Managing the operations of multiple pharmacies is challenging—especially in regards to staffing.
Have you ever thought about the idea of an agile staffing model? A solution that, if implemented, makes each one of your locations and pharmacists more efficient by automatically balancing the workload company-wide? What if this model could reduce payroll costs without reducing customer service?
If you’ve ever dreamed of a staffing model of this nature (don't worry, it’s not that weird), you’re not alone. Pharmacy load balancing (or OutScripting®) is here, and it’s a gamechanger.
But how?
Let’s say you have 4 pharmacies, and we’ll name them pharmacy A, B, C and D. Locations A and B have 1 pharmacist each and process 100 prescriptions per day. Locations C and D process 500 prescriptions per day with 2 pharmacists at each location (250/RPh).
With pharmacy load balancing, pharmacists from locations A and B help verify prescriptions for locations C and D via remote-verification technology. As a result, each pharmacist verifies 200 prescriptions per day and fluctuations in volume are easily absorbed by sharing the workload, or load balancing.
Nearly ⅓ of patients report that the pharmacist looked too busy to speak with them about their personal medical concerns.
- Consumer Reports Annual Questionnaire 2014
But really, how?
Cloud-based “smart queues” allow pharmacists at multiple locations to assist with the verification workload. Technicians capture images of each prescription which are then automatically routed for verification to the first available pharmacist in your organization.
In 2014, full-time pharmacists devoted 49% of their time to patient care services associated with medication dispensing.
- National Pharmacist Workforce Study 2014
Pharmacy load balancing makes the pharmacist more accessible to patients without interrupting the operational workflow. When the pharmacist's time is freed up, they can focus on patient care, clinical activities and various revenue-generating tasks.
Wow.
With load balancing, peak volumes are automatically balanced between sites and the result is a more efficient staffing model which aligns prescription volumes evenly across all stores.