Heartbeat: State of the art robot improving operations in pharmacy

August 14, 2018

We’re always trying to find new and innovate ways to deliver better service and to improve patient experience across all our hospital sites.

One department who have embraced new technology is pharmacy, who introduced a robot dispenser to improve accuracy and efficiency. The state of the art robot dispenser sorts medication ready for labelling, which can then be distributed across our hospital wards for patients. The robot is produced by Becton Dickinson, an American based medical company that specialises in the manufacturing of medical devices and technology.

Heartbeat caught up with Chief Pharmacist, Puneet Sharma and Chief Pharmacy Technician, Divna Young to get more of an insight into life behind the scenes in pharmacy.

Q: Pharmacy has recently had a refit of the dispensary at City Hospital – what was this about?

Puneet: “We had an aging facility, which was last renewed in 1986. With changes in workload pressure and to improve patient flow, we have undertaken some reconfiguration works. The key aims are to improve our turnaround time, reduce our likelihood of dispensing errors and to release colleagues back onto wards for more patient facing activities.”

Q: What is the role of the robot in this?

Divna: “We have had a dispensing robot for a number of years now, however, it was not utilised to its full potential. The reconfiguration has allowed dispensary colleagues access to it so we can dispense prescriptions in a more accurate and timely manner, which we were not really able to do before logistically. We also will be able to increase its use for stocking items in a better manner.”

Q: What else has changed with the refit?

Divna: “We have managed to improve the working environment for our colleagues which also helps reduce errors and improve speed. A new controlled drugs area has been introduced to make this process more secure and safer. The more open and cleaner area now has work benches at the correct height and computers in the right places. It also has improved communication in the room and staff morale.

“Utilising the robot more has also meant we are able to reduce our stock holding in the dispensary drastically, as stock is now aggregated. This reduction, combined with the better stock management a robot provides means we should make both a one off saving and a small on-going saving in not ordering as many drugs.”

Q: What does the future hold for Pharmacy at City Hospital?

Puneet: “Importantly for nursing/ward colleagues, in the final phase of the refit over the next month, we will be introducing medication lockers, like we have at our Sandwell pharmacy. These will allow ward colleagues, through controlled access, to obtain dispensed items at any time without pharmacy having to be open or waiting in a queue to get ward medicines.

“Also, ward colleagues currently spend a considerable amount of their time calling pharmacy to see if prescriptions have been dispensed. Later this month, we will be rolling out a Trust wide tracker that can be accessed from any computer. This will tell colleagues what stage prescriptions are at in pharmacy and if they’re ready for collection, without the need to call, thus leaving pharmacy colleagues with more time to provide a more efficient service.

“Feedback from pharmacy colleagues has been positive and the new controlled drugs area so successful we will be rolling this out at Sandwell also, together with the prescription tracker.”