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Medicine From a Vending Machine? Advocate Health Care Installs Devices in Chicago

In recent weeks, Advocate Health Care installed two vending machines at Advocate Trinity Hospital, Calumet Heights, and Advocate Medical Group's Imani Village clinic, Pullman, dispensing prescription medications for patients after appointments or discharge.
Advocate decided to act after patients and doctors reported trouble obtaining medications in South Side pharmacy deserts, Blakely said, addressing long-standing health disparities.
The machines are stocked with medications for flu, bacterial infections, gastrointestinal issues, heart disease, high blood pressure and asthma, and patients can pick up prescriptions after appointments or discharge.
If machines reach two or three people a day, advocates say it could keep patients at risk of readmission out of hospitals, but Garth Reynolds of the Illinois Pharmacists Association said onsite pharmacists are preferable.
A third machine is slated for Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest late this year, part of Advocate's $1 billion plan to overhaul South Side health care.

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Medicine from a vending machine? Devices installed in Chicago

CHICAGO — Most patients don’t expect to be sent to a vending machine immediately after a doctor’s appointment or a hospital stay. But there are two new vending machines in Chicago that dole out prescription medications — not snacks — at Advocate Trinity Hospital and Advocate Medical Group’s Imani Village clinic. The machines are stocked with common medicines — such as those to treat flu, bacterial infections and gastrointestinal issues — as well…

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