WELCOME TO THE MACHINE

MARK HAMSTRA

Robots have invaded supermarket pharmacies.

Although grocers appear to lag behind their drug store rivals when it comes to deploying the latest technological innovations for dispensing prescription drugs, more and more supermarkets have built their volumes up to the point where such machines as robotic pill bottlers can be used efficiently.

At the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Pharmacy & Technology Conference Aug.18-22 in Chicago, supermarket pharmacy directors could be eyeing some of the pricier technologies they previously had put on hold as they seek to lessen the pressure on pharmacists and compensate for the pharmacist shortage.

Among the supermarket companies on the leading edge of technological innovation is Albertson's, Boise, Idaho, which is testing a robotic prescription-filling machine in one of its Chicago-area stores.

"We are interested in continuing to look at robotics as an alternative," said Karen Ramos, an Albertson's spokeswoman. "It's something that could help the pharmacists so that they can spend more time with the patients."

She declined to reveal the vendors of the robotics systems that the company has tested, saying that Albertson's is still exploring its options.

"We know there are benefits, we just haven't found the right system yet," she said.

Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine, also recently tested a prescription-filling machine from ScriptPro, at a store in Bangor, Maine. The chain was evaluating whether or not to roll it out to additional stores, although Mark Polli, director of pharmacy professional relations, said that only three or four of Hannaford's stores currently have high enough sales volume to justify the use of the technology, which can bottle 100-plus prescriptions per hour.

Safeway's Vons and Tom Thumb divisions also reportedly employ the technology in a few stores. Safeway declined to comment.

Some drug chains have found robotic filling systems to be cost effective.

Rite Aid, Camp Hill, Pa., for example, told investors last month that its Rapid Script automated prescription-filling technology has helped the company recruit and retain pharmacists.

"It has been a great recruiting tool as it has dramatically improved the workplace environment," said Mary Sammons, chief operating officer, in the investor conference call.

The system bottles the 200 most commonly prescribed pills and tablets, and is only used in the chain's highest-volume stores.

Sarah Datz, a Rite Aid spokeswoman, estimated that 1,000 of the chain's 3,600 locations are using the technology. She declined to reveal specifics about the volume thresholds that justify its use or other details about the systems.

She pointed out, however, that the machines don't necessarily reduce the stores' labor costs.

"You still need the pharmacists, because the counseling is the most important thing," she said. "That's the strategy behind it. We have our pharmacists being able to spend more time doing what they were trained to do, which is to spend more time with the patients."

For many supermarket chains, however, the fact that such technologies do not necessarily reduce labor costs makes them difficult investments to justify.

"The companies that I have talked to that have implemented it have not shown strong payroll savings, so that changes your basis for justification," said Jim Cousineau, vice president of pharmacy operations for Brookshire Grocery, Tyler, Texas. "Now you have to justify the equipment not as labor savings, but workflow and other issues within the pharmacy, and that makes it a little tougher sell, given the high dollar of the equipment."

Cousineau said Brookshire is looking at technologies that improve workflow, such as software that tracks prescriptions completely through their life cycles.

"Pharmacy software has always been good at generating a label and keeping track of a patient's profile and things like that, but it has not been complete in that it cannot track a prescription from birth to delivery," he said.

He said the chain is working with its software vendor on a system that he said would be a "totally integrated package."

In addition, he said Brookshire has been continuing to look at interactive voice response (IVR) technology, which supermarkets have increasingly adopted as a convenience for customers and as a way to give their pharmacists more time to interact with patients in the stores.

K-VA-T Stores recently began rolling out an IVR system, starting with a store in Abingdon, Va., where its headquarters is located. The company, which operates 85 stores under the Food City and Super Dollar banners, is planning to roll the technology out to all 35 locations that have pharmacies, according to Dave Hardin, director of pharmacy.

Such systems allow physicians to phone in new prescription orders and customers to order prescription refills using their touch-tone phones, whether the pharmacy is open or not. That can free up pharmacists and technicians to spend more time with patients in the store and less time on the phone, and it can also allow work orders to be queued up overnight so that pharmacists can begin filling orders first thing in the morning.

K-VA-T is using the Pharmacy Line IVR system from Ateb, Raleigh, N.C., which provides IVR and other technologies to several other supermarket chains, according to Debbie Sheppard, vice president of sales and marketing at Ateb. The company also is the vendor for Kmart, Troy, Mich., which rolled out the IVR system to all 1,589 of its stores that have pharmacies in June.

Albertson's also has an IVR system in each of its 2,000-plus pharmacies, which Ramos said reflects the company's strategy of seeking to provide customers with as many options as possible.

Patients who call the system actually get routed through a call center, which converts the touch-tone message into an e-mail, which is then routed to the store of the customers' choice. Customers also have the option of placing orders through the chain's pharmacy Web site, www.savon.com, for new prescriptions and refills.

"All this technology is all there to free up the pharmacists' time and allow them to focus on the patients more and more," Ramos said.

Hardin of K-VA-T said some of his company's stores also are leveraging the Internet to handle third-party claims, using the CRx store-level system from QS/1 Corp., Spartanburg, S.C.

"It takes about two or three seconds to adjudicate a claim, vs. 25 to 30 seconds when we use dial-up," he said. "Our Internet processing technology really allows us to serve our customers better."

The technology currently is in use in five K-VA-T stores, but the company plans to roll it out to all 35 pharmacy locations, Hardin said.

It costs about 7 to 8 cents per claim to process the prescriptions through the service, he said, plus the cost of the Internet access.

Hardin said his chain is still too small to consider robotics or central-fill technology, in which prescriptions for several pharmacies in one geographic area are processed from a single location and distributed to each of the stores.

Some supermarket chains, such as H.E. Butt, San Antonio, have reportedly deployed central fill solutions. The company could not be reached for comment.

Industry insiders said H.E. Butt is a prime candidate to utilize central fill technologies, however, because of its high concentrations of stores in urban areas.

One analyst said he does not expect many supermarkets to embrace expensive technologies like robotics or those required for central fill services, however.

"The infrastructure required to put that together is just a tremendous headache for a supermarket," said Greg Buzek, president, IHL Consulting Group, Boynton Beach, Fla. "I would think things like electronic shelf labels are something they would spend on before that."