Getting your medicine faster with automation
THE revamped outpatient pharmacy at Tan Tock Seng Hospital could be mistaken for a factory production line.
After receiving electronic orders from doctors’ clinics upstairs, machines pick and pack the correct medication for each prescription. These are put into baskets, which are channelled to three robots via conveyor belts and sorted onto shelves.
It means a shorter wait for patients. Now, four in 10 of them arrive at the pharmacy to find their medication ready for collection. In the past, they would have to wait around 20 minutes for staff to get their prescriptions ready. The rework rate – when prescriptions have to be sent back – has also dipped from 30 per cent to around 5 per cent.
“In the face of increasing patient numbers and the wider range of medicines used, the traditional and manual method of preparing medication may no longer be practical,” said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong at the official opening of the pharmacy yesterday. The hospital said its 11 pharmacies see 1,800 patients every day, although it could not provide data on how many the main, revamped pharmacy accounts for.
The automation has also lowered the error count.
“When the patient volume is low, it’s okay,” said senior pharmacist Lim Woan Chyi. “But when there are many patients, errors can happen.”
Other health-care institutions such as Singapore General Hospital have implemented similar automated solutions under which more than 80 per cent of patients wait less than half an hour to collect their medication.
After Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s $5.4 million revamp, only 13 technicians are needed at the main pharmacy instead of 32 previously.
Extra staff have been moved to clinics, where they go through prescriptions with patients face to face.
“They make sure patients have an adequate supply of drugs, or the correct quantities,” Ms Lim said. “If there are clarifications, they are closer to the doctors and can get them done faster.”
About 80 per cent of all medication is now handled by the automated machines. The rest – in bottles or odd-sized packages, for example – are still packed manually.
“The old pharmacy was so crowded,” said childcare teacher Salimah Marzuki, 52, who used to pick up medication for a hand injury twice a month.
“Now, there’s space to walk around and everything works very smoothly. There is so much difference,” she said.
Source: Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Published: 16 Sep 2014
