There are many types of robots. At Kennedy Health System, we had a robot arm. Its only function was to fill medication cassettes for our three hospitals. It's still a bit labor-intensive; a tech had to load the medication bins on a conveyor belt, then re-pack the cassettes in their nursing unit bins. It's was up 98% of the time, but when it's down, you can imagine the chaos. It also "feeds" itself. During the daytime when it's not filling bins, it replenishes itself. A tech loads the robot with specially designed unit dose packets - they don't even have to sort them - the robot reads the bar code on the packet and places it in the proper slot.

It's slow and noisy; one other pharmacy I worked at installed theirs and removed it within two years because it was so noisy. There's only one other hospital that I know of had the type of robot you're referring to. The hospital was Crozier Chester Medical Center in Chester PA; I don't know if they still have it, but it's a lead.

Hope this helps.

Name of Facility: Summerdale Enterprises, Inc.

City, State: Publishing

Years as a Buyer: > 30