NPSA Leaflet

[DavidS]

Originally Posted by Pharmanaut

Think about what would P*ss you off as a patient.

You feel grotty, have been to the doctors having waited ages.

Of you go to the pharmacy and you find...

All the staff industriously working to do prescriptions and getting on with it.
OR
All the staff working on prescriptions and getting on with it while chatting and joking.

Waiting to hand a prescription in but being ignored
OR
Someone says "Morning/Afternoon, I'll be with you in a minute".

The scripts are getting done just as quickly but the second one creates the wrong impression.

Take a moment to see ourselves from the customer point of view.

Mmm. The last open plan Boots I worked in, they had a barrier to prevent more than one person at a time approaching the counter. So they had gone to all that expense, then had to hold the customers back!

And I don't remember many getting done at the front anyway. I did check a few, but the customers were so far away from that part that it couldn't be seen anyway. Its all about design and image. I don't think the customers like it, either, really.

[laurabuk]

There are some good points here I work in a Pharmacy with an open plan dispensary - it can be both a blessing and a curse:

When you are doing a person's prescription in an open plan dispensary it can actually open up opportunities for counselling and patient queries and like Jeff (i think) said helps you to be involved with the patient personally and get to know them and allows you to notice the times when they are feeling a little 'down in the dumps' or not themselves. Even if its only chatting to them about the footy, it strikes up a rappor (is that the word i'm looking for) and makes patients come back to you - I know we have regulars who miss our chatty Pharmacist when he's off.

However, on the flipside, I think open plan dispensaries can contribute to errors as you have patients staring at you and eye balling you, huffing and puffing that they are not being served as fast as they would like and the bench gets covered in scripts and it looks downright untidy!

(but then thats just my tuppenorth worth )

[johnep]

When I worked in an open plan, I did the easy one and two item scripts. Longer scripts and liquid antibiotics etc were passed through to the back.

Reason for this was to prevent front line pharmacist getting bogged down as had to observe counter etc.
johnep