It seems to be the norm that we are 1 or more techs short or the ones we do have are newbies who are very restricted with what they can do . How do you handle that situation... as in, what duties would you assign each tech/pharmacist? Sometimes I feel like no matter what I do I'm just getting buried deeper and deeper.
For example, you have 1 pharmacist, 2 techs (1 of which is a newbie of about 4 months). There are 20 to type, 6 for pharmacist to review, 50 to fill, 6 for pharmacist to do final check. There is a pharmacist counseling window, an in/out window and drive through. In/out window and drive thru are non-stop so both techs are stuck there with no time to type any incoming prescriptions. That leaves the pharmacist typing, reviewing, filling and doing final check. No one can help from the front end of the store. How would you handle this?
Alright, let's stop for a second and figure out how you got into this position. 20 to type can easily be accumulated with long lines and constant drop offs. But 50 to fill? Did someone print ahead for tomorrow and make the number look bigger than it is? Flip through them all and put them in time order. If there are any due tomorrow, put them in a separate pile to worry about later. Since this many to fill is a common occurrence, you should be watching when to fill in for your techs.
Take a peak at the counter. More than 3 people in line? Send the experienced tech up to be a line buster so it doesn't get overwhelming. During the time, start typing any waiters or fill anything due in the next hour. You need to control your lines, don't let it control you. Since this is normal volume at the store, you need to be prepared to help run it as smoothly as possible.
Drive thru is not priority number one. If someone pulls up, pick up the phone and tell them you'll be with them shortly. Yeah, they will give you death stares, but the drive thru is for convenience, not fast service. If you see the techs are overwhelmed up front, just grab the drive thru after a few minutes. Besides, when people sit too long at drive thru, they just get fed up and drive away and come back later. I am in no way saying to do this to everyone, but rather trying to say that your customers in the store should get more attention than the lazy ones.
When helping the techs out, keep an eye on your numbers too. Don't let your waiters sit too long. Once there is only 1-2 people in line again, call your tech back and have them fill or else they'll get stuck up there forever.
A lot of times, these intimidating numbers like 20 to type, 50 to fill are handled more easily if you just look at when things are due. If all 50 are due for pickup in 20 minutes, have a talk with the morning staff about their work flow because that's what's mucking you up. But if you're working on them at a decent pace, then no scripts should be past time due.
If you know your aren't the best filler, try to fill the ones due soon. Then just start pulling the drugs for the next dozen or so prescriptions so that when your tech comes back, he doesn't spend extra time wandering around looking for drugs. If something needs to be partial filled or out of stocked, have your tech give it to you to do it since you're in front of the computer and that 10 seconds could be better used (when you have 50 to fill, every second counts).
One thing that can slow techs down is prescriptions not being filed into their bins after they're done. If they have to dig through an endless black hole of prescriptions to find Jane Smith's prescription at the bottom, it will add wasted time and that can quickly add up, causing lines. If you see the basket overflowing, take a minute to file these because obviously your techs are too busy too.
My last tip is to be preemptive. If you get in at 2 and another pharmacist is still there and it isn't overwhelmingly busy, help dump the work load and start filling to get you in better shape for later. Spend a half hour--45 mins filling and between you and a tech almost everything should be done. Then go back and help the other pharmacist clean up.
Your techs will also appreciate the help more than you know because nothing is more irritating to a tech than a pharmacist who is too self righteous to help to basic things to make the job run easier, like type or file.
