Abstract: A pharmacy post office receives prescriptions and produces through an automated pill dispensing and packaging system machine-sortable pharmacy letters that are sortable by automated mail sorting machines into postal delivery routes and delivered as first class or priority mail pieces by the postal delivery persons along their customary routes. A track and trace system may provide a delivery schedule to the patient and/or prescribing doctor based on the time of day the pharmacy letter is provided to the automated mail sorting machines. When a pharmacy letter is delivered by the postal delivery person, he or she scans the tracking code and transmits information back to the track and trace system, which then updates its delivery schedule to show the completed delivery.

Abstract: A pharmacy post office receives prescriptions and produces through an automated pill dispensing and packaging system, pharmacy letters that are sorted and delivered as first class or priority mail pieces. The system packages the prescription medication in carriers that are sized to fit into mail sorting machines that sort the first class or priority mail pieces by postal delivery routes. The pharmacy letters include patient mailing address information such that the pharmacy letters are then fed to the mail sorting machines and sorted along with the first class or priority mail pieces for delivery by the postal delivery persons along their customary routes. The system includes a robotic subsystem that dispenses the medication from pill canisters supplied by the drug companies and provides the pills to an automated packaging system.