Inpatient Pharmacy at Cancer Institute

Improving Pharmacy Operations at an Outpatient Cancer Institute

A leading cancer treatment centers with 78 exam rooms and 86 infusion chairs, sees nearly 135,000 adult exam visits each year across 13 different disease centers. In addition to their association with Harvard Medical School, they are known for their dedication to patient satisfaction and world-class providers.

Aligned with the institute’s mission, the pharmacy organization strives for an environment with quality, safety, and operational effectiveness. The inpatient pharmacy clinics handle an increasing annual volume of approximately 200,000 dispenses across chemotherapies, pre-meds, and other types of drugs.

Challenge

Faced with an annual growth rate of 12% in infusion demand, the inpatient pharmacy clinics performed at an average turnaround time (time between order entry and order dispense) that contributed to a long time-to-dispense (time between infusion appointment and order dispense) and extensive wait times for the patients, as well as nursing concerns regarding resource availability and patient safety.

Tefen completed a diagnostic to identify the issues that impacted the performance of the inpatient pharmacy clinics. These issues included:

• Pharmacy orders were processed on a "first-come, first-served" basis, regardless of the appointment time

• Pharmacists could not start processing an order until after the patient was seated in the infusion chair and seen by the nurse

• Communication between pharmacy and nursing staff was unclear with regards to expectations of service levels

• Staffing levels within the pharmacy were misaligned with demand fluctuations, resulting in shortage of staff during peak hours.

How Tefen Helped

Tefen and the pharmacy leadership collaboratively developed the work plan to address five key work-streams:

Order Prioritization:

Ensure Pharmacy team is processing the orders in the sequence that contributes in reducing the overall patient wait time

Pre-Planning:

Ensure Pharmacy is efficiently ready for the next day’s operation by utilizing its downtimes to perform pre-planning activities

Staffing Model:

Develop tool that enables Pharmacy Management Team to determine the optimal working shifts that address the fluctuations in demand while maximizing the coverage in the clinics

Process Improvement:

Identify areas for improvement and develop/enhance processes in order to increase efficiencies and working effectiveness

Order Initiation:

Enable Pharmacy to start its processes earlier and work in parallel with the nurses with the goal of reducing the wait time for the patient

Performance Excellence Delivered

Within 3 months, the inpatient pharmacy clinics were able to improve their work flow and create a more effi

cient environment. The institute experienced the following results:

• Reduction in turnaround time by an average of 35% (Figure 1).

• Reduction in time-to-dispense by an average of 20% (Figure 2).

• Alignment of resource allocation with demand fluctuation.

• Improvement in communication between pharmacy and nursing

• Increase patient and staff satisfaction.

Down 25%

Down 7%

Down 13%

Down 12

About Tefen

Tefen is an international management consulting firm, committed to improving overall operational effectiveness for Fortune 500 companies around the world. The firm’s main areas of focus include operations excellence,

manufacturing, quality, customer service, research and development and supply chain management. With its "hands-on" approach philosophy, the company has achieved tremendous success in delivering quantifiable and value-driven results for its clients in a variety of industries, including healthcare, life sciences, general manufacturing, high-tech and financial services. All of Tefen’s support programs are ISO 9001 certified. Tefen currently employs over 300 professionals worldwide.

For additional information, please contact:

Anton Knapp, Marketing Associate

Tefen USA

(646) 652-8259

aknapp@tefen.com

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