At some health systems and hospitals, AI technology is taking the burden of nonclinical, tedious tasks off the hands of pharmacy workers, according to an April 8 article on the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ website.
For example, a large language model platform developed by San Francisco-based UCSF Health helps sort incoming faxes, read invoices and discover documentation and billing opportunities.
Kendall Gross, PharmD, pharmacy informatics manager at UCSF Health, said future opportunities for AI’s use in pharmacy include prior authorizations, prescribing, dose adjustments and streamlining audits.
At MarinHealth Medical Center, a 327-bed hospital in Greenbrae, Calif., the pharmacy department uses AI in its diversion prevention program and to manage automated dispensing cabinets.
Before this technology, the pharmacy staff were often calling the nursing department “chasing complaints” about stock levels, according to Arlene Johnstone, PharmD, pharmacy director of MarinHealth Medical Center.
“I don’t think we were completely aware that this was really a problem,” she told the ASHP. “It was just kind of [the] way it was.”
The status quo changed after implementing the AI tool, which tracks medication movement, expiration dates and volumes. Now, complaints have subsided and pharmacy and nursing staff are making 50% fewer trips to automatic dispensing cabinets. Read more about AI’s potential in hospital pharmacies here.
