So you’ve chosen the right pharmacy software - now what comes next?

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Your software is the core of your pharmacy, but there are a variety of additional integrations that can supplement your workflow and help enhance your system. Along with choosing a software, selecting the right integrations that fit your pharmacy’s needs is another crucial part of growing your pharmacy business.

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Our Software Integration blog series will explore a few of the most common system integrations for independent pharmacies. This week’s Software Integration Feature is about Pharmacy Automation.

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Pharmacy Automation

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Pharmacy automation is a broad term that could refer to workflow automations already within your software, such as automated inventory ordering or automated task creation.

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However, this post will dive more into robotic automation - technology that assists in dispensing and filling prescriptions and automating adherence packaging.

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Technology continues to evolve and find new ways to boost pharmacy productivity, and automation is a powerful innovation that is helping pharmacies everywhere streamline their operations to have time to focus on counseling patients, building strong relationships, and diversifying clinical services.

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Automation isn’t replacing your staff - it’s simply freeing up time for them to perform other tasks so you can grow your pharmacy.

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Common Types of Pharmacy Automation

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1. Vial Filling Robots / Automated Pill Dispensers

These robots can range from semi-automatic to fully-automatic. It could perform everything from counting and dispensing drugs to capping, labeling, and sorting your prescriptions. Make manual dispensing a thing of the past.

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2. Adherence Pouch Packaging Automation and Inspection

Adherence strip (or ‘pouch’) packaging is a popular service to offer to your patients enrolled in medication synchronization, allowing pre-sorted doses of daily medications to be given in convenient, tearable pouches.

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There are robots that help automate pouch packaging by sorting and filling the pouches and inspecting them to ensure accuracy.

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3. Blister Card Packaging Robots

Blister cards (or ‘bubble packs’) are another form of adherence packaging that sort doses of medications into a card with sealed, plastic, see-through compartments. You can perform hands-free blister packaging through the use of robots that drop the correct pills into the blister packs for you.

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4. High-Volume Centralized Filling Solutions

If you own several pharmacy locations, you may be using a central fill location to manage all of your stores’ dispensing. Look for a vendor with robots that support high-volume dispensing automation and will be able to keep up with your dispensing needs.‍

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Benefits of Pharmacy Automation

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1. Greater Speed & Capacity

Robots work fast and can support a lot of prescriptions in a small amount of space. Confine your dispensing and vial filling into one robot that will quickly take care of your prescriptions and never get tired.

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2. Save Time

Since your automation will be taking care of dispensing and packaging, you'll be able to allocate your employees’ time to others activities. Save time on mundane tasks and train your staff to handle new enhanced services and strengthen relationships with patients.

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3. Increase Accuracy

No burnout or fatigue. No human error. Your robotic automation will never get tired. It’s also 100% accurate when properly set up and maintained by the pharmacy.

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4. Greater Security

These different automation products are designed with high security and confidentiality, locking all medications in secure storage and requiring verification for system access.


Automation can help streamline your pharmacy operations and take your pharmacy to the next level. When choosing products to purchase, make sure that your current pharmacy software will support integration with the selected products. You’ll want everything in your pharmacy system to be working smoothly and operate efficiently together.

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There are several vendors in the pharmacy automation market that offer a range of products depending on a pharmacy’s size and prescription volume. No matter your pharmacy’s unique situation, there is a solution out there that will best fit your needs. Explore some of the products below to get started:

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Popular Vendors and Automation Products

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Parata

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RxSafe

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Kirby Lester

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ScriptPro

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SynMed