Company: Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), Mumbai, India
Company Description: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) offers information technology services, consulting, and business solutions. A key player in the digital transformation era, TCS has built a reputation for innovative solutions and a client-centric approach. With a global presence and a workforce of 600,000 skilled professionals, TCS offers deep domain expertise and cutting-edge technology to deliver tangible value.
Nomination Category: Product & Service Categories - Business Technology Solutions
Nomination Sub Category: Healthcare Technology Solution
 Nomination Title: Giving pharmacists more time to care
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the the nominated new or new-version product or service, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: If this is a brand-new product, state the date on which it was released. If this is a new version of an existing product, state the date on which the update was released:
Launch date: December 6, 2022
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the features, functions, and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 350 words):
Total 348 words used.
One of the largest pharmacy networks in the country has an important role to play in making it easier for people to access the healthcare services they need. With 85% of Americans living within 10 miles of one of this chain’s outlets, the company is on a mission to transform health through affordable local care.
But pharmacists are busy people, so asking them to incorporate expanded services and provide exemplary care while also fulfilling the specialised and complex role of dispensing medication is a big ask. However, the pharmacy chain identified a great deal of unpredictable daily/seasonal variability between stores including average workload, staffing, efficiency, and expertise. While some pharmacies were struggling to provide support, others might be all caught up and have excess capacity.
Understanding that technology could hold the key to ‘levelling out’ the workload, the health provider turned to long-term digital transformation partner Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to help devise a solution. The result is a centralized system designed to distribute work evenly among pharmacists no matter where they’re based.
Strength in numbers
Using an easy-to-use interface, the solution automatically adds incoming prescriptions to a real-time data platform, determines which work can be shared, and then sends tasks to a state-level central queue. The solution was designed to be flexible and offers many features and benefits:
- Automation: Using configurable parameters (e.g. promised delivery time, store capacity, number of pharmacists, typical workloads), the system automatically prioritizes tasks and presents the next item for verification. This ensures all pharmacists are presented with a constant stream of next-best-actions, eliminating the need for manual selection or decision-making and saving considerable time.
- Flexibility: Pharmacists can access the interface remotely, and can manually edit tasks, instead of having to reject jobs back to the originating store.
- Monitoring: the Performance Meter tool allows colleagues to view how their store is performing against key performance indicators.
- Seamless implementation/updates: Packaging the solution (along with all its dependencies) in one portable container lets the system run consistently across different environments, allowing TCS’ developers to deploy updates and implementations with no concerns about differing configurations.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Outline the market performance, critical reception, and customer satisfaction with the product or service to date. State monetary or unit sales figures to date, if possible, and how they compare to expectations or past performance. Provide links to laudatory product or service reviews. Include some customer testimonials, if applicable (up to 350 words):
Total 332 words used.
The solution has been deployed in more than 60% of stores – against a target of 50% - across 40 States and around 500million scripts have been shared to the system – vs 400million target. The result is a more consistent experience between stores, while allowing pharmacists to adapt more quickly to unexpected variations in workload. This has delivered the following results against the objectives for the project:
- Spill-over tasks are now running at less than 2%, vs target of 3% and 7% the previous year.
- More than 80% of scripts are now dispensed within the promised time, vs 75% target.
- Internal operational score has improved by 25 base points, vs 20 target.
- Store staff satisfaction has hit its target, with a score of more than 75%.
Although it wasn’t a specific objective, the business also reported a 19% increase in specialty revenue in 2023, which describes services such as drug therapy monitoring, patient education, drug information, and chronic illness management. This can be directly attributed to pharmacists having more time to spend with patients to offer better advice.
What’s more, there’s been an increase of 25% in utilization of mental health care for patients using integrated medical and pharmacy offerings.
Wider implications
Faster prescription delivery and better customer service has also contributed to around 14million pharmacy interactions every week – leading to the following results against the health provider’s strategic objectives in 2023:
- More than 1.6billion prescriptions have been filled – vs 1.5bn target – and nearly 30million vaccinations have been administered.
- Gained a Net Promoter Score of 81.2+ for consumers accessing healthcare, well above industry average of 58+.
- Achieved its target of more than 5million people accessing healthcare through the organisation’s pharmacies.
Post-pandemic, nearly half of Americans are interested in receiving primary healthcare through their local pharmacy. With the help of TCS and other technology partners, the business is in prime position to deliver on its promise to “build a world of health around every consumer.”
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 16 words used.
Please see the supporting document for a more detailed account of how the solution was developed.
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