How can automation help?

1. Staff shortage in the pharmacy industry

Staff shortage in the healthcare industry has been a tendency for quite some time. And the recent corona pandemic definitely brought it into the spotlight. Healthcare employees are overworked, stressed and more likely to have burnout. As a result, the sector is not attractive to young people and new graduates.

We detect the same trend in the pharmacy industry. A lot of pharmacists no longer find new staff. Older pharmacists want to retire but don’t find candidates to take over their pharmacy. In April 2022, 91% of pharmacists stated that they experienced staff shortages. (https://psnc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/PSNC-Briefing-013.22-Summary-of-the-results-of-PSNCs-2022-Pharmacy-Pressures-Survey.pdf) Unfortunately, the sector is no longer attractive or seen as a likeable field to work in.

However, pharmacists fulfil a more prominent role in society and are confronted daily by new and big online competitors. So reinventing the way of work is essential to stay competitive and keep the job attractive.

2. Automation as a helping hand

There was a time that automation was the enemy of each employee. But on the contrary, automation is here to help with annoying and time-consuming tasks. Precision heart surgery with a robot already saved millions of people. And this is just one example in the healthcare industry.

For pharmacies, we have our delivery robots that help with stock management. In the beginning, these machines were considered to steal the jobs of pharmacy staff. But it merely meant that pharmacists needed to reinvent the way they were working. It was no longer necessary to stock and log manually the delivered medicines. The robot took over those time-consuming tasks. Employees could now focus on medicine preparations and, of course, serving and guiding the patients.

Therefore, automation can undoubtedly relieve the workload of pharmacists and help prioritise tasks. It will deliver a positive impact on the mental and physical energy of the staff. Head pharmacists will have more time to think about their pharmacy strategy and prepare for the future. Ultimately, all these advantages positively affect job attractiveness.

Meditech will never stop thinking about ways to support you in your job and relieve you from the increased workload.