We speak to pharmacist Anthony Boughton from Rochdale pharmacy AJ Nuttall about his experience of using HubRx for the last four months. From the worries he had, to the time, stress and money on medicines he’s been able to save…
Staffing headaches
‘You could do with more staff’ – a throw away, but all too familiar comment Anthony says he would regularly hear when the team was battling high patient demand.
And it was true says the pharmacist. The pharmacy team did need more support. The workload had become unsustainable.
“Staffing is one of the biggest challenges and cost in pharmacy,” Anthony says.
“It can be difficult to find the right people, with the right skills and qualifications, who want to work when the business needs them. Let alone whether the business can afford it.”
So, instead of going the traditional recruitment route, Anthony and the team decided to try a tech powered alternative – HubRx.
Heavy lifting help
The pharmacy team, which delivers between 8,000 and 9,000 prescription items each month, went live with HubRx’s automated dispensing service in late March.
“It feels like we’ve gained a new staff member” he says. “Someone who can do the heavy lifting with the majority of our dispensing volume, but who doesn’t take holidays or gets sick.”
“It’s meant that the team in pharmacy – who are brilliant and who work really hard – no longer feel like the only way to cope would be to grow eight more arms!”
Now HubRx is relied upon to dispense, check and deliver back to pharmacy around 65 per cent of prescription volume for AJ Nuttal. With the physical, human powered team in Rochdale focusing on urgent prescriptions, clinical services, running the pharmacy and supporting patients.
More resilience, less stress
Anthony says although the move to automating the pharmacy’s dispensing was daunting at first, it is, without question, the right decision.
He adds: “We’ve asked and there isn’t one member of the team who wants to go back to the way we dispensed before. We’re less stressed and we feel more resilient to whatever the day throws at us now.
“Before it felt like a constant battle to keep on top of things. Now, it feels more manageable.”
Time to think
“I used to worry when I was with a patient that they could pick up on me feeling stressed or they could tell I was worrying about the prescriptions mounting up,” explains Anthony.
“They say 80 per cent of communication is non-verbal and I never wanted a patient to read from my body language that I was stressed, or feel that I didn’t have the time needed for the consultation – even if all of that was true.
“Now I don’t have those worries. When I’m with a patient I can focus on them.”
Exceeding expectations
Anthony says he was also concerned about meeting patient expectations using HubRx.
“When patients order their repeat prescriptions via apps sometimes there’s an expectation that it’ll be ready instantly. But it still needs time – time for the GP to authorise the prescription and for us to dispense it through the hub.
“But actually, aside from a few tricky patients, it’s not been an issue I needed to worry about.”
Currently HubRx is operating to a 98 per cent next working-day-delivery turnaround. Far exceeding its promised service level standard of 95 per cent.
“The service is quick,” adds Anthony.
Buying power
Anthony, who’s been a pharmacy manager for more than eight years, says HubRx has become a topic of conversation among his pharmacist friends.
“The things I get asked about most is how it works and whether it’s easy, and the price. There’s an expectation that if operationally it stacks up, the cost must be high. But actually we’ve found that on average we’re now buying cheaper.
“The days of me staying at work late, bored, trying to buy to save a pound here and there, are gone. The hub buys and they can buy better than us because they’re bigger.”
Capacity gains
Since the team went live with HubRx Anthony hasn’t heard one patient utter the phrase he grew to hate – ‘you could do with more staff’.
“HubRx says it can save a pharmacy around 15 hours a day, and I think that’s about right. But it’s more than a time saving. The team are less stressed and distracted. I have breathing space to manage the pharmacy without getting bogged down by buying”.
No looking back
“I asked the team whether they’d like to go back to the old way of working,” says Anthony. “It was a clearcut response – not a chance!”
