Impact of a chemotherapy workload and productivity dashboard on pharmacy technician turnover

To describe the methods used in the development of an intravenous chemotherapy workload and productivity dashboard and its impact on symptoms of burnout and technician turnover.

In February 2017, chemotherapy sterile preparation pharmacy technicians reported symptoms of burnout as a result of perceived increase in workload. In response, an i.v. chemotherapy workload and productivity dashboard was developed at an academic medical center to validate workload in comparison to the reported job stress of pharmacy technicians. The dashboard provided pharmacy leadership objective data to validate staff concerns and leveraged lean principles to level-load the work prior to requesting additional full-time equivalents (FTEs) to senior leadership. The rate of turnover of i.v. chemotherapy technicians was assessed before (December 2016-June 2017) and after (July 2017-January 2018) dashboard implementation and approval of an additional i.v. chemotherapy technician FTE. The addition of the new FTE resulted in a decrease in productivity from an average of 106% (range 67%-151%) to 84% (range 65%-110%). The interventions allowed for the ability to leverage a staffing-to-demand model, resulting in the observed improvement in technician symptoms of burnout and a notable decrease in the overall turnover rate of i.v. chemotherapy technicians.

The i.v. chemotherapy workload and productivity dashboard confirmed frontline staff perception and provided data to support the addition of labor resource and an opportunity to leverage a staffing-to-demand model to decrease symptoms of burnout and technician turnover.