Enhancing Operational Efficiency and Service Delivery through a Robotic Dispensing System: A Case Study from a Retail Pharmacy in Brazil

Drug dispensing in retail pharmacies typically involves several manual tasks that often lead to inefficiencies and errors. This is the first published quality improvement study in Latin America, specifically in Brazil, investigating the operational impacts of implementing a robotic dispensing system in a retail pharmacy. Through observational techniques, we measured the time required for the following pharmacy workflows before and after implementing the robotic dispensing system: customer service, receiving stock, stocking inventory, separation, invoicing, and packaging of online orders for delivery. Time savings were observed across all workflows within the pharmacy, notably in receiving stock and online order separation, which experienced 70% and 75% reductions in total time, respectively. Furthermore, customer service, stocking, invoicing, and packaging of online orders, also saw total time reductions from 36% to 53% after implementation of the robotic dispensing system. This study demonstrates an improvement in the pharmacy's operational efficiency post-implementation of the robotic dispensing system. These findings highlight the potential for such automated systems to streamline pharmacy operations, improve staff time efficiency, and enhance service delivery.