Implementation of Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies to Improve the Operations and Efficiencies of an Inpatient Pharmacy

Reducing overhead costs and eliminating process waste are important aspects of any successful organization. Hospital processes are frequently interconnected, with many exchanges of both materials and information between departments. The Inpatient Pharmacy, a key component of any hospital, has hundreds of interactions between departments on any given day, and many processes see the pharmacy acting as producers, consumers, and transporters of goods throughout the hospital. Such a varied role provides broad opportunities for process improvement. Within the broader manufacturing world, the philosophies of Lean and Six Sigma have helped many companies increase their process efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase quality. The end goal of this project is to improve the workflow within the Inpatient Pharmacy process through Lean Six Sigma techniques and provide pharmacies’ teams with the tools necessary to enact improvement projects in the future. A study was enacted which observed worker movements within the pharmacy and highlighted future improvement projects. This study identified the highest frequency destinations for pharmacy technicians, and the most frequently traveled routes between workstations. An adjusted facility layout was proposed and adopted which reduces non-valued added movement by at least 15%