Prescription Drug Vending Machine Makes Illinois Debut (VIDEO)

A suburban Chicago hospital will be the first in the state to host a new vending machine that offers 24-hour access to prescription drugs.

The vending machine, developed by Minneapolis-based InstyMeds, is stocked with drugs commonly used in emergency rooms, the Associated Press reports. ER doctors enter prescription information electronically and the machine determines the patients' insurance information, including co-pays. Payments can be made with a debit or credit card and medications are dispensed automatically.

The new InstyMeds distribution service at MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island adds Illinois to a list of 30 states already using the service, NBC Chicago reports.

The service is intended to help patients get their medication as soon as they're released from the ER, without having to search for a pharmacy at all hours, ABC7 reports.

See coverage of Iowa's first InstyMeds in August:

Comments

[Bude]

10:58 AM on 09/15/2011

Drive up service too? Where can I sign up?

[Terrible Towel]

01:40 PM on 09/14/2011

The CDH Urgent care center has had this machine for over a year now, maybe even 2. This isn't a debut.

[Reality now]

09:55 AM on 09/14/2011

First step to eliminating the cost of Pharmacists. Didn't care when others lost their jobs because you were further up the food chain?...think again.

[Xattix]

01:40 AM on 09/14/2011

Probably a good idea in communities where access to 24 hour pharmacies is limited. A con would be that interactions with regular medications may not be caught if a script is not filled at a patient's regular pharmacy or regular chain. Also, scripts are entered by the ER doctors. What does the machine do when the MD writes the script incorrectly?

[JJaycee]

07:00 PM on 09/14/2011

That's exactly correct. Pharmacists have an integral role in keeping patients safe. This will bypass another check that could save the patients' lives.

[Hildagard Witherspoon]

07:43 PM on 09/15/2011

I don't know why you fanned me, so I peeked at your comments and liked your views, so Fanned back. : )

[onwisconsin]

01:30 PM on 09/13/2011

This is a good idea, if it remains in a safeguarded location to which access is restricted. I've had to fill prescriptions after having been in the ER. What usually happens is that it takes an extra hour or so. We never seem to have to go to the ER in the middle of the day either.

[mikey09]

01:22 PM on 09/13/2011

Wow....I like that...wish they had that when my kids were young....those 2am fever spikes that sent us to the ER and back then very few all night pharmacies....had to wait for am to get their medicine....now parents with sick kids don't have to wrry abt dragging them around to find a store open in the middle of the night....bet it gets expanded and HOPE, its not something the theives will try an break into.

[rigormrtis]

12:08 PM on 09/13/2011

You actually have my father to thank for this.

[David Momper]

12:31 PM on 09/13/2011

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.