The staff of Pharmacy Purchasing & Products is proud to present the 13th annual State of Pharmacy Automation issue. Conceived in the spring of 2005 as a way for hospital pharmacy directors to gain insight in the market and benchmark against nationwide automation adoption, use, and satisfaction trends, the power of our aggregate data is more insightful than ever.

As the nature and structure of US health care has evolved over the last decade and a half, so too have the methods by which health care providers serve their patients. Competition among coalescing facilities has grown significantly in recent years, and as individual hospitals continue to merge and form systems, the power of combined resources is driving, and demanding, ever more advanced and comprehensive instruments, information systems, and services.

Knowledge does, indeed, enable strength to be directed where it is most needed, and this is where the real benefit of the State of Pharmacy Automation survey is realized. Pharmacy directors across the country, in hospitals ranging from 25 to 1000 beds, know only too well what many of their highest-level administrators may be missing: In order to compete in today’s health care market, pharmacy operations must be acknowledged as elemental to safe and effective patient care, and supported both financially and fundamentally.

The data described in the following pages, trending over multiple years and representing a well-refined survey methodology, can be used to compel your facility’s administration to continue supporting positive operational changes to pharmacy systems and processes. To download a PowerPoint slide package of this year’s State of Pharmacy Automation data for use in presentations or proposals to colleagues and administration, simply visit pppmag.com/slides.

Pairing the skill, education, and passion of a hospital pharmacist with cutting edge technology enhances patient care and reduces costs for today’s hospitals and health systems. To this end, we are very proud that 83% of hospital pharmacists use PP&P to directly influence automation and technology acquisitions.

We look forward to seeing how the rest of 2018 unfolds and what exciting challenges and positive outcomes will be unveiled in 2019.

All the best,

R. Mitchell Halvorsen

Publisher