Adm

Advantages

ADM have several major advantages over traditional pharmacy delivery systems. First, the most commonly needed pharmaceuticals are already present at the point of care and do not need to be sent or transported from main pharmacy stores, a time and labor intensive process. This can save considerable time in the daily workflow of nurses. Second, controlled substances remain in a secure lockbox until needed and access to the vault is secured by multi-factor authentication and audit trails to prevent waste and drug diversion. Third, patient charges and inventory control tasks are simplified in an automated dispensing system and "lost charges" are much reduced. Finally, the ADM can provide clinical decision support to improve patient safety---providing drug-allergy alerts, drug-drug interactions, advise on high risk medication (heparin, insulin) and avoid confusion with "sound alike" medications.

Disadvantages

The ADM does not prevent all drug dispensing and administration errors, and is not a panacea for ending all adverse drug administration errors. Precise adherence to standard protocols for administering