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Research Outline

Prepared for Caroline P. | Delivered March 17, 2020

Counter/Patient Automation Pharmacy Experience and Market

Goals

To understand the counter/patient experience at a pharmacy, focusing on what automation pharmacies use/ could use

To understand customer needs of automated pharmacies by retail chains that are affliated with health systems (CVS, Walgreens)

To understand how Amazon and other online players impact the pharmacy automation market and customer needs

To understand the overall pharmacy automation market as information is recent and publicly available in the key areas of: competitors (including Amazon), market size (ranges are acceptable), and market share. (referring to market research reports is not recommended)

in order to evaluate a company in this space for M&A.

Early Findings

Our initial research on what automation pharmacies are using and could use to improve the counter/patient experience at a pharmacy revealed insights. Here are key pieces of information we found:

Counter/Patient Automation Pharmacy Experience:

Automation Pharmacies

  • The autonomous pharmacy is the ability to automate all things in the medication use process that are repetitive. The goal is for the autonomous pharmacy to be an ecosystem that interacts and communicates to allow improvements in efficiency, safety and regulatory compliance, while allowing pharmacists to practice at the top of their license.
  •  Automation pharmacies are using medication synchronization software programs, multiple medication adherence packaging, and other tools for pharmacists to conduct comprehensive medication reviews.
  •  Some automation pharmacies are using SynMed Ultra high volume blister card production who are retailers with central fill sites that are dispensing high volumes of prescriptions.
  • A specific application of software that automation pharmacies are using is an alert that tells pharmacists to reach out to patients to inquire if their medication regiment has changed, if they have seen their doctor, or if they were recently hospitalized.
  • ScripClip is an example of a specific tool that automation pharmacies are using for verification processes to prevent inaccurate packaging, and for will-call features, hanging bags with an LED light that blinks when the pharmacist or technician scans the bar code on a patient’s driver’s license.
  •  Automation pharmacies could use improved automated consumer pharmacy pickup solutions that require no retrieval from a will-call bin or need for the pharmacy staff to go get the prescriptions.
  •  Automation pharmacies could also use more robots for dispensing medications that never get bored, never get distracted, and make far fewer mistakes than their human counterparts in order to free up pharmacists and technicians for more profitable clinical services that require human judgment.