vending pharmacy?

[TCB]

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Vending machines, usually associated with cigarettes, snacks, and sodas, are now being used to a limited extent to dispense prescription drugs. The new dispensing systems work like ATMs, except prepackaged medication is dispensed instead of cash.
Now, a pharmacist at a computer workstation across town or across the state can dispense medicines from remote-controlled pharmaceutical dispensing machines, bringing pharmacy services to clinics and communities too small or too remote to support a conventional pharmacy.

Telepharmacy systems allow pharmacists to receive prescriptions via modem or fax, review the Rx and the patient medical record, and electronically signal the dispensing machine at another location to deliver the medication. Then, presto, like a package of cookies, out drops a packet of antibiotics or anti-inflammatories. A nurse or technician retrieves the packet and, using a bar-code scanner, verifies the medication is correct before handing it to the patient.

The U.S. Army, facing a shortage of military pharmacists, is testing the technology at Fort Gordon, Ga., at the Eisenhower Medical Facility. This facility, which provides extended-hour care to military personnel and dependents, is now equipped with two dispensing cabinets, called Automated Drug Dispensing Systems (or ADDS), from Telepharmacy Solutions (formerly ADDS Inc.), North Billerica, Mass. Each cabinet is about the size of a refrigerator and stores an assortment of prepackaged liquids, creams, inhalers, and 60 different medications in packets of nine or 18. Eventually, the military believes, telepharmacy technology could supply pharmaceutical solutions to soldiers deployed in remote regions, such as Bosnia.

by Douglas Page

 

[MNnaloxone]

They were playing with this idea here in Mpls. One of the HMOs was touting it, and put at least one unit in an office. It sounded even more like an ATM than this one: nobody double-checked the meds. The BOP actually seemed to go along with the idea, too. Haven't heard much about it in a year or so, though.

Reading over it again: It is a damn PYXIS machine with an outside line. So what?

Does the Army private contract with civie pharmacists?

To broaden the topic further: Does anyone else have any exposure to the Telepharmacy concept? ND was one of the first to pass it-one RPh watches over techs at up to 4 pharmacies over CCTV. Scary, but necessary. Cause both you and I don't want to live out there.

Thanks for the article, TCB.

 

[baggywrinkle]

I view these as all as excellent ideas when coupled with ndc checking technology, webcam/scanning technology, pyxis technology and a very well trained technician -- at the very least
to military standards and preferably an AA degree with BOP licensure and accountability. This is your opportunity to focus into the clinical stuff with emphasis on patient counseling (via webcam)

The caveat in my mind would be legislated volume caps for quality assurance. Four pharmacies cranking five hundred a day does not make one pharmacist four times as efficient any more than two drive through lanes and six phone lines makes me any more efficient as the only warm body on duty during the night

This concept heralds the true professionalization of pharmacy technicians with a boost in pay by about ten - fifteen dollars an hour. It also expands their liability exposure immensely. They could be sued like any pharmacist or sanctioned by the BOP where today it just doesn't happen.