The design and equipments of hospital pharmacies in Isfahan, Iran

BACKGROUND: Nowadays pharmaceutical care departments located in hospitals are amongst the important pillars of the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to evaluate designing features and equipments of hospital drugstores affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study a self-defined and validated questionnaire was used which included all the necessary and standard needed spaces and equipments of an ideal hospital pharmacy. The questionnaire was filled in by one of the researchers in all twelve hospital drugstores located in the teaching and non-teaching hospitals affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Data analysis was done using SPSS (version 14). RESULTS: Results showed that 56% of drugstore space allocations were unsuitable. Used pharmaceutical equipments in 75% of surveyed hospitals were not according to the standards. Almost all of these pharmacies had rather an enough space for storage, but cold storages were not designed in 58% of them. In 66% of perused hospitals, pharmaceutical services disposal level was admissible. The structural engineering parameters like size and dimensions, available spaces, availability of structural planes, existence of air conditioning systems and brightness controllers, adequate stores for drugs and safe places for narcotics were observed in 55% of pharmacies. CONCLUSIONS: There are apparent out of standard space allocations and shortages of needed equipments for offering drug services in studied drugstores that may probably lead to a waste of time and money. These issues may reduce the efficiency and safety of pharmaceutical services and drug administration in hospitals.