Innovative Robotics Reduce Pharmacists’ Time Counting Pills

West Jordan is home to a robotic fulfillment center for Walgreens. This facility fills prescriptions for common health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure medications, or refills that don't require immediate pick up.

These robots don't replace your local pharmacy pickup location. The robots are in a separate location and are only used to fill prescriptions that are then sent out to pickup locations. You will still talk to a technician and pharmacist at your local Walgreens. This way your pharmacist can "spend less time filling prescriptions and more time providing personalized care to patients in the community," Jon Joplin, Vice President, Chief Technology and Operations Officer at Walgreens, said.

"Less time" here means more than a few minutes; it's closer to saving thousands of manual labor hours. "This facility is expected to process about 4.2 million prescriptions each year," Joplin said. "The West Jordan MFC is supporting 48 [locations] in Utah alone." It also supports nearly another 50 locations across the region.

If you're concerned about a robot filling your prescription, rest assured, there are humans double-checking everything along the way. "Pharmacists oversee the process to ensure the safety and accuracy of all prescriptions filled," Joplin said. "Pharmacy technicians label canisters with medications for the robots to dispense, and our pharmacists verify those canisters for accuracy. There are also certain automatic security measures built into the process to prevent the wrong medication from being dispensed if errors occur, such as if a technician attaches a canister to the incorrect dispenser."

By Erin Dixon