Pharmacy Technology

Pharmacies fulfil a great role of our society from providing a pain relief to helping patients feel better. Pharmacies rely heavily on technology to deliver their services. Canada Computing has been serving pharmacies’ technology needs since the company’s inception. We would like to briefly share with you the different technology hardware available in the pharmacies today.

Network

There are usually two main network connections at any typical pharmacy in Manitoba:

Internet
Pharmacy Private network such as DPIN in Manitoba. Other provinces rely on Internet and advanced encryption instead of having a separate network.

The two networks combined allow pharmacies to communicate with both Manitoba Health and insurance providers seamlessly. Any interruptions in either network will cause a down time for the pharmacy workflow.

Pharmacy Management System (PMS)

Most pharmacies would have a PMS system to manage patient records and medicine dispensing as well as inventory and billing. Small pharmacies that have less than 5 workstations would have a primary workstation that acts as a server. The primary workstation would usually have windows 10 Pro and at least 16 GB of RAM with intel i7 Processor. Pharmacies that have more than 5 workstations would have an actual server with Windows server operating system. The server hosts the pharmacy’s applications and patients’ data. It also acts as the main point of communication with health authorities such as Manitoba Health and insurance providers in some scenarios. One of the most popular PMS system in Canada is called Kroll from Telus Health (https://www.telus.com/en/health/health-professionals/pharmacies/kroll).

Point of Sale System (POS)

Some small pharmacies would have a terminal to process debit/credit transaction and some more established ones would have a fully capable point of sale system that integrates with the pharmacy application. The point-of-sale system is sometime separated from the standard workstations and sometime it is combined. One of the most popular POS system for pharmacies in Canada is called Positec (https://positec.com/).

Workstations

Pharmacies usually have one workstation for each staff. The workstation is being used to check update patient information, prescription details, and check on incoming faxes.

Printers

All pharmacies would have at least two printers:

Heavy-duty all-purpose printer to print some reports and prescription details for the patient.
Label printer to print prescription label to be posted on the drug packaging. Some pharmacies don’t have separate label printer and use special type of label paper to be used in the heavy-duty all-purpose printer.

Scanner

Document scanner for scanning paper prescription. Fujitsu is one of the most popular and reliable scanners for pharmacies and Fi-8170 is the recommended model (https://www.fujitsu.com/ca/en/products/computing/peripheral/scanners/business/fi8170/)

Faxing

Faxing is essential for pharmacies. Some would have a typical fax machine, and some would have a fax modem connected to the pharmacy server or the primary computer. Recently there has been some acceptance for Internet faxing due to the features it can offer such as the ability to send and receive at the same time and being able to be viewed from anywhere. PMS such as Kroll has integration with SR Fax directly as well for improved workflow.

Robotic Dispensing

Many modern pharmacies incorporate the use of robotics to automate the prescription dispensing for speed and accuracy. These systems connect securely to the pharmacy management systems over the pharmacy network.

Phones

Having a dedicated phone number and ability to receive and make calls reliable is very important for any pharmacy. Voice over IP (VoIP) is very common and has been widely accepted by many pharmacist and pharmacy staff. Other ways such as soft phones installed on the computers are also becoming more popular with the level of convenience they offer especially when paired with wireless headset.