(Management Case Study) Implementation of Enterprise Solution Applications to Automate Repetitive Tasks for Pharmacy Managers

Purpose: Pharmacy leaders are constantly challenged to find efficiencies in operational workflows while also completing administrative tasks. Automating administrative tasks can free up time for managers and provide insights around such tasks. Many enterprise solutions offer applications that can automate repetitive tasks (i.e., emails or data collection). This case describes how a Department of Pharmacy in a large academic medical center implemented task automation in several workflows to streamline standard communication and to decrease email traffic. This case will also describe how to leverage these automated workflows to collect data and provided direct feedback to pharmacy technicians regarding daily task compliance.

Methods: Our Department of Pharmacy identified a need to transition away from a paper process for communicating staff callouts. In search for a solution, our goals were to make the process user friendly, reduce use of paper forms, streamline communication pathways, and have the ability to search historical entries. A workflow was created that automatically sends pharmacy leadership an email when frontline staff fill out an electronic callout form. The form entries are then automatically added to a shared spreadsheet. This model was piloted within an adult inpatient satellite pharmacy and further expanded throughout the department. After the successful implementation of the callout workflow, other applications were evaluated and developed. The electronic form-to-email workflow is also used to communicate employment status changes between local pharmacy leadership and centralized administrative staff and to communicate invoice information between pharmacies and our purchasing team. Finally, we have applied this model to provide follow-up to our pharmacy technician who have failed to complete a variety of required daily tasks. Managers are responsible for auditing task activity and for filling out the electronic form when non-compliance is identified. An email will automatically be sent to the employee. The email informs the employee of the incident and outlines the relevant expectations. After each workflow was built and piloted, we met with frontline users to collect feedback and integrate any enhancement requests.

Results: The implementation of the electronic form-to-email workflows increased efficiency for several repetitive tasks. The application of this model on the staff callout workflow ensured the correct information was being provided due to the standardized nature of the electronic form. Pharmacy leadership is now notified via email when there are callouts instead of finding out when they arrive for their shift, and all of the historical entries are searchable which has helped with reconciling payroll. We were also successful in eliminating paper callout forms. Each application was successful in decreasing email traffic and streamlining communication pathways. After using the electronic form-to-email workflow to follow up with employees, we saw an increase in dispense tracking and ADC outdating compliance.

Conclusion: Implementation of electronic form-to-email workflows across several applications proved to be successful in a Department of Pharmacy in a large academic medical center. There are likely many administrative workflows that can be automated in the same manner, however the benefit may be limited if applied to communication pathways that are not standardized and repetitive. Due to the success of the applications mentioned above we continue to evaluate other opportunities including proactive notification of anesthesia controlled substance discrepancies and notification of drugs borrowed or lent outside of the health system.