By Khalidh Rizwan
The first automated equipment to dispense medications has been successfully installed by the General Directorate for Health Services at the Ministry of Defense (MODHS), represented by the King Salman Armed Forces Hospital in the Northwestern region of Saudi Arabia.
This achievement will be added to a long list of technological breakthroughs accomplished by Saudi Arabia. It is the first instance of its kind in the entire world, and it will aid in improving lifestyle because the device will electronically dispense medications without necessitating that the patient visit the hospital.
A workstation that controls the prescription barcodes for the medicines, a beneficiary-useable interface screen, a particular operating system (robot), and a messaging platform to inform the beneficiary of the prescription’s readiness make up the machine.
The machine is accessible to the beneficiaries around the clock and has the capacity to store 102–700 prescriptions. In addition to providing extremely high safety against tampering, manipulation, or damage to drugs, it is notable for its capacity to fulfil prescriptions containing a variety of medications. Additionally, it provides the beneficiaries with statistical data on the medicines that were dispensed on a daily, monthly, or annual basis.
The device works by reading the barcode on the prescription and entering the essential information, according to Olayan Al-Atawy, director of the hospital’s pharmacy department. The beneficiaries are then asked to select the dispensing device that is the nearest to their location before the pharmacist uses the electronic prescription system to confirm the beneficiary’s prescription data.
As soon as the prescription is approved without any observations, the beneficiaries will receive an SMS with the code, the location of the machine, and the request status. This enables them to visit the device and get the prescription within 48 hours. Following the submission of their civil record and the verification code sent to their phones, the recipients will be allowed to purchase the drugs.
Al-Atawy claimed that this service, along with the other medical services, exemplifies the wise leadership’s concern for the needs of the people to address those requirements and make access to medications as simple and effective as possible. Al-Atawy stated that the machine dispenses all prescription pharmaceuticals, with the exception of those that must be stored at extremely low temperatures, and that it will reduce the time patients must wait in pharmacies to obtain their meds from 4 hours to less than 1 minute.
Al-Atawi affirmed that, following the success of the present trial, they are currently attempting to produce a second device within a month.