Evaluation and Comparison of the Effectiveness of Robotic Dispensing Systems in Pharmacies

The robotic dispensing system is a dispensing robot used in Japanese pharmacies, capable of automatically dispensing medicine packages from their internal storage. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of robotic dispensing systems on the dispensing workflow. The automated dispensing systems investigated were BD ROWA™ (Nippon Becton Dickinson Company, Ltd) and Drug Station® (YUYAMA MFG Co, Ltd). The study was conducted at three community pharmacies: one using BD ROWA™, one using Drug Station®, and a control pharmacy without robotic dispensing systems. We measured the time required for dispensing up to the final verification as well as the staff’s operational time. The number of analyzed prescriptions was 75 at the control pharmacy, 93 at the pharmacy with BD ROWA™, and 78 at the pharmacy with Drug Station®. BD ROWA™ reduced dispensing time by up to 65.0 s (37.6％) and shortened operational time by 30.8 s (17.8％). Drug Station® reduced the dispensing time by up to 40.0 s (23.1％) and shortened operational time by 46.6 s (26.9％). These results suggest that robotic dispensing systems are useful in Japanese pharmacies and can free up pharmacists’ time to focus on patient-facing services.