Study of Usefulness of Automatic Restocking and Dispensing Machine

Reuse of unused syringes returned to the Department of Pharmacy requires sufficient amounts of labor because of several factors including syringe names to be checked and it is also associated with the risk of oversight resulting from visual inspection. To improve operational efficiency and safety, the automatic restocking and dispensing machine(restocker) was incorporated into the automatic syringe dispensing machine (picker) as a trial. The picker enables sorting of returned syringes, confirmation of expiration dates, and dispensing of syringes according to the prescription. Both syringes stocked and unstocked in the picker's cassette are subject to the dispensing. The time required for the returned syringe handling was significantly reduced from the previous 8.86 ± 2.51 to 1.10 ± 0.39 seconds after the introduction of the restocker (P < 0.01). Regarding accuracy, no sorting error was found after sorting of 10,275 syringes. Between June and September, 2015, a total of 19,522 syringes were dispensed according to the prescription, of which 1,841 (9.43％) were picker-unstocked syringes. The stocker that directly dispenses injections cut 26.89 ± 6.65 seconds, the time required for the dispensing by hand. An additional 24 picker-unstocked items were dispensed between September and November 2018, as compared with the number in 2015. The restocker also acts like a virtual cassette as it can flexibly and automatically dispense picker-unstocked syringes while reflecting syringe availability in the hospital and seasonal changes. Based on the above, multiple functions of the restocker are useful for more efficient and safe returning and dispensing of syringes.