A few computer systems which monitor and record processes of powder drug dispensing are now commercially available. They have now come into wide use for reconfirming dispensed drugs by monitoring the records which were input into the system by making the barcode reader read the barcode on the bottom of a picked-up stock bottle and by making the electric balance read doses weighed when the pharmacist fills the prescription. The commercial monitoring system for dispensing is usually used stand-alone, but we connected this system to the prescription order system for inpatients in the total computerized hospital information system. With this system, the prescription data ordered by physicians are printed out in the pharmacy, and at the same time, sent directly to the monitoring system device prior to dispensing. In this device this prescription information contributes to dispensing by participating as indexes for filling the proper drugs. When a dispenser picks up a different stock bottle or weighs a dose different from a prescription information, a warning message is sent to the dispenser as an alarm appers on the display, with the next dispensing step not allowed to proceed until the right drug or right dose is determined.
As the result of the practical use of this on-line system, the occurrences of serious dispensing errors such as the wrong drug or dosage of prescriptions could effectively be controlled.