The Ministry of Health has launched the first smart pharmacy in the Kingdom, operated by a robot, at King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Tabuk.
According to MOH, the smart pharmacy aims to reduce patient's waiting time, to provide the highest safety standards, to minimize medical errors, as well as controlling the drug stocks. It also allows pharmacist to focus on briefing patients on pharmaceutical matters.
The robot can dispense 1500 packs of medicine and 240 prescriptions per an hour, added MOH. In addition, the pharmacy has the capacity to store more than 20,000 packages of medicine of different sizes, and has 6 outlets for dispensing medicines, one dedicated to the service of persons with disabilities.
The robot has the ability to reject expired medication and to make reports on all close to expiration medication, as well as making sure of their availability. It can arrange the optimal medication for dispensing without human intervention. It also works automatically even outside official working hours.