There are five processes that occur during a prescription refill.
Drop Off – This is when a customer gives the script the tech which will be placed the in a time slot that corresponds to the time the customer will be back to pick it up.
Data Entry – This is when the tech will enter all required data about the customer and the prescription. Example: Customer info, Payment, insurance information etc. * Drug utilization review (DUR) – This station is to check to see if this drug is safe for the patient. It searches for all other drugs the customer may be taking and if they are ok to take together. It also will assess if this drug is ok to take based on the age, sex and other characteristics of the patient. * Insurance Check – After the DUR is complete and any hard stops were reviewed then the system performed an insurance check.
Production - This is when the drugs are counted and verified by a certified tech.
Quality Assurance – Everything is reviewed and approved by a Tech
Pick up – The finished prescription was sealed in a bag waiting to be picked up
The Problem – Customers are unhappy at the pick-up window when they cannot get their script filled do to a number of unresolved issues during the data entry stations.
The Solution – It seems that there will always be issues in the process that will not be resolved before the customer comes back to pick up their script. Rather than having one line for pick up I would have two lines. One is for the customers that had no issues during the fulfillment and can just pay the co pay and leave. The Other line will be for people that need to go into further detail about their script that could not be completed. This will speed up the process of the pick-up widow. I would have this station available only during 2- 5pm considering that the most high traffic times are
On an eight hour shift a tech will deal with 80 customers and 40% have problems that the tech feels they are not