Today, more pharmacies are implementing full or partial automation to fill unit-dose blister packs with medications. It’s just one way teams can focus more time on primary patient care instead of repetitive dispensing tasks. Automation also helps teams enhance dispensing accuracy and consistency.

Whether working through a centralized fulfillment center or using robots in house, the efficiencies gained through automated filling quickly disappear if teams spend too much time sealing blister packs. It’s important to choose packs specifically designed for automation – otherwise, pharmacies could see bottlenecks in their workflow. 

That’s why the team at Jones Healthcare Group worked closely with automation manufacturers, centralized fulfillment centers and pharmacy chains to analyze every step of the blister pack sealing process when designing its flagship unit-dose pack, the FlexRx™ One.

“Wherever and whenever we can, we are at central fill locations understanding their workflow. Through our collaboration with these pharmacies, we found ways to reduce time and motion to seal packaging, while ensuring the process is easy and repeatable,” says Sead Ferhatovic, Director, Product Management at Jones Healthcare. “The result: we developed a product that takes half the time to seal compared to other solutions.”

Ferhatovic notes there are four key features of the FlexRx™ One that improve sealing speed and repeatability:

1. Two-sided printable label

The FlexRx One includes two pieces – a blister and a label. Pharmacies can print directly on both sides of this label. This means there is no need to print and apply additional labels to the pack like other unit-dose solutions, saving time. Both sides of the label provide more space for branding and patient information, with easy-to-follow calendar numbers on each time pass, improving usability. Read more >