[Pharmanaut]

Hopefully this will be a ad-hoc series about the wonderfull world of IT, with some inside views from our 'moles' within the pharmacy computer industry.

Here is the latest message, recieved in morse code at the dead of night and deciphered for you...

Things are happening in the world of pharmacy IT. Many of the suppliers are currently gearing up to move their ETP software out of the "laboratory" into field trials.
ETP is definitely on the move. It will be soon time to pause and think how the scripts arriving by ETP will affect the dispensing processes. Probably not much at first as the system will be a 'pull' one based on scanning a specially adapted prescription.
The main advantage will be the reduction of keying in of the prescription details. It will also be a good time to make your customers aware of ETP and to settle them into it and introduce them to 'nomination' and the fact that they will still be able to decide where they want their prescriptions dispensed. This will help you in case of a 'Land Grab' by the national pharmacy chains.

eMAS will be rolling out in Scotland to cover Minor Ailments. Scotland are also leading with the introduction of the CP(US) form. This allows the pharmacy to dispense a 'treatment cycle' of a patients medication as an 'urgent supply', in circumstances when the patient is unable to obtain a prescription from their doctor, or runs out of a prescription etc.

Intervention recording and MUR recording software are being developed and the previews seen are pretty impressive.

Over the horizon is the electronic cd register, once the final legal/ethical details have been made public. (Generally the software companies only get to know this information when it is made public to the profession, as legal changes are only valid when they are released)

PC world and software-only vs Full Service from your supplier....
At first you may think that system from PC world and a software only contract with a pharmacy system supplier is the best deal. It can be if you are prepared to be your own hardware support and system engineer, but is it worth the risk?
Your computer is the heart of your dispensing business. The new ETP systems will have hardware that is a base standard in many other industries, but completely new to pharmacy. The latest ETP system is a network with RAID mirrored drives, CD-ROM backup, UPS (Uninterupptable power supply), keyboard with smart-card reader, and a scanner for barcoded prescriptions. Add to this a thermal printer or two, a network router and N3 connectivity devices it is better to get the system from your pharmacy software supplier and let their trained engineers worry about fixing it if there is a problem. The latest flat screens, compact keyboards and thermal printers reduce the amount of dispensary space needed for the computer giving the whole thing a professional look. Most are now running under Windows XP Pro, which is as stable as these things get.

One last thing... you are only as good as your last backup, so please make sure that you backup every day.

(*This is not an advert for any particular computer supplier. Go where your loyalty lies.)