Zhoushan Hospital in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province recently launched an intelligent pharmacy to accelerate the distribution of medicines, local media reported on Nov 26.

The medicine shelves commonly seen in a traditional pharmacy have been replaced by a large mechanical equipment with two robotic arms that place the medication on a conveyor belt.

"The automatic medicine distribution machine is connected to the hospital information system. It can automatically prepare the medication after receiving the prescriptions from the doctor," said a person surnamed Miu who is in charge of the intelligent pharmacy in Zhoushan Hospital.

Miu added that a pharmacist verifies the medication prepared by the robot before patients receive them.

According to Miu, patients used to wait more than 30 minutes before receiving their medication. Now, they can receive their prescriptions within minutes.

"The pharmacist can now spend the time previously used to dispense medicine to give detailed guidance to patients and answer their questions," noted Miu.

Zhoushan Hospital, a third class, grade A hospital, is a general hospital which has 1,078 beds and provides outpatient service and emergency treatments to over 944,000 patients every year.

Addess: 739 Dingshen Road, Qindao subdistrict, Dinghai district

Tel: +086-0580-2292518

Official website: http://www.zs-hospital.com/

Outpatient building of Zhoushan Hospital. [Photo/zs-hospital.com]