores that stock just one brand of a generic like in hospital. This is mostly found in hospital setting. For places whereby a generic will have more than one brand, they can do an inshelf alphabetic arrangement also to make it a bit easy. For example still using the acetaminophen, Emzor paracetamol will come first before m&b paracetamol, panadol tablet and finally Tylenol in that order. There are some places whereby they do pure alphabetic whereby all the drugs are arrange in alphabetical order according to their brands. This is cool but have its own disadvantage. Two different drugs that have different function can be close to each other. This can lead to medication error we are trying to avoid. It can also make it difficult to start a new arrangement when a new brand name is stock. Just imagine the stress in shifting old stocks to create a space for the new product. But this system helps new staffs alot compared to the former where there is a slight variations from alphabetic. All that need to be done is to label the shelf with the right alphabet.
2. Therapeutic or pharmacologic category: this is a very good system. It is easy for a new pharmacy to understand this arrangement than for sales assistant. It involves classification of the drugs based on what they do then arranging them accordingly. In most cases, the secondary arrangement is done alphabetically. That is, antibiotic drugs will be arranged alphabetically. Drugs like cefuroxime, cephalaxein, cefixime, etc will be arranged in alphabetical order. Mind you, it is still the use of Rinn that is still advisable because we stock different brands in community or retail pharmacy including hospital pharmacy. Arranging drugs alphabetically with their brand name within each category is still feasible. But the problem of this is that drugs with two pharmacology activity cannot be in the two category but one which is a complicated situation.
3. Dosage form: this can be term the best arrangement. Medical products come in different forms. Some are solid, liquid, semi liquid, etc. The drugs are arrange according to the dosage form such as oral tablet will be in a place, oral solution, syrups, oral drops and suspension in another. Others are creams and emulsion for external use only. These products can be arranged in alphabetical order based on their generic names or brand name. The use of brand name arrangement is necessary where the product are mostly combination of more than one active.
4. Frequency: this system is very easy to include in the store but only after spending some time in the area. That is, a new store cannot start with this. Fast moving drugs are placed on the floor of the store. It makes it easy to count when taking stock and dispense. Any of the product getting low is quickly restock because all eyes can see it. One cannot say what a fast moving drug is in a place until business have commence. Some locations have antimalarial as fast moving while antidiabetics may be fast moving in other location.
NOTE: a company can use one or more arrangement method. It all depends on what will work best. It is always easy to switch over to another arrangement. Although, it still depends on the shelf arrangement themselves and the size of the store when switching. It will definitely involve some work.

Which Is Best

In the hospital pharmacy settings, the best is alphabetical order based on generic name. However, for community or retail pharmacy, the choice falls between alphabetical order based on generic, dosage form and or  frequency. The use of pharmacology or therapeutic category may not really work well in a community or retail pharmacy because some drugs with more than one activity cannot be placed in two locations.
Dosage form is divided into the following;
1. Oral route (solution, suspension, oral drops, tablet, capsules, caplet)
2. Injectables
3. Disinfectant and antiseptic
4. Products for external use such as creams, oitment, etc
5. Vaccines (immunoglobulin and antiserum)
6. Infusion
To make the arrangement a little clearer, it is recommended that the products should be arrange in pharmacology category especially for oral route. Antibiotic tablets and capsules should be in a place. The arrangement should be based on alphabetical order of generic name. Ampiclox tablet should follow other amplicox brands in the shelf. If the next is amoxicillin, amoxil and other brands should also follow. Same way too, the arrangement for solutions, syrup, etc. The tablets and capsules may not be able to follow solution and syrups in a shelf even if they are the same thing because it is good solutions and syrups stand at a height customers eyes can easily see them. That may not be possible for tablets and capsules.
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When arranging products such as creams and eye drops or oitment, it is best to use brand name to arrange them. That way, one shelf can accommodate all of the products. Many of these products have bold brand name instead of the generic. Also, antiinflammatory medical products should be placed according to their own brand name. Then, special drugs such a controlled drugs will have to be placed under lock and key. The shelf should be demarcated for easy separation of these controlled drugs. Most antiserum and vaccines need a cool temperature meaning they need to be kept in the fridge.
There can be a place where very fast moving drugs is stored. It helps a lot. Lastly, the product need to be stock in such a way that it is easy to see all the stock remaining of a product. That way every eye can see when stock is low and need to be restock. Products that are more than the required stocks can be placed at a location where it is clearly labelled. They are brought out when the stock in the shelf is low. All stock should be labelled in the computer to make it easy to find a product without moving. It is good to make sure the computer information is well updated.