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New Robot Improves Patient Safety, Enhances Efficiency in Pharmacy
Each day, pharmacists serving patients in Froedtert Hospital’s West Outpatient Pharmacy fill an average of 250 to 300 prescriptions. All that pill sorting keeps them busy and can reduce the amount of quality time spent with patients.
 But a new, mechanical staff member is turning heads in the pharmacy, relieving much of the pill sorting burden and enhancing patient safety. His name is SPENCER (Script Pro’s Efficient New Cool Electronic Robot), and he can fill up to 50 percent of the pharmacy’s prescriptions. The custom-built, pharmaceutical robot can fill and label patient prescriptions with 99.7 percent accuracy.
“We are extremely excited about the new robot,” said Binita Patel, PharmD, MS, assistant director of Pharmacy-Ambulatory Services. “It makes our pharmacy safer and more efficient and allows our pharmacists to provide more clinical services to our patients.”
SPENCER was three years in the making. Once a prescription is entered into the pharmacy’s computer system, the robot determines the correct vial size and finds the specified drug. Using barcode scanning, it verifies the location of the drug. The robotic arm holds the vial while the pills are automatically counted and dropped into the vial. The arm places the vial on a conveyor belt and the patient label is applied. Finally, the vial is moved to a compartment where the patient’s last name is displayed electronically. A pharmacist then verifies the order for a final accuracy check.
Source: Froedtert Today Date: January 2010 |
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