Pills from an ATM? Bill would allow automated drug dispensing

Access to some pharmaceuticals will become easier for some Floridians if a new bill now filed in the House and Senate both becomes law.

SB 708/HB 59, filed by Sen. Travis Hutson of St. Johns County and Rep. Matt Willhite of Palm Beach County, contemplates “automated pharmacy systems” — dispensing kiosks — for “community pharmacy”-styled drug stores.

Automated kiosks are already used to dole out medication in long-term care facilities, hospices, and prisons. However, these expand possibilities beyond institutionalized populations into, for example, rural areas.

If expanded to community pharmacy settings, the bill contemplates dispensing kiosks for outpatients outside the physical store itself.

The kiosk, per Hutson, would dispense non-controlled substances, nothing federally scheduled.

And it would have to be under the “supervision and control” of a pharmacist, who would be responsible for tracking transactions.

The bill language stipulates that this measure is intended to “enhance the ability” of pharmacists, not to “limit” the practice of pharmacy in the state.

Hutson said that the measure represented the intersection of health care concerns, “saving costs” while using “technology and innovation.”

He envisions antibiotics and the like being dispensed, with a doctor supervising the transaction via a telemedicine portal, in a way that offers the protections afforded patients at a Walgreens counter.

“It’s all done automated,” said the Senator.

The program is being piloted in “two or three hospitals” already, Hutson said.

Retailers and major pharmacists are on board, Hutson said, though independent druggists are more leery of the bill.

For those who can’t get to pharmacies during business hours, or those who live in rural areas, Hutson sees a benefit in “after hours access.”

Statute regarding institutional automated pharmacies details the parameters.

A “Florida-licensed pharmacist … need not be physically present at the site of the automated pharmacy system and may supervise the system electronically.”

“The Florida-licensed pharmacist shall be required to develop and implement policies and procedures designed to verify that the medicinal drugs delivered by the automated dispensing system are accurate and valid and that the machine is properly restocked,” current state law says.

The House version will be heard in the Health Quality Subcommittee this week.