Health-System Pharmacies Use Robots to Manage Drug Shortages Effectively

The Certified Pharmacy Technicians (CPhTs) from the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) help pharmacists to deliver safe and effective patient care by managing drug shortages.

Some of the challenges faced by health-system pharmacies and hospitals over the past five years include inadequate manufacturing capacity, product termination, consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry and scarcity in packaging supplies and raw materials.

To handle drug shortages and to render quality patient care, health-system and hospital pharmacies have worked on updating inventory maintenance and using CPhTs for operations. CPhTs will help the pharmacy team with the purchase of medicines and managing inventory.

Pharmacies can make use of the existing technology to effectively manage drug shortages, increase capabilities of distribution systems, and enhance efficiency and safety in distribution. Automation pharmacy technicians are used for controlling automated dispensing equipment such as automatic cabinets and robots. These automated pharmacy technicians will be used for managing drug shortages. It can also help with distribution of products, redistribution of products to high demand regions, and modification of database.