ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:To optimize the placement of extra-machine medicines in the automated pharmacy and establish a ra-pid dispensing area to shorten medicine dispensing time. METHODS:12 588 prescriptions made within one week were collected from the outpatient pharmacy of our hospital,in which 29 kinds of extra-machine medicines used frequently were clustered on the basis of Pearson correlation coefficients. The extra-machine medicines used at a higher frequency were arranged in the storage posi-tions near to the medicine dispensing window,and those related to the above-mentioned medicines were stored in the positions adja-cent to them,thereby a rapid dispensing area was established. The effect of the above-said method was evaluated by comparing the time it took for the pharmacist to dispense medicines one week before and after the establishment of the rapid dispensing area. RE-SULTS:29 kinds of extra-machine medicines were clustered into 4 major categories,and stored in 4 positions in the rapid med-icine dispensing area respectively,and then the position codes were assigned. After the rapid dispensing area was established,the average single prescription dispensing time for the pharmacist decreased by about 9 s (40.43 s vs. 31.43 s,P<0.01). CONCLU-SIONS:The establishment of the rapid dispensing area based on cluster analysis method has increased the efficiency of dispensing medicines in the outpatient pharmacy of our hospital.