From prescription refills to robotics, wholesaler applies technology's edge

Whether you're a retailer big or small, McKesson's Automation Prescription Systems (APS) can supply pharmacy system solutions that can both help drive efficiency throughout the prescription filling process as well as guard against potential prescription errors.

Also, as prescription volumes in retail pharmacy continues to grow, pharmacy operators are turning to pharmacy automation systems to help manage that workload.

"From our customers' perspective, they're facing many challenges," acknowledged Mark Sakaniwa, president of McKesson APS. "And most of those challenges involve simple math--how do you process more prescriptions using fewer pharmacists? Even as prescription demand grows, the industry is still faced with a tight pharmacist labor market. There is a very strong labor concern out there today. If you look back 10 years, automation for the most part was considered a luxury. Today, automation is a necessity to deal effectively with rising volumes and a need for increased customer service," Sakaniwa said.

"I have a lot of customers [today] that use automation as a retention tool for their pharmacists," Sakaniwa noted. "The fact is that pharmacists would rather employ their health care knowledge in face-to-face patient consultations than in fulfillment services."

McKesson takes a modular and expandable product approach to keep its technology and information systems affordable to its retail customers, explained John Hammergren, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. "Most of our automation technology is modular, so as the customers build their business--either at a single store or at a regional chain level or national chain level--we can bring systems and automation to bear to make those processes incrementally more efficient as their volume grows."

While McKesson has systems in place to improve efficiencies across the back bench--from state-of-the-art robotics and dispensing systems to a constantly refreshed pharmacy workflow system first introduced in 1996--the company continues to look for solutions today in anticipation of tomorrow's problems.