“Thank goodness we have the photos”
Kees van der Graaf, pharmacist and co-owner at SPITS Oosterwolde talks about the introduction of the ZiuZ Medical Inspector.
Dispensing medication is a responsible job, trusted to dispensing pharmacists who know and understand their work. In some cases, being a dispensing pharmacist isn´t enough. If a person uses multiple types of medication and finds it difficult to take the right tablet at the right time, they need additional help. And when medication is dispensed in nursing homes by the medical staff, it needs to be done as safely as possible. SPITS specialises in providing automatically packaged medication to dispensing pharmacists with each bag of medication containing a single unit dose, the tablet or set of tablets administered to a patient at a single time. In so doing, SPITS helps support the health care provided to patients both in their home and in health care institutions.
SPITS is a professional organisation responsible for correctly packaging prescribed medication. It also provides essential support to the dispensing pharmacist, the health care institution and the health professional in organising this tailor-made medication service. Until recently, the checking of the contents of the unit dose bags was carried out manually with the problem that the quality of the inspections was not measurable or verifiable. In addition, checking ten thousand bags a day was a time-consuming task.
“At first,” explains Kees van der Graaf, “we were mainly interested in verifying whether or not the content of the unit dose bags was correct. The ZiuZ Inspector meant we knew exactly what was in each bag and if this matched what had been prescribed. During the extensive test period, we realised that the ZiuZ Inspector could provide a lot more valuable information. For instance, concerning the quality of the dispensing machine we’d been using for some time. It appeared that the distribution of drug A resulted in a significant number of errors. We were able to link the dispensing errors to a particular medication and specific cassettes in the various dispensing machines. With the ZiuZ Inspector categorising where errors repeatedly occur, we can adapt our work processes appropriately.”
