The most commonly cited barrier for pharmacists to provide additional patient services is the lack of time in a busy practice. Indeed, within today’s practice environment of shrinking reimbursement and cost-containment efforts, staffing levels are typically kept at a minimum level in both community and hospital pharmacies. How then, can the pharmacist even think about spending more time educating patients much less conducting a thorough patient history or developing, implementing and monitoring a pharmaceutical care plan?
Once a decision to initiate or advance patient care services offered by the pharmacy has been made it is often beneficial to closely examine existing work activities of both pharmacists and technicians employed in the pharmacy. In many instances, re-engineering the pharmacy workflow and staffing methods will be necessary in order to free the pharmacist from tasks that can be performed by well trained and competent pharmacy technicians. The steps presented in this article are based upon a methodology originally described by the author in Rovers et al.1
Re-engineering for Patient Care
The first step in the re-engineering process is to evaluate each activity in the pharmacy currently performed by either pharmacists or technicians. Ideally, with the exception of the final check of a filled prescription, the primary goal should be to minimize the pharmacist’s time spent in product related activities. While the pharmacist is ultimately responsible for this aspect of pharmacy practice, there are numerous other tasks related to drug distribution and overall pharmacy operations that can be delegated to technicians thus freeing the pharmacist to interact with patients.
1 Rovers JP, et al. “A Practical Guide to Pharmaceutical Care.” American Pharmaceutical Association, Washington DC, 1998, pages 119-127.
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