Pharmacy Improvement System at Consumer Value Stores - Case Study Example

First Last Number 15 September Pharmacy Improvement System at CVS at CVS Existing pharmacy fulfillment process at CVS The existing pharmacy fulfillment process at CVS starts with drop off stage. During drop off, customers are required to state their respective pick up time, which is mostly after job. Customers who wish their scripts to be treated as urgent are also required to state that at this point. After declaring the script to be urgent, it is placed in the urgent box. Many customers drop off their scripts before work, during lunchtime and after work. After drop off, the next stage involves data entry. The scripts are taken from the boxes according to the indicated time by the tech fills all the required data into the pharmacy information system connected to the central database of CVS. The data entered at this stage include prescription, drug, customer, payment as well as insurance. The system then performs drug utilization review against previous customer history to determine drug appropriateness of the drug as well as to avoid causing any harm. In case of any problem, the system comes to a stop until reviewed by a pharmacist. The next stage in the fulfillment process is insurance check. The process of insurance check comes in after drug utilization review. The system performs insurance check, after any hard stop had been reviewed, to determine the payor. Following successful insurance check, the script goes to the production section. Under the production section, the required drugs for the script are counted by a certified pharmacy technician. Next the drugs are verified by a pharmacist to ascertain that the script has the right drugs, right quantities and the contained information is correct. After quality assurance, scripts are sealed in a bag and arranged in alphabetical order at the pick-up section, for customers to collect. Purpose and performance objectives The purpose and objective of CVS is to promote the health of customers by providing quality drugs according to the documented prescription in a timely manner. The purpose is derived from the organizational goals forming the basis of the sponsored research to identify problems and recommend possible changes and solutions to them. The problems identified in all five sections include unmanned drop off window, ineligible drop off and drug utilization review hard stop. Other problems included insurance check errors, insufficient inventory for filling the script during production stage as well as unpleasant customer surprises like unauthorized refills and unprocessed scripts forcing customers to walk away with a bad impression having lacked medicine. Waiting time at the pickup section was also long. Current order fulfillment process at CVS Following a thorough data collection and analysis to determine problems facing CVS, the pharmacy service improvement recommended a new order fulfillment process. The current order fulfillment process had some changes being made to the previous pharmacy fulfillment process aimed at improving the type of service offered to customers through reduction of waiting time for scripts. Figure 1: current order fulfillment process Looking at the research findings and analysis, it is clear that some of the identified problems do not have severe impacts on CVS performance and reputation; however, there are other sections that present major bottlenecks to CVS. For instance, data entry and pick-up sections registered major problems that affected service delivery as well as customer satisfaction. For data entry, the bottlenecks included restriction to refill, drug utilization review hard stop and insurance check. The problems experienced during data entry stage included customers dropping scripts that were ineligible for refilling. A tech had to contact the customer’s doctor for farther enquiry, and if the doctor denied it the script could not be refilled thereby causing disappointments upon pick-up time. Another problem associated with data entry entailed drug utilization review hard stop. Around 20% of the total number of scripts resulted to hard stops. However, most of the hard stop problems were easily resolved, without involving the doctor. In case of insurance check, around seventeen percent of the total scripts encountered a problem at this section. The problems were, however, easy to resolve as they entailed errors concerning the date of birth as well as change of either insurance or jobs. Other problems could only be resolved after making a phone call to either the customer or a doctor. Pick-up section also had major problems affecting the organization. Cases of unpleasant customer surprises were common due to unauthorized refills; some scripts had not been paid for by the insurance while other scripts were yet to be ready. Therefore, some customers had to walk away without the expected medicine, leading to a bad service impression. Fixing most of the problems consumed a lot of time causing delays. Thus, pick-up section presented a tough situation to the tech as they had to endure noise and insults from rude and frustrated customers. Changes to the older process The older pharmacy fulfillment process could have been better if a slight change to the sections and activities were made possible. For instance, it could be easier to avoid most if not all of the identified problems experienced during data entry process. The possible change appropriate for eliminating problems during data entry process is to merge the section with drop of. Another section that requires customer focused changes is the insurance check. It will be better if the insurance check section will come in immediately after drop off section. Initially, insurance check came in after drug utilization review. The three sections identified for changes require the presence and participation of the customer. There is some important information that will be easily accessed, verified and recorded from the customer. The other change will affect both drug utilization review and quality assurance. The two sections entail giving attention to the information provided before refilling the scripts with the required drugs. Drug utilization review, thus could be well handled if merged with quality assurance. In addition, it is necessary to replace script box with an online queue. The proposed changes to the existing pharmacy fulfillment process are will help in eliminating the present problems that CVS is experiencing. By merging data entry process with drop off process, the organization will be able to acquire the desired information from the customers face to face. It will be possible for organizational tech to enquire about the customers’ date of birth as well as finding out if he or she has changed jobs or insurance. This will save time and the cost of having to make phone calls during data entry. Other issues prompting a shift in the location of data entry section is to eliminate problems encountered during refill. It will be possible to inform customers about the state of their scripts, especially eligible ones. By informing customers about the state of their scripts, the organization will be able to eliminate the feeling of unpleasant surprises among the customers. No customer will return to collect his or her script if it is ineligible. They would have acquired the information thereby making arrangement on how to pay for them. In case of drug utilization hard stop, pharmacists will be able to inform customers about the desired health state and the appropriate drugs basing on both their previous prescriptions and current body weight. Also merging the insurance check section will also enable the tech to access the required information concerning insurance issues, as opposed to the existing process. It will become possible to share the current insurance information with the customer. This will prepare the customer to make payments for the prescription during pick- up time, in case the insurance is not in position to cover the cost. Implementing the changes will be in line with the organization’s goals. Since the identified problems cause unpleasant feeling among customers, it is in the interest of customers for the changes to be implemented. Many of the issues will be resolved while the customer is present as well as before the most critical stages of the process. The discussion as well as enquiries will boost the customers’ trust in the organization. Delays will also be eliminated in the process due to lack of information. The information acquired from the customers will help to ensure quality service delivery. Customers will be able to get the right prescription that guarantees their personal safety. The level of satisfaction to the organization among customers will, thus, increase. The increased trust will help in retaining existing customers against shifting to other organizations, leading to the desired growth of CVS. Figure 2: Improved order fulfillment process The recommended process of pharmacy fulfillment will require introduction of new concepts of Information technology. For instance the central database of CVS will require slight modification and application of new online virtual queues. Since CVS is a large organization serving customers from different locations, it will be Appropriate to incorporate software’s that will enable services and orders to be processed on either first come first serve or basing on urgency. Therefore, it will be appropriate to use Fastpass technology form Disney (Wendlandt). The software will support heavy queuing activities online as well as processing the desired data per a given customer within the shortest time. The other IT system that will best solve the current problems at CVS is the use of computerized alerting system for detecting drug-drug interaction during data entry and production stages. In addition, the use of an automated system of pharmacy carousel made up of bar codes for medication bins and scanners (Cheung 678). The technology will help access the relevant evidence based clinical information concerning customers. The system will also be able to make appropriate conclusion based on the derived information. It will also be possible to conduct proper documentation concerning both health status as well as payment history of the customer. In addition, customer service will tremendously improve while maintaining privacy on health matters of the customers. The system will reduce physical queues promoting ample time the organizational techs. Various drivers will be put in place to promote quality service delivery to customers. Also, existing practices will be improved to conform to the new fulfillment process. For instance, several mechanisms that seek to promote safety of customers will be enforced fully. All supervisors and other members of staff will be involved to ensure that the plan is fully operational. Implementation of the will bring customer satisfaction and reduce waiting time. This will reduce customer shift leading to full realization of the desired organizational growth. Works cited Cheung, Ka‐Chun, Marcel L. Bouvy, and Peter AGM De Smet. "Medication errors: the importance of safe dispensing." British journal of clinical pharmacology 67.6 (2009): 676-680. Wendlandt, Dan, David G. Andersen, and Adrian Perrig. "Fastpass: Providing first-packet delivery." (2006). Read More