Automation

[BOBPHARM]

Has anyone got a pharmacy robot yet or seen one in a community pharmacy setting.
From what I gather it is still very expensive.
I have read a few hospital reviews and they have obviously done their sums and as a result most large hospitals now operate one.
It is cost efficient in the hospital setting but I wonder if any research has been done in the community setting.

[Defblade]

I've worked with one.

It was much slower than humans and jammed/broke/stopped for no reason/just didn't send the stuff approx 3 times an hour, more if busy (natch).

ONLY saving grace is that it was able to pack a lot more stock into the (fairly small) dispensary than human-accessable shelves ever could.

"I'm sorry, we haven't got any Yasmin in stock."
"Yes you have."
"Uh?"
"There they are, I can see them." (points through glass front of robot)
"Oh yes. Sorry. *******susser-fracker-macker-....."

[SolomonQ]

I cant see why these things werent brought into this use earliar, the technology and programming they employ is ancient by the standards of this modern age. and the hundreds of thousands of pounds they cost...... well, i try to comprehend why they cost so much.

[silnarnin]

We use them a lot in Portugal now. But, in Portugal only original boxes are dispensed, and all medicines have a unique bar code (which is their PL number).

[nader.siabi]

Originally Posted by BOBPHARM

Has anyone got a pharmacy robot yet or seen one in a community pharmacy setting.
From what I gather it is still very expensive.
I have read a few hospital reviews and they have obviously done their sums and as a result most large hospitals now operate one.
It is cost efficient in the hospital setting but I wonder if any research has been done in the community setting.

Have one and seen it working. When interphase with PMR, it does wonder. Can deliver 700 with minimum staff. Our record is 720 item with two tech, one pharmacist and 1 supoort staff. I have the only one in the UK. Made in spain and much cheaper and better than other competitors. U can buy £75k to give you optin of increasing capacity anytime. £75k would keep 2000 items (14000 boxes) and useful upto 12000 prescription. Denward manufacturing is the main agent. So far not failed even once. had this since Jan 2006. Maintainance is low.
Nader

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by nader.siabi

Have one and seen it working. When interphase with PMR, it does wonder. Can deliver 700 with minimum staff. Our record is 720 item with two tech, one pharmacist and 1 supoort staff. I have the only one in the UK. Made in spain and much cheaper and better than other competitors. U can buy £75k to give you optin of increasing capacity anytime. £75k would keep 2000 items (14000 boxes) and useful upto 12000 prescription. Denward manufacturing is the main agent. So far not failed even once. had this since Jan 2006. Maintainance is low.
Nader

That looks good, but from the website, it does not show much.

Which PMR system are you using with it. Also how do you go about loading this machine, as I believe machines differ inn this?

[nader.siabi]

Originally Posted by Musicman

That looks good, but from the website, it does not show much.

Which PMR system are you using with it. Also how do you go about loading this machine, as I believe machines differ inn this?

Pharmacy Manager by Cegedim. It is loaded manually although you can get automatic. it take long time to load automatic, whereas 4 manual, u scan once and load 7 boxes of the same drug. Go to farmaengineering.com to see demo. What they do is if anything goes wrong they take over from spain and sortout any problem. So far we had no breakdown and only few time the picking device jamed and they managed to release this via internet. Maximum time spent is 10 minutes. Even if it breaks down you can still use the robit to pick manually. We have increased our prescription volume so far by 2800 per month in two year since we had the robot. waiting is minimum and hence drawns patients in.

regards
Nader