Pharmacy automation systems and robotic prescription dispensing systems offer a number of advantages over traditional pharmacists. These systems are capable of storing and managing up to several hundred medications along with patient information, and they’re becoming increasingly popular as the technology that fuels them continues to improve and decreases in cost. Read on to find out about five of the main benefits of pharmacy automation to learn more.
Better Patient Care
Before the invention of the Automated Medicine Dispenser Machine, pharmacists had to spend most of their time manually managing patients’ prescriptions. This tedious task distracted them from what was most important: taking the time to address their patients’ concerns. Now, the pharmacists can allot more time to their other responsibilities, including providing health screenings and immunizations and spending one-on-one time with patients to ensure that they understand the medications and feel that they are getting the best care.
Greater Efficiency
Without an automated medicine dispenser, pharmacists must measure their patients’ medications by hand. This leads to a lot of wasted time and materials since what remains after they’ve measured the medications must be discarded.
Automated systems are sterile, which means they can draw multiple times from the same vials when filling prescriptions, avoiding wasted materials. They’re also faster than the average human pharmacist at performing their jobs, which cuts down on wait times and improves pharmacists’ ability to manage their time at work.
Improved Safety
As long as they follow the guidelines for safe use of automated pharmacy systems, pharmacists will find that they are safer than measuring medications by hand. The risk of contamination is close to zero, as robotic systems store each drug in a separate cell to ensure that cross-contamination cannot occur. Plus, robots eliminate the risk of human error and verify patients’ pharmaceutical records prior to filling the orders, further increasing their safety and reducing the risk of liability for pharmacies.
Greater Employee Satisfaction
Human pharmacists don’t usually enjoy spending most of their days filling medication orders. They would rather be helping their patients and working more efficiently. Purchasing an automated dispenser will help to decrease the amount of repetitive work they must perform each day while simultaneously increasing their sense of satisfaction with their jobs.
Greater Patient Satisfaction
Patients want dedicated, personalized care when they head to the pharmacy, but if their pharmacists are overwhelmed with busywork, they won’t have the time they need to discuss the medications with patients. An automated dispenser will also cut down on their wait times both by operating more efficiently and by freeing up time for pharmacists, who can then provide the pharmacy’s customers with more personalized care.
Satisfied patients are much more likely to continue filling their prescriptions at the same pharmacy, so increasing patient satisfaction is a great way to increase the business’s base of repeat customers. The result is that business owners and shareholders make more money, leaving them more satisfied, too.
The Bottom Line
While it’s true that pharmacy automation systems require serious initial investments, they pay off in the long run. Patients will feel more confident in the care that they receive, pharmacists will be more satisfied with their jobs, and shareholders will make more money off the business. It’s well worth spending the money on a high-quality medication dispenser that will reduce risks and increase patient satisfaction.
