• Remote dispensing technology should be utilized • Oki more than OK Remote dispensing technology should be utilized Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i is a federally qualified health center with a licensed pharmacy in Hawai‘i and a non-profit organ-ization serving those in
• Remote dispensing technology should be utilized
• Oki more than OK
Remote dispensing technology should be utilized
Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i is a federally qualified health center with a licensed pharmacy in Hawai‘i and a non-profit organ-ization serving those in need regardless of their insurance status.
Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i supports remote dispensing via telepharmacy units (“Gathering offers legislation update,” A1, March 12). In fact from October 2005 up until April 2007, Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i was allowed to use remote dispensing equipment at its two clinic locations. That is, until the board of pharmacy said a pharmacist must be onsite at the clinic rather than via a remote audio/video link. Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i is a pioneer of this technology in Hawai‘i’s private, non-profit sector. We would like to clear up any misunderstanding on how the technology is utilized.
Remote dispensing must have a licensed pharmacist at a central pharmacy that dispenses the medication at the telepharmacy unit located in a medical clinic via a live computer audio/video link. Trained personnel at the clinic retrieve the medication from the telepharmacy unit once the licensed pharmacist reviews the prescription from a licensed physician at the remote clinic site. The medications that are stocked in the telepharmacy units are prepackaged medications and bar-coded by a licensed pharmacist. Each patient is offered pharmacist counseling before leaving the clinic via the live audio/video connection.
The units are highly sophisticated with appropriate safeguards to assure proper dispensing. These safeguards include: double checked bar-coding of labels and bottles, double-locked cabinetry, fingerprint recognition and live audio/video communication. In addition only one drug may be dispensed at a time to avoid mishandling. The patient never touches the remote dispensing machine or retrieves drugs from it.
This process was used at Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i to dispense critical acute medications to Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i clinic patients with acute conditions who the physician determined were in need of the medication. Narcotics are not used in these machines.
While it is understandable that some pharmacists who have not used this type of technology may be skeptical, our pharmacists are supporting it based on first-hand experience. To our knowledge, no pharmacy has ever gone out of business due to remote dispensing of medications. In fact, small community pharmacies go out of business due to competition from major retail chain pharmacies.
Please know that we at Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i support this measure for those most in need, not for a profit motive. Operating a retail for-profit telepharmacy unit is costly, inefficient and too time consuming to make it profitable. David Peters
Chief executive officer Lihu‘e
Oki more than OK
Kudos to Barbara and staff at Oki Diner for their excellent service and superb menu.
To satisfy their desire to experience “local stuff,” I took my off-island guests to Oki Diner in Lihu‘e. Besides the excellent service, we enjoyed the exquisite meals from their new fine dining menu. We all agreed that the meals were very impressive and can be compared to upscale restaurants.
Shirley Machado
Kapa‘a
