Friday, March 16, 2007

Pill machines ease prescriptions

Mechanical pharmacies made by Pleasanton company help patients in remote locations

By Lea Blevins
MEDIANEWS STAFF

Imagine living in a place with no drug store for miles around but still being able to obtain prescription drugs and consult face to face with a pharmacist.

PickPoint Corp., based in Pleasanton, is making that possible. And co-founder Richard Lee promises that it's only just begun to revolutionize the pharmacy world.

Lee is a resident of Volcano, about 60 miles east of Sacramento, but co-founders Kevin Delaney and Peter Swidzinski are from the Tri-Valley. Lee works about three days a week in the Pleasanton office.

Lee has a background in factory automation and was interested in working on packaging for drugs when the PickPoint idea began.

The products are designed to store and dispense prepackaged medications of various types that will increase pharmacy efficiency and provide access to drugs for people in remote locations.

PickPoint's main product resembles a vending machine but is filled with bottles and pill packs instead of candy bars and chips -- and it has bulletproof glass.

The security features allow the machines to be placed in distant locations, such as Alaska's Aleutian Islands, where they may be situated in a hut out in the middle of nowhere.

Doctors and other care providers use PickPoint's computer technology system to request a prescription from a pharmacist in Anchorage, who can speak to the providers via video cameras in real time. The computer program also allows for close-up measuring and viewing of pills to ensure that the prescription is correct.

"This is truly the next generation," Lee said.

In its few years of business, PickPoint has already attracted a wide customer base.

The military uses PickPoint's machines to run what is called a "telepharmacy" for its troops serving in remote locations, including ships.

The machines are installed in more than 125 U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and public health service locations around the world.

The Alaska Native Medical Center, which uses PickPoint's technology, established the Southcentral Foundation Telepharmacy Program, based in Anchorage, with more than 36,000 patients in a 2,000-mile area.

"You can be anywhere, and we can give you pharmacy assistance and control," Lee said.

In addition to setting up machines in remote sites, PickPoint sells them to hospitals and pharmacies to keep behind the counter. The machines are the same except for the front door, which doesn't include bulletproof glass and allows pharmacy personnel to reach right in and grab the filled prescription.

The pharmacy inside Safeway near the Blackhawk community in Danville features PickPoint's machines behind the counter.

The pharmacy has the vending-machine-style model as well as a set of drawers that light up to direct pharmacists to the location of a prescription.

The machines allow pharmacy staff to save time by reallocating what work they do and when, said pharmacy manager David Flower.

Although pharmacists still have to fill individual bottles of pills and load the machine, the process is speeded up by filling multiple bottles at once instead of filling them as each prescription comes in.

"The best advantage of this thing is when we do have downtime, we're using it up," Flower said.

Lee said PickPoint is currently working on other technology to improve the pharmacy world, but it won't be ready for a few months. He said people can begin to imagine getting their prescriptions filled in seconds rather than what now is often an hour's wait.

"The technology we have coming is so dramatic," Lee said. "This is stuff that people have never seen or heard of."


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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Pharmacists group honors Phil Montgomery

State Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Ashwaubenon, has been named Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin 2007 Legislator of the year.

Montgomery has been a vocal advocate for Wisconsin pharmacy on issues such as the state budget and licensing of out-of-state pharmacists, according to the group.

He was instrumental in stopping legislation that would have placed serious restrictions on the ability of pharmacies to purchase prescription drugs from licensed wholesalers. And he is working to develop legislation that would allow for remote dispensing of prescription drugs, according to the group.

Montgomery will be honored at a reception on Wednesday at the Inn on the Park in Madison. The award is presented each year in conjunction with the annual Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin Legislative Day.

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Board approves MCH renovations

Operating rooms to undergo major overhaul

Operating rooms at Medical Center Hospital will be looking a bit different over the next two years.
The Ector County Hospital District Board of Directors voted Monday to fund $2.5 million toward the first phase of operating room renovations.
The renovation will turn two of the hospital’s 12 current operating rooms into one state-of-the-art endovascular suite, officials said.
“It’s just time,” Medical Center Chief Executive Officer William Webster said. “Our current O.R. is 30 years old.”
By the time the entire operating room area is renovated in 2009, Webster said it would bring Medical Center’s inpatient facilities up to the standards of its Wheatley Stewart Medical Pavilion, which opened in 2004.
The board also approved the purchase of 26 McKesson CarePoint-RN carts for $249,356. Lisa Corley of Medical Center’s clinical informations system said the robots pick out medication and put it in envelopes for patients.
The machine eliminates errors by reading bar codes, she said.
“That makes it almost impossible to give the wrong medication to patients,” Corley said. “That’s really the purpose, to improve patient safety.”
The board also approved a $150,000 contribution to Texas Tech Health Sciences Center’s new Women’s Health Research Institute at the Permian Basin. The amount equals a contribution made by Midland Memorial Hospital last month.
Board Member Fred Martin expressed concerns about the institute’s ability to attract women’s health care business that has gone to other hospitals.
“I cannot tell you (that) you will have a huge shift in obstetrics care,” Texas Tech Regional Dean Dr. John Jennings said. “But it’s an opportunity to do something that will put the name of both our institution and Medical Center out there in women’s health.”
In other action the board:
>> Differed discussion on emergency room/trauma call agreements until its April meeting.
>> Approved a maintenance agreement with Trane.
>> Approved an off-site nighttime pharmacist agreement with Alpine-based telepharmacy Envision-Rx for 18 months at $240,000 annually.
>> Received an update on being accredited for two years as a provider of continuing medical education.
>> Received an update on the 5 Million Lives campaign, which aims to cut 5 million incidents of medical harm at 4,000 hospitals over the next two years.


Source

Business fills drug orders anywhere, anytime

Pleasanton firm creates vending machines that dispense prescriptions

PLEASANTON — Imagine living in a place with no drugstore for miles and miles but still being able to obtain prescription drugs and consult face-to-face with a pharmacist.

PickPoint Corp., based in Pleasanton, is making that possible.

And co-founder Richard Lee promises that they've only just begun to revolutionize the pharmacy world.

Lee is a resident of Volcano, which is about 60 miles east of Sacramento, but his co-founders Kevin Delaney and Peter Swidzinski are from the Valley. Lee works about three days a week in the Pleasanton office.

The idea for PickPoint started in 1999 and the business opened in Danville in 2000. After outgrowing that office, PickPoint moved to Pleasanton's Hacienda Business Park three years ago.

Lee had a background in factory automation and was interested in working on packaging for drugs when the PickPoint idea began.

The products are designed to store and dispense prepackaged medications of various types that will increase pharmacy efficiency and provide access to drugs for people in remote locations.

PickPoint's main product resembles a vending machine, but is filled with bottles and pill packs instead of candy bars and chips — and it's got bulletproof glass.

The security features allow the machines to be placed in distant locations such as Alaska's Aleutian Islands where the machine may be situated in a hut out in the middle of nowhere.

Doctors and other care providers use PickPoint's computer technology system to request a prescription from a pharmacist in Anchorage, Alaska, who can speak to the providers via video cameras in real time. The computer program also allows for close-up measuring and viewing of pills to ensure the prescription is correct.

"This is truly the next generation," Lee said.

In its few years of business, PickPoint has already attracted a wide customer base.

The military uses PickPoint's machines to run what is called a "telepharmacy" for its troops serving in remote locations, including ships.

The machines are installed in more than 125 U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and public health service locations around the world.

The Alaska Native Medical Center, which uses PickPoint's technology, received the 2006 Award for Excellence in Medication-Use Safety from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

The center established the Southcentral Foundation Telepharmacy Program based in Anchorage, with more than 36,000 patients in a 2,000-mile area.

"You can be anywhere, and we can give you pharmacy assistance and control," Lee said.

Even patients in the Valley can be served by PickPoint.

In addition to the machines set up in remote sites, PickPoint sells them to hospitals and pharmacies to keep behind the counter. The machines are the same except for the front door, which doesn't include bulletproof glass and allows pharmacy personnel to reach right in and grab the filled prescription.

The pharmacy inside Safeway near the Blackhawk community in Danville features PickPoint's machines behind the counter.

The pharmacy has the vending-machine style model as well as a set of drawers that light up to direct pharmacists to the location of a prescription.

The machines allow pharmacy staff to save time by re-allocating what work they do when, said Pharmacy Manager David Flower.

While pharmacists still have to fill individual bottles of pills and load the machine, the process is sped up by doing multiple bottles at once instead of over and over as each prescription comes in.

"The best advantage of this thing is when we do have downtime, we're using it up," Flower said.

Lee said PickPoint is currently working on other technology to improve the pharmacy world, but it won't be ready for a few months. He said people can begin to imagine getting their prescriptions filled in seconds rather than what is often an hour wait.

"The technology we have coming is so dramatic," Lee said. "This is stuff that people have never seen or heard of."

To learn more about PickPoint Corp., visit http://www.pickpoint.com.


Source