Having automation was a no brainer

Tam, could you please share a little background on yourself and your business?

I am 35 years old and am married with two young kids. As I have always been interested in helping others and working in business (my parents ran a clothing manufacturing company) I decided a career in pharmacy would be the perfect mix. I have been a pharmacist for 11 years and I have been a pharmacy owner for 8 years.

Born with cerebral palsy, after my mum had a severe asthma attack when she was 8.5 months pregnant with me, life has always been a bit more challenging due to my issues with balance and mobility, but I have learnt to adapt and get on with it.

Please describe your pharmacy in a few words – and tell us how long you’ve been running it?

Located in the heart of Bayswater on the street front, Bayswater Amcal Pharmacy has been part of the community for 20 years. We pride ourselves on looking after the health and wellbeing of every patient. I’ve owned the pharmacy since 2015 and have had the BD Rowa Vmax™ since 2016.

Having had the Robot for six years, how has it supported you personally as well as the other staff members?

Initially there was concern amongst the team when I purchased the robot that there would be a reduction of staff, however it has been the opposite. I’ve hired additional staff and roles have been re-directed toward supporting and facilitating other health services, especially in the wake of the pandemic and the roll out of Covid/flu vaccination services. We have administered over 14,000 vaccinations in the past year alone, and it would not have been possible without an automated dispensary.

For me personally, having automation was a no brainer. It has made it much easier for me to work alone, not having to worry about medications that are stored up high and it saves me energy because I’m not running around everywhere to collect stock.

What goals does automation help you achieve for your pharmacy on a day-to-day basis?

Pharmacy automation with BD Rowa™ Solutions has been a huge time saver for us, particularly with the help of the BD Rowa™ ProLog™ Autoloader putting our stock away.

Inventory management is streamlined, and it is easy for us to reconcile invoices and know what is missing from an order to issue credits. We are also able to easily generate an order, based on the day’s usage and can simply determine what stock is not in the Robot to order elsewhere.

The BD Rowa™ Robot enables us to store 97% of our dispensary items in the machine and this now includes broken packs, which is an invaluable addition as we no longer have messy drawers of broken packs and double ups.

How would you describe the reliability of the BD Rowa Vmax™ Automated Dispensing Robot?  Can you please take us on a journey and describe your experience working with the BD Rowa™ Service Team?

The BD Rowa™ Service Team is extremely reliable and caring. We had an unfortunate incident earlier this year where a ladder was left inside the Robot and the machine turned back on with the picking head being damaged in the process. This kind of thing can usually take 2-4 days to fix, however when Darren, the BD Rowa™ Head of Installation, heard of my situation, he personally flew interstate to install a new picking head the next day. The entire service team has always been wonderful and have accommodated where possible.

When you employ a new dispensary staff member, does it take time do get used to it?

We do a little induction for every new team member however overall, it’s a user-friendly system with clear and simple instructions on what to do if there is an error.

What have been the biggest day-to-day changes to your pharmacy since using the BD Rowa™ Robot? How have things changed for the better? How has this impacted the quality of patient consultations, efficiencies and time saving?

Thanks to our BD Rowa™ Automatic Dispensing Robot, we now operate a full front facing/forward dispensing dispensary. The pharmacists can connect with the patient at least once through the dispense process i.e., at scripts in or scripts out. Our patients feel that the pharmacists are always available and easily accessible as we are standing in front of them and not behind a secondary counter or up high.

Due to the back-end operation virtually taking only 30 mins of the day (putting stock into the BD Rowa™ Robot, reconciling invoices, and doing orders), we are able to spend the rest of the time that would normally be dedicated to this, consulting with patients and offering health services for sleep apnoea, vaccinations etc.

How do you and your staff feel about your BD Rowa™ Automatic Dispensing Robot today? To what extent is it a fully integrated part of your team? 

The team loves it, and some have said they can’t remember what it was like without it. It’s a really crucial part of being able to run our dispensary smoothly and efficiently.

Could you ever imagine running your pharmacy without your BD Rowa™ Automatic Dispensing Robot? 

No, it’s been such a game changer on so many levels.

For Pharmacy owners considering automating with a BD Rowa™ Automatic Dispensing Robot, what would be your recommendations or advice to someone considering the investment? 

Try it! And ask any pharmacies close to you if you can come out and try it for yourself for a few hours. While it is a big initial outlay, the time you save in being able to re-deploy yourself and your pharmacists to do what they’re trained to do is priceless. Especially with the current pharmacist shortage, being able to operate autonomously without having to manage inventory and stock will save you so much time.