NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Acute Pharmacy Redesign Program: Report for the Pharmacy and Prescribing Support Unit, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are in the midst of a major pharmacy redesign programme that aims to maximise the application of technology in the medicines supply chain and to release staff to deliver improved patient care through the Making the Most of your Medicines (MMyM) service.

This report discusses the findings from a study undertaken by a team of researchers from the University of Strathclyde and the Pharmacy and Prescribing Support Unit (PPSU) in support of this redesign programme. In particular, the study focuses on the implementation of a new approach to in-patient medicines management designed by the PPSU. This approach takes the form of a robotic pharmacy distribution system, installed in a newly-built centrally-located Pharmacy Distribution Centre (PDC). The study was conducted from January to September 2010.

The aims of the study were, first, to develop a suitable metrics framework for the new pharmacy distribution system and, second, to capture the organisational learning gained from the implementation phase of the PDC. However, as the project progressed it became clear that the primary focus would be on capturing organisational learning and providing expert advice to support implementation before a more effective performance measurement system could be designed.

The report makes three sets of recommendations relating to:

(1) standardising processes, improving quality and sharing best practice;

(2) improving staff morale;

(3) analysing and improving inventory management procedures.

These recommendations are complemented by a proposal for a new, multi-layered performance measurement framework. This would consist of a Balanced Scorecard for strategic control (quarterly, monthly), into which feeds an Operational Dashboard (weekly, daily, all of which would be underpinned by a Lean Six Sigma improvement framework (incorporating FMEA and HACCP techniques where possible).