E-DRUG: Re: Generic Dispensing Programme/System

Dear E-druggers,

In the interests of (1) not reinventing the wheel, and (2)
believing that pharmacy/drug vending is (or could/should
be) fairly standard throughout the world, rather than
developing one from scratch, I am hunting for a retail,
point of sale pharmacy software system that may be available as
shareware or at low cost by some other mechanism.

A few pharmacy owners here in Eritrea (and I would guess a
similar interest elsewhere) have approached a computer
vendor to provide a retail pharmacy system. I know there
are such systems available in the U.S. and elsewhere, but
they appear to be proprietary, if not linked to specific
suppliers/wholesalers.

In pondering what I (a Health Information Systems Con-
sultant, not a pharmacist who has been discussing this
issue with the computer vendor) would put into such a
system, I have come up with a host of features, a few of
which I am including here.

- The system should run on PC compatible machines in DOS
or Windows.

- Item to be sold will be entered at point of sale. Dis-
tinction should be made between prescription and OTC items.

- Customer/patient name should be included for prescription
items (if patient/family profiles can be generated, good,
but I doubt this feature will be widely used).

- If prescription (by doctor, other provider or the vending
pharmacist) his/her name should be included to be able to
generate prescribing histories/patterns.

- Warning/side effect/interaction message should be avail-
able to be printed (a feature not likely to be widely used
where pharmacists/drug vendors are not likely to be included
in litigation!).

- Flags for warning/side effect/interaction stickers that
should be affixed/included/explained should be displayed.

- Labels for bottles/envelopes shold be routinely printed.

- Patient/client database/history/profile should be updated
with each transaction.

- Inventory balance should be updated at the time of each
sale

- A variety of inventory reports should be available, in-
cluding the capacity print out listing of inventory that
will expire before or by a specified date.

- Total price based on product/quantity should be calcu-
lated.

- A variety of financial reports/analysis should be avail-
able.

The list goes on, but this is a sampling of some of what
I think would be good features.

Many thanks.

Regards,
Jeremy

-----------------------------------------------------------
Jeremy B. Clark Office Phone: +291-1-127420
c/o BASICS/USAID FAX: +291-1-126615
P.O. Box 5815 * Home Phone/FAX: +291-1-184140
Asmara, ERITREA * Note change 01/Aug/1997
Email: jeremy@clark.eol.punchdown.org
PLEASE CC E-MAIL ALSO TO: jclark@eri.healthnet.org
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