Given the frequent fluctuations in availability of unit dose medications, in-house unit dose packaging systems serve an intrinsic role in pharmacy operations. It is exceedingly rare for a pharmacy to not operate a unit dose packaging program. The wide variety of highly-rated solutions available in this marketplace provide a range of options for facilities looking to manage the full range of repackaging needs from manual to automated patient-specific and bulk repackaging processes. Looking ahead, there is strong interest in utilizing RFID tags to improve medication inventory tracking, chain of custody, and reconciliation efforts.

For more information, visit pppmag.com/automation and select Bar Coding/Unit Dose Packaging.

The number of pharmacies operating in-house packaging operations to meet their goal of delivering bar coded unit dose medications to the units is quickly approaching 100%.

There was continued improvement this year in the number of facilities were able to purchase more than three-quarters of their medications in this format; 74% of facilities were able to take this approach.

Underscoring the ongoing need for packaging operations, this year saw no improvement in the significant gap between pharmacy’s ability to purchase medications in bar coded unit dose and the goal of providing more than 90% of medications to the units in this format.

Medi-Dose continues to lead the repackaging marketplace, followed by Health Care Logistics , MPI , Omnicell , and Euclid.

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Just over one-quarter of all facilities are currently utilizing RFID for tracking medications, with most applying RFID tags on less than 20% of their inventory.

A majority of pharmacy leaders are interested in increasing their utilization of RFID to manage medication inventory. Current roadblocks to that goal include insufficient internal support and a lack of pre-tagged offerings from generic manufacturers.