A multiple-drawer medication layout problem in automated dispensing cabinets

In this paper we investigate the problem of locating medications in automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) to minimize human selection errors. We formulate the multiple-drawer medication layout problem and show that the problem can be formulated as a quadratic assignment problem. As a way to evaluate various medication layouts, we develop a similarity rating for medication pairs. To solve industry-sized problem instances, we develop a heuristic approach. We use hospital ADC transaction data to conduct a computational experiment to test the performance of our developed heuristics, to demonstrate how our approach can aid in ADC design trade-offs, and to illustrate the potential improvements that can be made when applying an analytical process to the multiple-drawer medication layout problem. Finally, we present conclusions and future research directions.