Saturday, October 3, 2009

3K01 kiosk project information

I decided to post some important findings on the kiosk here since it's a public domain.

The following is copy and pasted from what I wrote in my core section's virtual studio:

Hey guys,

Today (Wed Sept 30, 2009), My group and I visited the Pharmatrust kiosk and ran into two guys who were running tests on the kiosk. It turns out, they are from the engineering team that created the kiosk and were setting it up for us.

We got a chance to talk to them about the kiosk and the system Pharmatrust is proposing, and even got to talk to the VP of Project Management, Brandon Parrott, the head of the MedCentre project and the guy who made the pandemic preparedness presentation. We were able to get a demo of the machine and talk to an actual pharmacist located at the Pharmatrust headquarters in Oakville through the kiosk.

Here's what my group and I came to understand quite clearly about the kiosk:

- The kiosk is designed to be a virtual pharmacy that allows for pharmaceutical services in locations previously unable to host a full-fledged pharmacy

- It is capable of holding up to 350 different types of medication in capacities of 2, 4, or 10 depending on the box size. However, each kiosk's service capabilities are tailored to each location. Pharmatrust gathers information on the prescription trends of each location and stock the kiosks accordingly.

- Each kiosk is connected to it's own call centre. There is a 1:1 ratio between kiosks and pharmacists, meaning no one has to wait to talk to someone.

- When a patient is interacting with the kiosk, a pharmacist is instructing them from the moment they stick their prescription into the machine. It is designed so that the user has to do as little as possible, and is mainly controlled remotely by the pharmacist.

- An important advantage of the kiosk in it's regular workflow is that it allows the pharmacist to concentrate on the patient's needs. They can concentrate on giving proper instruction to the patient unlike in a regular pharmacy where a pharmacist is required to count pills, answer phone calls, or answer other people's questions.

PANDEMIC PLANNING

- In a pandemic situation, kiosks located within hospitals will be restocked with anti-virals and integrated into the primary-secondary system outlined in the presentation PDF.

- These kiosks will ONLY be used by patients with flu symptoms. Regular prescription filling will not be done at these designated kiosks to prevent cross-infection

- Patients that are not experiencing flu symptoms are not allowed to use the kiosks or the system designed for pandemic control.

- Patients with underlying health conditions will automatically be admitted to the Secondary Assessment centre. Such conditions include: respiratory conditions, pregnancy, compromised immune systems

- In the initial screening, a nurse experienced with pandemics will perform the screening looking for signs and symptoms of flu (seasonal or H1N1)

KIOSK DESIGN

- The kiosk at Toronto General is not representative of the model they are going to put in production.

- All stickers on the face of the kiosk will be replaced with stickers showing international icons for the various interfaces.

- The virtual interface on the screen is currently being overhauled and will not be the same as the one shown at Toronto General

- Multilingual support is being implemented for 15 languages

- The physical design of the kiosk has changed substantially as well. There is no longer a large ledge.

The phone handset is still there, but we were provided with information as to why it's the best option. When using the kiosk for the first time, the pharmacist is required to perform an interview in order to obtain information about their medical history and prescription information. This is usually quite private information.

I think that's all the important things that we asked and were given clear answers. If you have any more questions, respond to this post, or contact me directly. Good luck everyone!

3 comments:

  1. Hi, thanks for sharing all these info on the kiosk!
    The only thing I heard differently was what you said about 1:1 ratio between kiosks and pharmacists. I heard that one pharmacist may be operating five different kiosks (I think depending on how busy it is) so when a patient walks up to the kiosk, he would touch the screen so the pharmacist would know which kiosk to operate next.
    So, depending on the number of patients and the number of pharmacists, there could be some waiting time.

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  2. Curious as to your source of information?

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  3. Ran into two Pharmatrust Engineers that were setting up the kiosk. Asked them a few questions and interviewed Brandon Parrott, the VP of project management.

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