A multiple-drawer medication layout problem in automated dispensing cabinets

    Authors

    J. A. Pazour;R. D. Meller

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Health Care Manag. Sci.

    Keywords

    Pharmaceutical; Quadratic assignment problem; Patient safety; ADCs; SIMULATED ANNEALING ALGORITHM; ASSIGNMENT; FACILITIES; SYSTEMS; SPACE; Health Policy & Services

    Abstract

    In this paper we investigate the problem of locating medications in automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) to minimize human selection errors. We formulate the multiple-drawer medication layout problem and show that the problem can be formulated as a quadratic assignment problem. As a way to evaluate various medication layouts, we develop a similarity rating for medication pairs. To solve industry-sized problem instances, we develop a heuristic approach. We use hospital ADC transaction data to conduct a computational experiment to test the performance of our developed heuristics, to demonstrate how our approach can aid in ADC design trade-offs, and to illustrate the potential improvements that can be made when applying an analytical process to the multiple-drawer medication layout problem. Finally, we present conclusions and future research directions.

    Journal Title

    Health Care Management Science

    Volume

    15

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    339

    Last Page

    354

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000309873100004

    ISSN

    1386-9620

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