Pharmacies are the foundation of entire healthcare systems, which have begun to change from modest drug stores to pharmaceutical care units. The growing need for individualized care and the development of pharmacy technology solutions are driving this change.
Moreover, customers have higher expectations for pharmacies in the age of on-demand services. These expectations cannot be met without cutting-edge technical support and their methodical integration with healthcare institutions, pharmacies, pharmaceutical makers, and practitioners.
Let’s examine how to plan for automation in pharmacy using the top solutions and technologies.
Table of Contents
What is Automation in Pharmacy?
Pharmacy automation uses technology to manage inventory and records, expedite and enhance various functions within a pharmacy, such as storing and dispensing pharmaceuticals, and improve workflow. It includes several tools and systems, each focusing on a different workflow aspect.
By installing barcode scanning and verification devices, automation in pharmacies also plays a critical role in lowering human errors and improving medication safety by guaranteeing that patients are given the right medications.
Incorporating electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) systems, which enable the secure and smooth interchange of prescription information between pharmacies and healthcare practitioners, further enhances a more streamlined and patient-centered healthcare experience.
Additionally, pharmacy automation frees pharmacists’ valuable time to concentrate on providing individualized patient care and drug counseling, eventually improving everyone’s health.
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Benefits of Automation in Pharmacy to Optimize Healthcare
Automation in pharmacy provides various benefits enhancing operational efficiency and optimizing healthcare delivery. Let’s explore the key benefits of pharmacy workflow automation in optimizing healthcare.
Operational Speed and Accuracy
Compared to human accuracy, pharmacy automation ensures quick and accurate handling of items. With error tracking, less contamination, and precise weighing for storage or distribution, it provides prompt access to the appropriate drug.
Consider the lengthy, demanding workdays at a drugstore. Fatigue can cause errors with dire repercussions. Significant issues have put pharmacists and drugstore proprietors in danger. Prescribing or dispensing errors cause 7,000–9,000 deaths annually in the United States alone.
Pharmacy automation systems eliminate risk by completing tasks error-free, maintaining accuracy and consistency, and ensuring the correct result every time, except in rare cases.
Real-Time Inventory Tracking
There’s not much time to waste looking through shelves or estimating stock levels. A well-designed pharmacy automation system ensures availability, saves time and money, and tracks every medication in real time so you can say goodbye to theft, stockouts, and expired medications.
This software stores all information, including sales, dates, expiration, recommended dose, and client information. Thus, you can easily handle inventories at several sites while offering patients dependable services.
Improves Patients Care
Pharmacies can devote more time and resources to patient care using automated Pharma technology solutions instead of administrative tasks. When pharmacy employees are not spending as much time on repetitive duties, they have more time to interact with patients, respond to their inquiries, and provide health and wellness education.
By utilizing cutting-edge new pharmacy technologies like automated prescription kiosks, you may provide 24/7 precision care. Fill prescriptions and store them in a safe carousel so patients can take them whenever convenient.
A quicker, more efficient pick-up process and getting medicine online saves you and your patient time and enhances patient care.
Reduces Labor Costs & Builds Business
Prescription automation frequently does not entail personnel reductions, even though adopting automation pharmaceutical technology solutions may cause fears about job loss.
With careful planning, Automation solutions can move pharma automation companies from low-value to high-value work. Automating repetitive tasks improves operational efficiency and frees staff time for patient-focused activities or business-building projects. Software for automation is handy when staffing is scarce or during peak hours.
Automation frees up workers for more strategic and complicated work without requiring overtime pay or new hiring by taking care of repetitive activities. It increases productivity and profit margins by enabling technicians and pharmacists to concentrate on jobs generating income and patient care.
Top Solutions & Technologies for Pharmacy Automation
Pharmacy automation systems have completely changed how pharmacies run, improving accuracy, patient safety, and efficiency. Here are some of the top automation in pharmacy solutions and technologies causing this shift:
- Artificial Intelligence with ML and NLP
Artificial intelligence in automation in pharmacy guarantees accurate medicine distribution. AI photographs and weighs drugs to cross-check them against stored data to ensure accuracy.
AI chatbots focusing on patients help choose over-the-counter (OTC) medications based on symptoms and make online or phone prescription ordering easier.
Additionally, AI helps pharmaceutical businesses collect and evaluate vital consumer data, which promotes strong business expansion. The two types of AI technologies are gaining traction in digital healthcare software development.
Machine learning is the part of AI that comprises methods (algorithms) that assist computer programs in identifying patterns, drawing conclusions, and learning from them.
Natural language processing, or NLP, processes unstructured data, like clinical notes, and converts it into structured data for more precise searches, discovery, and decision support. It does this by combining expert rules and AI approaches.
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Blockchain
Blockchain is used to ensure seamless drug tracing. Upon manufacture, every medication is assigned a unique code that is then added to the blockchain. Every following step involving the medication—from the wholesaler to the pharmacy, from the sale to the hospital, from the patient’s return to the doctor, or disposal because it has expired—is documented.
Blockchain has already been incorporated into the operations of several businesses. It allows hospital and retail pharmacy equipment to easily log or validate information by scanning these codes. By alerting pharmacists in the event of a code mismatch, this technology prevents the distribution of fake medications.
Counterfeit medications cause pharmacy personnel to lose their jobs and jeopardize patient health. Blockchain technology adoption helps to maintain security when bringing about digital transformation in healthcare with workflow automation services.
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Robot Processing Automation
Robot processing automation is integrated with computer software to automate repetitive activities, perform intricate computations, and make decisions. Software bots are specifically designed to operate in the background and perform specified duties like sending and receiving responses to human requests, data entry, and processing incoming data using pre-written rules and commands.
RPA is used in several sectors of the pharma industry. Let’s explore some of its implementation areas:
Business process management: RPA is a business process management component in pharmaceutical technology solutions. Automating some or all of the process streamlines laborious and lengthy commercial procedures.
Supply chain and inventory management with RPA: RPA can automate supply and inventory management tasks, including demand planning, purchase order management, invoice management, and return and refund processing.
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Big Data and Analytics
In computer science, big data analytics refers to the process of gathering and analyzing enormous amounts of data. The records provide access to this data, subsequently examined to produce new discoveries.
There are several uses of this technology in the pharmaceutical sector:
Deeper drug insights: Pharmacy managers require deeper insights into the supply and distribution of medications to manage the drug supply effectively. Big data analytics provides more precise and in-depth information about medicine shortages, diversion risks, and expired stock, improving inventory optimization decision-making.
Benchmarking performances: Big data analytics makes it possible to measure business performance against industry benchmarks and trends in drug utilization. Improved analytics facilitate more informed purchase decisions, maximize inventory control, and aid in resolving supply chain difficulties.
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Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things, or IoT, is a physical network of Internet-enabled devices that enables cross-device communication. Its monitoring sensors can gather real-time industrial device status data and instantly transfer it into a single dashboard.
IoT can be applied in the following areas of the pharmaceutical industry:
Logistics and supply chain: Tracking and monitoring medication throughout the supply chain gives you better visibility and control over your pharmaceutical supply and device inventory. It can help you determine how many prescriptions are past their expiration date and how much more is required.
Regulatory compliance: Connected devices effectively reduce manual paperwork and eliminate human error, helping to ensure the quality of standards by automatically transmitting information. It is done to maintain complete documentation and current pharmaceutical processes to comply with regulatory requirements.
Improves patient medication adherence: The variety of IoT-enabled solutions available favors patient medication adherence. Smartwatches and other connected gadgets with sensors track medication adherence and remind users to take their medicines on schedule.
Tracking and monitoring medication throughout the supply chain gives you better visibility and control over your pharmaceutical supply and device inventory. It can help you determine how many prescriptions are past their expiration date and how much more is required.
Connected devices effectively reduce manual paperwork and eliminate human error by automatically transmitting information, ensuring the quality of standards. This is done to maintain complete documentation and current pharmaceutical processes to comply with regulatory requirements.
Unlock automation in your pharmacy operations with our expert guidance.
Tips to Build a Pharmacy Automation System
Establishing a pharmacy automation system necessitates meticulous preparation and execution to guarantee productivity, precision, and adherence to legal requirements. Here are some pointers to think about hiring pharma automation companies:
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Define Your Goal
Identify the needs before creating your pharmacy automation software. You should know:
- What procedures need to be automated?
- What is the pharmacy’s biggest issue that requires the most cases?
- Would a single store or a chain benefit from your solution?
- Do you want to include employee management there as well?
Researching the pharmaceutical industry and learning about essential modules and general trends is a good idea if you create a solution for a larger audience. Do not forget to look through the disadvantages of other solutions and try to eliminate them.
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Collect User Insights
It is essential to inquire about the needs and preferences of users in custom pharmacy management software development. It will expedite the adoption process of new technology and boost user happiness.
Pharmacists and managers know the longest processes, the entirety of their responsibilities, the most difficult tasks, etc. They are free to choose the designs that best suit their personal tastes.
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Plan the Process
A thorough and well-thought-out plan is essential when constructing a pharmacy automation system. Track all the company’s and users’ needs and develop the complete scope of work, requirements, accountable parties, timelines, and budget.
A roadmap will make it less likely for you to overspend, miss deadlines, or experience other management-related setbacks throughout the creation of your pharmacy management system.
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Choose a Model of Cooperation
Choose which IT engagement mode is best for you based on your primary responsibilities, business objectives, available budget, and level of internal technical competence.
- Hiring an internal development team will give you complete control over the development process, but hiring and managing the team members will cost more.
- By selecting the staff augmentation model, you can manage developers directly and grow your development team faster than you could otherwise without worrying about payroll, taxes, or office supplies.
- By collaborating with the committed development team, you might outsource technical work, gain access to knowledge relevant to your niche, and drastically reduce prices while maintaining control over the development process. However, you’ll have to provide the outsourcing company with sensitive information.
- Suppose you want an outsourced vendor to take on the role of CTO by thoroughly analyzing your company and providing the most appropriate technological solutions. In that case, collaborating with a technology partner is the best option.
Consult our team of experts for your pharmacy automation needs.
Wrapping Up
Given that customers are growing accustomed to mobile devices, current technology will significantly impact pharmacies in the future. Patients prefer convenience when buying prescription drugs, monitoring their health, and consulting medical professionals.
Digital solutions are essential for pharmacies to communicate with and involve patients, monitor business performance, obtain business intelligence, and more.
You may rely on our healthcare-specific knowledge if you’re looking to develop the greatest pharmacy technology solution that can enhance patient health and business outcomes.
PixelCrayons is an IT firm focused on eCommerce solutions for healthcare that has developed, consulted, analyzed, designed, and provided IT support for healthcare apps for over 19 years.
Our team of experts consists of business analysts, app designers, developers, and consultation specialists who can assist you in turning your business ideas into reality.
Most importantly, we make it easier for medical practitioners to comprehend and use automation in pharmacy with a variety of tech solutions that have been clinically authorized.
