Hopewell Hospital Case Study
Step 1: Receive medication order via written, telephone, or through hospital internet system. /Medical Tech, or Registered Pharmacist .5 Minute
Step 2: Verify and validate order with doctor or hospital. /Registered Pharmacist 1.3 Minute
Step 3: Check for duplicates, Patients allergic reaction history and current meds to insure no overlapping medications with adverse reactions. /Register Pharmacist 1.4 Minute
Step 4: Check drug availability/ Registered Pharmacist 1.0 Minute
Step 5: Prepare Prescription such as labels and bottle preparation/ Registered Pharmacist 3.2 Minute
Step 6: Store for pick up or delivery. /Registered Pharmacist .8 Minute
Step 7: Prepare charges write notes/comments as needed. Close pharmacy record on patient. /Registered Pharmacist not required. 1.5 Minute Total steps per prescription are seven steps taking an average of 9.7 minutes per prescription or 6.2 prescriptions per hour. At this rate, if 36 new prescriptions came in between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. with four pharmacists on duty the utilization of labor would be 36/(6.2 X 4) = 1.4 or 140% labor utilization. An alternative to this design and set up would be to have a specific person certain parts of the process. Similar to how a subway makes sandwiches tailored to the customers’ needs. With this type of process the amount of people trying to accomplish the same task on different prescriptions would no longer cause bottlenecking and confusion. It would also give a more specific time needed per prescription to the customer to avoid differing waiting times. This type of set up would help the pharmacy to stay organized and minimize the number of mistake prescriptions made. However, the disadvantage is that the pharmacy is limited to the number of people it can keep on at any given time. If a higher number of prescriptions comes in the processing level will need to be increased to keep up efficiency. Also due to the nature of this process the people near the end of the process may end
Step 2: Verify and validate order with doctor or hospital. /Registered Pharmacist 1.3 Minute
Step 3: Check for duplicates, Patients allergic reaction history and current meds to insure no overlapping medications with adverse reactions. /Register Pharmacist 1.4 Minute
Step 4: Check drug availability/ Registered Pharmacist 1.0 Minute
Step 5: Prepare Prescription such as labels and bottle preparation/ Registered Pharmacist 3.2 Minute
Step 6: Store for pick up or delivery. /Registered Pharmacist .8 Minute
Step 7: Prepare charges write notes/comments as needed. Close pharmacy record on patient. /Registered Pharmacist not required. 1.5 Minute Total steps per prescription are seven steps taking an average of 9.7 minutes per prescription or 6.2 prescriptions per hour. At this rate, if 36 new prescriptions came in between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. with four pharmacists on duty the utilization of labor would be 36/(6.2 X 4) = 1.4 or 140% labor utilization. An alternative to this design and set up would be to have a specific person certain parts of the process. Similar to how a subway makes sandwiches tailored to the customers’ needs. With this type of process the amount of people trying to accomplish the same task on different prescriptions would no longer cause bottlenecking and confusion. It would also give a more specific time needed per prescription to the customer to avoid differing waiting times. This type of set up would help the pharmacy to stay organized and minimize the number of mistake prescriptions made. However, the disadvantage is that the pharmacy is limited to the number of people it can keep on at any given time. If a higher number of prescriptions comes in the processing level will need to be increased to keep up efficiency. Also due to the nature of this process the people near the end of the process may end
References: Coller, D.A., Evans, I.R. (2011) OM3 student edition Mason, Ohio. Joe Sabatino