alt Hacker NewsHonest question, why aren’t pills dispensed by machines?
I get that a pharmacist should review the prescription. And let’s say you even want employee-customer interaction; which is great.
But dispensing X pills from one bottle to another bottle is a solved problem right?
Replies
A pharmacy tech actually counts the pills if they move them from Bottle A to Bottle B, it is not particularly time consuming, and it isn't a particularly skilled position. Starts at $14 an hour around me and tops out around $23.
Machines cost a ton of money and need to be maintained?
As those two variables change, I'm sure they will replace the dispensing function for pharmacists. In fact this already does happen at a lot of pharmacies these days. Machines put the pills in bottles, then a pharmacist hands the bottle to you.
They are in large setups. Including mail order and bulk dispensing places (like Walmart pharmacy—most pills are dispensed at central locations and delivered to the store prepackaged).
Well, in many countries, pharmacies just dispense prepackaged packs and bottles. No counting involved.
I could imagine a machine like this would cost something on the order of $100k, require ongoing maintenance and wouldn't really solve any problems/bottlenecks at your typical local pharmacy.
It's not like you could replace the pharmacist with a machine.
There are pill counter machines! it's a solved problem for sure.
I think that’s the idea behind those centralized pharmacies like Amazon health. Easier than putting a pill dispensing assembly line in every CVS.