Hospital pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia: Dispensing and administration in the Riyadh region

Background: There is very little published data assessing hospital pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia. Hence, a comprehensive survey has been undertaken to evaluate hospital pharmacy services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Recently, we published the survey results on the prescrib- ing and transcribing steps of the medication use process. This paper focuses on dispensing and administration. Methods: A modified-American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) survey question- naire was personally delivered to the pharmacy directors of 48 hospitals in the Riyadh region. Three attempted follow-ups were made within 3 months to non-responders and the surveys were collected upon completion. The survey was conducted using similar methods to those of the ASHP surveys. Results: Twenty-nine hospitals participated in the survey with a response rate of 60.4%. Central- ized distribution (74%) is the most commonly used model for inpatient pharmacies. Overall, 21% of hospitals routinely use bar coding technology in medication dispensing. None of the hospitals are using a robotic distribution system to automate the dispensing of unit doses. Automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) are used by 21% of hospitals as part of their decentralized distribution model.Sixty-one percent of hospital pharmacies have IV admixture preparation area in their facility. In the use of safety technology for medication administration, only one third of hospitals are using elec- tronic medication administration records (eMARs), 7.4% had bar-code-assisted medication admin- istration (BCMA) and 12% had smart infusion pumps. Conclusion: Hospital pharmacies in the Riyadh region are fairly well developed in providing dis- pensing and administration services. Further improvement can be achieved by increasing the use of new technologies such as bar-code technology, unit dose drug distribution systems, pharmacy-based IV admixture services, smart infusion pumps, and automated medication distribution.