Design features of Community Pharmacy

1. A community Pharmacy should be painted purely white or with special light colors to reflect noble
nature of Pharmacy.

2. Illuminated by using tube lights (neon/fluorescent).Lighting of bulbs should be avoided.

3. All parts of store should be effective. There should be no L shapes or hidden corners within.

4. Cash counters and wrapping counter should be near the gate.

5. Placement of nationally advertised non-prescription/ OTC products near customer counter.

6. Prescription product should be arranged as industry wise, disease wise or alphabetically to

facilitate their identification.

7. Provision of adequate number of bin and shelves (wooden or steel)

8. Provision of fire extinguisher, generator, computer, telephone

9. Heavy and bulky items should be stored as low as possible.

A pharmacy should fulfil all the requirements in Schedule N (Drug and cosmetics Act 1945) “List of
minimum equipment for the efficient running of Pharmacy’’.

 The front of a pharmacy shall bear an inscription “Pharmacy” in front.

 The premises shall be well built, dry, well lit and ventilated and, of sufficient dimensions.
 The areas of the dispensing department shall be not less than 6 square meters for one
pharmacist working therein with additional 2 square meters for each additional pharmacist.
 The height of the premises shall be at least 2.5 meters.
 A Pharmacy shall be provided with apparatus and books necessary for making of official
preparations and prescriptions
 A pharmacy shall be conducted under the continuous personal supervision of a Registered
Pharmacist.

Functional Areas of Pharmacy

 Space for incoming goods

 Reserve stock
 Office
 Counter for customers
 Resting rooms and toilets
 Telephone
 Flap door entrance for personnel
 Refrigerator
 Shelves for keeping medicines
 Waiting area
 Dispensing area
 Congestion

Comfort

Poor
Compactness Safety Losses Waste
Good Layout
Layout

Inefficiency
Efficiency Convenience
Coding is define as process of assigning a code number or code symbol to a particular material for
easy identification.according to another definition “ codification is a system of symbols designed to
be applied to a classified set of items”

Materials are coded in such way that storing, issuing and identifying of materials become easy.

ADVANTAGES OF CODING

1. The long names and description of items need not to be repeated every time.

2. Systematic grouping for correct identification of similar items.

3.Avoids duplicate stocks of drugs

4.It helps in quick identification of items

5. The storing of materials, sorting and documentation becomes easier.

6. It helps in inspection of materials

7. It helps in physical counting

8. It helps in accounting and costing

METHODS OF CODIFICATION

1. ALBHABETICAL SYSTEM: In this system Alphabetical symbols or letters are used as symbols or
codes to identify an item. The first alphabet of each name of the material is the starting point of
coding and subsequently sub alphabets are also used.

For ex: for tablet, code T and for capsule, code C is used.For tablet Thiamine hydrochloride code T-
TH-HC and for raw material of Thiamine hydrochloride TH-HC is used.

 This method is generally used for coding the rack.

 Simple method
 It is not always easy to remember codes
 Lacks flexibility and expansion
 Chances of duplication
 Coding mistakes may occur due to repetition of alphabets

2. NUMERICAL SYSTEM: The numerical system of codification uses only numbers as codes of various
materials kept in the stores. In this method the items are divided into a number of groups and each
group is given a specific code. Further subgrouping is done on the basis of classification of items
falling in any group according to its shape, size and function etc. Then complete code of the item is
written by combining the main group code with the sub code of that item. It can be classified as
follows:

A. Decimal System: Specific code numbers are given to a group of drugs acting on a system and sub
codes are allotted to each drug falling under this group. For example drugs acting on cardiac system
are allotted 01 and individual drugs falling under this group like atenolol, propranolol etc allotted
code as 01.1 and 01.2 respectively.
 01.1 (Atenolol)
01 (Cardiac Drug) 01.2 (Propanolol)
01.3 (Ramipril)

Main advantage is its capacity to expand to accommodate new items.

B. Block system: The numbers are reserved for specified classification.

e.g.

Items Block number

Tablets 1-100
Capsules 101-200
NSAID tablets 1-10
Antibiotic tablets 11-20
Cardiac tablets 21-30 ………….

3. Alpha-numerical system/ Combination: In this method, both alphabets and numerals are used in
the combined form to allot a code to different items of the store. This method is used where store
items are quite large.

e.g. AT 300- For aspirin 300 mg tab

AT 301- For aspirin 500 mg tab

e.g. T 400 ---- T410 Tablet Antibiotics

T 401 – Ampicillin Alpha block numerical method
T 402 – Amoxicillin
T 403- tetracycline

e.g. A 0.0 – Antibiotics

A 0.1 -- Ampicillin
A 0.2 – Amoxicillin Alpha decimal numerical method
A 0.3 – Tetracycline
Flexible method and helps to memorising the code for different store items.

4. Location coding: In a large organization, there are a large number of stores and each store may be
quite large in size. So the store room are divided into blocks. Within each block every row is divided
vertically in columns and horizontally in shelves. Each and every shelf is given a particular number.
The location of item can be identified from block number; row number; column number.

A. Fixed location: Each group of item is allotted a fixed place inside store according to either
a) Supplier wise b) Item wise c) Utility of item
B. Random location: Items are placed according to availability of space in store at the time of
receiving the items. This method can be used when number of items is less and store keeper is
efficient in remembering the location of each item.

C. Zonal location: Generally the whole inventory is divided into 3 zones, namely
a) Bulk zone b) Reserve stock C) Consumable items d) spare parts