Problem Framing FOR CVS PHARMACY

CVS PharmacyWe talked to Phuong Vuong the

Pharmacy manager at CVS 6920 at 5300 South Colony Blvd. in The Colony TX and she had a problem she wanted our help with.

Situation• The pharmacy manager wants to

increase the number of prescriptions the pharmacy fills a week to over 2000.

WHAT IS THE Problem?• 195 man-hour limit per week.• Increasing the number of

prescriptions can’t be done without increasing hours.

THIS PROBLEM SUCKS!How do we increase the number of prescriptions filled without exceeding the hours?

REFRAMING THE PROBLEM.

• How can we maximize efficiency within our current prescription filling process?

HOW THE STATIONS ARE SET UP

Data EntryTechnician 2

Data EntryTechnician 3

Production Technician 4

Drop off/ Pick up Technician 1

HOW A PRESCRIPTION IS FILLED

• Customer drops of their prescription to the technician for it to be filled by the pharmacy

• The technician takes it to the drop off station to accurately enter the prescription into the computer.

• A technician at production fills the entered prescription by finding the right drug, dose, and quantity then fills it.

• The pharmacist at the verification station checks to see if everything was typed and filled right allowing Pickup to sell the prescription.

Data EntryTechnician 1

FINDING THE FLAW

• The problem with the system is that data entry gets double the manpower while production is worked on by one technician.

• The pharmacist only verifies prescriptions leaving them with nothing to do until prescriptions reaches the verification stage.

Drop off/ Pick up Technician 1

Data EntryTechnician 2

Data EntryTechnician 1

Production Technician 3

FIXING THE FLAW• In the new system technician 2 gets moved from Data

entry to Production allowing production to have double the manpower.

• The Pharmacist now helps with drop off while they have nothing to verify in lieu of technician 2 allowing both the Data entry and production station to have two people working on it simultaneously.

PROPOSED New SYSTEM Drop off/ Pick up Technician 1

Data EntryTechnician 2

Technician 4Technician 3

Data Entry

RESULTS After implementing our proposed new system

the pharmacy has seen an increase in the number of prescriptions they fill.

The total number of prescriptions filled for the week of Sunday, Aril 20th was 1,947!

QUESTIONS?

REFERENCES • http://www.sfdc.org/whats-happening/hybla-

valley-gum-springs/new-cvs-pharmacy/• http://www.kathrynmarsden.com/an-

important-note-about-prescriptions.html