Identifying health-system pharmacy operational process categories and corresponding tasks across a diverse health...

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Health Systems Management
• Operational Research

Background:

• Health-system pharmacies manage a wide range of operational tasks.
• Accurate identification and quantification of these tasks are crucial for efficient pharmacy operations and workload modeling.
• Previous efforts to comprehensively define these tasks have been limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and achieve consensus on the operational tasks performed within a health-system pharmacy.
• To establish a foundational list of tasks for potential use in developing operational workload models.

Main Methods:

• A modified 3-round Delphi process was employed.
• An expert panel of 8 individuals participated.
• The process involved iterative feedback, review, and group discussion to reach consensus.

Main Results:

• The expert panel reviewed and refined an initial list of 9 process categories and 44 tasks.
• A total of 106 new tasks were identified across the Delphi rounds.
• Consensus was reached on a final list of 9 processes and 138 operational tasks.

Conclusions:

• The modified Delphi process successfully identified and established consensus on operational tasks in health-system pharmacies.
• The finalized list of tasks provides a robust framework for understanding pharmacy operations.
• These findings can inform the development of operational workload models for health-system pharmacies.