Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS
Rhiannon Graham
PID: 3634552

Redesign the Pharmacy Service Process at CVS Customer Value Store (CVS) is one of the largest retail drugstores in the United States. CVS has over 4,000 stores and generated revenue of 24.2 billion dollars in 2002. CVS grew at the same rate as other major pharmacy chains, but continued to lose millions of customers due to service issues. These problems led to the implementation of the Pharmacy Service Initiative (PSI). In observations of various stores, as well as interviews with employees, 67 major problems were identified. The steps in the service process include drop-off, data entry, production (prescription fulfillment), quality assurance, waiting for pickup, and the pickup. Each of these areas contain possibilities for improvement. The first step of the process is the drop off. This is the first interaction between the customer and the CVS employee. The problem that occurred at this step was the drop off window was sometimes unstaffed by the employee. This problem arose because the only work station available for employees to use was located near the pickup window. A potential solution to this issue is to put another work station at the drop off window. This would also allow for employees to verify all customer information at the drop off instead of at pick up which would shorten customer wait times at the pickup window and allow those transactions to run more smoothly. When the customers drop off their prescriptions, the employee can also ask for the best phone number to contact them in case of problems when attempting to fill the prescription. Also if the drop off window was always staffed, wait times would be communicated more clearly, thus reducing the risk that a customer would come to pick up their medication before it was ready. This solution is a viable one because the work