Follow one order
Pick an ordinary order and walk with it from the moment it arrives to the moment it leaves the building. Write down every step, who does it and how long the order waits before the next step begins. Do this for five orders on different days.
Count the waiting, not the work
Most of an order's time in a pharmacy is spent waiting: for someone to notice it, for a pharmacist to be free, for a label, for the carrier. The work itself is often only minutes. The biggest gains usually come from shortening a wait, not from making a task faster.
Pick the right first step
A good first step to automate has three features.
- It happens many times a day.
- It is done the same way every time.
- The rules can be written down in a few sentences.
Good first candidates
- Creating shipping labels.
- Sorting and assigning the fill queue.
- Printing labels with lot numbers and dates filled in.
- Sending status updates to clinics.
- Matching lab results to batches.
- Checking shipments for late deliveries and claiming refunds.
Leave these to people
Anything that needs clinical judgment stays with a pharmacist. Automation should bring the right information to the pharmacist faster. It should never make the decision.
Measure before and after
Choose one number before you change anything, such as orders shipped by 3 p.m., the age of the oldest unfilled order, or minutes from verification to label. Measure it for a week, make the change, then measure again. If the number does not move, undo the change and try the next step.
Reviewed 2026-11-12 by a practicing pharmacist. This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check the current USP chapters, your state board of pharmacy rules and your software agreements before you act on it.