Implementation of a pharmacy call center

Kharlamb, Viktoria; Erato, Marina; Földes, Dávid; Kuhn, Patricia; Pertose, Heather; Stancanelli, M; Zito, Michele; Feldman, Judith

doi:10.2146/ajhp100688

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…As was alluded to by VISN 3 (VA New York/ New Jersey Veterans Health Care Network), one of the most challenging aspects of a centralized call center is the variation between individual facility policies and procedures. 2 Call center staff must be trained on these intricacies and be kept informed of any changes to policy. Future initiatives include reviewing these differences in an effort to create more standardization across the network and to reduce the percentage of calls that are transferred to the respective facilities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As described by Kharlamb et al, a scope of practice to renew medications better equipped the Indianapolis pharmacy staff to handle call issues than the HRC model, which transferred that workload back to the primary medical center. 2 Within VISN 11, available data indicated that the Indianapolis VAMC Pharmacy Triage service was operating closer to desired goals, so a discussion began in June 2009 for the Indianapolis VAMC pharmacy service to begin assuming calls for all of VISN 11 in an effort to improve patient satisfaction, meet call center performance metrics, and reduce costs through centralization of efforts.…”

Section: Model Of Carementioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of a Regional Pharmacy Call Center on Telephone Access Metrics within the Veterans Health Administration

et al. 2015

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Model Of Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of a Regional Pharmacy Call Center on Telephone Access Metrics within the Veterans Health Administration

et al. 2015

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“…Because of the overwhelming number of phone calls, hospitals have started operating pharmacy call centers to allow their pharmacists to better clinically serve patients. 12 One study examined the root cause and time consequence of each hospital pharmacy interruption. Researchers found that missing medication calls accounted for 49 of 528 interruptions over 1,094 minutes.…”

Section: Disruptions To Efficiency and Safetymentioning

confidence: 99%

Missing Doses: A System at Fault

O'Neil

Sautman

Hatfield³

2014

Hosp Pharm

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Virtualization and standardization of a health-system specialty pharmacy call center

Pierce

Khamo

Kumor

et al. 2022

American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy

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Disclaimer In an effort to expedite the publication of articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic, AJHP is posting these manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time. Purpose The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provided an opportunity to change how health-system specialty pharmacy (HSSP) call center operations are organized. This article describes the steps taken to virtualize the current operations of a specialty pharmacy services call center and evaluate the impact. Summary The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the normal provision of healthcare necessitated that HSSPs drastically modify existing procedures to both accommodate the expectations of staff and overcome the many barriers to care being experienced by patients. To fully understand and improve upon the workflow processes of an HSSP call center, a combination of qualitative feedback from patients, quantitative claims data, and quality metrics was evaluated. This project was divided into 3 phases: phase 1 (baseline) from July 2020 through August 2020, phase 2 (implementation) from September 2020 through December 2020, and phase 3 (analysis) from January 2021 through March 2021. Phase 1 included baseline review of workflow. Phase 2 encompassed development of new standard operating procedures (SOPs), making critical decisions to promote virtual capabilities of staff, and collaboration with team members to increase efficiency of current workflow. During phase 3, an evaluation of operational and service-related metrics was conducted to determine the impact of phase 2 workflow changes. Optimization of the specialty pharmacy call center allowed for staff members to transition to remote work to minimize exposure risk and prioritize the safety of patients and team members. Conclusion The call center team was able to transition to fully remote operations, implement new SOPs, and undergo significant workflow changes to optimize performance while still maintaining all call center metric goals and without increased complaints from patients or errors. This approach allowed for added staff value and safety and improved organization during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Implementation of a pharmacy call center

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Impact of a Regional Pharmacy Call Center on Telephone Access Metrics within the Veterans Health Administration

Impact of a Regional Pharmacy Call Center on Telephone Access Metrics within the Veterans Health Administration

Missing Doses: A System at Fault

Virtualization and standardization of a health-system specialty pharmacy call center

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