One of UCF Health Student Health Services’ most industrious team members recently commemorated one year of service to its on-campus pharmacy.
For what he lacks in limb and brain, “Pillbert,” the automatic vial-dispensing robot, makes up for in efficiency and intelligence. In about 30 seconds, he can count and label a student’s prescription with precision, choosing from 108 different medications stored within his sturdy frame and dispensing through nine windows.
Pillbert frees pharmacists to spend more time with patients, educating them on how to take their medications properly, outlining special directions and precautions, and explaining how the medications can improve their health.
Located on the first floor of the Student Health Services building on UCF’s main campus, the pharmacy allows students to conveniently obtain prescribed medications during the same visit with their doctor. Last year, pharmacists filled almost 40,000 student prescriptions.
For his efforts, Pillbert earned an “outstanding” performance review in his first year, says Hetal Patel, pharmacy manager at Student Health Services.
“It is accurate, and it streamlines the workflow for us,” he says. “It has not failed or been inaccurate at all in a year and a half. Pillbert contributes to our efficiency and enhances the quality of care we provide — all with zero undercounts, overcounts or instances of mislabeling. Ultimately, that makes us more available to the students, and we can engage in more meaningful interactions with them.”
The six-foot-tall robot has 54 compartments on each side stocked with the pharmacy’s most prescribed drugs, including antibiotics. To help pharmacists, Pillbert first creates a label, then uses a camera to identify each medication and an internal mechanical arm to count and dispense the correct number of pills into a bottle.
On average, it takes about three minutes to count, label and verify each medication. Pillbert saves pharmacists nearly 40 hours of labor a week, according to a Student Health Services analysis, and assists with 80-100 prescriptions a day.
“It used to be a bottleneck if someone had five prescriptions,” Patel says. “Before Pillbert, dispensing multiple prescriptions may have slowed services for others who were waiting to receive a smaller order, such as simple antibiotic prescriptions. Now it can be processed promptly as Pillbert can process multiple prescriptions simultaneously and deliver through one of the nine windows.”
While Pillbert handles the mechanics of counting and labelling prescriptions, Patel says that he and his colleagues remain responsible for checking for patient allergies, interactions between drugs and other contraindications and precautions for overall patient safety.
“For routine medication refills, he takes away inefficiencies, time-consuming tasks and human error,” he says. “We get more time to check refill histories and ask patients questions like, ‘How is the medication working for you? Do you have any questions or concerns about the medications?’ Those details make a big difference.”
As UCF grew and Student Health’s patient load increased, Patel saw the need to make the pharmacy more efficient. However, the technology, cost and capabilities for robotic systems weren’t aligned with the pharmacy’s needs until 2023. That’s when Patel and his colleagues were inspired to purchase the Kirby-Lester KL-108 automatic vial dispensing robot the following year.
To celebrate the new technology, Student Health Services held a naming contest for the robot and even made him his own UCF ID card and cartoon photo.
Pharmacists perform routine maintenance on the robot when the pharmacy is closed.
“Taking care of him is pretty easy,” says Binita Patel, a Student Health Services pharmacist. “It takes seconds to refill and replace the cassettes.”
Patel says that although Pillbert is a machine, he has integrated smoothly into the team and is an essential part of the pharmacy.
“He’s a great addition to our team,” she says. “He never complains, and he always shows up.”
