Automated pharmacy dispensing systems or dispensing robots, are machines that allow medicine to be stored and dispensed near the point of care. Enabling machines to regulate and monitor the distribution of drugs eliminates the possibility of human error, resulting in more controlled and effective patient care.
Although traditionally used in hospital pharmacies, they are increasingly used in community pharmacy settings, bringing significant benefits. In this blog, we will discuss how automated systems can improve operations and how you can find the best solution for your pharmacy.
With these dispensing systems doing most of the work, this minimises the administration heavy tasks your Pharmacists will have to do. With a machine dispensing drugs, this removes the chances of human error, improving the care your patients are receiving. With integrated clinical checks and controls this also reduces the workload for your team, allowing them to focus on giving your patients the best advice and care.
Consideration should be given to how the dispensing robot/ system integrates with your pharmacy patient medical record (PMR) system to ensure you can realise the most efficiencies.
An integrated PMR and dispensing system should help you overcome challenges such as:
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Clinical Safety and Compliance
Keith Ridge, NHS England’s Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, stated that ”the error rate in community pharmacy is around 3%” when compared to countries that have adopted automated pharmacy technology, the “rate is much lower: you need several zeros before the decimal place”.
Automated dispensing systems can help drive compliance by minimising manual processes through automation of clinical checks, making it easier to adhere to safety guidelines and legal requirements. For example, an automated dispensing system will dispense the safe and legal amount of drugs for the patients prescription. As long as the prescription remains unchanged, it will also schedule a refill/ repeat prescription within an appropriate time frame that is compliant and will ensure the patients dosage remains consistent.
Having an automated dispensing system integrated with your PMR can provide smart and flexible dispensing automation and modular workflows to make dispensing quicker and safer, prioritising the Pharmacists time and helping you prevent lost revenue opportunities.
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In this model, the Hub Pharmacy serves as the central facility where medicines are stored, dispensed and prepared for distribution to the spoke pharmacies for patients. The Hub is typically equipped with the facilities and expertise to ensure medication is properly stored, prescriptions managed and transported to ensure clinical safety is maintained and efficiency maximised.
The Spokes, on the other hand, are the local pharmacy stores that provide services to patients in their community. Often they are smaller sites responsible for dispensing medications, providing advice and clinical services, and offering other support services such as medication adherence and disease management programmes.
Hub and Spoke offers an operational model where there is a need to efficiently manage distribution and patients access to medications. The model is particularly effective in rural or undeserved areas where there may be limited access to healthcare facilities or limited resources to manage medication distribution.
Hub and Spoke may also offer additional capacity where demand outweighs the resources in smaller pharmacy sites.
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It is key to look for a system that is: