Will automation make pharmacists obsolete?

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jjoeirv

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Robotic automation may be a trend in pharmacy. Using this automation, pharmacies can improve efficiency (more prescriptions can be filled per hour) and accuracy.
(1) Here is the link to the website about one of the pharmacy robotic automation systems:
http://www.scriptpro.com/ie-splash.shtml
According to this site's calculator, $5.05/hour is the cost/hour to lease the SP 200 robot for a pharmacy open 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. I think that may mean only pharmacy techs (who get paid only about $13/hour) would be needed to operate this.
(2) The following is the link to how a pharmacy dealt with the loss of one of their pharmacists:
http://www.scriptpro.com/profiles/retail/independents/medshoppe-dayton.shtml
This is the quote that came from that link:
---> "Then, last December, my pharmacist gave notice that she was going to work for a chain. ScriptPro was the first thing that came to mind. I had to do something since the pharmacist was leaving."
"I called ScriptPro and they were just great people to work with. Our SP 200 was installed in one day and we were trained and operating one week later. The transition was unbelievably smooth. It used to be that the pharmacists filled and the techs ran the computer, but now the techs run the SP 200 and I check prescriptions and counsel patients. I'm not exhausted at the end of the day."

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I don't see it making pharmacists obsolete. Like the independent pharmacist said in his testimonial, it gives him more time to counsel patients and check prescriptions instead of just filling bottles all day. I think machines will free up some of the pharmacists' time and really allow them to put to use all of the knowledge they have.
 
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According to U.S laws, only pharmacists are allowed to dispense and prepare medications.

Contrary to popular beliefs, pharmacists do much more than just dispensing medications. Pharmacists also educate and advise patients about their drug therapy, monitor their patients? recover, compound medications and work with other health care professionals to provide the most effective drug therapy for their patients to name a few.
 
Are you a sales rep. for scriptpro? Both of those first links are the advertising site for the machine itself. As far as the scriptpro actually goes, yes we have one in our pharmacy and our 3 pharmacists seem to like it on busy days. Our 7 or 8 techs keep in running. It most certainly does not replace pharmacists, but rather makes the mundane part of their job a little easier and safer. Try looking for some of those articles that claim a 100,000+ pharmacist shortage in the next 15 years, those might interest you more and provide a more realistic picture of the scene. By the way, I've heard that our scriptpro cost something like a quarter of a million dollars and requires constant maintanence and re-filling. That's quite an investment for most stores in addition to 3 pharmacists and plenty of $10/hour tech and intern help.

Jd
 
Certainly from my conversations at the in-patient pharmacy at UCSF, things have only become more complicated for pharmacists (hence the increasing shortage). Pharmacists are now demanded to use their expertise in an increasing waybecause technology can take care of all the mundanities of dispensing Both the director and supervisor have told me that their jobs have become more arduous because they they are doing less supervising of dispensing and filling. He compares pharmacists becoming much more like engineers where most of their time is spent thinking about the medication, interactions, and counseling patients. We used both a pixys machine and robot at UC. I was most definitely glad we had it and I encourage more, but it has only made the job of the pharmacist better in my opinion. More of the time is dedicated to thinking about the patient's needs and less to dispensation. None of these robots will replace pharmacists any more than they could a doctor.
 
I personally think that the automation in pharmacy will replace the demand in pharmacy career for the next 5 years. It is actually in the progress of helping pharmacists to minimize errors and serve as a "test" to see how well the machine can perform.
Our current pharmacists now are in the insecured mode also. You guys can check this out at the below link :
http://www.drugtopics.com/d/jive/thread.jsp?forum=1&thread=2&start=15&msRange=15
But anyway, the demanding for pharmacists will never stop even the machines are successfully run. Who's gonna stand at the drug store to supervise the machines? it can't be an assembler or someone who has no training in drugs.
 
I just returned from an 8.5 hour day at the pharmacy. Our scriptpro counted out probably 200 scrips, but did it replace the pharmacist? No. Does the scriptpro know how to counsel? No. Does it deal in 3rd party billing or errors on the Dr's written script? No. If anything, the scriptpro saves time for the Rph and makes the techs work a little more. If a store only does 200 scripts per day then there is no need for a scriptpro, but our pharmacy frequently does 500+ scripts on a monday or tuesday. The scriptpro is a very valuable tool, just like the pharmacy computer or even reference books, but it's not a pharmacist, it's a pharmacist's tool.

Jd
 
Well I guess we're all gonna sit here and battle by putting links up on this thread, so here I go. there's plenty more where this came from believe me.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/4685412.htm

I'll say two things for now:

1) I had a 35Q on the MCAT. I'm fairly certain if I thought that pharmacists were gonna be replaced by machines I would continued on to medical school, but I researched it and found that there are no pharmacists that could be replaced by machines. UCSF just began the pathway system to funnel people into pharmaceutical research, pharmaceutical policy and management, and traditional pharmaceutical care. The only complaint I've ever heard is that moving to a pathway system will increase the shortage of needed pharmacists working in the pharmacies because too many will pursue research or management and not meet the demands in the pharmacy.

2) I have yet to meet a pharmacist who didn't welcome the use of robots with open arms because they realize that a more streamlined dispensation system is needed. At UCSF, they're constantly trying to get the pixys and robot to perform better because it is constantly having problems.

Do a google search. You're gonna find that every state is bending over backwards trying to generate more pharmacists. If you're honestly worried about the profession's existence, then don't pursue it, but you would be mistaken.
 
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