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.