Walgreens Hopes Robots Will Help Ease Pharmacist Shortage Wsj-Gwebstories - Wsjcorp HEAD TOPICS

Walgreens Hopes Robots Will Help Ease Pharmacist Shortage

10/22/2022 10:01:00 PM

The pharmacy chain is setting up a network of automated facilities to fill prescriptions

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The Wall Street Journal

One of Walgreens 's biggest robotic pharmacy fulfillment centers, near Dallas, fills 35,000 prescriptions a day, serving about 500 stores in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas The pharmacy chain is setting up a network of automated facilities to fill prescriptions Oct. 20, 2022Tap storyThe nation’s second-largest pharmacy chain is setting up a network of automated, centralized drug-filling centers that could fill a city block.This browser does not support the video element.Rows of yellow robotic arms bend and rotate as they sort and bottle multicolored pills, sending them down conveyor belts. This browser does not support the video element.The company says the setup cuts pharmacist workloads by at least 25% and will save more than $1 billion a year.The ultimate goal: give pharmacists more time to provide medical services such as vaccinations, patient outreach and prescribing of some medications. Read more:
The Wall Street Journal » 'The robot is doing the job': Robots help pick strawberries in California amid drought, labor shortage Wall St rallies, Treasury yields dip on hopes of easing Fed policy By Reuters Pregnant women to be handed free vapes by London council The cutting-edge cellular therapies aiming to ease America's organ shortage Engadget

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Snap Inc shares sank more than 30% on Friday and hit their lowest since the pandemic, after the company's forecast of zero revenue growth pointed to more pain ahead for a social media sector heavily dependant on digital advertising. Read more >> 'The robot is doing the job': Robots help pick strawberries in California amid drought, labor shortageCalifornia produces about 90% of the nation's strawberries, but severe drought and worker shortage s are threatening the fruit. Eric Adamson's company is hoping to change that with the power of robots. No, they need water. A stupid robot can’t make water. Worker shortages? REALLY? YES, they ARE meant to replace jobs. Don't try and pull this one over on us. Wall St rallies, Treasury yields dip on hopes of easing Fed policy By Reuters*STOCKS RALLY, TREASURY YIELDS DIP ON HOPES FED WILL SLOW RATE HIKES - How come😲 Its just totalt bullshit, market will still go down, fed cannot fix the supplychain produced by war Inflation is still rising and this is just a trick to justify the big hike this time, Will be the same next time Pregnant women to be handed free vapes by London councilLambeth Council hopes its scheme will help smokers with the cost of living crisis. why 'handed', like it's some kind of reprehensible and frivolous freebie we should be angry about? The problem is that the harms of vaping aren't understood yet, and per NHS comments, patches+gum would be better. Not the act of trying to help people quit smoking, which is great. Stupid idea. I feel the article needs the line “those with lower incomes are most likely to get pregnant” thats how most work shy women round here get their money for fags and booze.🙄 The cutting-edge cellular therapies aiming to ease America's organ shortage EngadgetOnly a third of the people waiting for a liver from America's organ transplant network will actually receive a replacement. Hopefully they can make brains because many in the country could benefit. Mozambique's first gas exports to Europe seen next monthLNG cargoes will help alleviate a tight global LNG market and gas shortages in Europe as winter looms following Russia-Ukraine conflict. Dallas Mayor Seeks Federal Help for Shortage of Emergency VehiclesDallas Mayor Johnson4Dallas is sounding the alarm to Washington over a shortage of emergency vehicles. By Sharon Terlep Photographs and video by Jake Dockins for The Wall Street Journal Oct.severe drought and worker shortages are threatening the fruit.Nasdaq Composite added 244.Getty Images Image caption, More than 3,000 Lambeth families - many with kids - fall into poverty each year due to their smoking habits, according to council estimates Pregnant women will be handed free vapes by a south London council to stop them spending money on cigarettes. 20, 2022 Tap story The nation’s second-largest pharmacy chain is setting up a network of automated, centralized drug-filling centers that could fill a city block. This browser does not support the video element. Eric Adamson's company is behind a strawberry robotic revolution. Rows of yellow robotic arms bend and rotate as they sort and bottle multicolored pills, sending them down conveyor belts.72. This browser does not support the video element. "People think robots have been around forever, but they're actually very, very new, especially robots that make decisions and are autonomous," Adamson said. The company says the setup cuts pharmacist workloads by at least 25% and will save more than $1 billion a year. Lambeth councillor Ben Kind revealed details of the scheme in a written response to a question from fellow councillor Issa Issa about what the authority was doing to tackle child and family poverty in the borough. The ultimate goal: give pharmacists more time to provide medical services such as vaccinations, patient outreach and prescribing of some medications. As good as they are, though, they're hardly foolproof. Still, the dollar dipped against a basket of world currencies as the euro gathered strength. Pharmacist shortage Those services are a relatively new and growing revenue stream for drugstores, which are increasingly able to bill insurers for some clinical services. “We can do the things we’re supposed to be doing professionally," says Adolf Makia, a pharmacist in North Richland Hills, Texas. Adamson said the robots pick with 95% accuracy. "This process improves compliance; we have them picking up medications on time; we can have one-on-one conversations.77% to $0.” Covid-19 increased the demands on pharmacies as they expanded into testing and vaccinations, putting pressure on staff and creating a shortfall of pharmacists that many chains have struggled to fill. Jeanpol Rodriguez, who used to work in the fields, now manages the robots picking strawberries.. Walgreens has reduced pharmacy hours at a third of its nearly 9,000 U.S. "The robot is doing the job.94% versus the greenback to 147. stores, and in some markets is offering signing bonuses of up to $75,000 to fill pharmacist jobs. Walgreens in the past two years has opened eight automated drug-filling centers serving 1,800 stores and plans to operate close to two dozen by 2025. Adamson said this is a  way that"we can create jobs with higher wages and with higher skill development. This browser does not support the video element.63% on the day. The centers employ anywhere from dozens to hundreds of workers, who oversee the process or handle prescriptions for medications that can’t be filled by robot. "We hope to have hundreds and hundreds of robots around the world's leading farms, picking table grapes, peppers, cucumbers, blackberries, raspberries," he told CBS News. One of the biggest, near Dallas, fills 35,000 prescriptions a day, serving about 500 stores in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. Roughly 20% of prescriptions filled by those locations are done at the centralized locations.62%, while MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 1. Walgreens' automated operations were in the works before a shortage of pharmacy workers became acute during the pandemic. The company aims to eventually fill 40% to 50% of all prescriptions at centralized sites. Prescriptions that are time-sensitive or for controlled substances are still filled by pharmacists in stores.29%. Produced by Siemond Chan .