Title

A multiple-drawer medication layout problem in automated dispensing cabinets

Authors

Authors

J. A. Pazour;R. D. Meller

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

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

Share

COinS