About Outpatient Pharmacy Automation System (OPAS)

The Outpatient Pharmacy Automation System (OPAS) integrates seven different multi-disciplinary technologies and robotics to automate pharmacy processes of sorting, packing, assembling and dispensing a variety of drugs including blister packs, boxes and loose tablets into one complete, end-to-end system.

OPAS features an intelligent software system that orchestrates the entire prescription filling process in the pharmacy. OPAS has clinched 13 local and international awards, including the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) Global ICT Excellence Awards, 2021 – Runner-Up of the Innovative eHealth Solutions Award (Public Sector).

First in region to integrate different robots into one system

Redeploy staff to frontlines for enhanced patient counselling

Improves patient medication safety

Reduces waiting time at pharmacy

OPAS at a glance

Opportunity

Traditional packing processes in the pharmacy tend to be manual, tedious, and fragmented. Pharmacies today also experience large prescription and medication loads. The inefficient and error-prone packing processes, combined with the high volume of patients, often led to longer waiting time for patients.

Solution

Upon receiving the verified electronic prescription, the OPAS workflow engine prioritises, translates and breaks them down for the various machines to automatically pack and assemble the required medication. RFID-enabled totes are used throughout the packing to ensure traceability. Once the whole prescription is assembled, the dispenser performs a final verification via barcode scanning to ensure that patients receive the correct drugs.

Impact

OPAS has helped to streamline processes and decrease rework rates by two-thirds. Reduction in manpower needed for manual packing allows the redeployment of trained staff to serve up to 50 per cent more patients, and reduces patient waiting times by as much as 50 per cent. Patient safety is also improved through stock traceability in the event of any drug recall, while near misses for wrong drug and strength have dropped by over 27.4 per cent.

Future Outlook

Moving beyond hospitals and into the community, the OPAS concept will be scaled to facilitate warehouse operations with the upcoming National Central Fill Pharmacy. Medication supply and delivery to households nationwide will be concentrated at central warehouses to harness the benefits of pharmacy automation. This will streamline resources across institutions, reduce delivery time and increase convenience for patients and their caregivers.