...Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS Business Seminar Case Study Bethany Odom, Katie Tewell, Kelly Snider, Brad Lowe Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………….3 Day-to-Day Operations Diagram……………………………….4 Drop Off………………………………………………………..5 Data Entry………………………………………………………7 Production………………………………………………………10 Quality Assurance………………………………………………12 Pick-Up…………………………………………………………12 Pharmacy Additions……………………………………………14 Our Future………………………………………………………15 Works Cited…………………………………………………….16 2 Introduction The current system in a CVS pharmacy allows customers to quickly drop off their prescriptions whenever convenient for them, the pharmacists and technicians to fill the scripts near the time the customer would like to pick them up, and customers to return to the store to pick up their medications at the specified time. However, this system creates long lines and angry customers during busy pick-up times, such as around the evening meal, when the typical work day concludes. We would like to implement a system that focuses on the day’s procedures and alters the drop-off, data entry, and production steps, therefore ideally reducing the number of problems that occur and must be resolved during the pick-up stage. With some additional changes made to the pick-up procedure, we feel CVS will be able to better their customer service and increase customer satisfaction while keeping the safety of its shoppers the company’s number one priority. The following page presents a data...
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...REV: OCTOBER 20, 2006 Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A) Flum looked at Betses. “You told us it was bad, but this bad?” “I told you there were service issues in our pharmacies. But I have to admit, even I didn’t know the whole story.” “So what do we do about it?” “Well, we can’t have 67 solutions for the 67 problems we identified,” Roberts said. “Definitely not,” Grossi agreed. “But do you have an idea what we should do? If you erased that whiteboard and grabbed a pen, could you draw the ‘right’ flow chart for pharmacy operations?” “Actually, I think I could come pretty close. And I think my flow chart would look a lot like both of yours. I’m just not sure which parts of it would be easy to implement and which would be tricky. Mitch, you know these places better than anyone—what kinds of changes would make them really unhappy?” “Anything affecting safety. Everyone—not just the pharmacists—is a fanatic about making sure we fill prescriptions accurately and watch out for the health of our customers. So for example if we said, ‘In the interests of efficiency we want to have the system spit out fewer alerts about drug-drug interactions,’ we would get killed. The pharmacists would march us right out the front door of their stores and tell us never to come back. And I wouldn’t blame them.” Do “Got it. What else?” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor Andrew F. McAfee prepared...
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... GENE ALEC SUNGA Group 3 I. PROBLEM STATEMENT a. What can Consumer Value Store do to improve their customer service so that customer complaint can be avoided or at least be lessened? b. How will the company be able to motivate their employees in terms of their work output? II. OBJECTIVES a) To be able to identify the problems that usually occur during the drop-off stage. b) To be able to come up with solutions that can help improve customer service. c) To determine the pros and cons of system upgrade to help minimize errors in data entry. III. STATEMENT OF FACTS a) CVS had 29.5 million pharmacy members at the start of 2000 and a revenue of $20 billion. b) In the year 2002, CVS was one of America’s largest retail drugstores, with over 4,000 stores and revenue of $24.2 billion. c) An estimated of 10.9 million infrequent customers left in 2000. d) In 2000 the company was able to attract 8.5 million new regular members e) Heavy users filled an average of 40 scripts a year and were most likely to leave because of poor service. f) Light users filled an average of 5 scripts per year. IV. ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION a) Hire part-time employees to work during the peak hours where majority of the...
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...Case Write-up #1: Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS After reading the two articles by Ramias and Wilkins on Performance Metrics, what metrics, if any would you identify that are essential to managing the prescription fulfillment process at CVS. Ramias and Wilkens’ state that the starting point in developing metrics is to understand the expectation of the customer. Upon review of the data compiled by the PSI team, customers expect accuracy and timeliness. Therefore, most of the metrics developed below focus on measuring the two expectations and, I believe, are essential to managing the prescription fulfillment process at CVS. 1. Processing time – prescriptions filled per unit of time. A major customer complaint was time – either waiting too long in line, waiting for their prescription after the pick-up time, etc. 2. Number of prescriptions filled per day and median processing time. Again, this metric will help identify peak time periods, staffing needs, and eliminate waiting times by customers. This would also help to measure accuracy. If prescriptions are constantly wrong and the customer has to wait to correct them, the processing time will be higher than expected. 3. Hourly volume and median processing time. This metric would measure the volume of prescriptions filled per hour, the percentage of prescriptions filled in under the target number of minutes, and the median time to fill them per hour. Because heavy users cited service as their number...
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...retail drugstores with over 4,000 stores and $24.2 billion in revenue. Over two-thirds of the company’s revenue was generated by their pharmacies. Despite the company’s size and success, the company was facing a serious issue regarding the service at their pharmacies as they had many customers who were unhappy with the service they received. To combat these problems, CVS developed a Pharmacy Service Improvement (PSI) team to evaluate and redesign pharmacy operations at CVS retail locations. II. PSI Opportunity In 2000, 7.2 million regular pharmacy customers left CVS taking with them 55 million annual prescriptions that could have increased revenue by $2.5 billion. It is estimated that if the PSI team can develop a better fulfillment operations system they could prevent 60-90% of customer defections. Additionally, through the PSI’s preliminary research they have found that 44% of heavy users switch due to the poor service they receive. The loss of heavy users is significant because they bring in continuous revenue streams In addition to simple customer happiness, through the PSI program the CVS team has the opportunity to make the people working at the CVS pharmacies happier, especially those working at the pickup window. These groups of employees must handle the continuously angry customers who are dissatisfied with their service. It is known that this job is so difficult that many of these techs leave after less than one year on the job. Thus, requiring CVS to...
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...Total Quality Management in Hospital Pharmacy Introduction Hospital pharmacies in the present day context face various issues including cost containment, productivity and leadership, patient safety, medical-legal and ethical considerations, human resource management and application of new technological developments in the functioning of the pharmacies. The pharmacists employed by the hospitals are expected to attend to a number of different functions that include writing down therapy management plans and desired patient outcomes, monitoring the drug-based therapies, educating patients and counseling them and writing medication histories. Despite these many different functions being discharged by the pharmacists, hospitals find it difficult to recruit pharmacists (Smith). At the same time many of the hospitals take initiatives like staff reductions due to lower patient concentration, reorganization of the hospital facilities, carrying out recommendations of external consultants, implementing automation in drug distribution and mergers and acquisitions of hospitals. In this context, a methodological review of the operations of a hospital becomes necessary for improving the efficiency and functioning of the healthcare settings. One of the recommendations is to apply Total Quality Management (TQM) for improving the performance of pharmacies in the hospitals. Although TQM has been practiced in manufacturing industries for quite some time, it is relatively a newer concept in...
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...Introduction There is an increasing need for better management of Long Term Conditions (LTC) within Primary Health Care (PHC) that requires practice development processes and adaption to models of care that are person centred. Within my clinical setting implementation of a pilot scheme is underway with a common vision to work alongside the accompanying community pharmacy for better sharing of knowledge and information to enable optimum care for our mutually registered LTC patients. Analysis of evidence based practice, facilitation of roles and responsibilities, and appropriate health care frameworks will support how a plan is being developed that reflects nursing management and integrated service collaboration towards best health outcomes. Important to note that throughout this essay, reference will be made to Long Term Conditions, Chronic Conditions and Chronic diseases, these terms all relate to the same context. Evidence Mismanagement of chronic conditions is the leading cause of hospitalisations in New Zealand (NZ) (National Health Committee, 2007). The mantra ‘better, sooner, more convenient’ targets the role that primary health care in NZ must assume in order to reduce acute hospital admissions, through better management of patients with chronic conditions and, active support of high needs populations (Ministry of Health, 2011). The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2005) define long term / chronic conditions as having one or more of the following descriptions...
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...The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust Introduction: The pharmacy department of the Ipswich hospital recognised that the process of their operations is not at the desired level of quality. That is when they decided to take action and sent their staff on a one-day course on ‘quality for hospital pharmacists’ training. The objective of this training is to have all staff members involved and onboard to get better understanding of the mission statement of the department, the importance of continuous improvement initiatives and the get better understanding of techniques and procedures to follow or improve. The Continuous Improvement Program (CIP): The Pharmacy Department Staff covers: 13.5 Pharmacists, 16 Technicians, 5 Assistants and 3.5 Clerical workers. The CIP diagram was launched after all staff members completed the training and included of the following: 1. The steering Group comprised of: the head of pharmacy, the CIP coordinator and one member of each sectional improvement team (SIT): Clinical services, Dispensing, Manufacturing and Stores and distribution. 2. Each SIT has their selected members to discuss problem identification and continuous improvement opportunities. Each SIT has given an example of what can be improved in their area. The objective of CIP: * Increase Involvement of workers * Use their knowledge to improve systems and operations * Improvement through exposing problems * Process redesign, developing highly efficient ways to...
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...Walgreens Overview Walgreens Co., America’s premier pharmacy is what Charles R. Walgreen called his neighborhood drugstore that has grown into a nationally recognized fortune 500 company. Charles R Walgreen was born in Galesburg, a small town in Illinois, but shortly relocated to a town sixty miles away named, Dixon, Illinois. Dixon is where the dream of Walgreens Co. began. At the age of sixteen years old, working in a factory, Charles cut off the top of his middle finger and ended his athletic career. This led him to take a job at Horton’s Drug Store in Dixon, Illinois. Charles absolutely despised this job but needed to do something to get him through school. Once school was out, in 1893 Walgreen relocated to Chicago, Illinois where he discovered that the drugstore industry wasn’t so bad after all. Walgreen gained knowledge from some of the best pharmacist known to man, Samuel Resenfield, Max Grieben, William G Valentine, and Isaac W Blood. While working with pharmacist he discovered that maybe working for Horton’s Drug Store all of those years ago was going to pay off. Charles realized that in the Chicago area the pharmacy/drugstore was very prominent and that he needed to do something to stand out. When it came to a drugstore/pharmacy consumers had many choices in the Chicago area. In 1901, he had saved up enough money to put a down payment of his own pharmacy. “Walgreen’s drugstore was located in Barrett’s Hotel at Cottage Grove ad Bowen Avenue on Chicago’s...
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...Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS Business Seminar Case Study Bethany Odom, Katie Tewell, Kelly Snider, Brad Lowe Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………….3 Day-to-Day Operations Diagram……………………………….4 Drop Off………………………………………………………..5 Data Entry………………………………………………………7 Production………………………………………………………10 Quality Assurance………………………………………………12 Pick-Up…………………………………………………………12 Pharmacy Additions……………………………………………14 Our Future………………………………………………………15 Works Cited…………………………………………………….16 2 Introduction The current system in a CVS pharmacy allows customers to quickly drop off their prescriptions whenever convenient for them, the pharmacists and technicians to fill the scripts near the time the customer would like to pick them up, and customers to return to the store to pick up their medications at the specified time. However, this system creates long lines and angry customers during busy pick-up times, such as around the evening meal, when the typical work day concludes. We would like to implement a system that focuses on the day’s procedures and alters the drop-off, data entry, and production steps, therefore ideally reducing the number of problems that occur and must be resolved during the pick-up stage. With some additional changes made to the pick-up procedure, we feel CVS will be able to better their customer service and increase customer satisfaction while keeping the safety of its shoppers the company’s number one priority. The following page presents a data...
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...Week 3 Assignment 2 Principles of Management Shacara Wyatt South University Online Walgreens management method has a small amount of change since the founder, Charles R. Walgreens systematic approach. As an entrepreneur, Charles had much more work to do than management today because he had to create a starting point. In 1893 when Walgreens was founded, there was already over 1,500 drugstores competing for business and which many were successful (n.d., Our Past). This left customers with many stores to choose from. Walgreen decided on beating the odds with changing the layout of the store and broadening the merchandise at feasible prices. Unlike the other drug stores Walgreen store was attractive and brightly lit, had wider aisles, and provided pots and pans, which was unheard of as well as products for health and wellness. Walgreens insisted on a wonderful customer experience, himself and his colleague personally greeted each customer. Always thinking of ways to grow a customer base, Walgreen also provided hot food during the cold season. Walgreens competition only served cold items ((n.d., Our Past). Like Walgreen, management today consistently keeps new ideas going to satisfy their growing customer base. Today Walgreens is continuing to provide a well experience for customers. Besides upgrading the physical store, management trains employees on how to provide exceptional customer care. Management continues to provide the right products and solutions in every neighborhood...
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...quality management go hand in hand and have a complementary relationship. This relationship can be applied to the pharmacy organization. The pharmacy organization is the organization that definitely uses all that risk and quality management can offer. Pharmacy is the organization that was chosen using background knowledge and new information. Pharmacy is “the branch of the health sciences dealing with the preparation, dispensing, and proper utilization of drugs.” Pharmacies deal with prescription drugs and fulfilling out prescriptions to patients. Pharmacists employ the use of science and the knowledge they gained during their schooling. With this knowledge they perform tasks such as helping over physicians decide was is best for their client in terms of selection and compatibility with other prescriptions. However, they do not only help in providing information but gathering information as well though observation and communicating with the client. Through observation and communication, pharmacists can provide quality medication to clients and help them with their health in other ways. Pharmacists are not limited to just helping with prescription orders but can aid in weight loss, dieting choices and help with high blood pressure. Pharmacists can choose to either have their own approved pharmacy or choose to work at a prominent pharmacy. This means that pharmacies have more freedom when it comes to ensuring good quality however they have less freedom when it comes to risk management...
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...June 9-13, 2012 – Baltimore, Maryland 2012 ASHP Summer Meeting Management Case Study Submission and Format Guidelines Management Case Studies are 20-minute platform presentations followed by a 10-minute question and answer period. ASHP is seeking management case studies in specific topic areas: • Informatics • Leadership / Administration • Medication Safety • Clinical Conundrums This document will assist you in the preparation of your submission for a Management Case Study (MCS). The number of accepted management case studies will be limited and it is anticipated to be a highly competitive process. Each primary author is allowed only one submission. Due to ACPE Standards regarding active learning, a standard format will be required for final slide presentations which will utilize the learning objectives and self-assessment questions that you prepare for your submission. Thank you for your interest in presenting at the 2012 ASHP Summer Meeting! For assistance with preparing learning objectives and self-assessment questions, visit: http://www.ashp.org/menu/Education/OnlinePrograms.aspx and select ‘Education’ from the drop-down menu What is a Management Case Study? Introduction • The case study method was pioneered by the Harvard Business School in the early 1900s and still stands as a popular and effective teaching strategy in business education. • • The case method relies on information about people and events in a true-to-life situation that represents a problem to be analyzed...
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...Riverside Hospital's Pharmacy Services 3) Goals: The main goal of management is to reduce the ADEs and work more efficiently and solve the long term problems existing in the hospital pharmacy. Saving time and cost is another goal that the management wants to achieve through the new system. Ensuring that the five rights are practiced which includes The Right Patient, The Right Medication, Right Dose, Right Route, Right time. Management Criteria: The criterion set by management is implementing the system which improves the problems existing in the current system and achieves its goals with the least possible cost due to the cut in funds by the Government. Analysis: There are many options that be considered to overcome the persisting issues. The first option is to introduce the Unit dose system. The unit dose system is a medication dispensing system which the doses are individually prepared and packaged for each individual patient in a bubble pack, which then labeled with the name of drug, patient, dose and the time the medication needs to be given, each bubble has the medication for five days. The main goal is to reduce the errors in medications and medication waste, nursing time involved in dispensing the medications to the patients and it will also reduce the inventory holding cost. The criteria would be to see if the system has reduced the errors and issues and how much cost does it saves and incur. Even though the option might help in reducing the errors and might save...
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...Private Sector Pharmacy in Trindad and Its Comparison to the Best Practice Model Sandeep Maharaj1SHalimar ALI1, AlliaHUSAIN1, Cassie JOSEPH 1,Dushala PRASHAD1 Sureshwar Pandey2 1,2 School of Pharmacy The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex Mount Hope, Trinidad & Tobago Abstract Objective: To conduct a case study on the Human Resource Practices in a Pharmacy and compare their practise to the Best Practice model. Method: An interview was conducted, with respect to the Human Resource Practice employed at a private sector pharmacy. A list of the questions used as a guide during the interview is attached in Appendix 1. The overall response rate was 100%. Results: The results obtained were summarized in a table. It showed at the pharmacy under study adopts 6 of the 10 best practices: Providing a Safe, Healthy and Happy Workplace, Providing Performance linked Bonuses, Utilization of 360 Degree Performance Management Feedback System, and Utilization of a Fair Evaluation System for Employees, Highlighting performers and Employing Open house discussions and feedback mechanisms. The practices which are not carried out by the pharmacy include an Open book management style, knowledge sharing, reward ceremonies and surprising employees with unexpected rewards. Conclusion: From the interview it can be deduced that the pharmacy employs most of the Best practices listed, with the results being reflected by its acclaimed customer service. However it...
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