Frontline Physicians

The folks at the Denver Regional Pharmacy found their unit-based team to be a major improvement over the steering committee it replaced.

Team members found the committee to be unwieldy, and felt it largely bred distrust and miscommunication between union and management.

So, they regrouped.

A major problem they had encountered was the time pharmacy technicians wasted researching prescriptions that weren’t properly "batched." Often missing was the required electronic stamp from a pharmacist that tracks and closes the prescription.

Technicians spent roughly 1-4 hours a day per pharmacy tracking down misbatched prescriptions. The team aimed to cut that time by 50 percent.

"The biggest thing is if you view your situation as a failure you'll never succeed," management co-lead Luanne Petricich says. "When something is not working that's where your opportunity is. Don't be afraid to change something if it's not working."

The team modified the way pharmacists attached their electronic signature. That saved technicians hours of research time and freed them to spend more time with patients. Almost immediately the team saw a drop in the number of prescriptions that needed to be researched.

In the two pharmacies where the team instituted new batching practices, they saw a 75 percent drop in the number of prescriptions requiring research. The new protocol was introduced to 20 pharmacies in the region, and 70 percent of those saw similar gains.

This collaborative effort produced positive results as their projects improved customer service and affordability. The new UBT also gained some hard-earned trust.

Since that success, the regional team has become a model and a sponsor for smaller, pharmacy-specific UBTs launched in the region.

"I like the focus on efficiencies and waste because it ends up translating to a better work environment for employees," Petricich says. "Especially with this project, we found the technicians were doing redundant work that did not provide job satisfaction. So taking that away allowed for more time with patients, which is what many would rather be doing."