Pharmacy Process Map Paper

Introduction
In this paper, I will develop a pharmacy process map and cover the following: SIPOC model, root causes, identify tools to be used and provide a solution to the pharmacy’s on-going problem.
Process Map Here are the key problems that a pharmacy may have could be transcribing what the physician wrote on the prescription. Next anther problem could be when the insurance company only pays for a generic version or they do not pay at all. Another problem could be the medication is filled with the wrong medication. The pharmacist could have made a mistake when confirming the medication.
SIPOC Model

Communication would be a common root cause because all it would take to resolve the problem would be a simple phone call to the
physician to have clarification on what the prescription is supposed to read. By contacting the provider you will help the patient and also the provider might receive the hint to write clearly so the pharmacy can read it. Staff and training would be another common root because a meeting with everyone that works in the pharmacy needs to understand that the pharmacy would not function without people working together. In this situation, you can have a simple meeting with the whole department to cover everyone’s job duties and responsibilities. According to an article that was published in 2005 by the Journal of Nursing Law states a known fact that 95% of pharmacists’ errors can be resolved when the pharmacist advises the patient on the medication facts (O'Donnell). When people are made aware what they are supposed to be doing and how everyone’s part affects the company will change the moral of the employees. Equipment and diagrams are special causes, which are matters that can be handled first and quickly. Equipment is causing errors, then you should fix it or replace it. If the pharmacy does not have a medication dispensing unit this will help with medication accuracy, theft, and inventory counts. Diagrams and pictures can help in the workflow for all employees. Also, help with medication verification, which the computer system provides a picture for the employees to confirm the correct medication for the prescription. By having a new system that can scan barcodes will help with ordering, inventory counts, theft, and sales reports.
Tools
A flowchart needs to be conducted so the process is documented and verified.
We cannot assume that everyone’s process is the same it can be a simple step in how things are being processed to create errors. Another benefit would be benchmarking which is knowing how your competitors do this process to verify of any differences that can cause a resolution. Then the SIPOC methods need to be conducted to verify who are all the players in the processing of a prescription. The SIPOC method will help show the suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs and customers. Run, control chart and Histogram chart would be advisable to record data to verify any trends in the process to help resolve any problems such as equipment malfunctioning or an employee making mistakes and etc. Tools that will help resolve common-cause variation would be the Pareto chart, Statistical Inference and Stratification charts. By using these charts will help isolate the problem further. Lastly, I would use an Experimental Design tool which will help by conducting practice runs of making the entire process. By doing this you can record everything that happens to review later and also to observe what processes are needed to be worked on. When you initiate any changes to the process, you will need to do added runs of this test to record the results for
interpretation.

Solution To resolve problems with inaccurate perceptions at the HMO pharmacy I would propose new equipment and diagrams.
By doing a system upgrade the system can scan copies of the prescription into the system so if any of the prescriptions obtain any damaged or not readable. An automated medication dispensing unit that will help accurately count and dispense the correct medication which will provide an extra step in verifying the correct medication. An article that was published in 2015 by Oldland, Golightly, May, Barber and Stolpman stated: “Pharmacy ADCs and BC systems provide complementary effects that improve technical accuracy and reduce the incidence of potential medication dispensing errors if this technology is used with comprehensive personal training.” The ADCs are automatic dispensing cabinets and BC is barcode. The system will also provide images and detail information for the pharmacies when they are verifying that the medication is correct. Which also keeps track of which employee imputed the prescription to the final stage when the pharmacy verifies the medication. If the system was connected to the internet then maybe there was a way for the pharmacy to email the prescriber to verify the information on the prescription for any clarification. The tool that would be needed since this is a special cause would be the Problem Solving Framework tool. When the special cause is finished and you still have a problem, then you need to look at the common cause.
Which uses different tools to isolate the problems. In conclusion, we have covered the following: pharmacy process map. SIPOC model, root causes, identify tools that can be used to identify the pharmacy’s error when it comes to filling mediations. Also, I have provided a solution to help resolve the problem and a strategy to measure and document the results