Design and Implementation of a Pharmacy Management System
Chapter One
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this project is to develop a software for the effective management of a pharmaceutical store that will be able to achieve the following objectives:
- Ensuring effective policing by providing statistics of the drugs in stock.
- Maintaining correct database by providing an option to update the drugs in stock.
- Improving the efficiency of the system by ensuring effective monitoring of services and activities.
- To provide optimal drug inventory management by monitoring the drug movement in the pharmacy.
- To ensure that there exists a level of restricted access based on functionality and role.
- To ensure that the system is user friendly.
- To be able to generate report within a specified period of time.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
A pharmacist is a medical professional who dispenses drugs to patients according to a prescription ordered by a physician or other clinician. Pharmacists have an in-depth knowledge of the chemistry of various drugs and how they react in humans, and also how drugs interact with each other (Charles E. Rosenberg, 1980). Pharmacists must accurately measure and package medicine, ensuring its dosage and safety to be administered properly to a patient. While the pharmacist does not typically select or prescribe the medication, the pharmacist educates the patient on how to take the medication and what reactions or problems to be avoided. As medication experts, pharmacists are concerned with safeguarding the public’s health in matters relating to medication distribution and use and disease state management. Pharmacists play a vital role in improving patient care through the medicine and information they provide.
PHARMACY PRACTICE IN THE PAST
This gives an overview of events that have occurred in pharmacy practice through several ages both in the past and present, and also indicates possible events of the future.
The History of Pharmacy
As long as there have been societies, there have been specialists and physicians whose sole purpose was to prepare and administer medicinal treatments. The earliest healers engaged in what is now called Pharmacognosy, which is the study and application of plants and herbs for healing. Evidence that early man used pharmacognosy to treat illness is indisputable, with archaeological discoveries attesting to the fact pre-dating even the development of farming or animal husbandry. The beginnings of pharmacy are ancient. When the first person expressed juice from a succulent leaf to apply to a wound, this art was being practiced. In the Greek legend, Asclepius, the god of the healing art, delegated to Hygeia the duty of compounding his remedies. She was his apothecary or pharmacist. The physician-priests of Egypt were divided into two classes: those who visited the sick and those who remained in the temple and prepared remedies for the patients (Homan, 2008). The pharmacy profession can be traced back at least as far as the Sumerian population, living in modern day Iraq from around 4000 BC, they used medicinal plants such as liquorice, mustard, myrrh, and opium. There were separate people who worked to prepare medicines, as a separate role from diagnosis and treatment which was carried out by medics. These precursors to pharmacists also combined their role with that of a priest. The Sumerians wrote the earliest surviving prescriptions from at least 2700 B.C. so nearly 5000 years ago (Griggs, 1999). The Ancient Egyptians had specific preparers of medicine, known as Pastophor. Pharmacy was viewed as a high status branch of medicine, and again, like the Sumerians, these pharmacists were also priests who worked and practised in the temples (Anderson, 2005).
From surviving papyrus scrolls, notably the Ebers Papyrus which dates from 1500 BC, we know that the Egyptians made and used infusions, ointments, lozenges, suppositories, lotions, enemas, and pills. The Ebers Papyrus includes 875 prescriptions and 700 drugs. Meanwhile, in China in about the same era (2000 BC), a man called Shen Nung wrote the first native herbal, which contained descriptions of 365 plant-based drugs (Anderson, 2005).
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
INTRODUCTION
System is a collection of an interrelated components that works together to achieve a purpose. System analysis is referred to the systematic examination or detailed study of a system in order to identify problems of the system, and using the information gathered in the analysis stage to recommend improvements or solution to the system. System design is an abstract representation of a system component and their relationship and which describe the aggregated functionality and performance of the system. System design is also the overall plan or blueprint for how to obtain answer to the question being asked. The design specifies which of the various type of approach.
SYSTEM ANALYSIS
System analysis is the study of sets of interacting entities, including computer systems analysis. This field is closely related to requirements analysis or operations research. It is also “an explicit formal inquiry carried out to help someone identify a better course of action and make a better decision than he might otherwise have made. System Analysis is a methodology that involves the application of systematic approaches to collects facts about an existing system with the aim of improving it or replacing it with more efficient system within the context of the available resources. In other words, System analysis can also be viewed as the process of investigating a system, identifying problems and using the information to recommend improvements to the system.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
INTRODUCTION
System implementation is a stage in system life cycle whereby a new system is developed, installed and made ready for use. It is this stage that all details and key point in the requirement specification are practicalised. System implementation therefore, is a very essential stage in which its success determines to a great extent the success of the new system. At this instance, after all is said and done the system is duly ready to be implemented (Pharmacy Management System). System design is concerned mainly with the coordination of activities, job procedures and equipment utilization in order to achieve organizational objectives. It addresses data input and output data, processing and interface. This stage involves the design of the new Pharmacy Management System a case study of Boniks pharmacy Gwarimpa Abuja.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
Pharmacy management system is designed to improve the accuracy, enhance safety and efficiency in the pharmaceutical store. It is a computer based system which helps the Pharmacist to improve inventory management, cost, medical safety etc. Pharmacy management system was developed to ensure the security of information and reliability of Pharmacy records when accessing and providing services to the customers. The information gathered during the data collection was properly analysed and the results provided the basis for the new system. The system was tested and found to be functional and the outputs produced by this system were encouraging. The application will hence reduce the loss of information unlike the existing system and also information will be processed fast.
CONCLUSION
Effective implementation of this software will take care of the basic requirements of the pharmacy management system because it is capable of providing easy and effective storage of information related to activities happening in the stipulated area. With these, the objectives of the system design will be achieved.
In order to allow for future expansion, the system has been designed in such a way that will allow possible modification as it may deem necessary by the pharmacy management, whenever the idea arises.
RECOMMENDATION
Designing this application (Pharmacy management system) is not an easy task. It all started from the requirement gathering and passes through so many other stages before completion. Based on the benefits of this system and tremendous value it will add to customer-user satisfaction, the below recommendation will be considered; It is recommended that the new system should be used with the necessary specifications of the system requirements and provision for an uninterrupted power supply should be made available throughout the hours of operation of the pharmacy to avoid power outage. There should also be basic computer knowledge for the users of the software. It is recommended that the software be improved especially in areas of accounting as it will be of great impact to the development of retail pharmacy.
REFERENCES
- Barbara Griggs. Green Pharmacy: The History and Evolution of Western Herbal Medicine, Second Edition. Viking press, (1982). Pg 93-97.
- Charles E. Rosenberg, Morris J. Vogel.
- The Therapeutic Revolution: Essays in the social history of American Medicine, Second Edition. University of Pennsylvania press, (1979). Pg 174.
- Peter G Homan, Briony Hudson, Raymond C Row.
- Popular Medicines: An illustrated Leslie G. Mathews.
- History of Pharmacy in Britain. Edinburgh, E&S. Livingstone(1962). Pg 213-223. History, Fourth Edition. Trade paperback, Pharmaceutical press (2008). Pg. 127 . Stuart Anderson.
