Software Implementation of a Pharmacy Management System

1.0 Introduction

Pharmacy management system is a management system that is designed to improve accuracy and to enhance safety and efficiency in the pharmaceutical store. It is a computer based system which helps the Pharmacist to improve inventory management, cost, medical safety etc.

The system allows the user to enter a manufacturing and expiry date for a particular product or drug during opening stock and sales transaction. The system will also give report showing the list of products expiry after a specified date before the product eventually expires. It also involves manual entry upon arrival of new batches of drugs and upon drug movement out of the pharmacy for a certain period, e.g. every month, the pharmacist may want to generate report for the movement of drugs in and out of the pharmacy, getting information about the drugs e.g. expiry date, date purchased, number of drug type left, location of a drug in the pharmacy.

At present, manual system is being utilized in the pharmacy. It requires the pharmacist to manually monitor each drug that is available in the pharmacy. This usually leads to mistakes as the workload of the pharmacist increases.

1.1 Background Of The Study

Due to the size and quality service of the pharmacy, the pharmacy has a very large customer base. These customers tend to visit the pharmacy for services mostly when they close from work. At this period, the number of customers that patronise the pharmacy is on the increase, thereby making the workload of the pharmacists much more tedious. This case makes it difficult for the pharmacist to attend to customers in a short period.

Meanwhile the pharmacist has to ensure satisfaction in services to keep their customers. The factors mentioned above, results in delay of the services being rendered to the customers, thereby slowing down sales and risk losing valuable customers in the long run.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

Pharmacy management has kept paper record in filing cabinets. Managing a very large pharmacy with records on papers will be tedious and difficult to keep track of inventories with regards to the drugs in the store, expiry date, quantity of drugs available based on the categories and their functions.

The pharmacist has to order drugs to replenish the already diminishing stock. In addition, ordering of drugs is being carried out manually. Significant amount of time is allocated for writing the order as the pharmacist needs to go through the stock balance and make rough estimate of the amount to order based on Figures.

Drugs are not supposed to be used after they have expired. This project work will prompt the pharmacist about drugs that are close to expiry, preventing those drugs from being sold and also providing solution to the earlier stated problems.

1.3 Aims And Objectives

The aim of this project is to develop a software for the effective management of a pharmaceutical store that will be able to achieve the following objectives:

1. -Ensuring effective policing by providing statistics of the drugs in stock.
2. -Maintaining correct database by providing an option to update the drugs in stock.
3. -Improving the efficiency of the system by ensuring effective monitoring of services and activities.
4. − To provide optimal drug inventory management by monitoring the drug movement in the pharmacy.
5. -To ensure that there exists a level of restricted access based on functionality and role.
6. -To ensure that the system is user friendly.
7. -To be able to generate report within a specified period of time.

1.4 Scope And Limitation

The scope of this project is limited to the activities of a pharmaceutical store which includes will improving health outcomes, reduce hospital and long term care admissions, enhance access and care in the Estate and surrounding communities and ensuring best use of resources, the use of a computer based management system for improving the efficiency of a pharmacy is needed and it is an essential part of any modern continuously evolving society.

The system will not be able to handle drug prescription, drug to drug interaction. The system will not be able to handle contraindication and polypharmacy in a prescription; this implies that these services will be manually completed by the pharmacist.

1.5 Research Methodology

The research method used for this project work gives a description of how the pharmacy management system for Boniks Pharmacy and stores, Gwarimpa Estate, Abuja will be developed.

Therefore the method used in the design and collections of information from various sources are as follows:

1. Studying the present system in detail and the organizational style.
2. Knowing and understanding the input and output processes of the existing system.
3. A qualitative form of interview was conducted in the organization to understand the mode of operation of the old system.
4. Primary data: This source has to do with the text book contacted for the development of this project.

1.6 Definition Of Terms

System:

Is the complex purposeful collection of interrelated components that work together to take some objectives.

Drug interaction:

Is a situation in which a substance (usually another drug) affects the activity of a drug when both are administered together.

Polypharmacy:

Is the use of multiple medications by a patient, especially when too many forms of medication are used by a patient, i.e. when more drugs are prescribed than is clinically warranted.

Contraindication:

Is the condition or factor that serves as a reason to withhold a certain medical treatment.

1.7 Chapter Layout

The chapter layout of this project is outlined in a sequential manner starting with

Chapter one which consists of the Introduction, Background of the study, Statement of the problem, Aims and objectives, Significance of study, Research methodology, Scope, Limitation, and Definition of terms.

Chapter two consist of introduction, Literature review of the project, an overview of pharmacy management in the past, at present and also include the benefits of pharmacy management.

Chapter three deals with the analysis of the existing system under which description of the current system will be analysed, problems of existing system, description of the proposed system and the advantages of the proposed system.

Chapter four consists of system design, system implementation and system documentation under the system design, the system design will have input and output design.

Chapter five will include summary, conclusion and recommendation. It consists of the summary of the project report, recommendation based on the research done on the project and conclusion.