ROBOTx adds helping 'hands' to pharmacy

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) -- The pharmacy staff here recently added a new member to their crew:  a robot designed to count medication for prescriptions.

The PharmASSIST ROBOTx stores the counted medications until electronic prescriptions are received from doctors. Then, using bar code scanning checks, it ensures patients receive the correct medication.

The new robot is able to produce up to 240 prescriptions per hour, fill prescriptions every 15 seconds and count medications simultaneously.

With an average of 400 prescriptions to be filled in the Kadena Air Base pharmacy daily, the estimated time for patients waiting on prescriptions before using the robot was 30 minutes, but now the wait time is has dropped to about 20 minutes.

The robot not only helps decrease patient wait time by nearly 30 percent, it adds extra layers of patient safety and creates a more efficient work environment by minimizing physical effort while maximizing efficiency, said Tech. Sgt. John Garcia, the 18th Medical Support Squadron NCO in charge of pharmacy services.

"We can take care of our other responsibilities around the pharmacy that sometimes get pushed back because we don't have enough time," he said. "If we speed up the whole filling process, then we'll be able to focus more time on supply and ordering, and rectifying patient issues with medication shortages and name brand to generic switches. The robot will help the pharmacy's efficiency as a whole, which will hopefully translate to even better patient care and customer satisfaction."

Airman 1st Class Roma Terry, an 18th MDSS pharmacy technician, said the machine makes her day-to-day job easier.

"I think the robot is really great," she said. "It cuts down a lot of work. You don't have to be waiting for a medication.  It just fills on its own."

This new robot also will help newer pharmacy Airmen by giving them experience working with ROBOTx here and they will be able to apply that knowledge when they move on to another base, where they'll likely work with similar technology.