NEWARK, Del. - Regional drug chain Happy Harry's has found a remedy to help it overcome the pharmacist shortage plaguing the industry - a robotic dispensing system. <more...>

Electronic helper dispensing drugs, good service at Wilson Pharmacy

There was only a slight hum as the robotic arm glided up the cabinet, counted out the pills and then sent the filled bottle along a conveyor belt to an awaiting pharmacy technician.

"It's amazing," Wilson Pharmacy Customer Representative Shirley Shepherd said standing behind the counter.

The longest serving employee at the pharmacy, Shepherd said the robotic prescription filler is like nothing she has ever seen since coming to work at the pharmacy in 1957. <more...>

ScriptPro: Making Robotics Pay Off

Mike Coughlin, president and CEO of ScriptPro, located in Mission, Kan., talks to ComputerTalk Publisher Bill Lockwood in this exclusive interview about the many benefits of using robotic dispensing systems and how the company is now integrating new functionality and applications to become a total-solutions company for the pharmacy market. <more...>

Refills at Robo-pharmacy

Imagine going to a pharmacy, turning in a prescription and walking out with medication in less than 15 minutes.

It's possible at Doctors Park Pharmacy on Memorial Drive because of a robotic prescription dispensing system that does the work of three pharmacy technicians and reduces errors. <more..>

Even Robots Speak Chinese in Starside's Flushing Pharmacies

New York -- For Peter Koo, owner of three thriving pharmacies in a largely Chinese neighborhood in Flushing, Queens, success hasn't come simply by stocking his stores with pearl milk tea and other Taiwanese delicacies.

All three of his Starside Pharmacy stores, for example, feature robotic drug dispensing machines that can print out Chinese language labels for his non-English-speaking customers. <more..>

Running a Better Pharmacy: The Place for Robotics

Sam Kalmanowitz is no stranger to innovative technology in his pharmacy. It was 1980 when he installed the QS/1 pharmacy system at Kaye’s Pharmacy, his high-volume store in Meriden, Conn. His was also the first pharmacy in New England to install ScriptPro’s SP 200 robotic dispensing system and the third pharmacy in the country to use ScriptPro’s SP Central pharmacy dispensing management system. Kalmanowitz doesn’t do it for bragging rights. “My main objective is accuracy and safety in filling prescriptions,” he says. <more..>

DURHAM -- Fred Zintz is the newest recruit at the Lincoln Community Health Center pharmacy. And he's already drawing rave reviews from his fellow staff members.

Since joining the 14 pharmacists, technicians and clerks at Lincoln's busy pharmacy in November, he's proven to be a tireless worker. He's been completely accurate in dispensing drugs to the health center's patients, seldom grumpy and so completely driven that he takes no coffee or restroom breaks.

It helps that Fred is a glorified vending machine -- emphasis on glorified. He's believed to be the first of his kind installed in a community health clinic pharmacy in the United States. <more..>

FARIBAULT, Minn. - Snyder's Drug Stores pharmacist Deb Davis doesn't like to think about how she and her small staff here filled more than 2,000 prescriptions a week before automation.

But she is more than happy to talk about how her professional life has changed since the Snyder's store-one of five pharmacies serving this southeastern Minnesota city of 18,000 people - installed a ScriptPro SP 200 robotic dispensing unit in September. <more...>

Sara is never late to work. She works from store opening to store closing and never has a day off. Sara fills prescriptions at Newman's Pharmacy in Lincoln Park all day, every day, with a 99.7% accuracy rate. Sara never complains and never needs a break. Sara is a robot. <more...>

Two Rivers-Technicians no longer count pills at the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy.
But that can also be said of other pharmacies, including several in the Lakeshore area.
However, the Medicine Shoppe has taken its operation a step up to battle the seventh leading cause of death in America…errors in medication. <more...>

The next prescription customers take to Chesapeake Care Drug in Chesapeake Beach will be filled by a robot. Chessie, a ScriptPro SP 200 Dispensing System, fills 100 prescriptions per hour. That's fast. <more...>

The new pharmacy tech behind the counter at Apple Discount Drugs in Clinton doesn't ever ask for a lunch break.

It runs on electricity. <more...>

Automation behind the pharmacy counter, once a step for pioneers and early-adopters, is grabbing hold of the profession in ways similar to the Internet phenomenon that swept over the industry last year. Why is pharmacy automation such a growing trend? <more...>