THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PHARMACY WORKLOAD MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR THE CANADIAN FORCES
Date
1985
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Time motion and workload measurement studies have been valuable management tools since the early 1900's. They have been successfully applied to many situations and occupations to increase worker productivity and to aid managers in determining staffing levels.
Pharmacy staffing levels were historically determined by intuition and various rules of thumb. By the 1960's pharmacy managers recognized the need for a more scientific method of determining proper staffing levels. The advent of clinical pharmacy services made this requirement more critical.
A review of the literature shows that Rothenbuhler and Archambault, Summerfield, Hammel, Levin and Toohey used time motion studies to develop various pharmacy workload measurement systems. However, since these systems were developed in only 1 or 2 hospitals, they were difficult to implement in other pharmacy departments across the country.
In Canada, Schnell conducted a study entitled, "The Development of a Canadian Hospital Pharmacy Workload Measurement System". Since his study was to provide a data base useful to all Canadian hospitals, Schnell first determined what constituted pharmacy work in Canada and then developed national standards of practice. Stopwatch time studies where then
conducted in 13 hospitals representing all geographical areas of the country. The results provided the definition of 290 distinct elements of pharmacy work and the average time to complete each element.
The purpose of this study was to develop a new pharmacy workload measurement system for the Canadian Forces. They presently use a line item issue system. In this study, a total of 18 workload units which describe military pharmacy work were identified. These workload units were then defined using elements which were reported in other studies or determined
by direct observation of pharmacy work during on site visits to military pharmacies. The average time to complete each element was taken from the studies in which it was reported or determined by stopwatch time study during the on site visits. Adding the element times together gave the average time required to complete a workload unit.
Non-measurable work was identified by having military pharmacy staff self-report daily activities and the time spent on each activity. Any activity which could not be placed under one of the defined workload units
was considered non-measureable workload. In this study, non-measurable workload was 50% of measurable workload or 33% of the total departmental workload.
A new workload reporting form was designed to present the new workload units and non-measurable workload. This form allowed for the easy comparison of the time spent on the various activities or category of activities.
The new workload measurement system using the sum of measurable workload plus the actual non-measurable workload from the self-reporting forms was compared (by paired T -test) against the present line item issue system. The sum of measurable workload plus 50% of measurable workload was also compared to the present system. In both cases the new workload measurement system captured a significantly greater amount of productive time than the present system.
This study concluded that the new workload measurement system better described the actual work being done in military pharmacy departments. It also was more efficient than the present line item issued system because it captured a greater amount of productive time over the same reporting period.
Description
Keywords
pharmacy workload measurement system
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Pharmacy