How much equipment do I need?
Assessing the proper amount of dispensing automation equipment required for your facility really isn't difficult.
med
DISPENSE has
prepared this document so you can determine what will best meet your needs and your budget.
medDISPENSE
manufactures a line of dispensing automation that is made up of Base Units and Auxiliary Units. A Base Unit is
medDISPENSE machine
with a computer and 15.1" touch screen needed to operate the user interface software. Think of it as the brains
that controls an Auxiliary Unit.
medDISPENSE
produces Base 25, Base 45, and Base 72 models. The model number corresponds to the number of standard drawers
the equipment has. Any Base Unit can operate Auxiliary Units. The auxiliary line consists of a Combo Tower and
the Supply Tower. One Base Unit, regardless of size, can operate one auxiliary Combo Tower (drawers on the
bottom and a storage cabinet top) and two Supply Towers. This gives you the ability to securely store large
quantities of IV medications and bulk items.
Now you may be wondering about the
medDISPENSE
drawer. Our standard drawer measures 12 inches in length, is 3½ inches wide and 2 inches deep. We also produce a
double-wide drawer that measures 7 inches in width (both are pictured below). However, for our purposes, we'll
focus on the capacity of the standard
medDISPENSE
drawer.
Each
medDISPENSE
drawer can hold up to six medications. There are slots in the drawer that hold dividers and these dividers can
be adjusted. This allows the flexibility to configure the drawer to accommodate larger size items, or larger
quantities of a particular medication.
How do I figure the capacity?
Here's how:
- Subtract one drawer for each controlled substance to be stored
(medDISPENSE
highly urges storing strictly one type of narcotic per drawer to ensure safety).
- For the remaining floor stock medications - you can now store up to six medications per drawer.
However, since some items like injectibles or patches are larger than the typical unit dose - these needs
to be taken into account. Also, there are medications that are used frequently, so you must ensure that
there is an adequate quantity on hand so nurses won't run out of supply. For these reasons, we use a
factor of 4.5 to estimate the capacity of the remaining drawers.
Here is an example: For a typical
medDISPENSE
equipment set-up - which would include a Base 72 and an auxiliary Combo Tower - this "workstation" has a
total of 117 standard drawers available. That is a maximum capacity of 702 line items - and that's not
even including the bulk storage! Now let's apply our formula below to this and we will use the assumption
of storing 35 controlled substances. You get the following equation:
This is a conservative average and again, it does not even include 5.6 cubic feet of bulk storage space
in the upper portion of the Combo Tower.
The staff at
medDISPENSE
is available to work with you to assist in determining a solution that is right for your dispensing needs
and your budget.
Capacity of Equipment (Printable Version) 