BOISE, Idaho — Picking up prescriptions is getting easier for St. Luke’s patients, thanks to a growing network of automated medication lockers located at WinCo and other locations.
The high-tech lockers allow patients and hospital staff to skip the line and pick up their prescriptions quickly and securely.
“This is called a medication locker, which is a will-call that is automated,” said Steven Nadler, Senior Director of the Outpatient Pharmacy for St. Luke’s Health System. “Prescriptions are prepared and fulfilled in the pharmacy just like they normally are, and then they're delivered here for pickup.”
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Patients receive a text or email when their medications are ready. They then scan a code, confirm their birthdate, and retrieve their prescriptions in under 30 seconds.
“You don’t have to be the eighth person in line and wait,” Nadler said. “Nobody has 20, 30 minutes in their day. We’ve got kids, we’ve got other things going on. So this is just a more convenient way to do it.”
The lockers are already installed at six WinCo stores as part of a partnership between the grocery chain and St. Luke’s.
“WinCo is the low-cost leader for groceries, but they're not in the pharmacy business,” Nadler said. “So we kind of approached them and came up with an idea of like, what about if we brought a pharmacy to you?”
Morgan, a WinCo shopper, said she hasn’t used the lockers yet — but would consider it.
“I think they sound great. It would definitely help with reducing the lines and be easy to just go in and out and grab something,” she said.
The lockers include bins for both room-temperature and refrigerated medications, which are sealed in tamper-proof bags. Each pickup is monitored by fisheye cameras for added safety and accountability.
“It’s just like you would normally pick up at the counter,” Nadler said. “But you don’t have to wait for the pharmacy technician or the pharmacist.”
St. Luke’s says each locker can be expanded to hold up to 300 bins, making the system scalable as demand grows.
If you’re interested in using one, ask your St. Luke’s pharmacy team to have your prescriptions delivered to a locker near you.
