Management of Hospital Pharmacy in Private Sector

The functioning of a pharmacy at a private sector multi-specialty hospital was studied with the objective of improving its services. It was found that average number of drugs per prescription was 3.78. This was higher than the normal 1.8 to 2. Though the dispensing time was 6.51 mins, only 0.57 mins was utilised for providing the drug information. Although, the pharmacy used inventory management tools such as ABC and FSN analysis, other tools such as YEN analysis, EOQ and safety stock were not used. There is a need for improving the services through utilisation of modern management tools. The pharmacy was located outside the hospital, which was inconvenient to the patients. The pharmacists had to substitute the drug in 54 per cent of the new cases and in 46 per cent of the old cases. In case the prescribed brand was not available the pharmacist invariably consulted the doctor before the substitution with another drug. However, the patients were very unhappy about it. Patients also resented being dispensed the whole strip, which they saw as a waste of money. The study indicates that the quality of services can be improved considerably through good managerial practices.