PHARMACY LEADERSHIP CERTIFICATE:

MANAGEMENT BASICS

Scheduling and Staffing

Models

Planned by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists

©2022 American Society of Health‐System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
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 SCHEDULING AND
STAFFING MODELS

Rebecca A. Taylor, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, FASHP

Senior Director, Pharmacy Services
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

PHARMACY LEADERSHIP
CERTIFICATE:
MANAGEMENT BASICS Planned and coordinated by ASHP

RELEVANT FINANCIAL
RELATIONSHIP DISCLOSURE
No one in control of the content of this activity has a relevant financial
relationship (RFR) with an ineligible company.

As defined by the Standards of Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education definition of ineligible
company. All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated prior to the CPE activity.

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

2
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Identify necessary information to create a department staffing plan.

 Develop an effective staffing strategy given a budget of full-time equivalents
(FTEs), operating hours, and service expectations.
 Use fair and consistent principles to design a scheduling system.

KEY ABBREVIATIONS

 ADC: automated dispensing cabinet

 ASC: ambulatory surgical center
 ED: emergency department
 FTE: full-time equivalent
 ICU: intensive care unit
 IV: intravenous
 PRN: as needed
 PTO: paid time off

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 SELF-ASSESSMENT

You are the incoming operations manager at a new pharmacy department in a 250-
bed hospital. You are reviewing the budgeted FTEs with your director and finance
manager. You currently have 15 FTE technicians and 12 FTE pharmacists.

How many shifts does this equate to in a 2-week scheduling (pay) period assuming
each FTE is full-time, and you are scheduling worked hours of 8-hour shifts (10
shifts per pay period)?
A. 230
B. 270
C. 252
D. 260

PEOPLE: OUR MOST VALUABLE

ASSET
 For most non-healthcare businesses, a position can be based on weekday work,
i.e., Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm
 However, healthcare is a 24/7 business
‒ Workload inputs and determinants
• Admission flow of patients (days, hours, discharges)
• Surgeries or planned admissions
• Infusions
• Retail pharmacies
• Non-timed activities
– Crash cart replenishment, ADC refill, sterile compounding batching

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT (FTE)

 Budgets and labor are calculated on your number of dedicated FTEs annualized
‒ Staffed
‒ Productive time (0.8) or “hours worked”
‒ Nonproductive time (0.2) includes vacation, PTO, sick, holidays
 Budget uses annualized FTE
 Hours worked / productive time uses staffed
 Number of people is not usually the same as the number of FTEs
‒ 1 FTE can be 2 part-time employees at 0.5 FTE each
‒ 1 FTE can be 5 interns that work 0.2 FTE each

FTE CALCULATIONS

 A pharmacist position in the main pharmacy has to be covered 7 days per week,
8 hours each day (0600 to 1430)
‒ 56 hours of coverage required
‒ 1 FTE is usually equal to 40 hours per week
‒ 7 days per week = 1.4 FTE
 This same pharmacist position is covered the entire day with some “shift” overlap
‒ First shift = 0600 to 1430
‒ Second shift = 1400 to 2230
‒ Third shift = 2200 to 0600
‒ 3 x 8 hour shifts = 1.4 FTE each = 4.2 FTE for entire week
 Third shift can be calculated in different ways, e.g., 7 on / 7 off

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 EMPLOYEE TYPES

 Organizations may have different definitions of full-time

‒ Examples: 0.8 to 1.0
‒ Impacts benefit status
 Organizations may have different definitions of part-time
‒ Examples: 0.5, 0.6, 0.7
‒ Impacts benefit status
‒ Could use an average over time
• Pay period 1 works 0.7 FTE; pay period 2 works 0.5 FTE = Average 0.6 FTE
‒ May need to offer full-time benefits if the employee hits a certain average or range
 PRN employees / casual – protected hours vary
‒ May need to offer benefits if consistently working part-time or full-time

EXAMPLE STAFFING MATRIX 315-

BED HOSPITAL + OFFSITE ASC
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wed Thurs Friday Saturday shift count
N N N N N N N 10
DIV T T T T T DIV 7
CINT CINT 2
DFD DFD DFD DFD DFD DFD DFD 7
WVC DIV DIV DIV DIV DIV WVC 7
WIV EBDI EBDI EBDI EBDI EBDI WIV 7
IVT EIV EIV EIV EIV EIV IVT 6
EVC EVC EVC EVC EVC 5
51 per week
102 per pay

9.8 FTEs 1.176 training

office staff 1.176 PTO
BUYER 10 12.152
ASC
10
TECH
ANALYST 10
132

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©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 EXAMPLE PHARMACIST STAFFING
MATRIX 315-BED HOSPITAL
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wed Thurs Friday Saturday shift count
N N N N N N N 10
O O O O O O O 5
E E E E E E E 7
M M M M M 5
D D 2
C1 C1 C1 C1 C1 5
C2 C2 C2 C2 C2 5
C3 C3 C3 C3 C3 5
I I I I I 5
BH BH BH BH BH 5
BSD BSD BSD BSD BSD 5
A A A A A 5
64 per week
128 per pay

12.8 FTEs 1.536 PTO

14.336

staffed by resident

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PHARMACIST SCHEDULING

 How clinical and operational schedules are completed depends on the tasks and
workflow of your practice model
‒ Integrated model?
‒ Who is responsible for orders?
 Are services offered consistently?
‒ What hours are your services staffed?
‒ How do you determine which services are staffed, when, and by whom?
‒ Are clinical services collapsed at times for call-offs, holidays or conferences?
‒ High risk?
• ICU
• Pediatrics
• Oncology
• Transplant
‒ Coverage for PTO, meetings, conferences

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©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 WORK SCHEDULE WITH VOLUMES

 Ideally the volume of patients (admissions, peak time for orders, IV orders, IV
infusion areas, surgeries, discharges) directs the schedule of the workers, and
not the other way around
‒ Important to periodically assess this
‒ Hospital optimizations may affect the pharmacy work downstream
• Surgery schedule optimization
• ED throughput / fast-track
– Focus on length of stay may affect patient movement and bed allotment
• Discharge optimization to have a goal time
– Focus on length of stay may create a goal discharge time by 11 am, for example
 Important to consider pharmacy tasks that are time-critical and those that are not

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PHARMACY TASKS

 Time critical (out of our control)  Not time-critical or could be planned (within our
‒ Unload distributor order control)
‒ Incoming medication orders ‒ Batching schedules – sterile & non-sterile
‒ Patient discharge times ‒ Prepackaging
‒ Bed flow / transfers ‒ Restocking ADCs & automation
‒ IV infusion schedules ‒ Replenishing crash cart / boxes
‒ Incoming phone calls ‒ Checking expiration dates
‒ Scheduled rounds ‒ Cleaning equipment
‒ Some clinical duties ‒ Credits
‒ Discharge prescriptions ‒ Returns
‒ Medication delivery rounds
‒ Surgery Schedules

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©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 TASK ANALYSIS:
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

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TASK ANALYSIS PRIORITIZATION

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 STATE REGULATIONS

 Some states have regulations regarding staff management or ratios by

pharmacist
 Need to take these regulations into account, if applicable, when building a
staffing matrix or planning for call-offs

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PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENTS

 Many organizations review labor according to output (widgets / orders / surgeries)

divided by the labor utilized
 Ranges can be set in cooperation with management analyst, finance,
administration
 Usually aim to run 90-97% productive
 Usually set with the budget projections

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©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENTS

 Attaches a “dollars saved” or “dollars unfavorable” to budget

 Can reset each year making attaining target in future years more difficult
‒ Open positions can affect this, as well as high volumes, without adding FTEs
‒ Usually distinctly different than external benchmarking; however, can be related

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SELF-ASSESSMENT

You are the incoming operations manager at a new pharmacy department in a 250-
bed hospital. You are reviewing the budgeted FTEs with your director and finance
manager. You currently have 15 FTE technicians and 12 FTE pharmacists.

How many shifts does this equate to in a 2-week scheduling (pay) period assuming
each FTE is full-time, and you are scheduling worked hours of 8-hour shifts (10
shifts per pay period)?
A. 230
B. 270
C. 252
D. 260

20

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

11
 SELF-ASSESSMENT

You are the incoming operations manager at a new pharmacy department in a 250-
bed hospital. You are reviewing the budgeted FTEs with your director and finance
manager. You currently have 15 FTE technicians and 12 FTE pharmacists.

How many shifts does this equate to in a 2-week scheduling (pay) period assuming
each FTE is full-time, and you are scheduling worked hours of 8-hour shifts (10
shifts per pay period)?
A. 230
B. 270
C. 252
D. 260

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CONCLUSIONS

 Budgeted FTEs drives the scheduling plan and matrix.

 Pharmacy leaders should try to match the schedule of workers to the workload
that the patient volume demands.
 There are tools available to assist pharmacy leaders in optimizing scheduling and
tasks.
‒ Creates an opportunity to engage the staff.

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©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

12
 PHARMACY LEADERSHIP
CERTIFICATE:
MANAGEMENT BASICS Planned and coordinated by ASHP

23

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

13
 Rebecca Taylor, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, FASHP
Senior Director, Pharmacy Services
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Rebecca (Becky) Taylor earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the
University of Pittsburgh and completed one year of post-graduate
residency training at Aurora Advocate Health in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She completed her Master of Business Administration in Healthcare
Management from Regis University. Dr. Taylor is the Senior Director,
Pharmacy Service Line, UPMC Corporate Services, where she oversees
acute and ambulatory hospital care at over 43 hospital-based sites in
three states.

Dr. Taylor has served in elected and appointed leadership roles for the American Society of Health-System
Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacy, including being the immediate-Past
President of the Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacy. She is a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy
Specialist and an ASHP Fellow.

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Methods and CE Requirements

This online activity consists of a combined total of 7 learning modules. Pharmacists and pharmacy
technicians are eligible to receive a total of 20.5 hours of continuing education credit by completing all 7
modules within this certificate.

Participants must participate in the entire activity, complete the evaluation and all required components
to claim continuing pharmacy education credit online at ASHP Learning Center
http://elearning.ashp.org. Follow the prompts to claim credit and view your statement of credit within
60 days after completing the activity.

Important Note – ACPE 60 Day Deadline:

Per ACPE requirements, CPE credit must be claimed within 60 days of being earned – no exceptions!

To verify that you have completed the required steps and to ensure your credits have been reported to
CPE Monitor, we encourage you to check your NABP eProfile account to validate your credits were
transferred successfully before the ACPE 60-day deadline. After the 60-day deadline, ASHP will no longer
be able to award credit for this activity.

System Technical Requirements

Courses and learning activities are delivered via your Web browser and Acrobat PDF. Users should have
a basic comfort level using a computer and navigating websites.

View Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

©2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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