The pharmacy at Reynolds Army Community Hospital has experienced several changes in the past year as the Fort Sill population has grown.
Many of the improvements have been made to increase the pharmacy's efficiency while reducing wait times.
The Cannoneer recently sat down with Lt. Col. Mark Hohstadt (PharmD) Pharmacy Services chief, and Janet Seratte (PharmD), Outpatient Pharmacy supervisor at Reynolds to talk about these changes and why they are important.
Cannoneer: The hospital pharmacy recently added three more customer service windows. What was the reason for adding more windows?
Hohstadt:"We opened the new windows because we had reached capacity with only six windows. We conducted a management review that determined the need for 8.7 windows. We increased the number of windows to nine last year. In doing that our average wait time went from over 20 minutes to below five minutes. In March, we had an average wait time of two minutes and 32 seconds, which was best on record."
Seratte: "And we've increased the staffing so there's more staff to fill prescriptions and more pharmacists to counsel patients about their medication."
Hohstadt: "In addition to just the short average wait-time, we're also trying to avoid long waits at peak volume times such as the lunch hour. Our goal is to maintain the wait time below 15 minutes.We only had 20 patients out of nearly 10,000 patients in February who waited over 15 minutes, and in March nobody waited over 15 minutes."
Cannoneer: What other changes have you made to improve service at the pharmacy?
Hohstadt: "In addition to the additional windows, we added a $1.4 million automated prescription system that requires a barcode safety check on every prescription we fill. Since we installed it in July of last year, we have not made any medication errors due to drug identification. The most common error we currently make is on patient identification. The biggest thing patients can do to help us focus on safety is to ensure their name is on all of their prescriptions before they leave the pharmacy."
Seratte: "We also have a new renovated lobby that makes our patients' visits more enjoyable. We are just trying to make the entire prescription filling process easier for the patient. We have converted the system to be more convenient by allowing the patient to complete the entire visit at one window instead of having to visit multiple windows."
Cannoneer: Why should patients come to the pharmacy at Reynolds? Can't they get their prescriptions filled off-post just as easily?
Hohstadt:"For the Department of Defense, the military treatment facilities are the most cost-efficient place to have a prescription filled, mail-order is number two and retail is the most expensive. Patients never pay a co-pay at RACH. Co-pays went up Oct. 1 of last year and now they range anywhere from $5 to $25 per month for prescriptions filled in the retail network."
"Walgreen's no longer accepts TRICARE payments for prescriptions. But the majority of pharmacies in Lawton still take TRICARE."
Seratte: "Patients need to know that it is easy to transfer those off-post prescriptions that are on the RACH formulary to the RACH pharmacy. They can call our facility or bring in their old prescription bottles, and we can call their pharmacies and transfer those prescriptions to RACH pharmacy in four hours or less."
Cannoneer: What is the formulary and how has it changed in the last year?
Hohstadt: "The formulary is the list of medicines that are available at RACH. We have been expanding our formulary based on reports that shows what is being filled at the local retail level. We've added over 15 items in the past few months that patients had to go downtown for that are now available here."
Seratte: "That brings up another point. We fill prescriptions from off-post providers but some people have the perception that we only fill for on-post providers. Actually a lot of our business is from local off-post providers."
Hohstadt: "The RACH pharmacy has the ability to see what you have gotten downtown, to see all of your prescriptions that have been filled through the retail or mail-order pharmacy networks, so if you would like to transfer your prescriptions to the RACH pharmacy, please stop in when they are due for refill and we get those transferred here."
Cannoneer: What are the advantages of having prescriptions filled on-post?
Seratte: "We really want to serve the beneficiaries. We don't want them going downtown because we want to take care of our own. We also want to remind people that there are no co-pays for prescriptions that are filled at a military treatment facility. Even with a 90-day prescription there is zero dollar co-pay."
Hohstadt: "The TRICARE benefit is a really good benefit and a lot of people who have always had it don't realize what they have."
Cannoneer: Can patients call refills in to the RACH pharmacy or do they have to bring them in?
Seratte: "Yes, they can call in their refills to the pharmacy. The refill numbers are 558-2442 or 558-2443. If they call refills in before 7 a.m. it will be ready by 1 p.m. the same day."
Cannoneer: What other initiatives are you working on?
Seratte: "We are working to make the Pharmissary function the same as the main pharmacy. The ticketing system will be exactly the same, so the patients will be able to walk up, get their medications and leave. It will no longer be a drop-off setup."
Cannoneer: So how have these changes helped the pharmacy do a better job?
Hohstadt: "Our first goal is always safety followed by customer service. The automation upgrades have significantly reduced medication errors. Our customer service scores are currently at an all-time high and we are well above the averages for other military treatment facilities. We are always looking for ways to improve and we welcome suggestions from our beneficiaries."
All military beneficiaries can get their prescriptions filled at the RACH hospital pharmacies. Specific information about the drug formulary, hours of operation, policies and procedures for each pharmacy can be found on the RACH web page at www.rach.sill.amedd.army.mil/pharmacy.php.
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