Improving operational efficiency through automated dispensing cabinet analytics software

Medication costs have continued to rise over the past 2 decades, which causes a strain on health systems and patients. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the implementation of a pharmacy analytics software program on medication expense and pharmacy operational efficiency at an academic medical center.

Twenty-five automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) at an academic medical center located in emergency departments (n = 3), adult inpatient care areas (n = 16), and the adult intensive care units (n = 6) were optimized over a 3-month period. Omnicell Inventory Optimization Service, a data analytics program associated with the Omnicell OmniCenter technology platform, was utilized for optimization of identified ADCs. The endpoints of this quality improvement project were: (1) cost of expired medications from ADCs, (2) total inventory cost per ADC, (3) vend-to-fill ratio per ADC, (4) medication stock-outs per ADC, and (5) pharmacy technician time logged into ADCs.

Twenty-five ADCs at an academic medical center were optimized over a 3-month period. During the optimization process, 7,206 stocked medications were analyzed and a total of 5,552 opportunities suggested were acted upon and implemented. The ADC optimizations yielded an overall decrease in the cost of expired medications, decrease in overall inventory cost, increase in vend-to-fill ratios, and optimization of overall technician efficiency, including reduced time required to restock ADCs and an increase in total items restocked per minute.

The implementation of analytics software to assist with automated dispensing machine operational efficiency and quality can lead to a variety of improvements in pharmacy operational metrics.