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For long-term care (LTC) pharmacies aiming to increase their competitive edge, this adage holds true: you cannot improve what you don’t measure. Tracking certain metrics is essential to enhancing patient care and accelerating pharmacy performance. Although the exact metrics may differ based on facility type, packaging methods, and overall scope of the pharmacy’s operations, this article outlines the six key metrics that successful LTC pharmacies consistently measure:
- Prescription processing times
- Process capacity
- Medication error rates
- Pharmacy inventory turnover rates
- Long-term care facility & patient satisfaction rates
- Pharmacy staff productivity
Prescription Processing Times
Prescription processing time—the time it takes to process a prescription from receipt to ready for dispatch to a care facility—serves as a top critical measure of a pharmacy’s operational efficiency because it encompasses the entire pharmacy workflow. Accurately gauging this time is essential for identifying time-consuming and costly bottlenecks, as well as understanding the lead time needed for facilities to send prescriptions. Solving for bottlenecks might include shifting labor hours to better match production schedules, or adding new technology to a pharmacy’s workflow.
How to Calculate Prescription Processing Times:
Calculate prescription processing times by tracking the period from when the prescription is logged in the system to when it is prepared for shipment. To ensure accuracy, average this duration over a set number of prescriptions to get a representative processing time.
Pharmacy Automation Equipment that Can Improve Prescription Processing Times:
- Automated packaging
- Automated verification
- Pharmacy management software
- Automation software systems
- Automated prescription labeling systems
Prescription Process Capacity
Prescription process capacity is a crucial metric that determines the maximum number of prescriptions an LTC pharmacy can process within a specified timeframe. This metric is essential for planning, resource allocation, and managing customer expectations effectively, and can help you balance production among facilities.
How to Calculate Prescription Process Capacity:
Process capacity can be calculated by observing the total number of prescriptions processed during a peak operational hour. This number reflects the maximum throughput a pharmacy can achieve under optimal conditions, considering current staffing and resource allocation.
Pharmacy Automation Equipment that Can Improve Prescription Process Capacity:
Medication Error Rates
Ensuring accuracy during the medication packaging process—whether during PV1 or PV2— accuracy is crucial to the success of LTC pharmacies. During the PV2 process, a pharmacist (in most states) must verify that packaged medication is accurate and free from broken, missing, duplicate drugs or other anomalies—a critical yet costly part of the workflow, especially when done manually.
How to Calculate Medication Error Rates:
Calculate medication error rates by dividing the number of prescriptions with errors by the total number of prescriptions processed during a given time period, then multiply by 100 to express this as a percentage. The latest pharmacy automation technology can make this process even quicker and easier.
Pharmacy Automation Equipment that Can Improve Medication Error Rates:
- Automated dispensing
- Automated verification
- Barcode scanning at administration
Pharmacy Inventory Turnover Rates
Pharmacy inventory is expensive and does no good to a pharmacy sitting on the shelf collecting dust. Effective inventory management is vital in an LTC pharmacy to minimize the financial burden of stocked medications. The inventory turnover rate is a key indicator of how well a pharmacy manages its inventory relative to its sales.
How to Calculate Pharmacy Inventory Turnover Rates:
The pharmacy inventory turnover rate is calculated by dividing the cost of goods sold by the average inventory value. This metric helps pharmacies understand how quickly they are using their inventory. The goal of measuring this metric is to create a churn rate that minimizes outstanding money while enabling pharmacies to fulfill production demands without delay.
Pharmacy Automation Equipment that Can Improve Pharmacy Inventory Turnover Rates:
- Automated inventory management
- Smart storage solutions
- Automated reordering systems
Long-Term Care Facility & Patient Satisfaction Rates
Since most LTC pharmacies don’t traditionally employ a large sales force selling their services, establishing and maintaining excellent relationships with care facilities is critical for business success. Faster, more reliable, and more accurate pharmacies tend to be more successful in long-term care settings because these attributes serve both patients and the care facility.
How to Measure Long-Term Care Facility & Patient Satisfaction Rates:
Satisfaction can be gauged through regular surveys and feedback mechanisms with both facilities and patients. Analyzing the frequency of positive feedback versus complaints provides a clear measure of satisfaction.
Pharmacy Automation Equipment that Can Improve Long-Term Care Facility & Patient Satisfaction Rates:
Pharmacy Staff Productivity
Pharmacy staff productivity measures the efficiency of pharmacy staff in completing their tasks, which is crucial for maintaining a high level of service. Higher productivity means more tasks are completed in less time, directly impacting all other pharmacy metrics.
How to Measure Pharmacy Staff Productivity:
Pharmacy staff productivity can be assessed by the volume of prescriptions filled per staff member per shift or the time it takes to complete specific tasks.
Pharmacy Automation Equipment that Can Improve Pharmacy Staff Productivity:
Impact of Pharmacy Automation in Improving Key LTC Pharmacy Metrics
Automation in LTC pharmacies plays a transformative role across all key metrics. By measuring the metrics that move the needle, LTC pharmacies can understand how to improve in these key areas to create significant enhancements in prescription processing times and process capacity, dramatically reducing both the volume of errors during medication packaging and the financial costs associated with high inventory levels. Automation also bolsters facility and patient satisfaction through improved accuracy, reliability, and responsiveness. These improvements work in tandem to streamline pharmacy operations and elevate the standard of care provided to patients, setting a high benchmark in the competitive LTC pharmacy landscape.
Implementing pharmacy automation equipment not only optimizes workflow but also supports staff efficiency, improves inventory management, and boosts customer satisfaction. For more information or to explore automation solutions tailored to LTC pharmacies, contact our experts.
