2025 Southeastern Residency Conference

Title: Evaluation of an Automated Dispensing Cabinet Patient Medication Management Software’s Impact on Medication Dispense Rates 


Authors: Trey Carter, Claire Johns 


Background: As healthcare technology advances, many inpatient institutions have moved to utilizing automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) to store and dispense medications. Less utilized medications may be stored in the institution’s central pharmacy and dispensed to non-automated patient-specific bins. Automating the medication storage and distribution process allows the ADC to store patients’ medications in patient-specific bins via medication management software and ensures a regulated, monitored process to reduce potential for error. This study is designed to evaluate medication dispensing rates from the central distribution pharmacy pre- and post-patient medication management software implementation at our institution.  


Methods: This study is an IRB-approved; pre-post analysis of medication re-dispense rates from a central distribution pharmacy. Patient medication management software was implemented at Baptist Health Lexington in August 2024.  A retrospective chart review was conducted on patients who received a medication dispensed from our institution’s central distribution pharmacy between January 1st, 2024 and June 30th, 2024 to identify the rates at which medications were re-dispensed. For bulk items, the length of time between consecutive dispenses of the same medication was also assessed. Additionally, post-patient medication management software implementation medication re-dispense data were collected from September 1st, 2024 to February 28th, 2025. The primary endpoint of this study is the difference in the medication re-dispense rate from our central distribution pharmacy pre- and post- patient medication management software implementation. The secondary endpoint is the difference in length of time between consecutive dispenses of bulk items. 


Results: In Progress


Conclusion: In Progress