After visiting the doctor for the flu or other common complaint, the last thing consumers want to do is to make a second trip to a pharmacist and wait while their prescription gets filled. InstyMeds, a US startup, has devised a novel way to make getting medications easy. The company’s vending machines are designed to be placed in doctors’ offices, clinics, emergency rooms and other healthcare facilities. Each holds 100 of some of the most often used medications that can range from pills to drops to creams and so forth.
InstyMeds machines require that physicians create prescriptions electronically, which are then transmitted to the vending location. (Alternately, patients can take printed prescriptions to their regular pharmacists.) The machines include several safeguards to insure patients receive the proper medications their doctors ordered. From the patients’ point of view, however, the ordering process is relatively simple. They enter their prescription number and birthday via a user-friendly touchscreen monitor, then insert either cash or credit cards to cover co-pays, while their insurance companies are billed automatically.
Besides saving time for patients, InstyMeds machines also save pharmacists the slow and potentially error-prone process of counting out medications by hand. Indeed, relieving pharmacists from such routine tasks could turn out to be the machine’s major benefit. With pharmacist salaries in the United States climbing over USD 100,000, the time savings can mean significant cash savings. The vending machines, which are accessible 24/7, likewise could help alleviate a growing shortage of pharmacists. Moreover, InstyMed’s founders note that by handling routine prescriptions the vending machines let pharmacists focus on more important tasks such as counselling patients.
While start-up costs are likely to be high for any new venture in the heavily-regulated health arena, InstyMeds illustrates how entrepreneurs can devise niche products that handily meet customer needs while potentially chipping away at ever-growing healthcare costs.
Website: www.instymeds.com
Contact: info@instymeds.com
Spotted by: Anne Rogan
a tad unethical, you need to explain the medicine to patients and not just dispense it, Also the machine will pay no attention to the patients medical history to see if the prescription is suitable, And what if the machine is loaded wrong? will you get some completely different pills?
this machine has way too many problems just waiting to happen!
Dear Ms. Rogan,
Thank you for the informative post on InstyMeds' innovative new prescription drug vending machine. You bring to light many of the advantageous benefits of using this product including saving “pharmacists the slow and potential error-prone process of counting out medications by hand” and the possibility to “alleviate [the] growing shortage of pharmacists”. However, I do think it is also important to discuss the potential negative effects of these automated machines. For one, you state that “the machines include several safeguards to insure patients receive the proper medications their doctors ordered”, how can one be sure that the right medicine is dispensed every time and properly stored in the vending machine? Utilizing your link to InstyMeds' website, and reading the company’s description of their equipment’s safety features, I am still not convinced that the majority of people would feel safe obtaining prescription drugs from a vending machine. With no pharmacist present, there is a greater concern for dangerous drug interactions going undetected and a lack of consultation that may negatively impact a patient’s health. You also present the argument that InstyMeds' prescription drug dispensing system may reduce the need for pharmacists and “potentially chip away at ever-growing healthcare costs”. I would like to expand on that by saying that one must take a complete cost-benefit analysis of the implementation of the new system. Even though, the number of pharmacists needed may be reduced, the machines still have their own maintenance costs and doctors must learn to “create prescriptions electronically”. As seen with electronic medical records, many doctors refuse to make this digital change. Nevertheless, even with the controversial issues surrounding this type of system, the product, as you stated, does have a lot of potential. One way of introducing this system which may put more consumers at ease, is to have the vending machines behind the pharmacy counter like the way El Monte Comprehensive Health Center is contemplating doing. This would eliminate the “counting of medications” and allow pharmacists to continue their consultation with patients to double check the vending machine’s success and ensure product safety.
This sounds extremely dangerous! These machines are stand alone systems not tied into the patients medical recor. Therefore, a drug could easily be dispensed to which the patient has an allergy and a drug disease contraindication etc. The sole check on these important screens which are normally done by a pharmacist would be done by a busy ER physician who knows little about drug interactions and is being pulled in many directions. Some ER's are even staffed by physician's assistants. I would not want a pysician's assistant to be my only check on my medication!
I think the Machine is not only unethical but dangerous for patients. Medication errors by physicians are far more common than people like to believe. Every day thousands of people go to the emergency department due to these medication errors. Adding a drug vending machine is not going to solve these issues but only put more cost in the health care system.
Physicians do NOT go to school to study medications and do not have extensive education on pharmacology of drugs. The main thing they study is diagnosis. They may take a few courses in pharmacology, but a pharmacist goes to 6 years of school studying chemistry, pharmacology and studying about medications. I think that people are not really educated enough about what the purpose of a pharmacist is and that's why articles like this are written with such bias towards pharmacists. A pharmacist Checks for drug related problems at every encounter with the patient. They check for drug interactions, allergies, the correct dose of the medication, at the correct interval, how to take the medication to get the full benefit (and yes a machine can tell you when to take your medication, but when a patient is over 65 and on more than 5 medications, does the machine/or the busy physician work with them to see when the best time it is for them to take their medication?). Family physicians are so busy that they don't have time to check any of the above and that's why the pharmacist is there ( not to just count medication and hand it to you!!)
I think people who write these articles should definitely research more about the role of each health care profession and what it is they actually do and how they benefit patients(would you be happy with making booths where a physician is sitting at a call center and making a diagnosis based on you conversation because it saves physician time and therefore more money for healthcare??)
Well it is nice to read the pharmacist lobby is well represented in the previous blogs.Pharmacists are the most overrate "professionals" on the face of the earth. Decades ago, when medicines were made on site, they were skilled and necessary professionals. That is no longer the case. Give me someone who can read poor hand writing, count to 50, and read side drug side effects from a physicians desk reference and I will give you a pharmacist.
It sounds like a good idea to me. I'm sure the tech person loading the machine is just as trained was the tech person behind the counter. How does it figure out the insurance co-pay?