The Arizona Board of Pharmacy has approved the use of the ScriptPro telepharmacy system to provide remote pharmacy services to El Pueblo Health Clinic near Tucson. This will be the first operation of its kind in Arizona. "The population served by the El  Pueblo Health Clinic faces linguistic, cultural, transportation, and economic barriers that can hinder access to health and pharmaceutical care," says Tony Felix, pharmacy director for El Rio Health Center.

El Pueblo is one of 14 satellite clinics for the El Rio Health Center, which serves Tucson and surrounding areas. The Health Center's ScriptPro robot will, in addition to dispensing for the main pharmacy, prepack convenient quantities of tablets and capsules into barcoded containers, which are sent to the clinic.

The clinic will transmit prescription orders electronically to the Health Center pharmacy, where they will be screened, approved, and released back to the clinic for dispensing. Pharmacy technicians at the clinic will use ScriptPro Telepharmacy scanning stations to select the prefilled containers and other packaged items, such as inhalers and creams, and label them with instruction for use. Every clinic patient will be counseled by a pharmacist over a video link integrated into the telepharmacy system.

"ScriptPro Telepharmacy is an accurate and systematic way to operate a remote pharmacy," says Mike Coughlin, president and CEO of ScriptPro. "The electronic documentation of images and authorizations provides a complete record of the process for each prescription."