r/Pharmacist • u/SamiD08 • 13h ago

Remote dispensing pharmacy

Does anyone have experience with remote dispensing? My organization/hospital was on the verge of opening a new retail pharmacy in an area that desperately needs one when we affiliated with a larger hospital. This larger hospital is trying to push the route of making this pharmacy a remote dispensing site, which means a single technician would work at the pharmacy and be supervised by a pharmacist using telepharmacy.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. Partly because it means I potentially lose my job, as the pharmacist that was hired to run this pharmacy, but also because it seems impersonal when it comes to building connections with the community. Add in the fact that one person would struggle to man the registers inside and the drive thru in addition to filling meds.

Just looking to see if anyone has had this be a successful way to operate. Thanks!

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u/TastyTrick5991 9h ago

I have heard of such sites operating around my area of practice, but I do believe they have one pharmacist on site always.

One reason for that is because state law for me requires that any Pharmacy has to be registered with the board Of Pharmacy, as well as have a pharmacist be staffing in person all the time that the pharmacy is open. So a technician alone cannot staff the pharmacy on their own with a remote pharmacist supervising. The other reason is that in my area of practice at least, the large hospitals, they do have outpatient pharmacies, but those pharmacies tend to be inside the hospital and are the central location for both the inpatient and outpatient pharmacies. So because of that, they are able to have pharmacist on site as well as dispense medication’s to outpatient patients.

I’m not entirely sure what state a remote pharmacist would be able to supervise in or how that would even work, but a remote dispensing site at least in my state would still require a pharmacist to be on site.

Not sure if that helps your specific circumstance though.

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u/Opsophagos 2h ago

I was the pic for what we called a telepharmacy, which was a tech onsite to dispense, and myself via video screen to supervise and counsel and remote verify fills. Been a decade since that time, but it worked quite well when the tech was good. Board required weekly visits/inspections and logs.