Amazon Pharmacy has launched same-day delivery of prescription medication in New York City and the greater Los Angeles area, with plans to expand the service to more than a dozen US cities by the end of the year.
The company is using small-format facilities, stocked with the most common prescription medications for acute conditions, to get medications closer to where customers live.
For example, Amazon Pharmacy’s new small-format facility in Brooklyn carries a subset of the more than 12,000 medications available from Amazon.com, with a focus on supporting urgent-care needs. The pharmacist and fulfillment team at the site can process a prescription within a matter of minutes rather than hours or days.
Medications will be delivered in the most appropriate way depending on the customer’s location – in Manhattan, delivery workers riding e-bikes may drop off medications at a customer’s door, while in College Station in Texas, drones may be used to fly medications to a customer in less than an hour. In greater Los Angeles and other suburban areas, Rivian all-electric vans or other commercial vehicles may make their way to customers’ doors.
“By bringing Amazon Pharmacy’s deliveries into our existing world-class logistics network, Amazon is building the fastest and most convenient service for the home delivery of prescription medications,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. “These faster delivery speeds will be a game changer when you or your family need your medications quickly.”
Generative AI
Amazon Pharmacy’s same-day delivery service is using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help pharmacists fill prescriptions more quickly and accurately. For example, when handwritten or online prescriptions come in, Amazon’s AI models undertake a series of fact-checking tasks that help ensure pharmacists receive clear and accurate information.
AI can streamline prep work and reduce administrative errors, according to Kelvin Downes, director of fulfillment for Amazon Pharmacy: “AI doesn’t replace the role of the pharmacist; it allows them to operate at the top of their license. Rather than doing duplicative work, pharmacists can use the skills they went to school for to deliver better patient experiences.”
According to Downes, no prescription leaves a fulfillment center without a pharmacist having verified that it includes the right medicine, strength, dosage, quantity and address label.
Fulfillment center
To support prescription medication drone delivery, Amazon Pharmacy and Prime Air co-created a new fulfillment process to ensure hyper-fast delivery. The pharmacy and fulfillment center are connected, enabling the pharmacy team to clinically evaluate a new prescription, dispense the medication, and hand over a single package for a drone to swiftly deliver.
“We built out a new fulfillment system by integrating a fully licensed pharmacy into existing logistics operations and smaller sites,” Downes said. “Prescription medication processing time is shrinking with AI on the back end and automation and new micromobility technologies on the front end.”
To discover more about the Amazon Pharmacy same-day delivery service, click here.