Henny Jørgensen, hospital pharmacist:

‘Increased patient safety was the objective when we started using the robot drug dispenser, and as expected there have not been any errors with the automatic drug preparation process. There are also clearly going to be cost savings – from nurses spending less time having to measure out patients’ medication, for example.

At the moment the robot is working in four wards, packing the drugs the ward carries in its standard medication range. This creates a managed drug selection process, and also ensures cost savings, since low price is one of the selection criteria for the products carried in the dispensary’s range – which are also those available to the robot. If a doctor prescribes a drug outside the fixed range, dispensary staff substitute the standard product from within the range, which can then be packed by the robot. This means savings on the medications budget, and also on nurse time spent preparing and pouring drugs to give to their patients. And above all, this is a
safer system for our patients.

We have also had good results with pre-packed treatment kits – for pain relief, for example. Doctors can define one or more standard pain management packs for the ward to keep on hand. The packs are not customised for individual patients, so the robot can work on these at times when things are less hectic. These packs are also used by some of our day surgery wards. If the patient is being discharged after an operation and the doctor has prescribed pain pack 2, for example, the drugs are instantly available, rather than the staff having to spend time sorting out the individual products required.’