Editorial: Pharmaceutical robots are good for Ballad and patients

Ballad Health's announcement that it has installed a robotic pharmacy dispensing system at Bristol Regional Medical Center to serve all of its hospitals calls it a "transformative moment in our commitment to patient well-being," according to Marvin Eichorn, chief administrative officer."This leading-edge technology will not only streamline our medication management processes, but it is also designed to contribute to enhanced patient safety and cost-effectiveness," he says.Note those last two words, "cost-effectiveness."Ballad's press release states the robots are "part of a central pharmacy dispensing system that improves safety, workflow and inventory optimization through automation, enabling pharmacy team members to focus on other aspects of care."What might those be?According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "pharmacists dispense prescription medications and provide information to patients about the drugs and their use. They also advise physicians and other health care workers on the selection, dosage, interactions and side effects of medications to treat health problems."And so, pharmacists don't just fill pill bottles.They do provide "other aspects of care," as Ballad notes.What Ballad doesn't say is how many pharmacist positions will be replaced by automation, information of concern to pharmacists even if not so much to Ballad's customer base. We don't doubt that this robotic system will do all of the things Ballad says it will — which is of concern to patients because it includes safety.Omnicell produces the robots, and its website claims that of more than 10 million medications dispensed by it, there have been "zero wrong medications." That's reassuring. But bottom line, Ballad's investment in these machines wouldn't make much economic sense if safety was all that they delivered.Omnicell doesn't list prices because that's a negotiation using various factors, but we found a reference that each robot costs around $1.7 million. And so three of them, as Ballad is using at BRMC, is more than $5 million.And the return on that investment looks pretty good, given that the average wage for pharmacists nationwide is just over $106,000 with top earners drawing $135,000.Such is the way of the future. Some 2.25 million industrial robots are currently in use worldwide, and fully 25% of all jobs are at risk of automation. By 2030, China is expected to have as many as 14 million industrial robots. It's interesting that as robots take over more jobs, employers are finding it difficult to fill them with people, and there is a perception that Millennials and Gen Zs don't want to work.Huffington Post reports that nearly 10% of recent college grads bring mommy to job interviews, and Fox News says "videos of Gen Zers and millennials complaining about traditional 9-5 job have spread across social media platforms like wildfire and sparked debates about the younger generations' work ethic, or lack thereof. Some employers are even avoiding hiring from Gen Z, according to one recent survey, with 58% believing these workers are unprepared for the work force."As to Ballad's pharmaceutical robots, the phrase "cost-effectiveness" means that in addition to improving safety, Ballad is reducing its operational costs, and the more money the huge medical system saves in operations, the more it has available for medical staff and the greater its competitive advantage.That's a good thing for Ballad, its employees, and its patients.