Sponsored by
Hospital gets its own
A NEW "robo-pharmacist" is revolutionising the process of stocking, stacking and dispensing patients' drugs at a city hospital.
A NEW "robo-pharmacist" is revolutionising the process of stocking, stacking and dispensing patients' drugs at a city hospital.The pharmacy department at Edith Cavell Hospital, in Bretton, Peterborough, now has a helping hand from the state-of-the-art 220,000 robot.
The hospital is one of just a handful across the country to have introduced the device, which has robotically-controlled arms that speed up the process of issuing medication to patients.
It can fill a box for a ward round in just three minutes – picking up one item every six to 12 seconds.
It also takes just 10 seconds for an item to leave the robot and arrive in the outpatients’ dispensary area.
The robot has already been put to good use, and currently dispenses 80 per cent of patients’ medication as well as most of the stock items for wards and departments.
And it doesn’t rest overnight either, spending the time restocking itself for the next day.
The robot has three arms, which work independently allowing it to pick up three different items at the same time.
Pharmacy operations services manager Deborah Parsonage, said: “It increases the speed with which prescriptions can be dispensed. It means less time spent by staff and the need for fewer staff which means their time can be spend better within the wards.”
Ms Parsonage said the trust had decided to use a robot because of the huge workload, which was increasing all the time, and staff were beginning to feel the pressure.
She added: “In the last few months that we’ve had the robot it has helped work flow and free up staff time.”
The robot is being used in a number of other hospitals around the country, but Peterborough is believed to be one of the first with a three-armed robot.
Hospital pharmacy departments around the country are facing a recruitment and retention crisis, and the robot is expected to release staff to do what they were trained to do.
Ms Parsonage, said: “Many hospitals have invested in this technology during the past three years, and we value the opportunity to keep pace with change – particularly when it comes to competing with other trusts in the recruitment of pharmacy staff.”
The robot stores stock, which is loaded and retrieved by mechanical arms.
Once a prescription has been logged, pharmacy staff order the medication and generate the patient’s label from their computers.
The drugs are then picked and placed in a spiral chute by the robot, arriving at the dispenser's workstation in a matter of seconds.
To stock the robot, barcodes on the medication pack are swiped, allowing confirmation of the right item and recording dates to aid stock control.
Pharmacy staff input the patient data into the computer system which activates the robotic arm, allowing it to select and dispense the required drugs.
Although all medicines are double-checked by humans, the robot will reduce prescription errors, while allowing pharmacy staff to spend more time with patients informing them about their different drugs.
Comment: Page 12
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Peterborough
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.