Category:
Law suits
Region:
USA
State:
Pennsylvania
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PHARMACY MACHINE FILLS PRESCRIPTIONS QUICKLY
Date: 29-Jul-2008
Pittsburgh is making health care history again, this time becoming the first market in the nation to have a new automated pharmacy machine.
The Parata Max machine is in operation at the Med-Fast Pharmacy in Aliquippa where it can fill a prescription in less than 30 seconds, helping that very busy store keep up with the more than 2,000 prescriptions they fill per week.
Gino Cordisco of Med-Fast says not only does the machine fill prescriptions more quickly than a pharmacist doing it by hand, it's more accurate.
"This machine never picks the wrong medication. There are computers inside and there are safety checks so that the wrong medication would never come out of this machine."
Pharmacist David Barna says rather than worrying that the machine will put him out of a job, he welcomes the new technology because it frees him up for more important work: interacting with his patients.
"It allows me more time that I can talk with our patients about medication issues they might be having," said Barna.
The Parata Max uses scanner technology to read-in a patient's prescription.
A robotic arm retrieves the right size bottle from a bin, attaches a label, and takes it to the cell that contains the correct drug.
A stream of air blows the pills or capsules through a tube and into the bottle, while a laser eye keeps count.
When the bottle has been filled with the proper number of pills, the robotic arm caps the bottle and spits it out into an alphabetized bin that corresponds with the patient's last name.
Not only does the machine fill the prescription, it also performs inventory control, alerting the pharmacists when it's time to re-fill the bins.
Pharmacy customer Patricia Pudik likes the idea.
"I get my prescriptions fast here and I would imagine it's because of the new machine. Maybe all the drug stores need to get something like that!"
Med-Fast and Parata made pharmacy history earlier this year when Med-Fast became the first pharmacy in the country to install the new Parata APM in their Bethel Park store.
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