Jordan Valley first pharmacy in state with Rx dispenser

Last edited 10:50 a.m., Aug. 18, 2025 [Editor's note: The name of the organization and its CEO have been corrected.]

There’s a new addition this month to the Jordan Valley Community Health Center Tampa Street Clinic. In a central hallway stands an unassuming gray cabinet with a video screen, a telephone receiver and 34 small doors. It’s like something you might see in an apartment building lobby, where residents pick up packages, or in retail and restaurant outlets, like Lowe’s or Little Caesar’s, where customers enter a code to gain access to their order.

The technology is called an ADS – automated dispensing system – and what’s behind the doors are prescriptions prepared for patients by Jordan Valley’s in-house pharmacy.

The patient receives a text notification that a prescription is ready, plus a unique code linked to that prescription. They enter the six-digit code at the ADS (a QR code is another option for access), and they are asked if they want to have a consultation with a pharmacist via the video screen and attached phone. If the answer is yes, the prescription remains locked until the consult is complete; if it’s no, a door pops open and the patient can grab the prescription and go. Meanwhile, they receive another text message, verifying that their meds have been picked up – a protection against misuse.

The iLocalBox website notes the technology is connected to a cloud platform that allows connection to a pharmacy information system and enables live updates while protecting patient information.

Jordan Valley officials declined to disclose the cost of the system.

Two groups of patients are currently served by the ADS, which debuted Aug. 11 at the clinic, according to Ryan Kruger, a pharmacist who serves as Jordan Valley’s vice president of operations. They are Jordan Valley’s own employees, who can have almost all of their own prescriptions dispensed at the machine, as well as a small subset of patients – specifically, those who require clinically administered prescriptions, typically injectables, that they can retrieve and take directly to their health care provider.

The Missouri Board of Pharmacy requires that a pharmacist be available for consultation while the equipment is in use, so the device can only operate during its pharmacy’s open hours, according to Kruger.

Kruger said Jordan Valley is the first organization in Missouri to get the technology, manufactured by California-based iLocalBox, and in fact is the first organization to receive a Class O license, which allows automated dispensing systems for single pharmacies in nonhospital settings. This fact was confirmed in an email from Kimberly Grinston, the executive director of the Missouri Board of Pharmacy.

Missouri is the 13th state iLocalBox has expanded into.

“I didn’t realize that when we were going through the process – we were just trying to fill a need for our employees and for our clinic-administered drugs,” Kruger said.

He said figuring out problems is the Jordan Valley way, under the direction of its president and CEO, Dr. Matthew Stinson.

“The way to say yes is our challenge moving forward as an organization,” he said. “Dr. Stinson has challenged us to really say yes to whatever our patients need and in this case our employees as well.”

Kruger noted the first week of operation offers a chance to see the technology in action. It also offers a taste of the ways an ADS might serve more of Jordan Valley’s patients.

“There’s a bunch of wish lists. We’re trying to make it operational first,” he said.

So, how did he discover iLocalBox? Kruger did what the rest of us would do: He Googled.

“I’m a big fan of Lowe’s, so I looked at Lowe’s lockers, and I just did a Google search for pharmacy lockers and there were all kinds of companies that came up. This was one of two that were really dedicated to the pharmacy space.”

Kruger has been watching with interest in the ADS’s first week of use.

“We’ve got to work through all the kinks and make sure we’re providing a good product for employees and for our clinically administered patients,” he said.

Force multiplier
Pharmacy is like a lot of other fields looking for solutions to extend their people power. No one is surprised to see automation on a factory floor, but an ADS is a novelty in the Show Me State.

Technology like this, however, may become even more important as fewer people are becoming pharmacists. Joint research from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis found only 8,000 student pharmacists are expected to graduate in 2026. That’s about 60% of the number needed, according to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

The AACP reports a 64% decline in applications to pharmacy schools, from nearly 100,000 in 2012 to just under 36,000 in 2024.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a growth in employment by 5% from 2023 to 2033, with an estimated 14,200 openings per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – and the number of people joining the profession is not sufficient to meet the demand.

Kruger noted the ADS requires pharmacists to fill prescriptions and to provide the same consultations a patient would receive in a face-to-face setting. But the technology provides a few more options for places where pharmacists are scarce.

“It definitely could be a replacement for pharmacy deserts,” Kruger said. “As the pharmacist shortage continues, with stores closing, it makes the environment very challenging.”

Tom Mengwasser, a pharmacist with the independent Springfield-based Alps Pharmacy, has been observing as ADS technology has edged its way from the West Coast into the heartland.

“It’s a really interesting, neat concept, and it works great on a small scale,” he said. “I don’t see it replacing pharmacists or pharmacies; right now it’s more of a help to the pharmacies that are trying to use technology in a positive way.”

Pharmacists are the most accessible free health care workers there are, Mengwasser said.

“You don’t have to pay to come visit me; I’m captive in my box,” he said. “You can have me look at your ailments – I love to do that – but I don’t have appointments; I don’t get to say yes or no. We’re very busy, but very accessible to the public.”

But he noted pharmacists have become stressed, and pharmacies are not making money the way they once did. The No. 1 expense for any business is its employees, he noted, and any system that expands the reach of a pharmacist is beneficial.

Certain chains, notably CVS and Walgreens, are closing locations nationwide, and with pressures over reimbursement, that’s a trend that’s going to continue, Kruger said.

Kruger, who spent 29 years working for Walgreens, notes pharmacy closures can cause people to lose access to services. He gave the example of the closure of the Walgreens location on the southwest corner of Grand Street and Kansas Expressway.

“That puts some extra pressure on that community,” he said. “There are patients that were walking to that location or riding a bike or whatever. It makes it pretty challenging.”

High levels of product theft and pharmacist shortages are two factors that can lead chains to target stores for closure, he said.

“Basically, those hot corners may not be able to pay the rent any longer,” Kruger said.

That means a pharmacy desert may be located in a rural area that has difficulty attracting professionals, or it may be in a section of a larger city, like Springfield.

Jordan Valley has eight pharmacists on its staff and is looking to hire more, Kruger said. Additionally, for more than 11 years, the Tampa location has contracted with Walgreens, which has a location on-site and is not connected to the ADS.

Not every location has an outside pharmacy. Kruger said that’s a relationship that is important to the institution, and the lockers will never replace it. He added that Jordan Valley contracts with more than 100 pharmacies to serve its patients. This includes those who take advantage of the 340B drug pricing program, a federal initiative that lets low-income or uninsured patients buy prescription drugs at a discount from manufacturers.

For Jordan Valley’s pharmacy, Kruger said expansion of the ADS system is a possibility for more clinics, like those in Republic, Marshfield or Buffalo.

“We have 10 different clinic locations that could potentially say, ‘Hey, do we want to put a pharmacy in, or do we want to put lockers in?” he said.