Powering Growth with Robotics
Pharmacist-owner Tom Gierwatoski opened Platte Valley Pharmacy in 2013, serving the patients of Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton, CO. His pharmacy offers a bit of everything – prescription filling, compounding, gift items, as well as durable medical equipment.
Setting the Stage for Growth
“When I started my pharmacy, we were doing 65 prescriptions a day. Now, 3½ years later, we’re filling about 200, and I project we’ll be up to 300 prescriptions a day in a few months.
“By the time we were filling 120 daily prescriptions, I recognized we were going to outgrow our current staffing model. It was the right time to start looking into pharmacy technology and automation. As a pharmacy owner, you have to consider not just where you are now, but where you want to be in the future. We had to look at options for handling that projected growth. I either had to hire a pharmacist and a few more technicians since I was maxed out on my tech-to-pharmacist ratio, or alternatively, I could buy an unsupervised robot and reallocate my current staff.”
Impact of Technology and Automation
“We chose ScriptPro’s CRS 150, because it’s where we got the most ‘bang for our buck’ when it came to the percentage of prescriptions filled versus dollars spent.
“Our primary goal in automating was to allow our current staff to grow in their positions. There comes a point when you need your techs to do more than count. Because we’re in a hospital, we probably do 65-70% new prescriptions every day. Inputting prescriptions is a huge part of our day, and we really need to have two technicians handling that in order to manage the steady flow of new patients. With our CRS 150, we’re able to allocate another technician from filling to inputting, and that lets us keep up with capacity and live true to our motto “of fast, friendly, and professional service.”
Why ScriptPro?
“Feedback from peers was key. I’d attend tradeshows and listen to robot customers at different vendor booths. ScriptPro customers came across as happy with their robot and spent their time talking to staff about additional products in the ScriptPro pipeline, rather than, ‘I’m having issues.’ I really like how all of their robots are still out working in the field – a one-time purchase versus a fill-in-the-gap product.
“We use two primary wholesalers and need to change NDCs constantly. ScriptPro’s dispensing cells are easy to change out, clean, and calibrate on-site and at any time! Also, the quiet operation is important. It can be pretty chaotic in our pharmacy, so the noise from some other systems would pose a big issue.”
