Issues Faced by Pharmacy Technicians While Maintaining Automated Dispensing Cabinets and How to Overcome Them in the National Guard Health Affairs in Riyadh: A Qualitative Study
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Objectives Technology is rapidly evolving to improve patient safety and increase healthcare providers' efficiency. Automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) are an example of a technology that has been used to facilitate patient safety. As with any other technology, there are benefits and drawbacks associated with the use of ADCs. In this study, we aim to identify the issues related to maintaining ADCs in National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA) hospitals from the pharmacy technicians' perspective and find some solutions to overcome the problems that complicate the usability of the ADCs. Methods A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted using an open-ended questionnaire. It was completed by 30 pharmacy technicians who deal with ADCs in NGHA hospitals. Results Three themes were extracted from the questionnaire: "issues faced by pharmacy technicians before filling the ADCs," "issues faced by pharmacy technicians during filling the ADCs," and "issues faced by pharmacy technicians after filling the ADCs." Discussion and conclusion This study portrayed a better understanding of the issues faced by pharmacy technicians who deal with ADCs based on their experience. It will help stakeholders to make appropriate decisions and improve the workflow for a successful ADC implementation.
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The safety concerns identified can be addressed through effective models of training, continuous cycles of optimisation, and improved monitoring through report utilisation.
“All these concerns can be addressed through effective models of training, continuous cycles of optimisation and improved monitoring through report utilisation.10,34,43”
From Benefits and challenges associated with implementation and ongoing use of automated dispensing cabinet for medicines: A scoping review (2025) · cites this paper as [10]
The Discussion (page not provided) proposes training ADC users and using safety reports to investigate medication discrepancies. It does not describe continuous cycles of optimisation, and the Conclusions frame the identified errors primarily as workflow problems rather than patient harms. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMedication management was complicated by user-related challenges.
“Medication management was also complicated by user-related challenges.”
From Benefits and challenges associated with implementation and ongoing use of automated dispensing cabinet for medicines: A scoping review (2025) · cites this paper as [10]
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Research works printed but not linked: 23
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Jung, Y. Y., Walsh, Á., Patel, J., & Lai, K. (2025) · Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy · doi:10.1016/j.rcsop.2025.100599 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“10,34,43 Safety concerns associated with the unnecessary use of override functions was a key concern.”
- Authors
- Alzahrani, A. A., Aledresee, T. M., & Alzahrani, A. M.
- Affiliations
- King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (SA)
- Corresponding author
- Alzahrani, Asma A
- Venue
- Cureus
- Published
- 2023-07-20
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- e42210-e42210
- ISSN
- 2168-8184 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10439815
- OpenAlex
- W4385172598
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 1.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Cureus (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmacy and Medical Practices
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Electronic Health Records Systems
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Safe Handling of Antineoplastic Drugs
- Keywords
- automated dispensing cabinets, pharmacy technicians, medication dispensing, patient safety, pharmacy workflow, technology implementation, hospital pharmacy
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