Medicine dispensing vending machines could possibly be in the future of Falcon Health Center.

For college students, the struggle of both managing time and getting around can be overwhelming. Most recently, universities are recognizing the time and transportation limits and making adjustments that make life for their scholars

much easier.

More specifically, Arizona State University closed down their Tempe Health Center and installed a prescription drug vending machine causing the process for students to pick up their medication to be both quick and convenient. Upon receiving a prescription from an ASU physician, the patient receives a voucher with a bar code that will also be picked up by an Insty-Meds machine, allowing them to then conveniently scan the form at the machine and gain access to their

prescribed medicine.

While this may seem to be a concern to some, safety is an important concern for both the university and the makers of the Insty-Meds machine, said Associate Director of ASU Health Services Christiana Moore.

“All medications are prescribed by our own ASU physicians with pre-packaged pill bottles and are triple checked for safety before dispensing. There are no narcotic or habit-forming medications in the machine for dispensing and there are three separate checks that have been built into the process of dispensing medication through Insty-Meds to ensure accuracy,” Moore said.

ASU is the first university in the United States to install the Insty-Meds vending machine.

Due to the fact that the university just opened its newly built Falcon Health Center-Pharmacy in August of last year, that there are no talks of adding a medicine dispensing vending machine to the Falcon Health Center at this current time said Director of Community and Business Outreach for Wood County Hospital and the Falcon Health Center, Deb Busdecker.

With our world of increasing technology, the idea of the Falcon Health Center installing such machine in the future is not completely out of question.

“We have not had any discussion about anything like that right now but anything is possible,” Busdecker said.

Many people, including university student and President of the university’s American Medical Student Association Amber Gombash, believe it would definitely be useful if it were to on the university’s campus in

the future.

“I do not think this is a good idea, yet. But I would use it, and I am sure other students would, too. Gombash said.

Busdecker thinks the change would be beneficial for students.

“I think students would like it due to the fact that it saves time and would be put to good use. Students love everything that has something to do with technology,” Busdecker said.