New Pharmacy Procedures Keep Medicine Out of Hospital Trash Cans

In order to drive improvement, a nationally ranked hospital turned to TechSolve as a “Change Agent” to implement the applications of Lean principles and practices to healthcare (Lean Healthcare) within various departments throughout the hospital. As a critical hub in the hospital, the Pharmacy Department wanted to better understand/drive its process improvement opportunities.

Recognizing the importance of accuracy for patient safety and the opportunity to reduce the cost of wasted medication and the rate of discontinued medications upon delivery, Pharmacy management sought to focus on improving their Unit Dose Batch Fill process.

Project: Hospital staff partnered with TechSolve on a Lean pharmacy initiative to evaluate and improve the Unit Dose Batch Fill process with the objectives of: (1) improved safety, (2) improved patient quality, and (3) reduced medication waste while (4) improving nurse satisfaction.

TechSolve immediately began to evaluate and improve the Unit Dose Batch Fill process through value stream mapping, Lean process improvement techniques, and a redesign of the pharmacy layout. With the TechSolve recommendations implemented, the Pharmacy surpassed all project goals.

Results: With TechSolve’s help, the pharmacy reduced their Unit Dose Batch Fill process by 75.9% (23.8 hours to 5.5 hours) and reduced workflow travel distance by 62% (2,110 feet to 896 feet).  Additionally, there was a 57.9% reduction of wasted medication in process and a 96% improvement of medication delivery accuracy.

As part of ongoing continual improvement efforts, the hospital plans to upgrade their software platform to integrate bar-coding of medication. With this new platform upgrade and the improvements made by TechSolve, management predicts they will avoid lost revenue of $921,000 and reduce the cost of wasted medication by $163,000.