Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
by Dr Helen Fitzpatrick, Vasse Vets, WA
Cubex is an automated inventory management system that replaced our pharmacy. Instead of having a room with shelves, Cubex is literally a cabinet.
What’s good about it
Cubex allowed us to repurpose our previous pharmacy, which was an entire room, into another consult space. All our medications now fit into an area of around one metre by two metres. Every staff member has a manual log-in and a fingerprint log-in.
The cabinet houses all the medications in eight zones with separate drawers and individual dividers. A medication might be coded as drawer number one, section five. Medication can be requested through the practice management software or with the fingerprint reader on the front of the cabinet. Only the appropriate drawer will open so it provides better security and minimises the chance of getting the wrong medication. The drawers are set up so similar medications are separate from each other. When a drawer opens, only a small number of medications are available.
It makes inventory management easier and much more accurate. It’s also a great time saver as we don’t have to manually count everything. The system records batch numbers and expiry dates. You can set minimum and maximum amounts and generate purchase orders as required. There’s also an option to store refrigerated items which we may get in the future.
I don’t want to over-praise this piece of equipment but it’s the best thing we’ve ever bought!
What’s not so good
The one downside is that if you want to look at a label of something, the system is designed not to allow access. You have to request the medication before you can handle it. When setting it up, you have to keep in mind that similar medications are separated as much as possible.
