Pharmacy Automation Explained: Why It Matters for Customers

For a long time, dispensing medications was a tedious task, with pharmacists individually counting tablets and measuring syrups before distributing them to the patients. Yet this era has long passed. Most of this is due to the rapid development of pharmacy automation, which began at the beginning of the 1970s.

The evolution of pharmacy automation over the decades has resulted in today’s efficient and reliable medication dispensation. From storage to electronic prescriptions to compliance packaging, pharmacy automation companies such as DosePacker significantly improve the pharmacy customers’ overall experience.

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What is Pharmacy Automation?

Pharmacy automation utilizes technology to handle pharmacy tasks instead of relying on human intervention. These tasks range from medication dispensing and compounding to patient management and order processing.

Over 50 years since Kirby-Lester developed the first automated electronic pill counting machine, the industry has gradually incorporated automation in many aspects of the pharmacy’s operations to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and safety.

These developments are constantly improving to this day. These are some of the pharmacy workflow automations that have stood the test of time:

1. Automated Dispensing Systems (ADS): Machines that store and dispense medications.
2. Robotic Prescription Dispensing: Robots that fill prescriptions by selecting, packaging, and labeling medications.
3. Automated Compounding Devices: Machines that mix medications in exact proportions, which is particularly useful for sterile and non-sterile compounding.
4. Medication Management Software: Applications that handle electronic prescribing, track inventory, and manage patient records.
5. Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA): Systems that use barcodes to verify medications at the point of care, ensuring that the right patient receives the right medication.
6. Telepharmacy: The provision of pharmaceutical care through telecommunications to patients in locations where they may not have direct contact with a pharmacist.

Automation in the pharmacy industry revolutionized medicine distribution worldwide. Today, manual pill counting and measurements have become almost entirely automated.

The Expanding Purpose of Automation in Pharmacy

Pharmacy automation solutions were developed to reduce errors, enhance medication safety, and improve workflow efficiency.

Throughout the decades, improvements in automation centered on these goals, with regulations and compliances built to ensure any technological advancements would maintain the accuracy, safety, and efficiency of medication dispensing.

In 2022, 4.7 billion prescriptions were dispensed in the US alone. Automations played a massive role in this growth.

Benefits of Pharmacy Automation for Customers

Pharmacy automation has significantly improved the quality of service customers receive, making pharmacy interactions more efficient, safe, and accessible.

The advantages of pharmacy automation are evident in the increasing efficiency of medication dispensing. Here’s how it improved customer service:

1. Reduced Medication Errors: Automated systems ensure accurate dispensing and packaging of medications, lowering the risk of medication errors.
2. Faster Service: Automation speeds up prescription processing and reduces wait times.
3. Enhanced Safety: Technologies like barcode scanning verify correct medication and dosage, increasing patient safety.
4. Improved Access: Telepharmacy solutions extend pharmacy services to remote or underserved areas, improving access to care.

These advancements paved the way for pharmacy services to reach more customers with increased reliability.

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The Future of Pharmacy Automation

Automation will shape the future of pharmacy by offering several transformative benefits that address the growing demands and complexities of modern healthcare.

These advancements will continue to evolve in response to the changing needs of customers, practitioners, and others.

• Technological Advancements: Continuous improvements in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) make automation increasingly sophisticated and reliable.
• Rising Prescription Volumes: As the demand for prescriptions grows, automation helps manage higher volumes efficiently without compromising accuracy.
• Focus on Patient-Centric Care: Automation allows pharmacists to dedicate more time to direct patient care, including medication therapy management and personalized consultations.
• Regulatory and Safety Standards: Increasingly stringent regulations and safety standards necessitate precise and reliable systems for compliance, which automation can provide.
• Cost Reduction: Automation reduces labor costs and minimizes medication wastage, leading to overall cost savings for pharmacies.

Integrating automation in pharmacies will become even more essential as the pharmaceutical industry grows with the advancement in medical technology. Leveraging these automations will ensure your pharmacy services can scale through any growth in the future.

DosePacker’s Automation Solutions

Our pharmacies such as Dolphin Health and Premier, are not single-unit entities serving customers’ medication needs. They are part of a greater ecosystem of hospitals, clinics, physician practices, long-term care communities, and many others that ensure medical compliance for patients.

DosePacker’s services help our pharmacy customers with medical adherence tools, automation systems, packaging, interoperability, and other solutions. Partnering with DosePacker alleviates the pressure of working with pharmacies and antiquated workflow.

Here are some of our services that would help improve your medication management processes:

CareCommunityOS

CareCommunityOS is a software tailored for care community management. It aims to boost communication and collaboration between healthcare teams, streamline providers’ workflows, and ultimately elevate patient outcomes.

Automated Compliance Packaging

DosePacker’s multi-dose compliance packaging ensures residents take their medications on time with visual and digital cues, including clear dose cups, accurate labels, and color-coded med pass schedule indicators. The packaging also features a QR code for seamless integration with our pharmacy solutions to automate charting and provide care communities and patients real-time connection to the pharmacy.

MyDoses

MyDoses serves as a comprehensive med pass management application, facilitating ordering, tracking, and monitoring for caregivers and patients to improve medication adherence and patient outcomes. Key features include in-app notifications to ensure timely dose administration, secure communication through HIPAA-compliant messaging, and medication management tools allowing patients to maintain a digital record of their medication history and order refills.

Smart Medication Storage Devices

DosePacker offers innovative medication storage solutions: DoseMinder, an intelligent medication-storage device that syncs with the MyDoses app for monitoring and managing self-administered medications, and DoseKart, a versatile medication cart equipped with secure compartments and our Smart Vision verification system for tracking medication administrations for care communities.

Evolve with Pharmacy Automation

Automation is now an inherent part of the pharmaceutical industry. The benefits have helped increase people’s trust in the industry and reduced medical non-adherence. Pharmacies will continue to adapt to the changing needs of consumers through innovative solutions.

If you are ready to boost your automated workflow system, DosePacker is the perfect partner to help you get started. Embrace the future of pharmacy automation. Contact us to discover more about our cutting-edge solutions.