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5 Innovative Ways to Improve Pharmacy Workflow

Posted by Robert Walthall on Wed, Mar, 11, 2015 @ 08:00 AM

shutterstock_185396951Making your pharmacy as efficient as possible is important your success – and to your patients. When you are more efficient, you save time and increase net profit. Alternatively, if you think you don't need more profit, you can add services with that saved time that will be of benefit to your patients or even give you more free time outside of work.

Because of that, it's important to make your pharmacy workflow as efficient as possible.

5 innovative ways to improve pharmacy workflow

  • Erect a "privacy wall" with point of sale bagging area

Of course you want to be available to patients when the need to, but it's also important to work as quickly as possible. For that, you need privacy.

A privacy wall with a point of sale bagging area gives you everything you need. It improves pharmacy workflow by providing privacy of blocking you from patients' view so that they can't see or hear what you're doing . That gives you the ability to concentrate on what you're doing, without fear of interruption. It also allows you and your employees to talk to each other out of patients' earshot so that your discussions do not violate HIPAA privacy regulations.

  • Give technicians separate, private filling stations…

… and let them do their jobs; don't do those jobs for them. When you function as a technician, you are wasting valuable time when you could be managing your own tasks. Instead, maximize your return on investment and efficiency without sacrificing accuracy.

Tech filling stations should:

  • Be free of clutter
  • Utilize headsets instead of phones
  • Have ample horizontal counter space
  • Have prescription bags rather than trays, and
  • Have close, easy access to robotics to reduce the amount of steps needed for the job 

-- with everything streamlined for efficiency.

  • Make good use of IVR technology

Interactive voice response (IVR) minimizes the amount of time personnel have to spend on the phone and robotics can help technicians work more accurately and quickly. The time saved can be used on consulting, and on one-on-one patient counseling and attention for services such as medication therapy management and vaccinations.

  • Organize for efficiency, security, and to compliance with industry guidelines

Tech stations should be customized for each technician. Touchscreen computers should hold color-coded prescription bags, and small foot-print carousels should hold most of the inventory not contained in the robot so that less efficient and out of date metal fixtures need not be used.

Tech stations should also have drawers for purses within hand reach but out of sight of other employees and patients. These drawers may also hold tickets and auxiliary labels.

Special drawers at tech stations should also keep already used labels off counters to avoid mistakes, clutter, and potential HIPAA of violations.

The pharmacist's workstation should also contain a large horizontal countertop surface, with touchscreen computer and counting tray kept off the counter.

  • Utilize private and semiprivate areas for patient counseling, and minimize patient contact as necessary

While you don't want to be inaccessible to your patients, it may not always be necessary to be in more than peripheral contact with them. Therefore, you should have two areas, one private and one semiprivate, available for patient counseling as needed, but dispense with the "need" to talk extensively to every patient who comes into the pharmacy. Keeping contact to a minimum whenever possible will help improve accuracy and make you more efficient, too.

If you're not as efficient or as profitable as you could be, these simple but innovative ways to improve pharmacy workflow can streamline your operation, and make your job and your technicians' jobs easier.

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Topics: pharmacy workflow

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