Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS

Section-A, Group-09

Vanyaa Kansal - 2021PGP422

Rashmi Pantawane - 2021PGP285
Amey Nagvekar - 2021PGP212
Srikanth Reddy Veeram - 2021PGP418
Abhishek Bhaskar 2021PGP548
Anurag Ratan - 2018IPM018
Q1. What changes (redesign) do you recommend to CVS’s existing pharmacy fulfillment process
that would address the problems identified by the PSI improvement team? Explain with the help
of diagram how it addresses the problems.
Q1. What changes (redesign) do you recommend to CVS’s existing pharmacy fulfillment process
that would address the problems identified by the PSI improvement team? Explain with the help
of diagram how it addresses the problems.
Currently at the drop off point, there is an unmanned window. Hence customers drop off their
scripts even if the medicine isn’t available at the store. This problem can be resolved by having an
inventory management system in place which shows real time inventory. A worker can be
appointed at the drop-off point who will immediately check if the medicine in the script is
available or not. If it isn’t available, he will communicate to the customer at that time itself.
This will ensure that there are no customers who drop their scripts and not get the medicine
prescribed due to insufficient inventory. This will also resolve the stock out problem at production
stage.
The DUR and Insurance steps can be done in parallel as both the tasks are independent.
Under Insurance, the company should ensure that they update the insurance data regularly so
that there is minimum wastage of time while contacting them.
Q1. What changes (redesign) do you recommend to CVS’s existing pharmacy fulfillment process
that would address the problems identified by the PSI improvement team? Explain with the help
of diagram how it addresses the problems.

DUR process should be carried out in parallel with insurance process and the customer should be
informed in case the hard stop is taking considerable time to process since its subject to doctors
availability.
Similarly no refill allowed prescription should be processed in parallel and customers should be
informed accordingly.
Once the prescription clears these stages, customer should be communicated regarding expected
time of delivery. Expected delays should be communicated in other case mentioning the reasons for
the same. This helps in greater customer satisfaction since uncertainty regarding delivery timelines
is eradicated.
Subsequent steps of production, quality and assurance check and pick up process can be continued
without any changes.
Q2. Explain how the modified process (that you suggested in question-1) illustrates all three
of enterprise IT’s (EIT) principle capabilities: redesign/design, standardization, and
monitoring.
Redesign

Here, there was previously an unmanned window and a lack of communication to the
patients about the availability of the medicine at the given time , which was a cause for
grievances to the patients. So, the modified process restructured the staff and the inventory
management system to be dynamic such that correct information could be given to the
patients as soon as possible, thus avoiding possible disappointments later on. This will also
have the added effect of able to pre-plan future inventory orders.

Further, the new process also redesigns DUR and Insurance steps so that no sequence is
required while checking, thus giving more freedom to increase efficiency.
Q2. Explain how the modified process (that you suggested in question-1) illustrates all three
of enterprise IT’s (EIT) principle capabilities: redesign/design, standardization, and
monitoring.

Standardisation

We will standardize the procedure that is carried out for communicating and keeping track of
insurance company policies.

We can standardize the format in which data is stored on computers to be easily read and
transferred to keep track of inventory management which will be used at the drop-off
process.

We can also standardize the storage condition of the medicines such that their quality is
maintained.

Standardization can be done in communicating with stakeholders like doctors, hospitals and
pharmacists.
Q2. Explain how the modified process (that you suggested in question-1) illustrates all three
of enterprise IT’s (EIT) principle capabilities: redesign/design, standardization, and
monitoring.
Monitoring

Here, monitoring can be observed from two sides -

1. Monitoring by the head pharmacist about the entire order-delivery process at the
company, which includes verification of authenticity of prescriptions, expiry of
medicines and drugs, checking for unauthorised access of the inventory etc.
2. The other perspective is monitoring of the company as a whole by the external
stakeholders i.e. compliance with government regulations about pharmacy operations,
ethical practices, quacks etc.

These can be achieved through proper data verification in the system and having a strong
EIT setup.