Pharmacy Hospital/Clinic Pharmacies and Operations Management the Essay

Pharmacy

Hospital/Clinic Pharmacies and Operations Management

The ongoing healthcare debate in this country is not just about the ethicality of medicinal practice, profits, and limitations on access to care, but is also fundamentally and directly about cost. As medical facilities are expected to provide more and more services by upgrading technologies, maintaining current knowledge bases, and often increasing staff, they are also being accused (in part) of contributing to the rising costs of healthcare. Finding a way to balance the provision of comprehensive and quality care with cost efficiency is thus a major concern for hospitals and clinics in the modern era, and there are many steps that can be taken to enhance cost efficiency. The operation of pharmacies is one area that many hospitals and clinics could examine to determine if it is truly a cost effective and worthwhile endeavor given their overall effects on operations at the medical facility.The operation of in-hospital pharmacies can have numerous effects on overall operations management at the facility. Typically, in-hospital or in-clinic pharmacies must serve both in-patient and out-patient populations, with a heavier emphasis on the former (Stephens 2006). This can greatly ease the provision of medicine to patients upon their discharge form the facility, and can also generate revenue for hospitals and clinics through the sale of pharmaceuticals (Stepehens 2006). At the same time, pharmacies represent a greater challenge to security operations, financial and administrative operations, and can create greater and more complex responsibilities for nursing and medical staff (Stephens 2006). Understanding the balance of these effects in a specific organization is key to….....