DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTER INTELLIGENT PHARMACEUTICAL CENTRE SYSTEM (A CASE STUDY OF UNTH ENUGU)

ABSTRACT
The need to develop a system that would improve the management of stocked pharmaceutical items in the pharmacy became beatable due to some setbacks experienced by the current operations of pharmaceutical establishment. Drug procurement and distribution tracking system is a set of computer programs that obtains the supplies of drugs, distribute the drugs and monitors the inventory control of the drugs. Using the pharmaceutical department of UNTH University teaching hospital as a case study, the department using manual method to operate lacks good storage of information system for drugs. Recording system tends to be complex and the method of tracking expired drug is poor. The good approach to this problem is to involve the use of computer by designing the form, using Access in developing the database and C# as the programming language, to enable keeping accurate record of drug and prevent sales of expired drug. This guarantees the people’s right to good health care and ensures that drugs received are genuine and safe.

BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Computerization is defined as the control of processes by computers and its peripherals. Today it would be difficult to think of any process, business or action that could not have profited from the numerous benefits of the computer system. Controlling process or devices with computer started long ago since the invention of computer. In the 20th century inventors tried to make processes easier with the use of computers. Secondly computerization has been greatly applied or used in controlling process that requires frequent action such as drug procurement, drug management, drug tracking and drug distributions in hospital management information system in pharmacy departments of hospitals.
This project which is drug procurement and distribution tracking system provides a computer based information management system in a Pharmacy Department of the University of Nigerian Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu by designing a cost effective, user friendly application, incorporating key attributes of data integrity and system security suitable for use in the pharmacy department of the hospital using Microsoft Access software in developing the database and C# as the programming language. The overall aim of this project is to optimize time and material in the processing of data needed for effective operation of large pharmacy department of a hospital.

By this approach, data integrity, data redundancy, and consistency will be ensured. Drugs are the chemical substances that are administered to patients for curative purposes and prophylaxis. It can also be known as a medicine, because it is the essential part of peoples care. The ability of the computer to store and retrieve information at a very fast and efficient rate makes its application useful in management operations. Drug management involves drug procurement, drug distribution, drug tracking and its information management. Drug distribution is concerned with distribution of drugs within the different medical units or departments in a hospital, while drug procurement is concerned with the purchasing activities of the drugs by the pharmacy department of the hospital. In the same vein, drug tracking is concern with the continuous monitoring of the actual quantity of drugs held in the hospital pharmacy or any other drug warehouse /store. It also controls the stock level.

Pharmaceutical unit in a hospital is concerned with drug management activities. They carry out the responsibility of making appropriate selection and drugs used by formulating an annual, monthly, weekly or daily list of drugs requirement and management reports. However, in some hospitals today, some pharmacists still use the manual system of operation which can lead to inappropriate drug management errors due to problems of handling voluminous file within a short period of time. This could make data to be easily inaccessible and also delivery of drugs can lead to misplacement of patients’ files.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Drug procurement, tracking, distribution and information management in this regard are routine processes carried out in various hospitals across Nigeria. It is a common place to observe that these routine processes are still preformed manually or are minimally computerized even in our Teaching Hospitals. This manual approach to these routine operations has a lot of problems associated with it, ranging from poor handling of drug data of patients, lack of good storage information system for drugs and drug dispensary, delays, to the difficulty in retrieving information on drugs and patients’ records. In view of all these problems, it becomes necessary to develop a computer based drug information management system and distribution tracking system. This is what this research project is set to address by computerizing the routine processes in our hospitals and in particular that of Pharmacy Department of UNTH Enugu.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of this research project is to develop a system that will do the followings:
 Order for drugs without mistake of procuring more than required.
 Take good stock of drugs.
 Prevent dispensary of expired drugs.
 Ensure accurate keeping of records of drugs

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The benefits derivable from this work include the following:
a) It will provide reliable healthcare services.
b) It will guarantee hospital management and patients of genuine and safe drugs.
c) It will ensure an efficient and standard drug dispensary system.
d) It will provide a data base for stock taking of drugs procured and dispensed any