Evaluation of Performance of Pharmacy Information Systems in Hospitals of Shiraz

Medication error is a preventable event that can lead to patient harm. The Pharmacy Information Systems (PISs) promise to reduce medication errors. Considering the importance of these systems, the aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of pharmacy information systems in Shiraz hospitals.

This descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study was conducted on 31 pharmacies in Shiraz hospitals in 2018. Data were analyzed using standard checklist for the evaluation of hospital information system (HIS). After analyzing the data normalization by Shapiro-Wilk test, ANOVA test was used. Data were entered into SPSS version 24 software.

Public, private, and non-public hospitals had respectively the highest average scores in the pharmacies information systems. In terms of the performance of pharmacies information systems, most public (61.1%) and private (60%) hospitals and all non-public hospitals (100%) were at moderate level. In addition, there was no significant relationship between different dimensions of performance of the pharmacy information systems and hospital ownership type. 

It is necessary that the designers and analysts of the pharmacies information systems, while cooperating and consulting with users of these systems, pay more attention to design and modify the pharmacy information systems.