The use of ScriptPro's SP 200 has led to increased staff satisfaction at Lincoln Community Health Center's pharmacy.

Increasing Staff Satisfaction through Automation

By Carolyn Robbins, PharmD, RPh, CDE

Lincoln Community Health Center serves a patient population of over 35,000 and fills 800 to 1,000 prescriptions a day. In addition to high volume, perhaps our most compelling reason to automate was the reduction of medication errors. In November 2001, we installed ScriptPro’s SP 200 Robotic Prescription Dispensing System. Then, in January 2002, we installed ScriptPro’s SP Central Workflow Management System along with SP Checkpoints with barcode scanners for prescription verification, tracking, and management, and three SP Stations with touch-screen monitors, barcode scanners, and labeling devices for manually filled prescriptions.

The positive impact of ScriptPro’s robotic and workflow technology is measurable. We have tracked a significant and steady decrease in medication errors (now less than .01%) due to the technology’s ability to prevent wrong-patient, wrong-dose, and wrong-drug errors. By scanning the barcode on a stock bottle and then on the SP 200 drug cell, the system will confirm that we are filling the robot accurately. We verify each filled prescription by scanning its barcode and performing a visual check with an on-screen picture of the drug. The SP Stations can also provide on-screen picture verifications of the drugs, providing another accuracy check for our staff members.

The pharmacy's staff can use their SP Checkpoints to track prescriptions throughout the pharmacy.

To ensure that the right patient receives the right drug, the SP Station, using SP Central Workflow, batches prescriptions by patient. Then, when we scan a prescription label, all prescriptions for the patient appear onscreen, and we can easily verify that we are giving the right patient the right prescriptions. The batching feature is especially helpful when servicing patients with the same or similar names, which may have been confused before the ScriptPro implementation.

Automating our pharmacy has also reduced our patients’ wait time by about 16%, even as our prescription-fill rate increased by 8%. Because a prescription’s barcode is scanned at each step in the fill process, our staff can use the SP Checkpoints to track prescriptions throughout the pharmacy, whether they are stored in the refrigerator, the new will-call area, the refill will-call area, in oversized-bag shelves, or if they are still being filled. When a patient approaches the pick-up window, we are able to easily identify the location of each of his or her prescriptions and determine whether they are ready to be picked up, or if it will be a few more minutes.

In addition, the decrease in work-related stress for our staff is unbelievably satisfying. We polled the pharmacy staff before implementing ScriptPro’s technology, and our staff was obviously dissatisfied with their stressful workload. In a post-implementation poll, 100% of our pharmacists and technicians stated their work environment had improved. They cited the following reasons: greater confidence in the accuracy of prescriptions; ability to locate prescriptions; reduced manual selection and counting of tablets and capsules; assurance that patients receive all of their medications; assurance that multiple patients’ medications are not mixed in the same bag; and online picture identification of all drugs, even drugs outside our formulary.

We chose ScriptPro’s equipment for its compact footprint; 24-hour, seven-days-aweek support service; and the upfront and on-site training. The workflow analysis and design provided by ScriptPro’s team were also extremely helpful. By following ScriptPro’s recommended procedures for daily and weekly maintenance, we continue to operate without a hitch. Furthermore, ScriptPro continually upgrades our equipment as part of our standard service agreement.

Carolyn Robbins, PharmD, RPh, CDE, is the director of pharmacy for Lincoln Community Health Center and the assistant director of pharmacy for Durham Regional Hospital/Duke University Health System, both in Durham, North Carolina. She has worked for the health system for 28 years.

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