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Robot Pharmacist! - part 2
Submitted by praseengp on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 13:15.
in
The biggest robot of its kind in the world is helping revolutionise the way the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (UK) runs the dispensing of medicines. The NNUH pharmacy dispensing robot, installed by St Albans-based ARX, is the first in the world to have four robots working side-by-side. One pharmacy in NetherLands also has a same type of robot.
The robotic dispensing system holds around 40,000 drugs and is 100% accurate at picking stock from its shelves. Previously staff picked medicine by hand but the new system is much faster, there are less errors, and stock control is improved because the robot and its computers know where everything is ,and how much stock is being held.A pharmacy robotics system, assures that the right medication is dispensed for the right patient, frees pharmacists and technicians from mundane, repetitive tasks so that they may support more productive clinical activities, and streamlines inventory management. It automates the drug dispensing process using bar-code scanning technology. Located in the central pharmacy, it automates the storage, dispensing, returning, restocking and crediting of bar-coded medications.
a robot dispenser
Evergreen Hospital Medical Center, Kirkland (USA) pharmacists estimate up to 93 percent of the hospital's drugs are now dispensed by Ernie, a $3 million robot who works around the clock and never tires. A robot pharmacist named ERNIE dispenses more than 90 percent of Evergreen Hospital Medical Center's drugs. ERNIE has packaged nearly 400,000 doses in the past nine months and works twenty-four hours per day. And in that time, the number of medication errors reported by the hospital decreased by 25 percent.
Robots are increasingly playing a role in hospital pharmacies of US and UK. The main reason for establishing these kind of robots in the pharmacies are due to the heavy rush at the counters. Lack of sufficient number of pharmacists available for the job is another reason. The advantages of robot pharmacists which I mentioned previously, compared to the human pharmacists making it preferable for the hospital pharmacies and community pharmacies in the developed nations. High cost of investment and maintenance expenses make this system affordable to a certain percent of pharmacies only.
Think about the condtion, when robot pharmacists reach the pharmacies in India. What will be the future of crowded Indian pharmacy professionals?? Don’t wonder if you find a robot at a pharmacy counter of a hospital in your city in the coming days. Give him adequate respect as he is a pharmacist….!
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Robots are replacement for Pharmacy Techs
Nice post Praseen.
I think robots acts as assistant to pharmacists in dispencing medicines to "minimize" dispensing errors. In north america, most of the medicines comes in bulk packs (100's,1000's etc). Where as in India, they come as unit dose packs with drug name prints on blisters. Chances for dispensing errors are less in India comparitively to north america. Reason is , in north america drugs should be transffered from big bottles to small patient bottles for each and every prescription. Pharmacists are heavily depend on technicians for filling these medication. Pharmacist finally open and check each and every prescrition for right medication against image in book or computers. There are so many look a like mediactions, small imprints, similar drug names etc cause pharmacy techs to fill wrong medications. Some times it slips from pharmacists due to high volumes,patient demands , multi tasking etc... To reduce pharmacists burden and to give pharmacists more time for counceliing, reviewing drug interaactions etc more and more pharmacies prefer to modernize with robots.
thank you
thank you for your appreciation and valuable information..further comments are politely invited..
Good Sign...
Though, initially it may seem like snatching away the respect and honour, the human pharmacists ought to earn, however, if we think the other way, i.e.- people are taking more interest in the modernisation of the profession, we must be happy...Because, people try to improve only that field in which they take rapt interest...And this shows how much interest people and technicians take in our profession abroad....!