By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
Resembling a giant ATM, InstyMeds vending machines use state-of-the-art technology to dispense medications directly to consumers at the point-of-care, such as the waiting rooms of emergency departments, cutting paperwork for busy ED nurses and offering greater convenience to patients.
InstyMeds vending machines use state-of-the-art technology to dispense medications directly to consumers at the point-of-care, reducing workloads for ED nurses. Photo courtesy of InstyMeds Corp.
“We love it,” said Kathy Hunt, RN, MS, director of critical care services at Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar, Minnesota. “It’s a pharmacy in a box.”
Rice Memorial installed its InstyMeds unit more than a year ago. At the time, the community of 22,000 lacked a 24-hour pharmacy. So hospital pharmacists prepared sample packs with a couple of pills and nurses had to track the prescriptions. Hunt called it cumbersome and problematic.
“InstyMeds takes away all of the chasing around and trying to find scripts and the doctor to sign them,” Hunt says. “It saves nurses time.”
Now the physician electronically enters a prescription into a Web-based processing system, which ties in with the InstyMeds computer and gives the patient an access code. If the patient chooses to fill the prescription before leaving the hospital, he or she enters the code at the vending machine, which knows the co-pay or deductible and will charge accordingly. InstyMeds accepts cash, and credit or debit cards.
“They get the entire script for the event taken care of,” Hunt said.
InstyMeds also dispenses patient education materials about the medication.
“It’s very helpful for rural facilities without 24-hour pharmacies in the area,” said Shelley Simkins, RN, BSN, emergency department nurse manager at Buffalo Hospital in Buffalo, Minnesota. “The nurses like it as an alternative to a regular prescription. It has decreased the number of prescriptions nurses have to call into pharmacies.”
If the patient cannot afford the medication, the hospital can direct the machine to dispense it and bill the facility for the drug.
Patients experiencing difficulty operating the machine can call a 24-hour help line, staffed by a pharmacist, for assistance. Operators can look at cameras within the unit and eliminate most jams remotely.
The hospital decides what medications to stock in the InstyMeds. Rice Memorial selected the top 70 drugs prescribed in the emergency department, which includes antibiotics and analgesics.
Buffalo Hospital physicians and pharmacists select the mix and change it depending on the season, such as stocking more albuterol in the winter.
InstyMeds Corp. of Eden Praire, Minnesota, manufactures the units, tracks the usage and ships medications to replenish the machines. The current model holds up to 102 slots with up to 11 containers of medications. It can label and dispense tablets, inhalers, sprays, creams, suspensions and syrups. Hospitals in 16 states currently rent the machine.
Hunt said patients appreciate the convenience of the machines and the efficiency of these systems.
Buffalo Hospital also uses InstyMeds for ambulatory surgery patients and recently added a compassionate care program, that allows patients to be discharged from inpatient beds with their medication, even if they cannot pay for it. InstyMeds charges those drugs to the hospital.
“We don’t want patients leaving and not being able to afford their prescriptions, because then they are right back into the emergency department,” Simkins said.
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