Optimizing Medication Distribution in Automated Dispensing Cabinets: Dashboard Implementation and Evaluation

Purpose: To determine the impact of a business intelligence dashboard tool to optimize automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs). Methods: A pre-post implementation design was used to evaluate key performance indicators (KPI) before and after the implementation of a dashboard tool to optimize ADCs. Eleven ADCs were optimized in 2 phases according to dashboard recommendations: (1) removal of unused medications over 90 days, (2) adjusting periodic automatic replenishment (PAR) levels, and (3) addition of commonly dispensed medications. The KPI measures that were assessed included inventory cost, no. of stocked medications, stockout percentage, vend to refill ratio, and missing dose messages from nursing. An interrupted-time-series regression was used to quantify the impact of ADCs on the means of measured KPIs. Results: Differences in mean distribution of all KPIs, except missing dose, between the pre- and post-ADC periods during the Phase 1 period were statistically significant: inventory cost (54.2 vs 56), stockout percentage (1.55 vs 1.12), vend to refill ratio (6.83 vs 6.14), and missing dose messages (221 vs 229). Only the mean ADC utilization (57.3 vs 64) and missing dose (228 vs 179) were statistically different between the pre- and post-ADC periods in Phase 2. The interrupted-time-series analysis showed that Phase 1 optimization significantly reduced the cost of inventory (β = -$1.238.00, P < .01), no. Stocked medications (β = -8.2, P < .01), percent stockout (β = -.49%, P < .01), vend-to-refill ratio (β = -1.29%, P<.01) and ADC utilization (β = -.2, P < .01). Conclusion: Automated dispensing cabinets optimization, through the use of a dashboard tool, had a positive impact on almost all measured KPIs.