We developed a dispensing support system for community pharmacists that uses an iPhone in conjunction with a prescription database. This system integrates three functions: verification of drug tablet dispensing, recording photographs of dispensed medicines, and displaying patients' medication records. During tablet dispensation, the system displays the number of prescribed tablets, collates the dispensed tablets with prescribed tablets through a barcode reader, and issues warnings when dispensing is incomplete. When patients call about their medicine, a pharmacist can check their medication records and view photographs of the dispensed medicines with their iPhone.
We evaluated this system in terms of risk management and operation time. First, we compared the rate of incidents per types of prescription medicine between system-operated and non-system-operated dispensing; the error rates were 1.12% and 2.00%, respectively, and this difference was significant. System-operated dispensing completely prevented medication incidents related to drug names. The average waiting time for patients of system-operated and non-systemoperated dispensing were 606 seconds and 612 seconds, respectively, and this difference was not significant. Therefore, this dispensing support system for community pharmacists appears to be particularly useful for preventing dispensing errors.
