The BoxPicker is part of our closed loop system.

“What excites me most about Humber is the atmosphere of being at a digital Hospital. Our pharmacy has a closed loop system: a physician or nurse practitioner enters an order for medication, a pharmacist verifies it, our PillPick and BoxPicker robots dispense and package the medication, and then it’s taken straight to the nurse by an Automated Guided Vehicle or a Pneumatic Tube – all in 30 minutes! Everything is tracked and everything is precise. We can look up a patient 10 years after they were prescribed something and know which medications they were given, including the batch and lot.” – Bhupinder Nijjer, Automation Supervisor, Pharmacy

Anna Piro with the PillPick

“I love working in the Pharmacy Department because even though we are behind the scenes, we are an integral part of the Hospital. I work hand-in-hand with our pharmacists to provide medication to our many clinics, our emergency crash carts, and to the teams who care directly for our inpatients. It is so important that our patients receive medication that is correct and safe. Automation like the Swisslog PillPick behind me helps us reduce errors, and provides safety and traceability with our drugs. I really enjoy training new staff, because your training sticks with you!” – Anna Piro, Pharmacy Technician

Jennifer Singh makes TPN

“I’m making TPN, which stands for total parenteral nutrition. This is the nutrition that patients receive intravenously (through their veins). We have a large volume of patients who can’t eat, and without IV’s they wouldn’t be able to survive. I’m really proud of the work we do. We have a fantastic team. It’s very important to do everything correctly, so we all go through rigorous training to keep our patients safe. We follow the highest sterility standards, and Humber River Hospital actually has one of the best sterile rooms in Canada.” – Jennifer Singh, Pharmacy Technician

Vicki Lau uses the fluid dose machine

“This is the fluid dose machine. It’s a small robot that packages liquid medication into smaller cups. I also get to work with automation machines like the Pill Pick and Box Pick. These innovations are such an exciting step forward – it’s pretty much why I chose to work at Humber! I like learning new things and the technological advances in pharmacy are amazing” – Vicki Lau, Pharmacy Technician

An Automated Guided Vehicle

Automated Guided Vehicles s are an important part of the automation that takes place in our Pharmacy Department. Click here to learn more or watch the video below where Bhupinder Nijjer, the Automation Supervisor, calls an Automated Guided Vehicles for a medication delivery: