New hi-tech robot installed in North Mid pharmacy
A state-of-the-art robot is helping patients at North Mid receive their medicines quicker.
The automated robot, from Becton Dickinson and Company (BD) is capable of storing and dispensing over 17,000 medicines. This will reduce the processing time and help to manage medication on wards and outpatient pharmacy, enabling our teams to spend more time caring for patients.
The £370,000 investment in the technology will save valuable time and further support medication management throughout the trust. With its latest inventory management software, BD Pyxis™ Inventory Connect, we are future-proofing pharmacy dispensing with simplified inventory management, alleviating pressures on our pharmacists’ capacity and bringing future connectivity to North Mid.
The robot, housed in the pharmacy dispensary, will be able to dispense around 100 items per hour, delivering the required medication within seconds of a request. Once the Pharmacy staff process the label for the medicine, the robot selects the box from its shelves, scans it to ensure it’s the right medication and transports it along a conveyer belt to one of the collection points. It is then checked, and the patient is given counselling or relevant instructions on use.
For the Pharmacy team this will mean they are able to process and dispense items for both inpatients and outpatients quickly and safely ensuring they receive the best service possible.
Installing the robot has been a mammoth undertaking, with the project concept stage starting nearly two years ago and involving teams from across the organisation, including pharmacy teams who lead the project and the estates teams who were instrumental in making sure the robot was installed safely.
The robot was formally unveiled at this week’s Team Brief where Dr Nnenna Osuji presented live from the pharmacy dispensary.