Drug dispensing errors closer to eradication
valuable tool for the prevention of drug dispensing errors and is
now gaining acceptance within the US pharmacy industry.
The RxSpec drug verification system is the only technology capable of directly examining and distinguishing between drugs that look virtually identical, but which actually have different formulations or dosages.
The system uses analytical and imaging technology to read the chemical composition and dosage of the drug being dispensed, then compares the information with a drug ID library, and confirms quality compliance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs.
>Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD), which distributes the product, has announced the receipt of orders for five RxSpec systems for use in the Veterans Administration's (VA) high volume consolidated mail outpatient pharmacies.
"This VA order is one more step in the pharmacy industry's acceptance of the RxSpec approach to drug verification", said Dave Rzasa, CEO and president of ASD.
The VA is the third major customer to purchase the RxSpec system since the technology was made available to the high volume mail order and central fill pharmacy markets last year.
"The value of RxSpec technology is the improvement in pharmacist productivity achieved by automating the prescription verification process, while at the same time ensuring that the correct drug is being dispensed," said Rzasa.
Excessive pharmacist workload at retail pharmacies is a major factor leading to a higher occurrence of prescription errors, according to a study published in the January 2005 issue of the journal Pharmacotherapy.
The study concluded that fatal medication errors rose by as much as 25 per cent at the start of each month due to beginning-of-the-month increases in purchases of medications, which result in heavier workloads for pharmacists.
A recent study conducted by Medco Health Solutions has found that an automated prescription dispensing system achieved dispensing accuracy rates 23 times better than those reported in a benchmark study of retail community pharmacies conducted by Auburn University in 2003.
This translates to a dramatic reduction in potentially serious drug-selection errors.
The Medco study found that an automated prescription dispensing system reduced the error rate to less than one in every 1,000 prescriptions and zero errors in the critical areas of dispensing the correct drug, dispensing the correct dosage and dispensing the correct dosage form (e.g. tablet vs. capsule).
This was a significant reduction, compared to the Auburn study, which observed a retail dispensing error rate of nearly one in every 55 prescriptions filled. The findings appear in the November 2005 issue of Pharmacotherapy.
ASD is now in the process of developing versions of the RxSpec for the retail and community pharmacy markets.
