Drug-dispensing kiosks on the way
February 1, 2010
Jim Wilkes
STAFF REPORTER
Drug-dispensing machines tested in Toronto medical centres will be permanent fixtures across the province under a plan approved by the Ontario Hospital Association.
The association has agreed to roll out the kiosks, linked around the clock to a pharmacist, after trials at three hospitals and a medical clinic over the past 2 1/2 years.
Hundreds of kiosks will be installed across the province only after the Ontario College of Pharmacists approves new regulations, expected later this year, said Peter Suma, chief operating officer of PharmaTrust, the Oakville company that makes the machines.
Most machines would be placed in hospital emergency rooms, but others could be located in remote communities without medical centres, Suma said.
He said the machines already in place have dispensed drugs for thousands of prescriptions without issue or mistake.
One has been in use at Sunnybrook hospital since 2007. Another has been at the Albany medical clinic on Danforth Ave. for a year.
The machine scans the prescription and has a telephone and video link to a pharmacist.
Dennis Darby, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists' Association, said there is a place for remote dispensing. But "a kiosk like this won't know whether you're on a number of medications," Darby said.
Suma said video-linked pharmacists would make the same "professional judgment" that pharmacists now make across a counter.
With files from The Canadian Press
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