Imagine being able to get your next prescription filled without having to go to a pharmacy. It's not such a bitter pill to swallow if you're in Ontario.
The government has introduced a bill that would allow you to receive your Rx from a special drug dispensing vending machine, making it easier to get your prescriptions renewed.
The idea would amend existing rules that require a pharmacist to be present when the pills are doled out. Under the new method, you'd run your prescription through a scanner (below), where a pharmacist would see it - and you'd see him or her via a video conferencing link and talk to them over a private closed circuit phone line.
They'd dispense the pills you're supposed to get in the right dosage and the right amount would come out of the machine, complete with label instructions, allowing you to be anywhere at anytime of the day or night and still get a needed refill.
The government hopes it will reduce the cost of distributing drugs, making them cheaper in the long run and be a big boon to people in remote areas.
The machine can hold up to 340 different kinds of commonly prescribed pills. One thing you won't find inside - narcotics, so thieves won't be tempted to try and break in.
What
is expected to be there? "There will be a sense of what are the most common prescription medications that will be dispensed ... like diabetes, like cardiac condition medication, those are the ones you most commonly see," explains Health Minister David Caplan, who also notes the machines come with a refrigerator section. "Say you need insulin," he adds. "You'll be able to get that."
So where will you see them? It won't happen until the law passes, but it's anticipated they'll wind up in malls and medical centres, just like ATMs. And they're capable of taking cash, credit or debit cards - and can even "read" any company benefit cards you may have.
"I'll allow the College of Pharmacists to decide where it's appropriate, what regulations, what settings ... and where they want to put these machines," Caplan suggests.
Two of the vending gadgets already exist - they've been tested at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre since last June. So far, out of 800 patients and 12,000 prescriptions filled, there hasn't been a single error or problem.
And maybe the best part for patients is this: instead of passing your script to a pharmacist and being told to "come back in 10 minutes" the process is very quick and there's virtually no waiting involved.
How it works:
1) The machine makes a scan of the prescription, which is transmitted to the pharmacist at a separate site who receives and processes the prescription.
2) The pharmacist approves the order and provides relevant information, including possible side effects, via two-way video and a private phone line hook-up that only you can hear. There are options to put it on a speaker if you're with someone else who may need to listen in.
3) Provided the medication is stocked in the machine, the appropriate drug is identified through radio frequency identification tags on the product.
4) The prescription is verified a second time by the remote pharmacist, and then dispensed to the patient with full instructions.
Source: Ont. Ministry of Health