Ramstein Pharmacy
Formula for Success

***image1***Each month the pharmacy team at the 435th Medical Group Ramstein
Pharmacy fills about 10,000 prescriptions. That makes the Ramstein
Pharmacy the busiest outpatient pharmacy in all of U.S. Air Forces in
Europe.

Clients are likely to wait an average of 8.6 minutes to get that
prescription filled. That’s two minutes below the USAFE recommended
guidelines for wait time.

And in November and December, the Ramstein Pharmacy team had zero
errors. All of the numbers combined made the Ramstein Pharmacy the
USAFE Pharmacy of the Year for 2005. Ramstein Pharmacy was also USAFE
Pharmacy of the Year in 2004.

“It’s teamwork and team decision,” said Capt. Victoria Coomes,
diagnostics and therapeutics flight commander. “We come up with
pharmacy goals and we have team buy in.”

***image2***Across the Air Force, pharmacies, including Ramstein’s, have added new
technology to improve patient safety and service, Captain Coomes said.
For example, the PharmASSIST filling system uses bar code technology to
accurately fill each prescription and the audio-care is an automated
call in system for prescription refill. At Ramstein, both technologies
have helped the team reduce errors, Capt. Coomes said.

But key in the Ramstein approach is customer service, Captain Coomes
said. Upholding the highest standard for customer service is one of the
team’s goals for 2006.

“We take customer input from patients very seriously,” she said. “We can’t provide world class service without listening.”