Dispensing
Dispensing
Dispensing means patient specific packing of medications.
You might know the day or week dispensers where medications are prepared in manually for each administration time. This is also a kind of dispensing. In hospitals or nursing homes the manual preparing is normally handled by the nurse. They do not pack the medications but prepare it for the next administration round.
Advantages of pouch, card or cup dispensing:
The drugs are no longer in open cups all day or prepared every for adminstration round, but are prepared and protected in pouches, card or cups. A risk that should not be underestimated is that workload of nurses. Mistakes are human and there is often no 4-eye principle. The nurse is responsable for the preparation of the medications given to the patients. This is a risk and therefore the pharmacy rules for pharmacies require a 4-eye principle. In addition, often there is a shortage of nursing staff everywhere, and when pharmacies and dispensing centers take over the patient-specific dispensing of medications, the nursing has more time for their patients.
The quality standard in medical care is increasing. Safety and documentation are the focus in all areas. Medication plans can often not be checked for interactions, contraindications and maximum doses. With the dispensing in pharmacies or dispensing centers, everything is checked and possible abnormalities discussed with the responsable doctor, thus increasing the safety of medication. In addition, all steps are documented until administered to the patient.
Although the medical care facilities save time and money, they also benefit from the relief that many patients are able to take their medications themselves and thus have an increase in the quality of life.
Even for drops and infusions there are now dispensing systems.
Disadvantage:
There may be delays if short-term changes in the medication-profile of a patient occurs. In this case, it depends very much on how the care is organized and from whom they are supplied.
But what is a blister anyway?
This word is used in the packaging industry for the so-called blister packs.They allow the customers/patients to view the content wihout opening the packaging. In Germany the medications are usually delivered in blisters, although not always visible. On the back of each blister you will find the name and expiration date of the medication. If not you will find it on the carton box in which the blisters are normally packed.
All information of the medication, such as generic name, batch number and expiration date is now also used for dispensing. Each patient receives the medications in either pouch, card or cups labeled with all information based on the medication plan.
Example:
- Patient name
- Administration Day
- Administration time
- Medication name, stength, dosage and drug description
- Taking information
- QR Code: Batch, expiration date and possible medication instruction leaflet.
Kinds of blister:
They mostly are Cellophan, single pouches, all sealed and perforated on eachother, sorted on administration time per patient.
Winded on a roll and often prepared in a dispenser box per patient.
Mostly from PE, size Din A5- Din A4, contains of contiguous blisters normally packed for one week. A seven row with 4-7 columns depending on the desired administration times. The top labels are small and therefore only provided with the essential information. More patient specific information normally can be found on an attached information sheet.
This is also a card blister. The advantage, the blisters are like a cup and this can simply be pressed out of the blister.
When selecting ablister type, you should take the kind of dosis into account you or your customer would like to have.
Mono-Dose/ Unit-Dose:
One medication per pouch/cup; This means that every medication and dosage will be dispensed seperately for each administration time.
Kombi Dose:
The prescribed dosage for each medication will be dispensed in one pouch/cup for each administration time
Multi Dose:
The prescribed dosages of all different medications will be packed in one pouch/cup for each administration time.