At Talyst, we took a different approach. In our experience, having installed over 300 AutoPack systems in hospitals, we found two main reasons for packaging errors: canisters and speed. Mis-calibrated canisters lead to jams and accidental pill drops. Therefore, our InSite customers use an automated device to test each canister every time it is filled. This ensures accurate and consistent functioning of each canister to avoid these errors. In addition, we deliberately slowed down the InSite system to eliminate “mis-drops”, i.e. pills that end up in the previous or next packet. In an environment where there is no final check, accuracy is far more important than speed.

As a result, our customers have seen a dramatic reduction in packaging errors with InSite over other systems. In addition to the 2009 study, we had another customer recently study the accuracy of InSite. In a 12-month period, in which 5.4 million pills were packaged, the system showed a 99.99986% accuracy rate, far exceeding the industry standard 98.4%. In comparison, InSite makes 1.4 errors to every 17,000 made by humans.

So, should you be worried about packaging errors? Yes. But, it is important to understand why these errors occur. With InSite we have
developed a solution that addresses the root cause and eliminates errors altogether. Furthermore, we are continuing to innovate in order to bring the safest, most accurate pharmacy automation to the market.

If you would like a copy of the study, please contact me directly at jspears [at] talyst [dot] com.