Tech firms answer chain pharmacy's call for productivity

Drug Store News,  Dec 15, 2003  by Dan Scheraga

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Telepharmacy

One of the more intriguing stories in emerging pharmacy technologies comes in the form of telepharmacy, which aims to reduce human resource demands in the pharmacy by hosting some functions--including pharmacist consultation--remotely.

ScriptPro is among the first solutions providers to explore this area. "In the past, there have been some vending machine-like telepharmacy solutions tried, but none met with great success because the necessary level of integration and infrastructure hadn't existed yet. But that's changing rapidly today, said ScriptPro president and chief executive officer Mike Coughlin.

ScriptPro is expected to make its telepharmacy solution commercially available soon. So far, it has been in testing in a clinical setting at some Veterans Administration pharmacies and, Coughlin told Drug Store News, the results to date have been overwhelmingly positive.

ScriptPro's telepharmacy solution consists of its SP Automation Center drug-dispensing system and teleconferencing gear, including cameras and monitors. With this equipment, a pharmacist at a central location can manage several pharmacies at once, down to patient counseling,, prescription fulfillment--even replenishing the robot. Coughlin said the solution is ideal for locations with frequent lulls in customer traffic. When the store is quiet, customers can consult with a pharmacist remotely, allowing the chain the luxury of not staffing that store during those hours.

But don't customers miss the face-to-face contact with their neighborhood pharmacist? Actually, quite often they prefer the remote conferencing," Coughlin said. "Sometimes they are embarrassed about their health condition, and the fact that the pharmacist is removed from them allows them to feel more at ease and speak more openly about their condition." He added that pharmacists connected through ScriptPro s telepharmacy solution have the option of counseling patients with a number of counseling videos. Patients can interrupt the videos at any time if they have questions.

The one thing pharmacists can't do with the telepharmacy solution is give the patient the medication. An on-hand technician still must be present for that.

Emerging technologies

Solutions providers also are working in a host of other emerging areas designed to reduce labor demands in the retail pharmacy setting.

Electronic kiosks are beginning to come into their own as viable pharmacy solutions. QS/1 has one in the works. The company is about to begin an in-the-field beta test of the yet-to-be-named product. QS/1's Thompson said the kiosk is designed to bring customer-facing Web-enabled services into the store. Most notable among QS/1's kiosk functions is its prescription reordering capability "The kiosk can be placed near the pharmacy counter and essentially act as a secondary prescription dropoff point," Thompson said.

Patients can key in their refill numbers at the kiosk, and the refill order is dropped automatically into the store's integrated pharmacy management system. Patients also can scan their bar-coded prescriptions into the kiosk with an optional scanner attachment. Once they have input their refill numbers and their order is accepted, the kiosk tells the patient when his or her order will be ready. If the patient is out of refills, the kiosk will offer to contact her physician for her. The kiosk also can serve as a source of health information. QS/1 loads the kiosk with a volume of Web-based health content based on the retail customer's needs and budget. The kiosk is comprised of only a pedestal and a touchscreen. Its tiny 1-square-foot footprint ensures that the kiosk won t get in the way of daily operations.