An In-Depth Analysis of Customer Waiting Times in a Rite Aid Pharmacy and Strategies for Improvement Presented By: Najib Sufi Tiemoko Diarra Walter Ray Jeri Shea

Phase I:DEFINE PROCESS FOR IMPROVEMENT Part of the Plan Phase of the PDCA cycle

Customer Attributes Relative Importance Fast Service Accurate Consulting (Pharmacist) Organized Location House of Quality – Rite Aid Rx Waiting time People at Register Customer Satisf. Scores Drive-thru Correlation: Strong positive Positive Negative Strong negative Competitive evaluation (5 is best) L R W W R L R W L L W R R - Us L – Longs Drugs W - Walgreens Competitive Evaluation L W 30min 5min 4 not avail 12hrs No 30min 4min 3 not avail 12-24hrs Yes Register wait time Hours of Operation Targets 15min 2min 3 75% 12hrs Yes

Define DMAIC House of Quality Rx Waiting Time Register Waiting Time 3 in Line, It’s Time (Register) Busy Life Currently, a goal of 15 minutes wait (on average) How to measure, analyze, improve?

Phase II:MEASURE Also part of the Plan Phase of the PDCA cycle

Benchmarking Who are the industry leaders? –Rite Aid –Walgreens –Longs Drugs What are we doing compared to them? –Customer Satisfaction Surveys What are our priorities for process improvement? –increase customer satisfaction through decreased customer waiting times in the pharmacy

How did we get our data? Najib’s knowledge and experience as a Pharmacist Our individual experiences Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Phase III:ANALYZE The final part of the Plan Phase of the PDCA cycle

Pt calls Rx in. Pt drops off Rx in the Pharmacy. Dr’s office calls Rx in. Pharmacy No Insurance Too early Pharmacy Technician Pharmacist Pharmacy Tech. types the Rx. Counted by robot or pharmacy tech. QA by Pharmacist Rx placed in pick- up/consult area. Payment by Pt. No Yes Out of stock No

Doctor’s Office Faxed to wrong pharmacy Pharmacy faxes to wrong machine at the doctor’s office. Incomplete information –Dosage strength

Patient Call-in Misplaced Incomplete information Too early

Patient drop-off Misplaced Time of drop off –Patient volume

Long Wait Time at Pharmacy Consulting Location Wait lines at Pharmacy Organized Accuracy # of new Rx Wrong customer name or spelling Rx form faxed to wrong Rite Aid Time it takes to count out pills Wrong Rx Time of the year Playing the blame game Time of the day Community Demographics Near Hospitals & Dr’s offices Incorrect Insurance Info

Wait lines at Pharmacy Time of the day Time of the year –Flu season

Organized Wrong customer name/spelling –Common names Incorrect insurance information –Results in a denial Prescription faxed to wrong pharmacy.

Accuracy Time it takes to count pills Wrong prescription

Phase IV:IMPROVE The Do and Act Phases of the PDCA cycle

How to Improve Waiting Time?? Person to person contact –Accuracy –Triage according to urgency

Prescription Database –Efficiency & Technology based –Available to Rite Aid customers –Specifications required –Patient drop off = 0

Cashier availability –Focus on peak hours –Goal = 1 per 3 Brainstorming –Customer’s voice –Fulfilling customer’s expectation –Visible Timer

Phase V:CONTROL The Check and Act Phases of the PDCA cycle

Control Customer Surveys –Online, by Phone, In-Store, Informal Meetings, Mail-In Surveys Employee Feedback –Online, Calls, In-House Meetings Outside Agencies Sales Figures

Any Questions?