In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, optimising prescription medication delivery is one of the critical endeavours. As we delve into the realm of automation and streamlined processes, we must consider an important question: Should residents continue to endure long queues at hospitals to collect their medication prescriptions, or is it time to embrace the convenience of home delivery? In this article, we will take you on a journey exploring the benefits and insights NCS gained from delivering operation-automating technologies for medication prescriptions to reach residents' homes, challenging the traditional dispensing at the Pharmacy retail store approach.

Enhancing Convenience and Accessibility

Home delivery of medication for the refill of existing prescriptions has been adopted in the industry for a while. NCS, together with our healthcare client, re-engineered the process for outpatients by centralising prescriptions fulfilment service at a central warehouse. This allows our clients to offer patients an option to skip the queue at the Pharmacy and head home without having to wait for post-consultancy and treatment.

The Journey: Prescription Medication Delivery at its Finest

Let's embark on a journey with Poh Heng, a resident patient who recently visited the hospital for a follow-up and is on prescription medication. In the past, Poh Heng would have had to endure the hassle of queuing at the hospital’s pharmacy for at least 45 minutes post-treatment. However, with the implementation of NCS’ advanced prescription medication delivery system, Poh Heng now receives his prescriptions right at his doorstep. This was made possible by the following aspects: 

Optimising Inpatient Care

Gone are the days of manual dispensing processes fraught with potential errors. Through the integration of automated closed-loop systems, hospitals are now able to offer in-ward medication dispensers, enabling prompt medication administration and thereby reducing the risk of errors and dynamic inventory management. This approach enhances convenience for the nursing staff and ensures accurate dispensing to Poh Heng, all within the comfort of the hospital’s environment.

Seamless Outpatient and Post-Acute Care

The collaboration with our client extends beyond inpatient care. By leveraging automation, we have streamlined prescription transfers between healthcare providers and pharmacies. It includes streamlining workflows in medication picking, packing, labelling, assembling, verifying, and dispensing through integration with automated dispensing machines and scanning devices (NCS, 2019), all of which were previously executed in a manual fashion by pharmacists. Electronic prescriptions enable secure and efficient transmission, eliminating the need for physical documentation and reducing the risk of errors. Additionally, automated reminders and alerts through existing digital front doors ensure timely and easy refills, improving medication adherence and patient outcomes.

Centralised Fulfilment Services

As we strive to enhance prescription medication delivery, the concept of centralised fulfilment services can enhance patients’ experience. By harmonising prescription orders from multiple pharmacies into centralised distribution centres, we can leverage automation to process and package medications swiftly and accurately. Robust authentication and verification protocols safeguard against delivery fraud, ensuring a secure and reliable system.

Post Poh Heng's receipt of medications, augmented reality environments could also help him visualise dosage instructions and potential side effects. Such environments can be tailored to converse with Poh Heng in his preferred dialect and understand his Singaporean slang.

A Glimpse into the Future 

Intelligent prescription monitoring systems can analyse patients’ data to track medication adherence and efficacy, identify potential drug interactions for any allergy, and personalise treatment plans. Collaborative robots equipped with sophisticated sensors optimise inventory management, minimise human errors, and ensure that prescription medications are delivered straight to the patient’s hand and track actual consumption. The integration of blockchain technology ensures secure supply chains, mitigating the risk of counterfeit medications and enhancing patient safety.

NCS sees opportunities to expand pharmacy automation capabilities to robotic dispensing and monitoring tools to ultimately deliver the 4Rs – the right medication, in the right dose, to the right patient, at the right time. Working alongside our clients, NCS has developed end-to-end outpatient pharmacy automation systems, and integrated pharmacy systems in this space.

As we harness technology and embrace automation, the transformation of prescription medication delivery is within reach. 

Especially in an era where digitalisation presents countless opportunities, we must ask ourselves, why are we still not fully harnessing the power of technology?

-

For more information, visit www.ncs.co or contact Sonal Bengani at sonal.bengani@ncs.com.sg.

References

NCS. (2019). Dispensing Medicine in the Digital Age. NCS Knowledge Centre. Retrieved from https://www.ncs.co/en-sg/knowledge-centre/dispensing-medicine-in-the-digital-age/