Ask most pharmacists what they would like more of, and the answer is rarely more paperwork. It is time: time to talk to patients, to check medicines properly, and to deliver the clinical services the sector is increasingly expected to provide.
Pharmacy automation doesn’t change what pharmacy teams are there to do. What it can change is how much of the day goes on repetitive, manual tasks that don’t need a pharmacist’s clinical judgement. This article looks at the link between pharmacy automation and patient care: where the time goes, and how automation can give some of it back.
Where the time goes
In a busy pharmacy, a lot of working time is taken by tasks that are necessary but repetitive: picking and labelling stock, putting deliveries away, preparing monitored dosage systems, finding prescriptions for collection and answering “is it ready?” calls. Each one is small. Together they can take up a large share of the day, and they compete directly with the conversations and checks that need a clinician’s attention.
Dispensing: fewer manual steps between prescription and patient
Original pack dispensing robots store medicines in their original packs and retrieve them when a prescription is processed, so staff aren’t walking the shelves for every item. Because the robot knows where each pack is, picking becomes quicker and more consistent, which supports accuracy as well as speed. Our guide to what original pack dispensing is and how it works explains the process, and how dispensing automation can create more capacity looks at what it means for workflow.
Monitored dosage systems: reclaiming a time-heavy job
Preparing MDS packs means reviewing each patient’s medication, selecting it, packing it and checking the finished pack. MDS automation takes on much of the repetitive packing work, and built-in vision verification supports the checking, so teams can spend more of their time on the clinical side of the service. See how MDS automation can make pharmacy more efficient for more detail.
Collection: taking pressure off the counter
Every handover at the counter interrupts something else. MedLocker prescription collection kiosks let patients collect their medicines themselves, securely, at a time that suits them, including outside opening hours. That removes much of the repeated stop-start of handovers, and many of the calls from patients checking whether a prescription is ready. We cover this in how MedLocker helps pharmacies create capacity, and compare the two approaches in MedLocker vs traditional prescription collection.
Storage and tracking: knowing where things are
Time is also lost looking for things. Scriptlife helps pharmacies store and track prescriptions and notify patients, and our guide to scan-to-shelf in pharmacy explains how recording where each prescription is stored makes it quicker to find when the patient arrives.
Pharmacy automation and patient care: what doesn’t change
Pharmacy automation and patient care work best together, because automation isn’t a substitute for professional judgement. Clinical checks, counselling and the relationship with patients remain with the pharmacy team. The aim is to give them more room for it. The right starting point is usually the task that takes the most time or causes the most pressure, and our guides on where to start with pharmacy automation and what you can automate in a pharmacy can help you decide. Our guide to pharmacy automation in the UK brings it all together.
Want to see where automation could free up time in your pharmacy? Our pharmacy efficiency review looks at your workflow, or get in touch to talk it through.
