Wilsons Pharmacy located within Derby has focused on creating a Total Care Package for their patients by improving efficiencies in their pharmacy to spend more time on the patient’s personal needs.
Wilson’s team go the extra mile to give impeccable service to their customers, nothing is too much for them and they have developed a Total Patient Care Package.
This is difficult to do in the current pharmacy climate where pharmacists and their teams are being asked to do more for less.
So how has this been possible?
18 months ago Wilson’s Pharmacy invested in an AutoPouch™ AP336 robot to bring greater efficiency to the pharmacy where they wanted to deliver their Total Patient Care Package from. The main area that efficiency could be improved was in the time that was taken to fill lots of complex blister trays.
“The efficiency that the AutoPouch™ robot has brought us now allows the team time to focus on a total care package for the patients, rather than tray packaging”, said John Kirk, Managing Director.
“We have grown our business by this strategy and now have a profitable servicewhich we are looking to expand further. This has only been possible by the efficiencies brought by the robot and the passion of the staff to deliver excellent patient care”, continued John.
The AutoPouch™ AP336 robot produces a month’s worth of medication into chronological administration pouches in 3 minutes, compared to the manual process for trays that can take up to 10 times longer.
The AP336 robot is located in a “distance selling” pharmacy in Derby and produces compliance aids for all of the patients on the Total Care Package.
The pouches are clearly labelled so there is no confusion over what medication is to be taken by whom, at what time and in what manner.
Pouches are being used by hundreds of community patients in the Derby area and the patient feedback is that they are easier to use than a conventional tray.
“When I visit patient to assess their compliance aid needs they much prefer pouches than trays as they are easier to use and give them a lot more dignity and independence” said Veena Mudhar, Pharmacist.
“Acceptance of the pouches has been very high” said Karen Perry Compliance Services Manager. “Carers and Health Professionals are happy to refer our service, as they can see the benefits that we and the pouches offer patients over and beyond normal compliance services.”
One of Wilson’s customers has limited dexterity and had previously not been able to find a suitable compliance aid. He now has his medication in pouches and it has given him a compliance aid that fits his needs.
Pouches can be produced to perfectly fit a patient’s treatment plan as there is no limitation to only 4 administration times a day. This means that separating medication out that must be taken before food is easily achieved and leads to a greater patient compliance and effectiveness of the medication.
Additional reminder pouches are easily added so that is clear what additional medication not in pouches, is to be taken and at what administration time.
“We are told by care homes that the reminder pouches help efficiencies in the care home environment, much better than trays andreduces the risk of missed medication administration.”
“We are currently servicing 2 care homes with a total of 55 residents. We have more homes coming on board soon when we start offering the e-MAR solution that links to the robot. The general feedback from carers is that they like the reminder pouch that lists any medication that is not in a pouch. It is a great aid if the MAR sheet is not available when they are assisting with a medication administration”, said Karen Perry.
Veena Mudhar added, “We have found that further efficiencies come from having pouches. The checking now takes me half the time because the pouches have so much space to see the tablets. It’s much easier than with a tray.”
“The move to “Robbie”, that’s our AutoPouch™ robot, has speeded up the whole process in the pharmacy. We have much more time to spend with customers.”
Pouches are commonplace across the rest of Europe – especially in Germany and France, which both have ageing populations and an increasing drug volume like the UK.
With more installations and more customers than any other provider, Medication Management Solutions are the leading company in the UK selling and supporting Pouch Dispensing Robots.
