Efficiency is the key to running a profitable pharmacy. By ensuring that your workflow and processes run smoothly, you’ll improve customer satisfaction, increase revenues, and save your pharmacists time. Here’s what you need to know to streamline every aspect of your business, from your pharmacy casework to employee responsibilities. 

3 Tips to Improve Your Pharmacy’s Workflow

1. Evaluate Your Current Workflow

Before you can optimize your pharmacy’s processes, you need to determine your successes and mistakes. Write out your workflow, from the moment a doctor calls in a prescription to the customer actually picking up their medications. Pay attention to bottlenecks and poor performance. For example, do your technicians need to walk all the way from one side of a room to the other each time they work on a prescription? When a member of your team waits for another to complete a task, do they spend the extra time completing other work?

2. Set Goals

Once you determine which areas need improvement, write down what you want to accomplish and how you plan to reach each of your goals. For example, you may need every prescription filled within 15 minutes of receiving it. To do that, measure every step of the process, looking for areas where you can optimize. If you want each technician to handle a certain number of prescriptions per hour, use software to track their performance. 

3. Delegate Responsibilities

To ensure that you’re holding your employees accountable, make it clear who’s responsible for what. Who will be in charge of answering the phone? What about following up with insurers, labeling bottles, and handing medications to customers? The fewer responsibilities each employee has, the more efficient they’ll become at each one, allowing your team to develop a natural and effective workflow. Keep each person’s personality traits and competencies in mind when divvying out tasks. 

When you need help optimizing your workflow, contact Midwest Medical Systems. Their team is based in Dayton, OH, and has over 30 years of experience helping pharmacies improve their processes, profitability, and productivity. They will work with you to analyze every part of your workflow, providing solutions and well-designed pharmacy casework to refine each aspect of your business. Call (800) 762-7722 to set up a consultation, or visit their website to learn more about their pharmacy casework options.