5 ms·

Robot Pharmacists Are Picking Your Medications—Literally

8 points by kkleiner 16y ago

smokey_the_bear 16y ago
I don't want to offend pharmacists, because it's possible I entirely don't understand their job. But every time I pick up a prescription I'm stunned at how long it takes them to count out 30 pills, even when it seems there's no one else there. Find the big bottle on the shelf. Count out 30, put in smaller bottle, glue on label. Time: 1 hour.
- joezydeco 16y ago
  There's a lot of comments from real pharmacists here: http://ask.metafilter.com/87356/What-takes-pharmacists-so-long http://ask.metafilter.com/87356/What-takes-pharmacists-so-lo...
  - hga 16y ago
    That makes it clear this can in part be a difference between processing time for an item and the latency of a pipeline. ADDED: It's worth going down a bit more than half-way to the comment that includes this, which is comparing it to playing chess: "The pharmacist and pharmacy staff are engaging in a continuous, highly focused supervisory process because if you don't YOU COULD KILL SOMEONE. "In chess, a mental lapse may cause you to lose the game. In pharmacy, a mental lapse could kill someone."
- cstross 16y ago
  Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't poison you by accident. The pill-counting is mostly done by dispensers. The knowledge about medication side-effects, prescribing guidelines, drug interactions, and the messy rest of it? Not so much. (Note that I missed out "dealing with insurance companies" because the NHS -- I'm British -- doesn't involve that step.) ((NB: I am an ex-pharmacist because being good at that job requires a peculiar combination of obsessive-compulsive detail work and total lack of imagination about what happens if you get it wrong. And I lack it.))
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - anamax 16y ago
    > Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't poison you by accident. Umm, do you really check drug-interactions by hand/memory? Even when the check includes asking the patient "are you taking {list}", shouldn't that list be generated by machine?
    - cstross 16y ago
      I have no idea what current practice is, but back then we used reference books. Knowing how to interpret the reference books -- that's what you do the degree and postgraduate training for. (And the commonest stuff you learned to spot straight off the bat.) One problem is that you need to be able to talk to/see the patient yourself. There's stuff that won't be in their medical records -- if they eat lots of spinach or drink grapefruit juice, for example. (Both of which have nasty side-effects when combined with various medications.) Or ask them how/when they take their meds. (A surprising number of patients misunderstand their prescriptions ...)
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]

8 points by kkleiner 16y ago

I don't want to offend pharmacists, because it's possible I entirely don't understand their job. But every time I pick up a prescription I'm stunned at how long it takes them to count out 30 pills, even when it seems there's no one else there. Find the big bottle on the shelf. Count out 30, put in smaller bottle, glue on label. Time: 1 hour.

joezydeco 16y ago
There's a lot of comments from real pharmacists here: http://ask.metafilter.com/87356/What-takes-pharmacists-so-long http://ask.metafilter.com/87356/What-takes-pharmacists-so-lo...
- hga 16y ago
  That makes it clear this can in part be a difference between processing time for an item and the latency of a pipeline. ADDED: It's worth going down a bit more than half-way to the comment that includes this, which is comparing it to playing chess: "The pharmacist and pharmacy staff are engaging in a continuous, highly focused supervisory process because if you don't YOU COULD KILL SOMEONE. "In chess, a mental lapse may cause you to lose the game. In pharmacy, a mental lapse could kill someone."
cstross 16y ago
Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't poison you by accident. The pill-counting is mostly done by dispensers. The knowledge about medication side-effects, prescribing guidelines, drug interactions, and the messy rest of it? Not so much. (Note that I missed out "dealing with insurance companies" because the NHS -- I'm British -- doesn't involve that step.) ((NB: I am an ex-pharmacist because being good at that job requires a peculiar combination of obsessive-compulsive detail work and total lack of imagination about what happens if you get it wrong. And I lack it.))
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- anamax 16y ago
  > Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't poison you by accident. Umm, do you really check drug-interactions by hand/memory? Even when the check includes asking the patient "are you taking {list}", shouldn't that list be generated by machine?
  - cstross 16y ago
    I have no idea what current practice is, but back then we used reference books. Knowing how to interpret the reference books -- that's what you do the degree and postgraduate training for. (And the commonest stuff you learned to spot straight off the bat.) One problem is that you need to be able to talk to/see the patient yourself. There's stuff that won't be in their medical records -- if they eat lots of spinach or drink grapefruit juice, for example. (Both of which have nasty side-effects when combined with various medications.) Or ask them how/when they take their meds. (A surprising number of patients misunderstand their prescriptions ...)
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]