Suggestions on Time-saving Processes of Receiving Medicines at the Outpatient Pharmacy in a University Hospital

일개 대학병원의 투약대기시간 단축방안

Background : Many patients have been frequently complaining that they have to spend couples of hours in hospital on visiting outpatient clinic. Among several steps, two major time consuming steps were waiting to see a doctor and/or waiting at pharmacy to get medicine. Therefore not only to provide the proper guidance for medication or counseling on health affairs but also to make waiting time short is very important for the better hospital services. The aim of this study is to validate several time-saving processes to reduce waiting time at outpatient pharmacy and its efficacy. Methods : We surveyed the time interval actually taken to receive medicine after issuing prescription by doctors, and analyzed the data on the bases of relevant or possible causative factors. Then following processes were given to reduce waiting time and resurveyed and compared both data to validate efficacy of those processes : 1. No work-off on Monday and Tuesday 2. Work hour shift to start 30 minutes earlier 3. Changeable work shift between outpatient pharmacy and ward pharmacy according to work load 4. Use of pre-made medicines prescribed more frequently by certain doctors at certain time 5. Cooperation with doctors to use set prescriptions. Results : Before the process, mean waiting time at pharmacy was 29.2 minutes and most time consuming period was from noon to 1 PM, 3 to 4 PM, 1 to 2 PM in order of frequency. Only 37.7 % of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Three times of surveys after process showed mean waiting time at pharmacy were 18.1 minutes, 19.0 minutes, and 17.6 minutes, respectively. And 72.7 %, 81.3%, and 82.2% of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Conclusion : The mean waiting time was markedly reduced with above mentioned processes which applied intradepartmently event hough with little cooperation from other department. Consequently, the complaints of patients were decreased with increasing the satisfaction degree. In conclusion, those suggestions were recommanded to improve the degree of satisfaction of patients.