Monthly Archives: March 2018

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Drive for 5

Where were you on Mar 28, 2013? It was a Thursday. Here on the Atlantic coast, it was overcast with a midday high of 5 degrees Celsius.

A quick skim of notable events occurring in March of 2013 from http://www.onthisday.com may help send you back in time to when we were still mourning the loss of Stompin’ Tom Connors at age 77, and Cyprus was the recipient of a 10 billion Euro bailout deal that allowed their banks to reopen. Mars rover Curiosity found more evidence of water-bearing minerals and tensions were mounting between North and South Korea.

As for me? I was wrapping up a term position in a busy retail pharmacy and unsure what the future may bring.

I also happened to be pushing the publish button in the upper right-hand corner of this page for the very first time.

Every year around this time, I grow nostalgic for the places I have traveled and the people I have met through writing on these pages. I’ve shared a lot of my history, and my thoughts on current events. I’ve tried to celebrate wins big and small, and share experiences that have had profound impacts on me personally and professionally. My passion is as strong now as it ever was- to see my colleagues thrive, and feel in control of their individual contributions to the massive evolution of pharmacy makes me proud.

It’s been quite the journey since the blueprint of pharmacy was developed by the CPhA way back in 2005. I was rereading the portion on ‘The Vision of Pharmacy,’  developed in June 2008, almost 10 years ago. On page 5/16, the first page of the document body features a quote:

The demands on the health care system and the changes in the delivery of health care require pharmacists to focus more attention on patient-centred, outcomes-focused care to optimize the safe and effective use of medications.

I would welcome all pharmacists to reacquaint themselves with the Blueprint. It really was ahead of it’s time in the sense that the pieces we need to succeed were already recognized and outlined then. The five key areas of focus were:

  1. Pharmacy Human Resources
  2. Education and Continuing Professional Development 
  3. Information and Communication Technology
  4. Financial Viability and Sustainability
  5. Legislation, Regulation and Liability

For proper execution, coordinating all of these elements is vital to success. Not all 5 are completely in our control, but I feel we have made significant gains in the first three through advocacy activities and continue to work to align the last two to the needs of the healthcare system. That said, having all of the legislation, education and IT tools in the world won’t have an impact if there are no avenues to pay for these enhancements or the pharmacy teams needed to deliver the new services. Having balanced teams in place without proper training or education programs may lead to unnecessary trial and error causing disruption and uncertainty. Lastly, having excellent, highly-skilled people with robust education can not be effective if government legislation does not allow expanded scope activities. Differences between provinces may cause confusion for practitioners and members of the public.

So on the 5th anniversary of PharmAspire, it’s back to the Blueprint for inspiration and the 5 key strategic actions. Rekindle the conversation with your peers, reflect on those blueprints and how far we’ve come and how the environment has changed. There is still plenty of work to do, but we’re ready.

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.

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That’s No Exaggeration

Every time. All the time. Never.

How often to we utter words like this in our everyday speech? Just how large was that fish you caught? How high were the snowbanks in your driveway after the storm? How long was the lineup at the theatre on opening night?

Although I’d be remiss to criticize our neighbours to the south, their choice of president certainly provides ample fodder for pointed criticism. According to Mr. Trump, everything he touches is the most successful, tremendous, the greatest, and the best. These are ambitious goals that we all wish for ourselves, however understanding our imperfections are the key to continuous improvement. Case in point, most folks would not dare make a quote such as this:

“My IQ is one of the highest — and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure; it’s not your fault.” – CBS News report

In pharmacy, we exaggerate quite a bit when blowing off steam or emphasizing a point. No, not EVERY patient on a benzodiazepine accidentally dumps their prescription down the sink and needs a fill seven days early.

Unfortunately, that kind of rhetoric in the dispensary, or business in general makes it difficult to make educated decisions. Defining the frequency and severity of an event (or competing events) will determine our priorities for quality improvement. If a change in process affects every single transaction at the cash register, it may carry more weight than a computer setting that only affects new prescription processing 50% of the time. The same logic applies to the prevention of errors; sometimes we introduce steps on all workflows in an attempt to prevent a very small overall incidence of error. The intentions are always towards enhancing safety, but occasionally, the extra steps and extra stress to complete the process actually leads to an increase in errors. Finding that balance is very difficult, as a 3-step process with gaps can become an 8-step process if different mistakes happen. Now there are 8 steps to remember and track, and training is somewhat more arduous. If the original 3 steps were considered major checkpoints, the chances that mistakes could be made on one of those goes up significantly with every added step.

Personally, I do try to stop myself before using language that overreaches the point I’m trying to make. In this regard, I fail regularly. My love for analytics makes it imperative that only the best data and evidence be used to identify and solve problems. If it takes a stopwatch to measure time, or an engineer to develop a model, or raw numbers on a spreadsheet crunched in myriad ways, we need to use any and all tools available to us. The best way to plan can’t rely on gut instinct alone.

So the next time it feels like you NEVER seem to catch that green light, or that a drug plan ALWAYS gives you billing issues, I challenge you to attempt a quick measure. It may really surprise you how much or how little an event actually occurs. Thankfully I’m surrounded by people who have the discipline to remain objective in every project they tackle. I’m always learning new techniques, and strategies to improve.

That’s no exaggeration.

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.