Pharmacist’s time spent: Space for Pharmacy-based Interventions and Consultation TimE (SPICE)—an observational time and motion study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo describe the pharmacists’ workflow, including tasks and time spent, to better understand their work capacity.DesignCross-sectional, observational, time and motion study.SettingCommunity pharmacies in Western Australia and New South Wales, Australia.ParticipantsCurrently registered and practising pharmacists were approached using snowball sampling and selected using purposive techniques to obtain balance representation of metropolitan and rural pharmacies, as well as high and low script volumes where possible.ResultsTwenty-four pharmacists across 15 pharmacies participated during the 135 sessions totalling over 274 hours of observation. Dispensing (30%), indirect patient services (17%), counselling (15%) and professional management activities (15%) were the top four duties pharmacists performed, while only 2% of time was spent on professional services such as pain clinics and influenza vaccinations. Tasks were frequently interrupted and often performed simultaneously. Breaks and consumer-contact times were limited. More time was spent on professional service activities in non-metropolitan pharmacies, in pharmacies with greater daily prescription volumes and those with one or more support pharmacists.ConclusionsThis is the first study to quantify the pharmacists’ tasks in Australian community pharmacies. Much time is being spent on dispensing, supply and management activities with little time for providing additional professional services. An extra supporting pharmacist is likely necessary to increase professional services. These findings could support future research around barriers and enablers of conducive workflows and of extended professional services.

Direct observational time and motion study of the daily activities of hospital dispensary pharmacists and technicians

“…16,17 In this study, pharmacists experienced an interruption, on average, every 9 min, while technicians were interrupted every 12 min. In contrast, Karia et al 18 found that community pharmacists were interrupted once every 19 min. Our study also determined that pharmacists were disproportionately more likely to be interrupted while dispensing than when performing other tasks, and most frequently by communication from other staff.…”

“…This study demonstrates that the hospital pharmacy inpatient dispensary is a fast-paced environment, with the average task duration being approximately 30 s. This task duration is shorter when compared to studies that have evaluated task time in a community pharmacy environment. Karia et al 18 found the median time per task in a community pharmacy to be 1 min 22 s, whereas data published by Gregorgio et al 6 showed the average task time for community pharmacists to range between 2-5 min. Task time was shown to be of shorter duration in the present study because task categories were divided into subtasks.…”

“…Karia et al 18 utilised the WOMBAT method to evaluate pharmacy workflow in an Australian community pharmacy and identified comparable results in professional interactions. They showed that community pharmacists spent 48% of their time performing tasks independently and 13% with other pharmacy staff.…”

Pharmacist Role in Hypertension Management in the Community Setting: Questionnaire Development, Validation, and Application

“… 65 , 66 The perception of “lack of time”, reported as a barrier for service provision, must be taken into consideration through both better management and task redistribution for providing additional contemporary professional services. 65 , 67 …”

Assessing the knowledge, Attitudes and Barriers Regarding Health Promotion of Breast Cancer Among Community Pharmacists

“…However, the contributions of pharmacist to promote public health issues are not widely reported, which may be partially due to some of their services goes unnoticed [ 64 ]. Furthermore, pharmacists spend much time to fulfill their responsibilities during working h such as dispensing, supplying, and management activities, and have no enough time for delivering professional pharmacy services [ 65 ]. More important, community pharmacists encounter numerous management challenges that would distract them from providing additional professional services [ 66 ].…”