Out of the Fire
Do you spend most of your time in the fire? Are you putting out fires or helping out in the pharmacy on the line, leaving little time for high-level visioning for the pharmacy? Or do you spend most of your time doing high-level visioning, but receive complaints from your pharmacy staff that you are disconnected and don’t understand the main challenges they experience? For those of you who have budget crunches, being on the line may seem like a complete necessity. It is also easy to feel a sense of accomplishment when you are out there on the line helping patients and making a difference.
This is a tricky balance to achieve when you face the dilemma of being in a budget crunch where you need to make the best use of your time. When you are caught up in the day-to-day operations of the pharmacy, it is hard to be in the space of taking a step back to take a high-level view and consider what is best for the short-term and long-term vision of the pharmacy.
However, as a leader, you will “spin” less if you take time to step back to think of the bigger picture. It will help you make a difference in many more patients. How can you impact 500 patients vs. you serving them 1-on-1? These are questions you play an important part in answering, as the leader of the pharmacy.
On the flip side, if you spend all of your time visioning, managing budgets, project management, patient satisfaction/quality improvement, as well as hiring/firing, you may lose the pulse of what is happening among your pharmacy staff and what is important to the patients. Regardless of what side of the coin you are on, there are things that you can do right away to make sure you focus on the bigger vision even if you’re busy.
Stay tuned for an article coming up about 4 steps you can take today to focus on the bigger vision, even if you are busy.
In the meantime, if you are a pharmacy manager or director, share below how frequently you are in the fire vs. stepping back to focus on the bigger vision and make plans. What has worked & hasn’t worked for you? What are some obstacles you have to reach a balance between working with your pharmacy staff vs. on your pharmacy?
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“I Don’t Want to Spend Time Training”
This article is for Indian Health Service pharmacy directors only.
This is one of the most common comments pharmacy directors share with me, both for training new hires and relief pharmacists. A way to save you time to train is to hire slowly for the right hire and screen for pharmacists who have as many translatable skills as possible. If you have a relief pharmacist coming in, select someone with IHS experience. At the same time, there will always be new procedures and strategic direction unique only to your facility.
Training is an area that is easy to shortcut. The most common excuses are: “I don’t have time”, “Things are always changing around here; just ask other pharmacists how they will handle this.” Read more