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While BWH’s Outpatient Pharmacy will never be confused with an Outback Steakhouse, users can’t help but recognize the similarities in at least one aspect of customer service. Similar to the method used by restaurants to seat customers waiting for a table, the Outpatient Pharmacy has launched a new customer paging system. The new system is designed to decrease the crowds that form in the immediate waiting area and provide patients and employees with the option to grab lunch or coffee while they wait to be informed via pager when their prescriptions are filled.
As a part of overall customer service enhancements to the Outpatient Pharmacy, the new paging system is receiving high praise from pharmacy visitors and staff. “In addition to users having the freedom to spend their wait time wherever they’d like, staff have found that the presence of smaller crowds lessens their stress load,” said Les Bucey, RPh, manager, Outpatient Pharmacy, who together with Tom Cooley, RPh, assistant director, Pharmacy Services and Bill Churchill, RPh, director, Pharmacy Services has worked to implement this and other customer service enhancements in the Outpatient Pharmacy.
When customers drop off their prescriptions, they are handed a coaster pager and are then free to grab some lunch, make some phone calls or relax with a cup of in the Cabot Atrium. When their prescription is filled, the pager flashes and vibrates, alerting them to return to the Pharmacy to pick up their medication order. Upon entering the pharmacy a second time, they simply go to the express pick-up window to retrieve their order without having to again wait in line.
In tandem with launching the new paging system, the Outpatient Pharmacy has renovated the waiting area to make more room for a new line system. Other upcoming renovations will allow for more windows and other enhancements. In addition, Pharmacy management is working on adding more range to the pager system, so Pharmacy users can be paged at greater distances throughout the hospital. Currently, even with a limited range, the pager goes off as soon as the user comes back into range, if their prescription is ready.
“Because volume continues to increase and we are in a fixed space, we had to be more creative and efficient with our solutions,” said Bucey, who is pleased with all the customer service enhancements, specifically an automated prescription filling system introduced last fall and now the pager system. He explains that there are even more improvements on the horizon to increase both customer and staff satisfaction.
Bucey and Dorothy Goulart MS, RN, director of Performance Improvement, will co-lead a team assigned to officially collect feedback on the Outpatient Pharmacy’s customer-focused enhancements. For more information, email Bucey or Goulart.