Effect on Jobs
The prevailing belief would be that increased automation should decrease job availabilities leading to cuts in pharmacy staff. However, the situation in the late 1990's and early 2000's was such that pharmacies were understaffed and constantly looking for more employees even with introduction of automation (Chen et. all, 2007). A study preformed on a pharmacy and the activities of their staff was conducted before and after introduction of the ScriptPro SP-200. The results showed that with automation only reduced average prescription filling time from 8.17 minutes to 7.95 minutes with no significant increase in time spent with patients (Chen et. all, 2007). Thus the current situation demonstrated by this study shows the necessity of humans fulfilling the role of pharmacist for now.