“Every time a patient comes to the window, we have roughly one or two minutes, on average, worth of time that’s needed to dispense their prescription,” Read said. “If I were to use one minute and say I divert 20,000 prescriptions for 15,000 patients, 15,000 minutes per year can be potentially saved if we get to our goal. That means 250 man-hours dispensing can be saved in a year, which cuts down lines, improves patient satisfaction. Because lines are shorter, we can execute new prescriptions quicker, it gives us flexibility, staff can work on additional duties, staff morale can improve, because they’re getting more done in a day, so it’s efficient on so many different levels.”
The time it took to get the ScriptCenter approved, funded and fully functional was much faster than expected. Normally, a project like this might take 12-18 months, according to Read, but with the support of command, medical logistics, civil engineers, base contracting and more, it took less than six months.
“I think that’s what’s great about Hurlburt is we’re champions for innovation and we really support continuous process improvement,” Braud said. “What’s really cool about being a part of an organization that pushes for these improvements is that you can become the first to recognize the standard and be the first to pioneer it. This could be something that takes off in other places.”
Hurlburt’s ScriptCenter was the first ScriptCenter package to be put together under the Defense Health Agency, but it’s not the first base across the Department of Defense to receive one.
“I think it’s important that we got this now, it’s very timely,” Braud said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes an industry standard in the future, and we’re just happy in the pharmacy to be able to provide this service that makes it more convenient for our patients and decrease wait times.”
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