(Management Case Study) Implementation and Evaluation of an Automated Dispensing Cabinet (ADC) Oversight Committee at a Large Academic Medical Center

Purpose: An ADC Oversight Committee was established with the primary aim of overseeing the use, inventory, and optimization of automated dispensing cabinets within a large academic medical center. This Committee is dedicated to ensuring efficient, safe, and cost-effective distribution of medications within the healthcare facilities.

Methods: An ADC Oversight Committee was established. The Committee membership included individuals involved with pharmacy information technology (IT), medication safety, pharmacy operations, formulary management, and purchasing. A comprehensive charter was created to outline the Committee’s purpose, responsibilities, and authority in ADC oversight. The ADC policy was updated to include oversight and approval processes that would be performed by this Committee. An ADC Committee dashboard was developed as a comprehensive record keeping system, capturing history of usage and rationale for changes, thus enhancing accountability and facilitating ongoing analysis for continual optimization of the ADCs. This dashboard integrates with an online form providing a streamlined method for data input and management, enhancing the Committee’s capability to efficiently track requests and changes.

Results: Development of a concise and clear charter and policy/procedures for the ADC Oversight Committee allowed for a clear vision and direction for the team. Being strategic in Committee membership fostered a collaborative environment for continuous advancement of the use and management of the ADC’s. Between June 2022 and April 2023, the Committee reviewed 297 requests. Those requests were 1% override requests, 8.4% medication removals, and 90.6% medication additions. The average time from approval to implementation was 16 days. One factor that increased time to implementation was requests that needed updates to the electronic health record prior to updating the ADC’s. As well as successfully reviewing all ADC change requests the Committee completed policy/procedure reviews and provided recommendations and guidance for multiple ADC functionality including; user roles, function access, overrides and clinical alerts.

Conclusion: An ADC Oversight Committee serves as a strategic asset in the healthcare setting, optimizing the use of ADC technology, driving advancements in medication distribution, improving inventory management and fostering continuous enhancements in patient care and safety. Leveraging use of dashboards has elevated the Committee’s ability to improve on these outcomes.