Design And Implement A Computerized Drug Information Management System Drug Procurement And Distribution Tracking System

Drug procurement and distribution tracking system is a set of computer programs that obtains the supplies of drugs, distribute the drugs and monitors the inventory control  of  the  drugs.  Using  the  pharmaceutical  department  of  Port  Harcourt University teaching hospital as a case study, the department using manual method to operate lacks good storage of information system for drugs. Recording system tends to be complex and the method of tracking expired drug is poor. The good approach to this problem is to involve the use of computer by designing the form, using Access in developing the database and Visual basic as the programming language, to enable keeping accurate record of drug and prevent sales of expired drug. This guarantees the people’s right to good health care and ensures that drugs received are genuine and safe.

Computerization  is defined  as the control of processes by computers  and  its peripherals. Today it would be difficult to think of any process, business or action that could not have profited from the numerous benefits of the computer system. Controlling process or devices    with computer started long ago since the invention of computer. In the 20^th century inventors tried to make processes easier with the use of computers. Secondly computerization has been greatly applied or used in controlling process that requires frequent action such as drug procurement, drug management,  drug  tracking  and  drug  distributions  in  hospital  management information system in pharmacy departments of hospitals.

This project which is drug procurement and distribution tracking system provides a
computer based information management system in a Pharmacy Department of the
University of Nigerian Teaching Hospital  (UNTH) Enugu by designing a cost
effective, user friendly application, incorporating key attributes of data integrity
and system security suitable for use in the pharmacy department of the hospital
using Microsoft Access software in developing the database and visual basic as the

programming language. The overall aim of this project is to optimize time and material in the processing of data needed for effective operation of large pharmacy department of a hospital. By this approach, data integrity, data redundancy, and consistency will be ensured.

Drugs are the chemical substances that are administered to patients for curative purposes and prophylaxis. It can also be known as a medicine, because it is the essential part of peoples care.

The ability of the computer to store and retrieve information at a very fast and
efficient  rate  makes  its  application  useful  in  management  operations.  Drug
management involves drug procurement, drug distribution, drug tracking and its
information management. Drug distribution is concerned with distribution of drugs
within  the  different  medical  units  or  departments  in  a  hospital,  while  drug
procurement  is  concerned  with  the  purchasing  activities  of  the  drugs  by  the
pharmacy department of the hospital. In the same vein, drug tracking is concern
with the continuous monitoring of the actual quantity of drugs held in the hospital
pharmacy or any other drug warehouse /store. It also controls the stock level.

Pharmaceutical unit in a hospital is concerned with drug management activities.
They carry out the responsibility of making appropriate selection and drugs used by formulating an annual, monthly, weekly or daily list of drugs requirement and management reports. However, in some hospitals today, some pharmacists still use the manual system of operation which can lead to inappropriate drug management errors due to problems of handling voluminous file within a short period of time. This could make data to be easily inaccessible and also delivery of drugs can lead to misplacement of patients’ files.

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Drug  procurement,  tracking,  distribution  and  information  management  in  this
regard are routine processes carried out in various hospitals across Nigeria. It is a
common place to observe that these routine processes are still preformed manually
or are minimally computerized  even in our Teaching  Hospitals. This manual
approach to these routine operations has a lot of problems associated with it,
ranging  from  poor  handling  of  drug  data  of  patients,  lack  of  good  storage
information system for drugs and drug dispensary, delays, to the difficulty in
retrieving  information  on  drugs  and  patients’  records.    In  view  of  all  these
problems, it becomes necessary to develop a computer based drug information
management system and distribution tracking system. This is what this research
project is set to address by computerizing the routine processes in our hospitals and
in particular that of Pharmacy Department of UNTH Enugu.

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of this research project is to design and implement a computerized drug information  management  system,  drug  procurement  and  distribution  tracking system. This includes:

(i). To order for drugs without mistake of procuring more than required.

(ii). To take good stock of drugs.

(iii). To prevent dispensary of expired drugs

(iv). To ensure accurate keeping of records of drugs

1.4      SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The benefits derivable from this work include the following:

(i)It will provide reliable healthcare services.

(ii) It will guarantee hospital management and patients of genuine and safe
          drugs.

(iii)    It will ensure an efficient and standard drug dispensary system.

(iv)  It  will  provide  a data  base  for  stock  taking  of  drugs  procured  and
          dispensed any moment.

13

This  research  work  will  cover  only  the  Pharmaceutical  Department  of  the University of Nigerian Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu. It will present an up to date and comprehensive design of the following:

(i)   Planning and control system which includes inventory control and drug
     distribution

(ii)     Drug procurement procedure in a hospital.

(iii)  The expiry status of each drugs at any point in time

(iv) The Database of all kinds, types and names of some drugs that would be
     store and operate on.

1.6     ASSUMPTION

It is assumed that all the information gathered with the respect to inventory control
is correct as implemented by the university of Nigerian teaching hospital (UNTH)
Enugu.