Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a problem to snowball. If there is no system in place to tackle an issue when it arises, it just gets bigger. That was true at the Henry Towne Centre pharmacy in Georgia until they set up a unit-based team. Once the system was in place, it didn’t take long to identify the issues and find a way to fix them.

The problem

• The Henry Towne Centre, on the outskirts of Atlanta, has a large number of members signed up under a program known as “Multi-Choice,” which allows access to network providers outside of KP. Many of these providers tended to order non-formulary medications, including expensive brand name drugs.
• That meant higher acquisition costs for the pharmacy. In addition, pharmacists spent time calling providers asking them to change their orders to formulary prescriptions.
• The delays in getting prescriptions rewritten added to patient wait times at the pharmacy.
• Long waits contributed to poor service and low patient satisfaction.

What they did

• The unit-based team set up a grid listing the department’s problems, their consequences, what action to take and who was responsible for taking it.
• At the request of UBT sponsors, Dr. Earl Thurmond, chief of networks and affiliate care, met with Eagles Landing Family practice, a network provider, in March to discuss formulary compliance.
• The provider subsequently increased their formulary compliance by 6% from 75% in April to 81% in June. This trend is holding steady.
• As a result, drug acquisition costs dropped significantly between April and June and the savings have continued in recent months.
• Patient satisfaction is up and so is employee morale

When you say ‘unit’ and ‘team’ working together you can’t go wrong.

Audrey Millican, pharmacy technician, UFCW Local 1996  

Unit + team = “you can’t go wrong”

The team—as well as the managers of the Henry Towne Centre—had long been aware of the pharmacy compliance issue as well as other problems. Several strategies were tried, but until the unit-based team was formed, there was little traction for resolving problems.

“Before the UBT, there wasn’t a lot of room to use your ideas or try to speak up,” explained pharmacy technician Audrey Millican, a member of UFCW Local 1996.

Pharmacist Adaora Arinze spent time calling doctors and asking them to rewrite their prescriptions to match the formulary, delaying service.

“Patient satisfaction surveys were letting us know we had problems,” said Arinze.

Once the UBT provided the structure to resolve issues—and to kick them upstairs when necessary—the turnaround was fast. Formulary compliance continues to rise and so do patient satisfaction scores.

“It’s powerful when frontline staff work with their manager and facility leaders to resolve issues,” said Alan Johnson, who until recently was manager of medical office administration at the Henry Towne Center. Johnson, now an administrator at Southwood, said that a team needs all perspectives at the table to make lasting changes.

“Frontline employees know what’s really going on. Managers bring the vision of what could be different and facility managers make sure it gets done,” he said.

Pharmacy tech Millican sees it this way: “When you say ‘unit’ and ‘team’ working together, you can’t go wrong.”

Next steps

Like all UBTs, the Henry Towne Centre Pharmacy is continually striving to improve. They are working on streamlining work processes so the pharmacy stays stocked with basic medications, does a better job of managing refill authorization requests and improves patient service. They continue to strive to meet the regional goal of reducing wait times to eight minutes.

All of this comes at a time when the Georgia region is pulling together in a joint marketing program designed to turn around membership losses. The team recently got a new manager, Yolanda Rhetta, and a new facility manager, Candace King, who share a passion for service. Rhetta credits the unit-based team with giving her department a sense of how their efforts fit into the big picture to help KP retain and expand membership in the region.

Millican says the good vibes radiate out to patients.

“It shines when things are good, when employees are happy and patients feel it,” she said.