Health Agency Aims to Cut Waiting Time for Medication Dispensing at Hospitals
Reported by Fakhrizal Fakhri | Translated by Maria Inggita
Head of Jakarta Health Agency, Ani Ruspitawati, stated that the agency continues to make efforts to cut waiting time for medication dispensing at hospitals. She is optimistic about meeting the minimum service standard (SPM), which sets a maximum wait time of one hour.
"Our target is to ensure patients receive their medication more quickly,"
"if we refer to SPM standard, the wait time at the pharmacy is one hour. That's the target we are continuesly working toward," she asserted, Friday (7/25).
She mentioned that waiting times vary across hospitals. Some have even reported wait times of 3 to 5 hours, especially for compounded medications, pediatric drugs, and prescriptions for pregnant women that require special handling.
Rano Invites Jakarta Residents to Adopt a Healthy LifestyleOne effort being optimized is the use of an e-medical record system. With this system, doctor's presriptions are directly connected to the pharmacy, allowing the medication preparation process to begin even the patient arrives at the pharmacy counter.
"As soon as the doctor finishes writing the presciptions, the pharmacy can immediately start preparing the medication. So by the time the patient arrives at the pharmacy, the process is already underway," she explained.
In addition to digitalization, the Health Agency is also assesing the need for human resources and improving pharmacy service management. According to her, long queues can be caused by several things, like not enough staff and inefficient systems.
On the other hand, the Health Agency has also introduced a home delivery service for medications as one solution to reduce queues. However, public participation in this service remains low.
"Medication delivery services can actually cut wait times because patients don't need to queue. But not many people are using it yet, maybe because of trust or cost concerns," she added.
Ani emphasized that improving pharmacy service management is key to making services faster, more effective, and efficient.
"Our target is to ensure patients receive their medication more quickly. Whether through strengthening direct services or delivery systems, we are currently evaluating and improving all aspects," she said.
