80:20 Dispensing Creates Time and Space for Counselling
Efficient Dispensary Designs' research has shown that the Pareto Principal applies to dispensary stock usage. In broad terms, 20% of dispensary products account for 80% of prescriptions dispensed and 80% of dispensary products account for 20% of prescriptions dispensed.
The volume of products used in the average pharmacy can therefore be classified into high, medium and low velocity with, for example, the following monthly usage rates:
- High velocity 10 plus
- Medium velocity 4-9
- Low velocity 0-3
Each product's usage rate can be determined from the dispensary computer's product usage report.
Having identified the high and medium-velocity products, the next step in 80/20 dispensing is to place these items as close as possible to the prescription assembly bench. These products can be stored in 2.4 metres of shelving provided 400mm deep shelves are used.
Time savings
In old-style dispensaries where only 300mm deep shelves are used, the amount of wall space needed to store the high and medium velocity products is 33% more. That means another metre of shelving, translating to another step to reach the products.
With 2.4 metres of 400mm shelves, product selection is a simple turn and take - a maximum 4 seconds.
This 4 seconds is 9 seconds and 69% less than the average product selection time with old-style E-bay shelving which Pharmacy Workshops has timed at 13 seconds.
DIAGRAM 1 Space and walking distances required
by outdated shelving
Where products are spread out along a straight wall without E-Bay shelving, Pharmacy Workshops has measured the product selection time at 16 seconds per item. The longer the dispensary wall, the further to walk, select and return with the medicine. And this is time spent walking instead of talking to patients.
Longer walking times come into play when considering the best storage system for the 800-1,000 low-velocity products. If they are stretched out along a wall, product selection times would average more than 16 seconds as the wall adjacent to the prescription bench has the high and medium-velocity products.
Pharmacy Workshops recommends low-velocity products be stored in a drawer system, such as one with 14 drawers in each module with each module holding 200 individual products. Thus, four bays will take all the low-velocity products in the average pharmacy. This means:
- these products take up only 1.2 metres of wall space; and
- product selection time on these products is only 5 seconds per item.
Overall time savings from 80/20 dispensing per 100 prescriptions dispensed can be calculated:
- For the 80% of items selected from high and medium-velocity products items:
-- 80 x 9 seconds equals 720 seconds savings. - For the 20% of items selected from the low-velocity products items:
-- 20 x 8 seconds equals 160 seconds savings.
The total savings per hundred prescriptions is therefore 880 seconds or 14.7 minutes. For every 1,000 prescriptions dispensed, the time created for counselling would be 147 minutes or 2 hours 27 minutes.
Space savings
DIAGRAM 2 Space and walking distances saved
by 80/20 dispensing
In addition to the time savings, 80/20 dispensing reduces the space required for stock storage in two ways:
- By increasing the depth of the shelves used for storage of the high and medium-velocity products, the length of wall space is reduced; and
- By using a drawer stock-storage system for low-velocity products, the products are stacked in 14 drawer bays instead of spread along a wall.
The space savings are illustrated in Diagrams 1 and 2. Diagram 1 illustrates a dispensary where the stock is spread out along 9.6 metres of wall, with 300mm deep shelves. This dispensary has 96 linear metres of shelf length and 28.8 sqm of shelf space. The amount of shelf space influences how easily the high velocity products fit on to the shelves.
Diagram 2 is of a dispensary using 80/20 dispensing - the storage of high and medium-velocity products on deep shelves and the low-velocity products in drawers. The dispensary has 88 linear metres of shelving and 30.4 sqm of shelf space.
The floor area taken for the dispensary in Diagram 1 is 20.2sqm while the floor area taken for the dispensary in Diagram 2 is 9.5sqm.
The floor area created by 80/20 dispensing is 10.7sqm which could be used for counselling. Thus 80/20 dispensing creates both time and space for counselling.
The above information was published in the Australian Journal of Pharmacy, January/February, 2009