Time to transform the pharmacy dispensing process

The pharmacy dispensing process has remained unchanged for decades. While it may have worked 50 plus years ago, today it can be inefficient at best and chaotic at worst thanks to the ever-increasing workload placed on pharmacy teams. In a world where pharmacy teams need to be more efficient than ever, isn’t it time to take a fresh look at the dispensing workflow? Centred Solutions Head of Marketing, Shelley Dyer, explores.

Picture the scene: pharmacy back rooms with baskets of loose medication piled high and littered across every available surface simply waiting to be checked and bagged by the pharmacist/ACT and dispensers walking round and round in circles picking patient medication one prescription at a time. I’d argue it is a familiar scene in most pharmacies. With space often at a premium it certainly doesn’t make for an efficient or calming working environment. And let’s not even think about the potential patient safety risk or the amount time spent trying to find a patient’s medication that’s been misplaced. How much time is wasted each day picking prescriptions one at a time? I recently measured how many steps pharmacy staff take each day doing this one specific task. The answer, in case you are interested, is an around one mile for every 100 prescriptions. It’s not a valuable use of anybody’s time.

Streamline your Pharmacy Dispensing

What if there was a better way? What if the future of pharmacy dispensing was one that streamlined the model that has been used for decades and made pharmacies more efficient and organised so they can meet the new demands being placed on them? What if instead of processing prescriptions one at a time it was done in batches? And how about adding an additional safety net and improving traceability by adding mobile scanning of barcodes – a process already widely adopted in other industries?

Our FLOWRx technology has already successfully re-organised the pharmacy workflow making it more efficient for pharmacies using a hub and spoke model. We’ve now taken those learnings to offer the same efficiencies to independent standalone stores so they too can spend more time with patients offering services without needing to be connected to a hub or wholesaler.

FlowRx Local 

FLOWRx Local turns your store into a mini hub making your dispensing process for original pack repeat prescriptions smarter, simpler and safer and ensuring all pharmacy staff have the opportunity to work at the top of their clinical licence.

Here’s how it works:

The pharmacist does the clinical and accuracy check at the start of the process online.

FLOWRx dispensing software then groups orders together producing a pick list for a set amount of patients which can be “batch picked” all at once with the help of our handheld scanner which checks and verifies the right medication has been picked.

Software guides dispensing staff to label and then sort packs into patient specific baskets either on pharmacy shelves or on our fill to light sortation shelves with the scan of a barcode, ensuring right pack, right dose, right patient.

Once all packs for a patient have been sorted into a basket the system notifies the operator it is ready for bagging. These packs can then be scanned into a patient bag, ensuring final verification, before the bag label prints. The patient medication is now ready to dispense.

The challenge facing pharmacies currently is immense and there is a lot which needs to change. Streamlining the dispensing process with technology is just one piece of the puzzle that pharmacies can put in place now to ensure their business is fit for the future. Taking this step today would have a number of advantages. For example it would mean you could start delivering additional services in store right away to drive new revenue. It would also ensure your pharmacy is ready to take on the “Pharmacy First” style scheme when it is launched.

There’s also ongoing conversations around supervision. Just last month the “Vision for Community Pharmacy” report commissioned by Community Pharmacy England and produced by the Kings Fund and Nuffield Trust recommended: “legislative changes to contract rules to allow dispensing without a pharmacist on site and the development of systems that allow safe and accurate dispensing in this scenario”. FLOWRx is a system which will do exactly this. It already exists and can be introduced in your pharmacy today ahead of any changes to supervision arrangements.

Embracing these opportunities will ensure that you and your business have the chance to thrive rather than just survive moving forward. Because our FLOWRx systems are modular and scalable you can rest assured that they will grow with you. You can start small and then scale up as your business develops.

Come and talk to us about FLOWRx Local at this year’s Pharmacy Show. You can find us at stand B50.

Pharmacy Automation By Centred Solutions 

At Centred Solutions, we offer a range of pharmacy automation software to support your pharmacy. Whether you are a standalone pharmacy that could benefit from your own mini hub or you need support managing patient medication from a wholesaler or warehouse, we have the solution for you. 

Contact us today to arrange a demonstration of any of our products.