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By
Medstar
Published: Wed, April 09, 2008 - 10:50 am
Last Updated: Wed, April 09, 2008 - 5:25 pm
Last Updated: Wed, April 09, 2008 - 5:25 pm
Her doctor prescribes a medicine to treat it. Then it's a trip to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled, right? Well hold your horses! Now some doctor's have a machine that can dispense the medicine right away.
"It takes us two minutes, three minutes, you know, to process it. it's very quick."
Dr. Weiser says she installed the quiqmeds system in her office to save patients time and money.
"You're giving the patient the exact same thing that you would be, you know, ordering at a pharmacy, all right, but you're able to deliver sometimes a larger quantity for a similar price or a better price."
The dispensing machine holds mostly cost-saving generics. instead of writing a prescription on a pad, the doctor logs into the system using a security code - and orders the medication on a touch screen.
"I pick, you know, what kind of dosage I want to give, whether it's one teaspoon two times a day or three times a day, so I have full control over it. There's no confusion as to what i want."
While a printer churns out personalized instructions, the machine coughs up the medication.
"When it's right here and you can answer their questions and it really saves on the phone calls that go back and forth to clarify sometimes medication orders." The prescription is at the front desk by the time the patient checks out.
"Having the medicine right here, she can go home and get started right away, so it'll actually work out very good for us."
It's a convenience that takes some of the hassle out of being sick.
Some doctors say the quiqmeds system improves compliance among patients. Depending on the state, doctors who use the machine make a minimal profit on each prescription.
FAST FACTS:
Americans purchased 3.6 billion prescriptions in 2005 at a cost of $200.7 billion.
Up to 49 percent of patients don’t fill or take their medications as directed.
Two common reasons for not getting a prescription filled are cost and access to a pharmacy.
Some patients can now get their prescriptions filled at the doctors’ office with a drug vending machine service, called QuiqMeds™.
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