Busy is the new black. Everyone has a squillion things to do and pharmacists are no different. Heck, most days pharmacists don’t even have time to get lunch – especially if it means closing up the shop for 30-minutes so you can scoff a sandwich standing up.
2020 has proven no different and if anything, has upped the ante on a pharmacy owner’s workload. Add in hygiene regulations and COVID-19 safety responsibilities, and the days are bursting with checklists to be ticked off and expectations to meet – on top of the busyness of an essential service.
That’s why it’s absolutely critical that you save time and effort where you can. And a little at a time is not to be sniffed at. Trimming the fat in minutes, regularly through the day, adds up to hours in your week, days over a year and weeks over a pharmacist’s working life. Why wouldn’t you?
One of the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways to do this is to have two dispensing monitors. It seems like a small, common-sense point, but it is extraordinary how many pharmacists are still working from one screen, switching between tabs and making unnecessary labour for themselves. Admit it – are you one of them?
For the price of a couple of hundred bucks, this will save you real time. Not having to swap between tabs or check this screen and that screen, is invaluable. It can save you at least an hour a day. Seven hours a week. 28 hours a month. 364 hours a year. That’s 7,280 hours over 20 years. Hello. Now you’re listening.
With references on one side and dispensing on the other monitor, you aren’t constantly switching back and forth all the time. This is helpful in so many ways, if only to avoid getting Repetitive Strain Injury in your wrist from moving the mouse! (You laugh now…but it’s a real thing. First world problem, sure, but a bugger once it starts.)
Having two screens also helps with keeping your emails open on one, so you can quickly glance at incoming messages to check if it’s important, rather than opening up every message that comes through, or spending valuable time scrolling through what is often a lot of junk.
Do yourself a favour. Join the 21st century and install another monitor. You can thank me later.