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Drug dispensing in retail pharmacies typically involves several manual tasks that often lead to inefficiencies and errors. This is the first published quality improvement study in Latin America, specifically in Brazil, investigating the operational impacts of implementing a robotic dispensing system in a retail pharmacy. Through observational techniques, we measured the time required for the following pharmacy workflows before and after implementing the robotic dispensing system: customer service, receiving stock, stocking inventory, separation, invoicing, and packaging of online orders for delivery. Time savings were observed across all workflows within the pharmacy, notably in receiving stock and online order separation, which experienced 70% and 75% reductions in total time, respectively. Furthermore, customer service, stocking, invoicing, and packaging of online orders, also saw total time reductions from 36% to 53% after implementation of the robotic dispensing system. This study demonstrates an improvement in the pharmacy's operational efficiency post-implementation of the robotic dispensing system. These findings highlight the potential for such automated systems to streamline pharmacy operations, improve staff time efficiency, and enhance service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug dispensing in retail pharmacies typically involves several manual tasks that often lead to inefficiencies and errors. This is the first published quality improvement study in Latin America, specifically in Brazil, investigating the operational impacts of implementing a robotic dispensing system in a retail pharmacy. Through observational techniques, we measured the time required for the following pharmacy workflows before and after implementing the robotic dispensing system: customer service, receiving stock, stocking inventory, separation, invoicing, and packaging of online orders for delivery. Time savings were observed across all workflows within the pharmacy, notably in receiving stock and online order separation, which experienced 70% and 75% reductions in total time, respectively. Furthermore, customer service, stocking, invoicing, and packaging of online orders, also saw total time reductions from 36% to 53% after implementation of the robotic dispensing system. This study demonstrates an improvement in the pharmacy’s operational efficiency post-implementation of the robotic dispensing system. These findings highlight the potential for such automated systems to streamline pharmacy operations, improve staff time efficiency, and enhance service delivery.

This paper considers the zone automated order fulfilment systems with a number of zones linked by a main conveyor. Each zone has a number of dispensers and a buffer. Each dispenser holds one type of item and dispenses the items for an order into a buffer before the items are merged to the main conveyor. Due to variability of the mix of item types and number of items for each type in successive orders, idle time or open space on the conveyor can occur if the buffers merge the items to the conveyor sequentially. The idle time prolongs the order fulfilment duration. This paper aims to provide a solution to reduce the idle time or open space by optimising the merging sequences among zones. A model is developed to find merging sequences with minimum order fulfilment time. However, the model is strongly NP-hard. A greedy heuristic-based solution approach is thus developed. Experiment performance shows that the presented solution can reduce the order fulfilment time approximately 5% with both empirical data and simulation data. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis is conducted to measure the effect of the solution under the variation of zone numbers and order structures. Although the idle time reduction can be achieved with any number of zones and order structures, it was most significant in certain range of zone numbers and appropriate order structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study was conducted to compare human resource requirement among manual, automated, and modified automated dispensing systems. Methods Data were collected from the pharmacy department at the 2100-bed university hospital (Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand). Data regarding the duration of the medication distribution process were collected by using self-reported forms for 1 month. The data on the automated dispensing machine (ADM) system were obtained from 1 piloted inpatient ward, whereas those on the manual system were the average of other wards. Data on dispensing, returned unused medication, and stock management processes under the traditional manual system and the ADM system were from actual activities, whereas the modified ADM system was modeled. The full-time equivalent (FTE) of each model was estimated for comparison. Results The result showed that the manual system required 46.84 FTEs of pharmacists and 132.66 FTEs of pharmacy technicians. By adding pharmacist roles on screening and verification under the ADM system, the ADM system required 117.61 FTEs of pharmacists. Replacing counting and filling medication functions by ADM has decreased the number of pharmacy technicians to 55.38 FTEs. After the modified ADM system canceled the return unused medication process, FTEs requirement for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians decreased to 69.78 and 51.90 FTEs, respectively. Conclusions The ADM system decreased the workload of pharmacy technicians, whereas it required more time from pharmacists. However, the increased workload of pharmacists was associated with more comprehensive patient care functions, which resulted from the redesigned work process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess and compare the unit cost of inpatient prescriptions between manual and automated dispensing machine (ADM) systems. Methods: The unit cost per prescription was calculated using a standard or conventional method for the inpatient department of the 2,100-bed university hospital. The unit cost calculation was comprised of five steps including 1) identifying and classifying cost centers into transient cost center (TCC) and absorbing cost center (ACC); 2) determining all direct costs that covered the labor cost (LC) of medical staff and supporting staff, material cost (MC), and capital cost (CC); 3) allocating indirect costs from TCCs to ACCs using a direct method; 4) adding up direct and indirect costs of each ACC; and 5) calculating the unit cost per prescription of the inpatient service by dividing the total cost of the inpatient service by the number of prescriptions. The additional indirect cost of cost centers outside the pharmacy department was added to the unit cost at the rate of 10%. All costs and the number of prescriptions were in fiscal year 2014. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to estimate the unit cost at different scales if the system was expanded. Results: The total costs of the inpatient service under 100% manual and ADM systems dispensing 22.8% of inpatient prescriptions were 82.7 and 89.8 million baht/year, respectively. The unit cost of inpatient prescriptions using the ADM system was 60.34 baht/prescription, which accounted for 8.5% higher than 55.59 baht/prescription of the traditional manual system. The proportions of LC:MC:CC for the manual and ADM systems were 87.8:12.1:0.1 and 88.0:9.3:2.8, respectively. The sensitivity analysis result illustrated that the lower unit cost could be achieved if the ADM system covered at least 75% of all prescriptions. At the 75% coverage, the unit cost was 53.95 baht/prescription and the proportion of LC:MC:CC was 83.6:13.3:3.1. Conclusion: Dispensing using the ADM system required higher investment than the traditional manual system on the capital cost of ADM machine and equipment. The hospital would benefit from the lower unit cost per inpatient prescription if the ADM system dispensed beyond 75% of all prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: The goal of this study was to develop an improved 62Zn/62Cu generator based on cation exchange resin and remote preparation at high radioactivity scale for clinical use. Methods: A natural Cu target was irradiated with proton beam in the energy range of 30→19 MeV at a beam current of 10 μA for 1 h to obtain around 1.7 GBq of 62Zn. The 62Zn was isolated from the Cu target on an anion exchange column with more than 97% yield within 2.5 h from the EOB. The 62Zn/62Cu generator was prepared by loading the 62Zn2+ on a Sep-Pak plus CM cartridge. Results: The generator showed high elution efficiency (∼96%) using a small volume (ca. 3 ml) of a 200-mM glycine solution with a very low breakthrough of 62Zn (<0.1%). Conclusions: This 62Zn/62Cu generator has been proven to be highly useful as a source of 62Cu for the synthesis of 62Cu-labeled compounds. The clinical application of [62Cu]Cu-ATSM produced with this generator has been already approved by the Institutional Review Board at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] Dissolving microneedle arrays (dMNAs) are promising devices for intradermal vaccine delivery. The aim of this study was to develop a reproducible fabrication method for dMNAs based on an automated nano-droplet dispensing system that minimizes antigen waste. First, a polymer formulation was selected to dispense sufficiently small droplets (<18 nL) that can enter the microneedle cavities (base diameter 330 µm). Besides, three linear stages were assembled to align the dispenser with the cavities, and a vacuum chamber was designed to fill the cavities with dispensed droplets without entrapped air. Lastly, the dispenser and stages were incorporated to build a fully automated system. To examine the function of dMNAs as a vaccine carrier, ovalbumin was loaded in dMNAs by dispensing a mixture of ovalbumin and polymer formulation, followed by determining the ovalbumin loading and release into the skin. The results demonstrate that functional dMNAs which can deliver antigen into the skin were successfully fabricated via the automatic fabrication system, and hardly any antigen waste was encountered. Compared to the method that centrifuges the mould, it resulted in a 98.5% volume reduction of antigen/polymer solution and a day shorter production time. This system has potential for scale-up of manufacturing to an industrial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]