Over the last few years there has been some upheaval in the healthcare industry, across all facets of operations; from the US government enacting the Affordable Care Act to rapid technology advances in hospitals.
Supply-chain models that have been in place for years and years have even been upended as a result of the changes in the marketplace. Additionally, standalone software systems are going the way of the 1-minute thermometer by the likes of pharmacy technology companies like ec2 Software Solutions, which offer new advances in enterprise software solutions.
Essentially, the entire chain of pharmaceutical management and software technology within it is changing. Elements of drug dispensing, pharmaceutical processes, dosage requirements and more are undergoing close scrutiny by companies and professionals involved.
Let’s look at some particular examples at how the healthcare industry is undergoing change within hospitals, medical centers, pharmacies and other connected outlets in the current business model.
Software for nuclear medicine: Inside hospitals, for example, are radiology departments which offer patients X-rays, MRIs and other services. In addition, they also have nuclear medicine facilities that provide drugs to the radiation departments. These drugs are provided in �unit doses’ from nuclear pharmacies that are large-scale operations that provide these prescription medicines to the hospitals, alleviating the need for each hospital to make their own drug doses at individual locations.
Software technology providers like ec2 are supplying the software to pharmacies to dispense the unit doses to hospitals and also managing software needs to track unit doses, patient information, injection processes, extra circumstances and more.
Live Dispensing in Pharmacies: The process of live dispensing of medicines to patients has been growing in use. Previously, doctors and pharmacists use pre-printed scripts for drug dispensing. Live dispensing took the drug activity of the nuclear pharmacies into a more adept model. Previously, the model worked more with guesstimates about how much drug activity it was handling. Live dispensing works in a far more efficient manner. Today, much of the country pharmacies work on a live dispensing method.
Enterprise software solutions: Pharmacies operation across the US and Canada are moving to enterprise, network-based software systems to stay on top of regulatory needs and make better use of changing technology. Live dispensing requires that pharmacies have a computer inside the location where the drugs are being dispensed. Today’s pharmacies are upgrading to network models that include high degrees of accuracy for drug doses, patient information and more.
Growth in Nuclear Medicine Careers: Due to the explosion in health care needs, with a growing aging American population, there is greater demand for technology professional in nuclear medicine as well. A nuclear pharmacist professional works to measure, prepare, and administer diagnostic procedures with radioactive materials. In many cases, advanced computers and imaging technology are being used for the acquisition, storage and process of all the procedural data. These technology pros work with top-level studies and complete records in the nuclear pharmacy workplace.
These are some of the trends occurring in nuclear pharmacies in North America. With software needs and professional requirements growing daily, this area of nuclear medicine and pharmacy management is certainly in a great period of change.
