Information Technology in Retail Pharmacies - Term Paper Example

The reason is the lack of exposure and experience. These problems can be easily resolved by incorporating development plan and strategies. Information technology is one of the fastest growing fields. The changes and the advancements in the technology contribute to the advantages and the popularity of information technology. Information technology is implemented in almost all types of industries and this helps in the improvement and development of the organization in which it is implemented. Though there are various advantages in the information technology, it poses certain problems to some of the industries.

Retail pharmacies are one among the industries that faces more problems with the intervention of information technology. The retail pharmacies face problems with the implementation of information technology. (Fisher, 2006).Generally information technology is considered to be a savior in most of the organizations. In retail pharmacies it does not fare well due to its complex procedures and operations. There are various problems are faced right from the beginning of the operation till the report generation.

The problems include input of information, output, billing issues, insurance verification and other competencies. These competencies include training problems and dispensing problems. These problems can be resolved by implementing simple procedures and systems and it will yield better results when compared to the complex procedures of the information technology. Problems in Input of Information The input is one of the major parts in any operation and the procedure must be kept simple. The information in a pharmacy will include the name of the medicine, the date of manufacture and the date of expiry and the name of the manufacturing company.

The information technology and its advancement include various features in a single system which complicates the input procedure. This acts as a great disadvantage to the pharmacists and they find it difficult to operate the system. Information technology is not easy to implement and most of the pharmacies still follow the manual processing. Due to the intervention of information technology the process in the retail pharmacies have become easier in certain cases and has also become difficult for the ones who lack knowledge.

(Fisher, 2006). Though information technology has improved the status of pharmacies, the reluctance to update to the system leaves them at problems.The pharmacists find it difficult to enter the information regarding the medicines and it takes more time for them to correctly enter the complete details pertaining to a particular medicine. Output Problems The output is the important part of any process and the procedure to gain the output should be kept simple. With the intervention of information technology the process of obtaining an output has become easier.

The output of retail pharmacies may be the list of medicines available or the stock available in the pharmacies. The retail pharmacies keep track of the medicines available with them and they have to make a note of the left over stock. The inventory process is made simpler by the information technology but the lack of experience makes it a tedious process. The traditional process of maintaining a manual record of the medicines seems easier instead of checking the system for each and every medicine.

Thus creating an