Numbers Through The Lens Of A Community Pharmacist

The easiest way to define a number is, as an object use to measure or count, and this is a major factor in pharmacy. In the voice of my favorite customer “how long does it take to count my pills and put in a bottle” ( right that’s all I do at work. 🙂 ).

I see numbers constantly at work, I deal with numbers every minute but the numbers that hunts me the most are the numbers associated with targets. Every morning as I assume the role of the Responsible Pharmacist, I’m reminded of targets I have to meet. I am rated by the numbers I bring in. Sometimes when I meet my target I get a little reward (I don’t hold my breath on that so don’t hold yours either), regardless of an incentive in sight, I always have my victory dance in the dispensary.

One of the very useful services I offer as a Pharmacist is Medicine Use Review (MUR). It’s basically having reviews with patients on multiple medication or high-risk medications, with the aim of ensuring better understanding of their medication and the condition being treated by the practitioner. On the business hand, this is a commissioned service, which means each review conducted could be paid by the National Health Service. Therefore it is important I keep an accurate count of how many MUR’s I completed for appropriate claiming.

The target here is to provide 400 MUR’s per financial year. In this situation: An Achieving Community Pharmacist will have to provide minimum 2 MUR’s in 24 hours x 5 days per week for 52 weeks.

THAT WILL BE

2 MUR’s in 1440 minutes x 7200 minutes per week for 524160 minutes

I Will Definitely Need A Tracker.

Numbers