Work Study of Pharmacist working at Dispensing Unit, Somdejprasrinagarind Building, Srinagarind Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Work study is a tool used for managing human resources in an organization. The aims of the present study were to assess work in the drug dispensing unit, the proportion of productive and non productive   activities of the pharmacists, and to calculate the man-power requirement. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study performed between 1 July – 15 September 2010 at the Drug Dispensing Unit, Somdejprasrinagarind Building, Faculty of Medicine, Srinagarind Hospital. The stopwatch time study technique was used for work measurement to determine standard time of work and man-power requirement. The work sampling technique was used to determine the proportion of productive activities and the effciency index. Results: From the work  study  by  the  stopwatch  technique,  the  cumulative  standard  times  of  pharmacists  for  outpatient  and   inpatient drug dispensary were 0.90 and 1.03 minutes per prescription, respectively. The workload of pharmacists for   outpatient and inpatient drug dispensary were 2,025.24 and 3,057.83 man-hours per year, respectively, so that the appropriate number of pharmacist should be 1.23 and 1.86, respectively. From work study by the work sampling technique, the proportion of productive activities and nonproductive activities were 81.1 and 18.9%, respectively. Professional and nonprofessional activities accounted  for 53.6 and 27.5%,  respectively. The effciency  index of pharmacists was  equal  to  0.64. Conclusion: The  pharmacists  in  the  dispensing  unit  at  SomdejprasrinagarindBuilding had moderate effciency working and non-professional activities were minimal. The pharmacist  should realize on their potential and place their emphasis to make more professional activities.