ABSTRACT

The hospital pharmacy consists of order receipt, Žll, and distribution. Order receipt involves receiving the order and then Žlling the order. In general, in most pharmacies there are separate processes for STAT vs. routine requests. Once the order is received, the pharmacist must review (double check) the physician’s orders to make sure that they are complete, have the right dosing range, and that there are no drug-to-drug interactions or allergies. Orders are normally batched up via paper, in which there may not be FIFO (Žrst in, Žrst out order), or queued on the computer for review. Once reviewed, the orders are normally queued up again and wait to be Žlled. The orders are then retrieved, Žlled, and sent to the oor via tube system, cart, or manually retrieved by unit personnel. Carts are normally processed in batches overnight for morning rounds. Some hospitals have robots that are utilized to improve the “picking” or Žlling operations.