Rise of the machines

Today I went on a road trip to Council, a small town just over 120 miles away from Boise, with one of the state pharmacy inspectors. We went to check out a small pilot project pharmacy that utilizes a remote dispensing machine (RDM) to help deliver pharmacy services to this small rural area.

This pharmacy is only manned by one pharmacy tech. She receives prescriptions and faxes them to a pharmacy in Weiser (a little over 50 miles away). There a pharmacist reviews the prescription and activates the program to allow the machine to dispense the medication. The RDM contains medications already to go in prescription bottles. The bottle drops out in the bottom of the machine (just like a candy vending machine). The tech then adds a patient-specific label to the bottle and contacts the pharmacist on a videophone to verify that the correct medication is dispensed by the machine. Patients are also able to receive counseling on the videophone as well.

In case a doctor prescribes something not stocked in the machine, the pharmacy in Weiser fills the prescription there and delivers it to the pharmacy in Council.

It's a little nuts to think about, but it makes it a little bit more convenient to patients who live there. If this program works, RDMs could pop up in other small towns in Idaho that also don't have a pharmacist.

Another state down

Seeing that Boise is just a little over 50 miles away from the Oregon border, I decided that this would be a good time to drive over and say I at least did it. I drove out to Ontario, which is just on the border, and had lunch.

I have now visited every state that covers the West Coast of the continuous 48 states and almost every state that borders Utah (I haven't been to Four Corners, so I can't say I've been to New Mexico).

I'm hoping to add another state this Spring by going to the APhA Annual Meeting in San Antonio.

50 years and still going

This weekend there was a celebration for my grandparents in Deer Valley. They are celebrating 50 years of marriage. That's an incredible accomplishment for anybody, especially these days.

I hope to reach that milestone someday. Unfortunately, right now it looks like that might be more in the next life. Who knows?

The halfway point...

I've reached the halfway point of my adventure in Boise. This last week was pretty fun with having my preceptor actually in the office. Mark has been out of town quite a bit. He just got back from Chicago and he's heading out to Florida this next week.

I helped get the packet of information ready for the board of pharmacy meeting coming up a week from Wednesday. That included finished my presentation that I'm giving to the Board. It's the quickest I've had to put together a presentation while on rotation. It's nice to have it done.

This next week I'll be attending a workshop with DEQ on proper medication disposal (DEQ is the state equivalent of the EPA). I'll also be joining one of the state inspectors on a few site visits in Meridian.

And another road trip...

This weekend was another long weekend for me. (Thank you, Christopher Columbus!) I ended up heading back to Utah to attend my brother's mission farewell. My youngest brother, Mike, is heading to the Calgary Canada mission. We were able to hang out before I had to come back to Boise. It was great. I wish him the best of luck and hope that he stays warm seeing he'll be getting to Alberta right as winter starts.

Research, research, and then a field trip. . .

The last couple weeks I've been researching the pharmacy rules and regulations in the other states. I've been looking into compounding and working on a presentation on my findings to the Board of Pharmacy in a few weeks. Seeing it's been my only task for the most part, it's been getting kinda boring.

Fortunately, tomorrow I get to go with one of the inspectors to a couple pharmacies. These will be my first inspections ever since starting in pharmacy. It will be interesting to be on the inspector side first instead of being the inspected.

My new favorite junk food

Today, while exploring downtown Boise, I went into the Tater store next to Tourist Information. The potato-growing geniuses up here have created a new tasty treat. They have taken potato chips and covered them in chocolate.

There may be a few skeptics out there. This intrigued me, so I bought some and tried them out. They are very good. It's like eating a chocolate-covered wafer/Kit-Kat but with a little bit of a salty taste to it, just like eating chocolate-covered pretzels.

These aren't available in regular stores, but I recommend either the next time you're in Idaho to get some, or the next time you have a chocolate fountain to include potato chips in your group of dipping stuff.

ps. To my siblings: I'll be bringing some back with me for Mike's farewell.