LAKE FOREST, Ill. – A study by pharmacy automation provider Kirby Lester LLC found that 97% of its KL60 and KL100 pharmacy robot users reported their device improved their pharmacy’s operations.

The company said Tuesday that the July 2014 Kirby Lester Robotics User Satisfaction study — including retail and outpatient pharmacies across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada using the KL60 or KL100 robot — showed that the robotic dispensers dramatically boosted efficiency and led to a positive return on investment.

Users reported that their Kirby Lester robot directly enabled pharmacy management to leverage their staff pharmacists and technicians to focus on key initiatives such as medication adherence, health screenings, immunizations, process improvement and customer care.

Among the Kirby Lester Robotics User Study’s findings, 92% of respondents said that the Kirby Lester robot significantly reduced time and stress during Pharmacist Check, and 85% indicated that the robot saved five to 10 hours per week in technician labor alone.

Also, 78% of those surveyed said the Kirby Lester robot enabled their pharmacy to increase or expand business, and 74% reported that the robot enabled the pharmacy to increase prescription volume without adding additional staff.

The study, too, showed that 85% of pharmacies processing as few as 150 to 200 prescriptions daily would reach positive ROI with a Kirby Lester robot.

Kirby Lester entered the pharmacy robot market with the KL60 in 2010 and the KL100 in 2013. The company noted that its move into that market segment reflected the fact that the current selection of robots were priced and sized out of reach for most community pharmacies.

“The old rule of thumb stated that an ROI for a pharmacy robot was at 300 or more prescriptions per day. But that was before Kirby Lester brought out the first compact, actually affordable robot in 2010. The KL60 changed the model, completely,” stated Christopher Thomsen, Kirby Lester’s vice president of business development. “Today, our customers engage in serious discussions about robot ROI much earlier. They realize that if they can reduce prescription production labor, they can then reallocate their staff and those hours to MTM, medication synchronization and other patient-focused and higher-margin projects.”