OBJECTIVE：To provide suggestions for solving the problem of hospital pharmacy waiting time for medicine. METHODS：The definition and classification of the response time in hospital pharmacy dispensing process were introduced. The response time was considered to analyze the causes of waiting time for medicine in outpatient pharmacy and central pharmacy. The scheme for shortening the waiting time for medicine were put forward. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS：The response time can be divided into 2 types，i.e. relative invariable and relative variable；the former results from hardware factor，system factor and other factors，and is relative stable and hardly changed；the latter results from that the speed of previous step is higher than that of next step，and can be changed by certain method，such as adjusting the proportion of manpower allocation，adjusting manpower temporarily. Based on the concept of response time，the essence of waiting time for medicine can be understood accurately and deeply， and countermeasure can be found out fundamentally and used for other steps as prescribing prescription.