Background The healthcare sector is constantly being challenged to achieve the best health and value for money. Dispensing and administration of medicines are time consuming processes for the nursing staff. The patient role is changing to include further patient involvement and empowerment.

Purpose To evaluate the senior doctors’ and nursing staff’s experiences with the OSD system.

Material and methods The pilot OSD project ran from April to December 2013. Before inclusion, a nurse or senior doctor assessed whether individual patients were suitable for self-administration (OSD-II) according to the criteria set by the regional medicine guidelines. The medicine was placed in a bedside locker, after a pharmacist had recorded a medicines history and checked the quality of the patient’s own medicines. Two sets of focus group interviews; one with 3 senior doctors and one with 6 nursing staff were conducted by the Centre for Patient Experience and Evaluation. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed by condensations of meanings in two categories: positive and negative experiences with the OSD system.

Results Physicians (n = 3) as well as nursing staff (n = 6) reported that the OSD system had improved the quality of patient-specific medicines management. The nursing staff all stated that the model did save time. The physicians all stated that the interdisciplinary collaboration with the Hospital Pharmacy was valuable. A challenge with the OSD system included documentation of “as needed” medicines (n = 9). Another challenge related to patients not able to administer their medicines at the bedside. The dispensing process was reported as time consuming and technically challenging (n = 6).

Conclusion Physicians and nursing staff reported positive experiences with the OSD-system, but some challenges have to be addressed, before the OSD system can work well for all patients.

References and/or Acknowledgements No conflict of interest.