Although buying efficiently should be your main focus, I do not think you have to buy every day to be efficient. What you can do is anticipate many needs and have maybe 2 heavy ordering days per week, while picking up just a few items you could not have anticipated a need for on the other days. You may find this could work well and free up your time for some of your other duties.

Name of Facility: Pharmacy Purchasing Outlook Editor-In-Chief

Years as a Buyer: 5yrs Buyer/14yrs Pharmacy Contracts for GPO/12yrs writer

I use to order only 3 days a week with just a tiny order on Tues and Thursday. Just the things that I might have missed during the main order days. I thought it worked out well. And it freed up Tues and Thurs for those important things that need to get done. I use to scheulde allot of reps and meetings on those days. Again seemed to work real well for me.

Name of Facility: 550

City, State: Teaching

Years as a Buyer: 7

I agree that you can be efficient without ordering everyday, and I think I'm aware enough of our regular usage that it wouldn't be a problem. I guess I'm concerned about approaching it with my Director because I know the technicians would go crazy. Any change for them is nuts, but part of why they hired me is to think outside the box and figure out what doesn't work. Did any of you change from every day to every other day, if so, how did they handle it? I already feel like my job isn't understood and I'm worried they'd just take it as me trying to get out of doing something, without realizing how much of my day doing the order eats up when I have so many other responsibilities...

Name of Facility: ColleenBump

City, State: Teaching - 270 beds

Years as a Buyer: Less than 1!!!

The bottom line is that if everyone has what they need when they need it, it doesn't matter if you order once a day or once a week or once a month. If you've got a system in place where the stock replenshment is transparent, most departments won't care about your ordering patterns.

I just wouldn't brag about it.

Name of Facility: Kennedy Health System / 180

City, State: http://www.pharmacypurchasing.com

Years as a Buyer: >30 but Retired (for now...)

I too have tried different ways to order. But ordering everyday is the only way I can keep an eye on everything. Just having someone else do the Sunday order gives me a headache. And going on vacation is a nightmare. I too have a millon and one things to do but 5 o'clock everyday I just have to stop everyting and do the order.

Name of Facility: Greene Memorial Hospital - 120

City, State: Community

Years as a Buyer: 15

I guess what I take from this is pharmacy buying is primarily an art and not necessarily a science. We can learn about the systems that work well for individual buyers, but it ultimately depends on how well or poorly a system works for any individual buyer. Since no facility expects the exact same duties out of their pharmacy buyer, those duties in addition to keeping the shelves adequately stocked with needed medications, all the other requirements of the job involve tasks that take you certain amounts of time to accomplish. Thus you have to be creative and fit it all in as well as you can, given the expectations of your supervisor and your ability to do multi-tasking effectively. As to keeping your other staff members happy, if they don't run out of things very often, then maybe they don't need to see stacks and stacks of drugs on the shelves and they will learn to live with a buyer who is performing an effective job of inventory control. This is why our conference is so vital to pharmacy buyers who can finally sit down with colleagues and talk about things with professionals who may not do it exactly the way you do it, but who perfectly understand the issues you face.

Name of Facility: Pharmacy Purchasing Outlook Editor-In-Chief

Years as a Buyer: 5yrs Buyer/14yrs Pharmacy Contracts for GPO/12yrs writer

I feel you on that. Sundays order is a mess for me too. We also end up with too much or not rnough on mondays. I am really at a loss on how to teach my back ups to order approperately. Mostly b/c I do not have completely figured out yet.

I really hate how long the order takes for me to un pack and put away in the am and then to do again at night. I am the tech supervisor in addition to being the buyer, top it off with the fact that we are going live with Omnicell dispenseing machines right now and that equals very little time do get everything done.

I think my problem is compounded for me by the fact that we blister pack meds for 40 beds at the skilled nursing facility across the street, and that we act as an outpatient pharmacy for our employees. This makes things a little more unpredictable for me. If I cut my ordering down to everyother day that could create a problem with suprise order for the skilled nursing facility or the scripts employees drop off.
Also we a constantly suprised with chemo orders. So I continue to get my order everyday.

does anyone else have a similar situation to mine?

Name of Facility: Emanuel Medical Center/200

City, State: Church Owned

Years as a Buyer: less than a year

Ordering everyday is a nightmare-
Sunday ordering happens only when we have actually run out of items on the shelf--the techs know this.

I order everyday but my heaviest days are on Tuesday and Thursday.

Colleen what state are you in?

Name of Facility: 222 bed

City, State: Acute care teaching hospital Trauma II center

Years as a Buyer: 5 years

I'm in NC - the techs order on Sundays, and there's usually a pile of stuff dumped on my desk Monday morning that they ordered incorrectly. My thoughts were to order Sunday (techs), Tuesday and Thursday, for orders to arrive M, W, F, but to keep the option open (because its not like we'd redo our whole contract) if there is a run on something or an emergency we can place an order to arrive on an off day. I work 8:30 -5 so I have to start the order about 2:30, so it literally eats up my whole afternoon... everyday.

It seems to me that it just really depends on the staff, facility, etc. as to how things work best.

Name of Facility: Catawba Valley Medical Center - 270 beds

City, State: Teaching

Years as a Buyer: Less than 1!!!

I feel your pain Colleen. I have been a buyer for less than year also and my pharmacy did not have one prior to me. I really have had no training as a buyer. Most of the tips and tricks I have learned have come from this web site or calling other buyers in the area and asking them.

I am thinking about gong over to the online ordering system Amerisource has so I can check the order from home on the weekends (we currently use Echo). I am hesistant only b/c there seems to be no way to password protect the ability to send an order.

Name of Facility: Emanuel Medical Center/200

City, State: Church Owned

Years as a Buyer: less than a year

I used the AmeriSource syetem for a bit, and you can control what is ordered by placing the order yourself.

Sign up for eFax, which is a free service to receive faxes via email (you have to pay to send faxes), and have your techs fax you the order on Sunday. That way you can restrict access to the online ordering.

I'm sure your techs would rather send the order to you instead of actually placing the order, so compliance should be good.

Name of Facility: Kennedy Health System / 180

City, State: http://www.pharmacypurchasing.com

Years as a Buyer: >30 but Retired (for now...)

I used to do basically a mini-inventory every Wednesday. We had a 230 bed hospital so we were around the same size. It was a horrible, painstaking ordeal, so no one bugged me that day, but I managed to place the big order of the week in the middle of the week, then just use the Want Book for the rest of the week. We also tried the handheld with varying degrees of compliance. It really depended on the mood of the staff. I'd do a quickie check on Friday, just to make sure there were no suprises for the weekend, and I'd do a remote order on Sunday.

It worked for me. I ran about 12 turns annually (not really that great, we had Pyxis), and my contact compliance hovered around 80%, which pleased the bean-counters.

Basically, you've got to establish 'Your' system, make everyone aware of it, and stick to it. Once you're got a system carved in stone, it centers you for the rest of your responsibilities.

Name of Facility: Kennedy Health System / 180

City, State: http://www.pharmacypurchasing.com

Years as a Buyer: >30 but Retired (for now...)

I found that having PAR levels makes Sundays orders easy - very seldom do I come into ordering problems on Mondays. The PAR levels and order #'s are there so there is no guessing on quantities. We also utilize a want book so if a patient is using a lot of a certain med it is noted on the want sheet so extra can be ordered.

Name of Facility: 525+

City, State: Acute Care/Teaching/Trauma Center II

Years as a Buyer: 15

We order twice a day M-F and once on Saturday. We are a 1,157 bed hospital however.