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cOVID-19 haS PreSenTeD PharMacIeS WITh Many neW chaLLengeS BuT, FOrTunaTeLy, TechnOLOgy haS Been aBLe TO STeP In anD heLP…
COVID-19: Technology steps up to the plate
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ince March this year, community pharmacy across Scotland has faced challenges never seen before in this – or any other – profession.
as patient demand for prescriptions escalated, pharmacies were faced with a workload that was unprecedented and were forced into making large-scale changes to both their premises and their work practices.
One way in which some pharmacies responded to these new challenges was to introduce an increased level of robotic technology.
Most community pharmacists today are fully aware of the benefits that robotic technology brings to their businesses.
In addition to the fact that it allows pharmacy businesses to increase the number of items it can dispense on a daily basis, technology allows pharmacists to step away from merely dispensing, allowing them to offer an increased range of services and enabling them to take an overview of how their business is operating. Installing a robot also ensures that fewer drugs go out of date – mainly because BD's stock system is extremely sophisticated. The robot dispenses the shortest dated pack first. It then reads the 2D barcodes as
they are being loaded, which then enables the robot to track the pack expiry date. There are also reports to show what packs are coming up for expiry and also reports that show overstocks/understocks. This definitely helps pharmacies to manage their stock levels in a much more efficient way.
as lockdown began, ron Badger from Stepps Pharmacy was faced with not only taking over a new pharmacy, but having to make it fit for new purpose created by cOVID-19.
‘Stepps was a pharmacy that I was buying as the previous owner was retiring after over 40 years,’ ron told SP. ‘The old pharmacy was a very small unit and was not fit for purpose. There was no space for workflow at all. I had actually agreed to rent premises in the ground floor of an old bank nearby and relocate the pharmacy on the day I bought it.
‘cOVID-19 increased the volume of prescriptions to a level that was not safe to dispense given the size of the old premises. It was impossible for staff and customers to be socially distant in the shop, meaning that if one staff member was diagnosed with cOVID, the pharmacy would have had to shut.
‘Initially we had planned to open on 1 april but, unfortunately, with cOVID restrictions on building sites,
Ron Badger of Stepps Pharmacy
we had to stop the refit a few weeks before completion. Luckily we were able to get permission to restart work but had to complete what would have been a week’s work over a period of four weeks to allow safe working practice on the site. as a result, we opened on 1 June.
‘I had used the BD system in a previous pharmacy and knew it was reliable, interfaced well with the PMr system and was user friendly. I did compare it to a few other similar systems but always came back to wanting to order with BD. The fact that I was doing a refit as well meant that I had to have confidence in the team that was carrying it out but fortunately I knew the engineer team were very efficient and worked well with the refit company to tie everything in.
‘The refit has seen a massive change in the pharmacy for our working practice. By refitting the shop we have been able to design the dispensary work flow around the robot. Simple things like minimising the distance from the robot outputs to the checking bench makes the process as efficient as possible. Previously, staff were not that involved in the dispensing process and there was only one computer. I opted for three outputs on the robot to allow us to cope with current and future prescription volume. all staff
had to be fully trained from day one. adding this into opening new premises and having to load all the stock into the robot did make for a very busy first few weeks, but having the BD trainer on site enabled us to have queries dealt with straight away.
‘Three months in, we now have an efficient, safe workflow and have managed the increase in items with cOVID-19 and the increase from having new larger premises.’
ron has no doubts that the benefits created by the refit will be a great advantage in what is going to an uncertain future in the short term.
‘Our new premises are night and day compared to the old pharmacy. In addition to the fact that we have safer, more efficient dispensing processes, the patient journey has also improved since we can now manage the workload in a much more efficient manner.
‘The fact that we have no waiting times or queues outside means that the process runs very smoothly and prescriptions are ready for patients coming in. We have lots more room for stock storage in the robot, allowing me to stock up on hard to get generic lines. I can also manage and date check all stock through running simple reports.
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