To improve care access, Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System will unveil a self-serve, automated prescription kiosk March 31.
As more consumers opt for mail-order pharmacies and low reimbursement rates hurt profitability, retail chain and independent drugstores are shuttering nationwide. In January, 30.3% of 8,000 independent pharmacy owners said they are considering closing their business in 2025, according to a National Community Pharmacists Association survey.
MultiCare began exploring how to increase after-hours pharmacy access a few years ago, according to Teresa Harberg, PharmD, assistant vice president of ambulatory pharmacy services.
One challenge to that goal? Pharmacies that operate 24/7 are not usually profitable from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., she said.
“It’s expensive to open a pharmacy, expensive to build a pharmacy and in order to get a return on investment there, you have to make sure that you have the prescription volume that’s going to be able to pay off that million-dollar pharmacy,” Dr. Harberg told Becker’s. “That’s not always possible, but that doesn’t make the need for a pharmacy go away.”
MultiCare discovered VendRx, a manufacturer of pharmacy fulfillment kiosks. The devices can hold up to 500 prepackaged items, which pharmacists can remotely manage to meet drug utilization review and consultation requirements.
Pharmacists at MultiCare’s existing 24/7 pharmacies will remotely manage the kiosk, which is located at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, Wash.
The kiosk is “about the size of a large soda dispensing machine,” and the “monthly fees are less than half of what you pay for added labor,” according to the company’s website.
Employees stock already-filled prescription bottles in the back of the kiosk, Dr. Harberg said, so all the machine needs to do is print a label and dispense the medication.
“We’re so stuck in thinking, ‘You have to have a pharmacy here to fill these prescriptions,’ when in reality, you have to have a pharmacy somewhere that can fill those prescriptions, but the machine is located somewhere else where they pick it up,” Dr. Harberg said. “It’s just getting beyond the past and looking toward the future of pharmacy and the ability to provide those services for a decreased cost. This is just an awesome way to do that.”
Editor’s Note: This article was updated April 1.