Authors: Dr. Abdalla Ahmed Alnaqbi, Dr. Amin El-Shamy, James Waterson
A 1967 hospital pharmacy article noted that "outpatient visits are increasing at a rapid rate" and emphasized the need for automation to manage prescription volumes while reducing patient wait times.
Fifty-two years later in 2019, similar challenges persist. Outpatient visits continue rising with increasingly complex cases. Healthcare systems globally pursue automation to manage workload increases while redirecting qualified staff toward patient engagement rather than routine administrative tasks.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention's Health Technology Assessment Office conducted a 12-month head-to-head comparison between automated and traditional outpatient pharmacies. The traditional pharmacy served 11,646 patients with 33,782 prescriptions; the automated pharmacy served 12,739 patients with 37,754 prescriptions.
Key Findings
More patients served by automated pharmacy
More prescriptions dispensed
Improvement in correctly dispensed prescriptions
Faster prescription filling times
Reduction in maximum turnaround times
Medication types stored (vs. 112,814 traditional)
Automated systems excelled at storage optimization, inventory management, and accuracy. Robots read expiry dates, recognize medications requiring refrigeration, and maintain dynamic inventory through barcode scanning during loading and dispensing.