a. Medication Dispensing: Staff scans the stock bottle barcode at the SP Station to ensure the correct drug was chosen for the prescription. If the drug selected is the correct one this scan brings up an electronic image of the drug for verification purposes. (If the drug selected is incorrect, the system will not provide a label to fill the prescription.) Upon barcode match, a prescription label (with auxiliary information, a line drawing of the drug, and a physical description) is ready for application immediately after scan. Label is retracted automatically if filling process is interrupted, to avoid potential label switching. Pharmacy administrator can set the amount of seconds that label is available to staff before it is retracted.

b. System Reports: SP Central Workflow offers a variety of reports that help implement safety in a pharmacy. These reports provide information on:

• System Maintenance – An activity log reflecting the completion of daily and weekly maintenance and other necessary functions.

• Inventory – Details information regarding prescription processing transactions, including the operator initials associated with each transaction. Also shows the drug name, quantity, and storage location for each drug. Records partially filled scripts so that staff can alert patients to the out-of-stock situation. Staff is then aware of which medications need to be ordered, to whom they are owed and how much.

• Discrepancies – Logs any incorrect scan made by a system user. Tracks if the wrong drug product was scanned for prescription filling. This would indicate the number of times an incorrect stock bottle was selected to fill a prescription—a “Near Misses” report.

• Activity – Shows transactions requiring security authorization, along with the operator initials associated with each transaction.