One Week Down

So I have officially been a pharmacy manager for one week and I'm happy to say I am still alive. The first week has definitely been hectic. Getting to know the people at my store has been fun. I hope I was able to make a good first impression. I wonder if my addition of an iPod radio dock to the pharmacy helped :)

Yesterday I actually felt like I had my first breakthrough with one of my technicians. Early in the week my technicians were used to telling patients that our "wait time" for prescriptions was 45 minutes or longer. Even when we weren't that busy the techs were just used to telling patients it would be a while so they wouldn't have to deal with anyone coming back before it was ready. So I jumped in and encouraged everyone to promise a shorter wait time and use correct workflow to speed the process along. Then yesterday I overheard one of my main technicians tell a patient that their prescription would be ready in 20 minutes. When the prescription was finished in about 12 minutes and the patient came back I joked with the tech about the wait time. Then when the patient left I told her in a more serious tone "Thank You."

No, 20 minutes for a prescription still isn't great. I would like to see that average wait come down. Compared to 45 minutes though, I was extremely happy. More importantly, I was proud of my tech for believing that we could do it. In one week, she was already starting to see that things around the pharmacy would be much different. I know it may not seem like a lot to most people, but for me this was an extremely positive experience.

What a mess

Yesterday was my first full day as pharmacy manager. I made my rounds throughout the store and met several associates in addition to my technicians. Most of my day in the pharmacy was devoted to organizing the place and cleaning. The pharmacy was very messy and looked as though it had not been dusted in years.

The funny (and frustrating) part of my day came when I started to organize the stock room. The room looked way too small and very cluttered. As I began to sort boxes I realized that there were several boxes of the same item: lids for size 13 dram (small) vials. I counted 14 boxes of those stupid lids. That translates into over 24,000 lids for one size of vial. In other words, I had over 4 months worth of inventory for one item. That is NOT how you turn over an inventory.

Tomorrow will be here soon

I start my journey as pharmacy store manager at 8am tomorrow. I must say that I am pretty nervous. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time and the day has finally come. I should be enjoying my Sunday off work but I can't stop planning for tomorrow. I've been organizing and labeling binders and getting supplies ready. I even bought an iPod radio for the pharmacy so I can play music throughout the day and lighten the mood. When I worked at this store a few months ago, the stress level in the pharmacy was too high. I want to make it fun for my employees to come to work. I want to motivate and inspire my technicians to get better and advance their career.

This is my opportunity. My chance to make a real impact on the company and make a pharmacy better. I just have to keep reminding myself that Rome wasn't built in a day.

Thanks KASPER

I finally set up my KASPER (Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting) account last week and have already had success using it. On Friday, while working at a store in Brandenburg, Kentucky, I had a patient glaring over the counter inpatiently waiting for me to finish filling his clonazepam prescription. He was acting strange and making me nervous the way he was leaning over our front counter. I noticed he was paying cash for his prescription, which is also a signal that he could be getting this medication elsewhere.

While filling his prescription I switched computer screens and pulled up my KASPER account and did a quick search. Almost instantly I was provided with a report that he had just filled the medication at Rite Aid and wasn't due for another week. I looked up at him and informed him that it was not necessary for him to wait now because it was apparent that he should not be out of his medication. I told him that I knew he had received this same medication from Rite Aid and that I would be happy to call Rite Aid to confirm. Immediately he changed his story and backed away from my counter.

The longer I work in community pharmacy the sharper my instincts become. Running KASPER reports on everyone would be a big waste, but combined with a pharmacist's ability to sense suspicious activity it can be a great tool to stop drug diversion.

Podcast Possibility

So I have been brainstorming a few ideas over the past few weeks. I would really like to put together a few podcasts or YouTube videos that would go with the theme of my blog. I started this blog in my 3rd year of pharmacy school to discuss pharmacy related issues and shed a positive light on the profession I love. In a way, I was inspired by writers that bashed pharmacy and gave our profession a bad name. At times, writing on this site has been quite therapeutic for me as I have faced interesting situations as a student and as a pharmacist. It has served as a soap box and an open journal to share my thoughts and experiences.

Over the past two years I have built a small following of friends, family, and colleagues that check out my blog from time to time and give me wonderful feedback that has added value to www.pharmacistplace.com. By feeding the blog posts through my Facebook page I have been able to reach more friends. Their comments have been insightful, clever, and sometimes just funny.

Now I feel like it is time to expand and possibly reach out to a much broader audience. I would like to include some audio and video in my blog. I’m trying to iron out a few ideas and I’d love to know what you think.

Great store, great people, so what is the problem?

I spent two days this week revisiting one of my favorite stores in Zone 8. I helped train this store back in September and have worked there a few times since. The store is mid to high volume and has a pretty large staff. I was asked to return this week to find out what has gone wrong at the store and why they seem to be struggling so much.

Within twenty minutes of arriving I was pulled aside by the general manager of the entire grocery store to discuss several issues and listen to his concerns. By the end of the first day I had most of the pharmacists and technicians express their thoughts as well on why they were doing so poorly. It was apparent that everyone knew the pharmacy had problems, they knew what most of the problems were, but throughout both days I didn’t see a great effort from the staff to solve those problems.

I first made some minor adjustments to workflow and, with the help of the Zone Coordinator, added a new workstation. These were merely quick fixes that wouldn’t really get to the root of the problem. The major issue this store faced was a lack of leadership. This is a problem that cannot be fixed in a day without completely replacing the pharmacy manager.

I developed a list of problems and action items to solve those problems and met with the store manager to discuss the issues. I know the store will require more attention over the next few weeks, but my job there was done. I really hope they are able to turn things around because I love the people at that store. They have a well trained staff and technicians that take pride in their work.

Good to be back

I had a chance to visit my alma mater today as a guest speaker. I participated in a leadership workshop and gave 3 separate 30 minute presentations to small groups of student pharmacists about "Public Speaking and Networking." I really enjoyed the opportunity to share some ideas and tips with the new PY1 class. An added bonus was seeing many familiar faces in the crowd because I had been a part of the admissions committee that interviewed many of these students when they were pharmacy school candidates.

From what I could tell my sessions went fairly well (at least no one fell asleep or anything). I don't know what it is but I love talking about communication techniques and networking. Maybe I missed my true calling...