Expanding tech offerings
From large-scale, high-volume processors linked with data management software and video-enabled prescription verification systems to “cobots’’ that require a minimal amount of countertop space, a new generation of dispensing tools is allowing pharmacies to shift more of the workload to technicians and central-fill sites so pharmacists can focus on patient interventions and clinical services. Also gaining in popularity are automated unit-dose or multi-dose packaging systems that can improve medication adherence by customizing prescription fills to a patient’s daily drug regimen. The following is a quick look at recent product developments.
Innovation has enhanced its PharmASSIST Symphony for high volume applications. The system now gives pharmacists “real-time digital images of canister replenishment,” including a more streamlined process for tailoring specific orders to specific pharmacies and a “customer-specific dashboard” that provides pharmacies with “full transparency into all system, user and fulfillment activity,” according to Innovation. This fall, Innovation also is partnering with Binghamton University to provide advanced pharmacy practice experience to students.
QS/1’s NRx Pharmacy Management System supports pharmacies’ efforts to shift patients to a once-monthly medication synchronization program, and its InstantFill feature “automatically queues eligible Interactive Voice Response and web refills, prints labels and sends them to an automated-dispensing system for filling,” according to QS/1. Other applications support pharmacists’ medication therapy management initiatives, and medication adherence through an application called Health-Minder.
VoicePort’s Claro Pharmacy Solutions division has teamed up with PDX to offer an interactive voice response service with outbound patient notification through PDX’s EPS and Classic pharmacy systems. VoicePort’s platform “offers a high degree of flexibility and configurability designed to optimize our customer’s specific technology, workflow and financial requirements, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Adam Vargulick, director of product development.
ScriptPro expanded its line of robotic dispensers to a total of six robots under two brand offerings — the larger-scale line of SP robots and the newer CRS, or compact robotic system line of automated systems. All six robots “interface with the pharmacy computer system to fill, label and collate up to 150 prescriptions per hour,” according to the company.
RxSafe expanded its automated dispensing line with the RxSafe 1800 robotic storage and retrieval system. “RxSafe technology automatically and accurately tracks all drugs in the pharmacy down to the pill or package,” the company reported. The RxSafe 900 and RxVault systems are for smaller available applications, along with the RxAWC, a fully automated, robotic will-call storage and retrieval station that the company said eliminates the possibility of theft, diversion or tampering.