Centre for Applied Health Economics, Menzies Health Institute, Queensland, Australia.
Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Australia.
Res Social Adm Pharm. 2017 Mar-Apr;13(2):394-397. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2016.04.009. Epub 2016 May 14.
Pharmacy workforce planning has been relatively static for many decades. However, like all industries, health care is exposed to potentially disruptive technological changes. Automated dispensing systems have been available to pharmacy for over a decade and have been applied to a range of repetitive technical processes which are at risk of error, including record keeping, item selection, labeling and dose packing. To date, most applications of this technology have been at the local level, such as hospital pharmacies or single-site community pharmacies. However, widespread implementation of a more centralized automated dispensing model, such as the 'hub and spoke' model currently being debated in the United Kingdom, could cause a 'technology shock,' delivering industry-wide efficiencies, improving medication accessibility and lowering costs to consumers and funding agencies. Some of pharmacists' historical roles may be made redundant, and new roles may be created, decoupling pharmacists to a certain extent from the dispensing and supply process. It may also create an additional opportunity for pharmacists to be acknowledged and renumerated for professional services that extend beyond the dispensary. Such a change would have significant implications for the organization and funding of community pharmacy services as well as pharmacy workforce planning. This paper discusses the prospect of centralized automated dispensing systems and how this may impact on the pharmacy workforce. It concludes that more work needs to be done in the realm of pharmacy workforce planning to ensure that the introduction of any new technology delivers optimal outcomes to consumers, insurers and the pharmacy workforce.
几十年来，药剂师的劳动力规划一直相对静态。然而，与所有行业一样，医疗保健行业也面临着潜在的颠覆性技术变革。自动化配药系统已经在药剂学领域使用了十多年，并且已经应用于一系列容易出错的重复性技术流程，包括记录保存、项目选择、标签和剂量包装。迄今为止，这项技术的大多数应用都局限于局部层面，例如医院药房或单一地点的社区药房。然而，更集中的自动化配药模式（例如英国目前正在讨论的“枢纽与辐条”模型）的广泛实施可能会引发“技术冲击”，带来全行业的效率提升，提高药物可及性并降低消费者和资金机构的成本。一些药剂师的历史角色可能会变得多余，新的角色可能会被创造出来，在一定程度上使药剂师与配药和供应过程脱钩。这也可能为药剂师提供一个额外的机会，让他们的专业服务得到认可和报酬，这些服务超出了配药室的范围。这种变化将对社区药房服务的组织和资金以及药剂师劳动力规划产生重大影响。本文讨论了集中式自动化配药系统的前景，以及这可能对药剂师劳动力产生的影响。它的结论是，在药剂师劳动力规划领域需要做更多的工作，以确保任何新技术的引入都能为消费者、保险公司和药剂师劳动力带来最佳结果。
