As pharmacy teams take on more responsibility, automation can help reduce repetitive workload, improve workflow and create more time for patient care.
Pharmacy teams are being asked to do more than ever. Dispensing prescriptions remains at the heart of community pharmacy, but pharmacies are also delivering clinical services, supporting Pharmacy First, providing vaccinations, managing deliveries and spending more time directly supporting patients.
At the same time, the day-to-day demands of running a busy dispensary have not disappeared. Medication still needs to be received, stored, located, retrieved and dispensed. For pharmacy teams already working at capacity, the challenge isn’t necessarily finding ways to work harder. It is finding ways to create more capacity within the existing workflow.
This is where dispensing automation can make a difference.
Where is pharmacy capacity being lost?
When we think about dispensing, it is easy to focus on the prescription itself: a prescription arrives, medication is selected, it is checked and eventually handed to the patient.
But there is much more happening behind the scenes. Stock has to be received and put away. Medicines need to be stored so staff can find them when needed. Products have to be retrieved and replenished throughout the day.
Individually, these activities may only take a few minutes. Across hundreds of prescriptions and thousands of packs of medication, however, those small tasks can add up to a significant amount of staff time.
This is one reason why a pharmacy can feel constantly busy without necessarily making the best possible use of its capacity. The question is therefore not simply how quickly can a pharmacy dispense a prescription, but how efficiently can medication move through the pharmacy as a whole.
Dispensing automation is about more than speed
When pharmacies first consider automation, dispensing speed is naturally an important consideration. A system that can retrieve medication quickly can reduce the time between a prescription being processed and the medication reaching the dispensing point.
But speed is only one part of the equation. If staff still spend significant amounts of time receiving deliveries, loading stock, searching for medication or manually managing storage, increasing dispensing speed alone may not address the pharmacy’s biggest constraint.
It is therefore useful to think about automation as part of the wider pharmacy workflow. Medication moves through a series of stages, from arriving at the pharmacy through to storage, dispensing and ultimately reaching the patient. Different parts of that journey can create different pressures.
For some pharmacies, dispensing speed may be the priority. For others, storage and retrieval may be consuming more staff time. Another pharmacy may be dealing with significant manual work when receiving and loading stock. The right automation solution should therefore be based on where the pharmacy needs to create capacity, rather than simply choosing the fastest machine available.
Different approaches to dispensing automation
The MEKAPHARM range supplied by AcornRX Technologies demonstrates several approaches to automation, including high-speed dispensing, automated storage and retrieval, hybrid systems and automated stock loading.
Increasing dispensing speed
For some pharmacies, the main challenge is the speed at which medication can be selected and delivered to the dispensing point.
APOTEKA is designed around high-speed prescription delivery, using dedicated fixed-ejection technology. The system is also available in a refrigerated version and is designed to provide a compact automation option for pharmacies with different requirements.
The benefit is not simply that medication can be dispensed quickly. It is about reducing the manual movement involved in getting medication from storage to the point where the prescription can be completed.
Improving storage and retrieval
For other pharmacies, the biggest opportunity may be further back in the process. Medication has to be stored somewhere before it can be dispensed, and manually locating and retrieving products can take considerable time over the course of a working day.
OMEGA uses automated high-density storage and retrieval to manage both fast- and slow-moving medication. It can automatically deliver complete prescriptions on demand and provides medication tracking by batch, lot number and expiry date.
For pharmacies where storage, retrieval and inventory management are significant sources of repetitive work, automating these processes can create additional capacity for the wider team.
Combining storage and dispensing
Not every pharmacy has one single bottleneck. A pharmacy may need greater storage capacity while also needing to improve dispensing speed.
OPTIMA is designed as a hybrid system, combining robotic storage with high-speed dispensing channels. Medication can be stored within the robot while dedicated channels provide rapid access to products that require it, with automatic replenishment helping maintain predetermined stock levels.
This reflects an important principle of pharmacy automation: not every medication needs to be handled in exactly the same way. Fast-moving products may benefit from rapid access, while other medication can be managed through high-density storage.
Automating the stock-loading process
There is another part of the process that can easily be overlooked: getting stock into the system.
Receiving deliveries, scanning products, sorting stock and putting medication away can all require staff time. If these processes remain entirely manual, they can become a bottleneck even when other parts of the dispensing workflow have been automated.
ALPHA is designed to address this by automating the loading, scanning and sorting of incoming stock, while providing tracking by batch, lot number and expiry date. The supplied MEKAPHARM material states that it can accommodate up to 1,200 boxes.
The wider point is important: automation should not simply move the bottleneck from one part of the pharmacy to another.
What should pharmacies consider before investing in automation?
There is no single dispensing machine that will be right for every pharmacy. The most appropriate solution will depend on prescription volumes, medication profile, available space, staffing requirements and future plans.
Before deciding what type of automation is needed, pharmacies should consider:
- Where are staff currently spending the most time?
- Is the main issue dispensing, storage, retrieval, stock loading or something else?
- What does the pharmacy’s medication profile look like?
- How much physical space is available?
- What will prescription volumes look like in the future?
- How could automation affect the wider workflow?
Most importantly, pharmacies should consider the whole workflow rather than judging a system on a single specification. A machine may be extremely fast, but if it does not address the pharmacy’s biggest operational constraint, it may not create the capacity the team actually needs.
Creating more capacity for pharmacy teams
The value of dispensing automation ultimately goes beyond the machine itself. The objective is to reduce the amount of time pharmacy teams spend on repetitive processes and give them more capacity to focus on work that requires their expertise.
That could mean more time for patient consultations, clinical services, Pharmacy First, vaccinations or simply having greater capacity to manage the day-to-day demands of a busy pharmacy.
When routine processes become more organised and predictable, the working environment can also become less dependent on staff constantly moving between tasks or responding to avoidable interruptions.
Automation can therefore contribute not only to how much work a pharmacy can process, but to how effectively its team can work.
Finding the right automation solution
At AcornRX Technologies, we believe the starting point for pharmacy automation should be the pharmacy itself. Every pharmacy has different requirements, and the right solution depends on understanding its workflow, available space, operational pressures and future plans.
The MEKAPHARM range provides different approaches to automation, from high-speed dispensing and robotic storage to hybrid systems and automated stock loading. AcornRX can also provide operational analysis, including consideration of financial and architectural requirements, to help identify a solution suited to the pharmacy’s needs.
The goal isn’t simply to automate as much as possible. It is to identify where automation can create the most meaningful capacity.
If you’d like to compare this approach with pouch-based systems, our guide on original pack dispensing covers how that works and where it fits alongside options like Tosho and Scriptlife.
Interested in exploring dispensing automation for your pharmacy?
Contact AcornRX Technologies to discuss your workflow and find out how the right automation approach could help create more capacity for your team.
