Peanuts, Pop-Tarts and painkillers: Vending machine dispenses drugs

A newcomer to the world of vending machines has joined the likes of sodas, candy, DVDs and toiletries — drugs.

Integrity Urgent Care, 4323 Integrity Center Point, in northeast Colorado Springs, recently installed a machine stocked with dozens of common prescriptions — antibiotics, painkillers, asthma inhalers and oral steroids. It dispenses patients' medications like a bag of potato chips or package of Skittles, and it is the first such machine in Colorado, according to the Minneapolis-based manufacturer, InstyMeds. The idea is to save patients the hassle of going to a pharmacy, having to wait in line for medicine, or going on a late-night search to have a prescription filled.

"It's a lot like ordering a candy bar out of a candy machine," said 32-year-old April Salladay, who was treated at the clinic Monday for a sinus infection and laryngitis. She paid $32 for the antibiotic Augmentin, which had been prescribed just minutes earlier. She said she entered a number, answered a couple of questions on a touch screen, and two minutes later retrieved her medicine from a bin. The machine sits inside the clinic between the nurses' station and the reception desk.

Currently the machine is not set up to process insurance claims — that likely will change in the next six months, and it has so far proved most popular with self-payers, said Lori Japp, a physician assistant and co-manager at Integrity. But some insured patients, including Salladay, are willing to pay for the drug outright to avoid the extra errand. Salladay's $32 was likely more than her co-pay, she said, but the difference was worth avoiding a stop by the pharmacy when she was feeling ill.

The process works like this: The doctor or physician's assistant submits the prescription electronically to the machine and gives the patient a code. The patient types in the code and a birthdate and receives the medicine after the bar code is triple checked.

A phone on the machine connects the user directly to a pharmacist 24/7 if the customer has questions or concerns.

Kristen Binaso, a New Jersey pharmacist and spokesperson for the American Pharmacists Association, said people need quick access to their medications, but she said people should understand that a drug is not a package of Ritz crackers. Even certain common drugs can increase sensitivity to the sun, react negatively to alcohol, cause diarrhea, or interact with vitamins, herbs and over-the-counter drugs.

People should use the machine's phone and come prepared with questions, she said.

Even then, there are still advantages to face-to-face interaction with a pharmacist. She can read someone's face when they don't understand what she's saying or see if they are also purchasing over-the-counter products that they shouldn't use with a drug.

But Japp said there's no guarantee a person will get much interaction at a busy pharmacy, and she noted that the electronic prescription system takes away human error.

Robert Bang, director of sales for InstyMeds, said more than a million prescriptions have been filled without an error.

The machine is stocked with the most common drugs prescribed over the last year, Japp said, which cover most patients' needs.

Patients who require uncommon drugs are referred to a pharmacy, she said.

There already are machines for pharmacies in which pharmacists put the prescription into the machine for a patient to pick up at his or her convenience. Many hospitals, including St. Francis Medical Center in northeast Colorado Springs, use machines in which pharmacists retrieve prescriptions by zapping barcodes.
Bang said InstyMeds is the first, though, to dispense pre-stocked prescriptions directly to consumers.

The company was founded seven years ago by a physician who was frustrated one night when he searched for hours to find a place where he could fill a basic antibiotic for his sick child, Bang said. There are 135 machines in the United States.

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