The summer season doubles the number of customers at Hanko pharmacy – an automated dispensing system is a great help at busy times

Hanko is Finland’s southernmost city and it is flooded with thousands of tourists every summer. The seaside streets get busy, as does Hanko pharmacy, with its number of customers doubling during the summer season. This year, to help the pharmacy cope with the busy season, the Iso-Fixu automated dispensing system from NewIcon is at hand.

At Hanko pharmacy, the number of customers is very different in the summer and winter. In the winter, they mainly serve local residents, while summer residents, boating tourists and other tourists attracted by numerous summer events increase the number of customers considerably.

“More than events, the weather has an effect on the flow of customers in our pharmacy. When the sun is out, people arrive on boats in the guest harbours and we have plenty of customers. The top items on our summer customers’ shopping lists vary from one year to the next; when there are plenty of wasps, people buy hydrocortisone tablets and when it’s a tough tick year, they look for repellents and tick tweezers,” says pharmacy owner Heikki Peura.

Before, all the medicines would not fit in the storage drawer in the summer

The Iso-Fixu automated dispensing system was installed in Hanko pharmacy at the end of March. The ADS allows employees to focus on customer service and helps manage the medicine store.

“Before, our challenge every summer was the amount of products we had to order in one go and how to fit everything in the storage drawer. We had to find various places for the medicine packages, and our pharmacists and technical staff spent a lot of time looking for packages and continuously filling the drawer. Thanks to Iso-Fixu, we no longer have this problem, and the ADS also knows the exact amounts of medicine we have in stock,” says Peura.

Hanko pharmacy has 11 permanent employees and summer workers. Employees have welcomed the new automated dispensing system.

“We were positively surprised at how easy it was to use the Iso-Fixu. Our summer workers have also learnt to use it quickly. Although our pharmacy gets very busy in the summer, we are happy to welcome the people, and now we have the ADS to help us cope with the crowds,” Peura says.