3 Ways to Fix the Start Barrier in Your Pharmacy

My mechanic tells me the hardest part on an engine is the ignition. Like the work a cold engine needs to do to ignite a spark and release fuel into the combustion chamber, causing a reaction that generates energy for motion, pressing the mental START button is the hardest part of the job. Once the car is running, the engine puts in little work.

In pharmacy, the blister packs pile up and the Pharmacist resists getting the checking started. The baskets of prescription to log grows and staff resist getting started. The medication review paperwork needing documentation to be completed actually falls off the shelf from being too heavy.

All these grinding tasks are doable, some even mind-numbingly simple, yet they pile up. They are not staff or patients demanding direct answers. There are no immediate consequences to leaving them for tomorrow.

We frequently remind ourselves of these to-do tasks needing completion and anxiety grows with each mental reminder. They grind away at our nerves until we either bite the bullet and get started, or kick the can so far down the road that the pile doubles, making starting seem futile.

We solve this problem by making it easy to start. Because once we start, we’re fine. If we could start less often, imagine how productive we would feel, and imagine how we…