Army, Navy, VA use of Kiosks, Automated Dispensing, Telepharmacy on the Rise

Christopher Prawdzik from the latest edition of Military Medical Technology wrote a review of the newest pharmacy technologies in use at various military pharmacy facilities called "Less Time to Fill: Advances In Pharmacy Automation Cut Costs, Improve Accuracy And Leave Pharmacists With More Time For Patient Care":

For example, the Navy’s Pensacola, Fla., command has about 11 remote sites in addition to the Pensacola Naval Hospital. Using ScriptPro’s Telepharmacy system, any pharmacist on duty at any of these sites can accept a call at a station and verify that prescriptions are accurate. This includes verifying pictures of individual drugs with the actual filled prescription.

One big bonus of such systems is that instead of spending exorbitant amounts of time on what are essentially administrative or inventory matters, the technology allows pharmacists to do what they were trained to do. That includes understanding the medication needs of patients and ensuring that drug combinations, if multiple drugs are involved, do not lead to adverse interactions.

He talks about automation in use (Omnicell) at Walter Reed, unmanned kiosks where patients pick up prescriptions, and the telepharmacy system in the above quote from the article.