Putting pharmacists in specialist outpatient clinics: a pilot approach to integrate services under one roof

Abstract

Patient journey with multiple stopovers has long been recognized as suboptimal and attempts to co-locate pharmacists with physicians have been explored in various healthcare systems to integrate processes and improve patient experience. This prospective study aims to evaluate and compare process efficiency between a decentralized prescription review workflow (intervention) and conventional prescription filling workflow (control). Both workflows were concurrently assessed in selected specialist outpatient clinics. Outcome measure was end-to-end prescription processing time between intervention and control workflows. A total of 1117 complete prescription time–motion data entered analysis. There was significant reduction in patients’ waiting time of approximately 25% (803.6 ± 409.0 s vs 618.6 ± 468.3 s, p < 0.001). For patients undergoing intervention workflow, instant collection of medication was achieved 96% of the time. However, reduction in dispensing time spent in intervention arm was not observed compared to control workflow. The findings may support further modification and implementation of the decentralized workflow in other healthcare institutions in order to realize team-based patient-centered care that ensures timely supply of medications that are optimized for the purpose of treatment.