Pharmacy services in a 240-bed Gordon Friesen-design hospital

This article describes a typical Gordon Friesen-design institution in which the facility design and systems design complement one another to make an efficiently run hospital. The basic concepts of the hospital are to keep the nurse with the patient and to maintain a steady supply flow by centralizing responsibility for materials. Problems that occur in pharmacies of facilities designed by Friesen usually are related to logistics. The design of the institution make delivery of medication and communication with staff nurses more difficult. Pharmacy programs such as unit dose and intravenous admixtures, excellent examples of products in "patient-ready units," complement the other supply delivery systems that are typical of a Friesen-design institution. Good written and verbal communications between nursing staff and pharmacy can bring about a smoothly flowing pharmacy service that blends with the overall concept.