Lyster pharmacy exceeds MEDCOM wait time standards

By Ms. Jenny Stripling (Army Medicine)August 3, 2015

Lyster Pharmacy wait times
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Lyster Army Health Clinic pharmacy serves over 20,000 beneficiaries monthly making it one of the busiest and most modern pharmacies in the state of Alabama.

With increasing numbers of patients can come increasing wait times. However, continuous improvements in the LAHC Pharmacy service are helping make the process of refilling prescriptions easier for beneficiaries, and in turn, have decreased average patient wait times.

The Army Medical Command's wait time goal set for LAHC pharmacy is to serve more than 75 percent of all beneficiaries within 30 minutes and more than 98 percent of all beneficiaries within 60 minutes. LAHC pharmacy has met and exceeded this standard.

"Lyster's goal is to serve all beneficiaries in 30 minutes," said Lt. Col. Tai Bolaji, Department of Pharmacy chief. "As much as we aspire to minimize the wait time, patient safety is our main focus. We are very proud of our safety record of less than 0.005 percent error, which is far lower than the five percent medication error national average."

One way wait times are being lowered is through a new check-in method which helps resolve immediate issues prior to being called to the service window.

"Lyster's pharmacy has established a welcome desk where patients are prescreened prior to pulling a ticket," said Bolaji. "This ensures the patients' information is correct and ensures that all prescriptions are signed by the provider."

When establishing or refilling prescriptions at the clinic, patients must obtain tickets from a machine located in front of the pharmacy windows. Customer's push buttons A, B or C to have appropriate paper tickets printed by the machine, and wait until their numbers are called.

The A, B and C categories indicate separate patient groups, and customers should be sure to choose the ones applicable to them, said Bolaji.

Category A is established for active-duty Soldiers, in or out of uniform, said Bolaji. They may pick up medications for themselves and Family members, but must have ID cards or copies of cards for any dependents not present. Black and white copies should be made of the front and back of each card.

Family members or retirees whose prescriptions were written by LAHC staff should choose Category B tickets. Category C tickets are for individuals who have prescriptions written by off-post referral physicians. C is also for anyone else not falling under categories A or B.

Lyster Pharmacy is also currently working on a two ticket system. This two-ticketing system will allow the beneficiary to take two tickets at the ticket counter. When called to the window, patients will retain one ticket and the second ticket will accompany the prescription in a basket and be processed quickly through the pharmacy processing stations.

Once the prescription is filled, it will be dispensed at any of the pharmacy windows by recalling the ticket number retained by the patient. The goal is that there will not be over a 30 minutes wait for patients' to be called to the window for prescription processing and completion.

Lyster offers several convenient ways for patients to refill prescriptions: Electronic prescription (e-Rx), fax and drop-off.

"The electronic prescribing is the preferred option," said Bolaji. "This option allows the network providers to input patient prescription in their computer and the provider electronically transmits the prescription to Lyster Pharmacy. This process eliminates patients misplacing or losing the hard copy prescriptions."

The e-Rx also eliminates legibility issues and minimizes telephone calls to network providers for clarification. The e-Rx are not verified or filled until patients are present at the Lyster Pharmacy.

Faxed prescriptions are still an option for doctors' offices that does not have the e-Rx capability. Similarly the prescriptions are not processed until patients are present at the Pharmacy.

The drop-off option is available at the refill pickup windows for patients that cannot wait. Antibiotic and pain medication cannot be dropped off because of timeliness of which the patient must take the medications. Patients using this option must allow 24 to 48 hours to process the medications. Patients also have the option to specifically request when he or she would like to pick up the medications.

Patients can also refill prescriptions by calling 255-7671.

Bolaji said the LAHC pharmacy belongs to the beneficiaries and great pride is taken in providing quality care to beneficiaries.

"Patient satisfaction is very important to us, and we are always striving to improve," Bolaji said. "We welcome comments for further improvements."

Pharmacy hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every weekday except the third Wednesday of each month when the service closes for training purposes. During this third Wednesday, the pharmacy is open from 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. For more information regarding pharmacy services, please call 255-7178.