Introduction
Watson Pharmaceutical is one is a foremost pharmaceutical sphere company that expands, produces, markets, and allocates brand and generic pharmaceutical productions. With one of the widest product contributions in the U.S. generics sphere and a track record of service fineness, Watson has earned a concrete reputation as a reliable and low-cost producer of quality pharmaceutical products.
In spite of all these achievements in the sphere of pharmacy, Watson’s company experiences serious troubles with documentation. These are primarily the errors, which lead to missing of information, illegibility of information, overwrites and there are no initial and date for cross-outs.
It should be stated, that insufficient documentation can be outlined to the origin of a host of matters in the health care sphere – from inferior patient care to economic thrashing.
Chart
The chart reveals the process of information procedure, from the stage of its providing, till the stage of request in the case of necessity, and its application. In the case of Watson Pharmaceuticals, it is necessary to mention, that the problem occurs mainly on the stage of data storing, but also at the stage of analysis.
Impact on customers
Documentation is significant only if the data it expresses addresses the entrepreneur and consumer requirements, is nearby, kept up to date, and transported on time. As there is not presently a policy that spells out the procedures and responsibilities linked with managing the huge amount of data that has been concentrated, existing documents are not presently arranged in a globally meaningful way. The process delineated in this document seeks to terminate fragmented, out-of-date, and hard-to-situate documents by implementing regulations and practices that standardize how data resources are levered.
Some documents need to be made attainable for estimation by members of the intended audience before ultimate issuing. To create the feedback, the document should be evaluated and promoted to a draft position. The draft should be issued to the “For Stakeholders” sphere of the website with a requirement for comments and a limit for feedback to be got. Once the deadline has been bypassed, any offerings received should be regarded by the responsible manager(s) and provided to the author to integrate.
Transcript and recognition explanations should be applied in the radiology department of the pharmacy company, wound center, and other areas to reduce report accumulation, manage and increase workflow, and offer more timely and effective service to the physicians.
Another step for the improvement of documentation flow is to adjust the precise hierarchy of documentation, entailing the following points:
- Management documentation
- Documentation by and for direction
- Reports
- Information on Generics and productions
- Web documentation
- Conferences and seminars reports
- Software development
- Security
- Infrastructure
- User support
Strategic plan
The Company is carrying on the process of strategically estimating its overall business, entailing the concentration on internal resources of commercializing generic adaptations of controlled-release and oral contraceptive remedies, as well as the contract expansion of brand productions for out-licensing. In association with the estimation, the Company is also evaluating its long-term requirements for possessions, plant, and equipment, entailing current facilities and future capital spending and is currently executing a strategic real estate and facilities plan regard where exchange strategies are being expanded to meet the Company’s potential research and development, manufacturing, allotment, and marketing operations requirements through various real estate and residence actions or scenarios. Such proposals may entail consolidating particular existing facilities and/or expanding manufacturing capability in certain facilities.
The implementation of Watson’s long-term strategic plan and operational activities are sturdily in progress.
Quality tool application
As the Total Quality management approach – is the systematic way of solving the troubles, first of all, the focus group should be collected. The brainstorming technology would be useful as any other. It would help to find the trouble, and successfully solve it.
As it has been stated, the trouble appears at the stage of data analysis, thus, it is necessary to either update the data procedure systems or offer the qualification courses for the employees of IT departments, who are responsible for it.
After defining, where the problem is hidden, it is necessary to appoint a person, responsible for observing the documentation process (quality assurance). He/she would define if the information procedure, hierarchy, storage, and application are correct.
Another step – is the expansion of the partnering net, with the experience exchange, and unification of database systems. It would help to solve the problem of incorrect data storage and transmission. Moreover, Watson company would get access to the partner’s data, and get the image on the proper data procedure.
Value of the implementation
As documentation is one of the most essential processes in the marketing sphere, the implementation of quality improvement tools would essentially impact the level, to which the company would extend its performance in the sphere of pharmacy. As the shortages in the documentation system restricted the potential expansion of the company, the solution to this problem would both remove the restrictions, and increase the potential.
Relevance to a process improvement project
Findings from the simulation activity assessed in defining the key role of documentation, and thorough analysis of the incoming information. The fact is that the relevance of the Total Quality Management strategies is obvious for the business activity, as nobody is insured against mistakes, and it is difficult to prevent them, but TQM helps to overcome the consequences of the mistake, and eliminate the very reason of it.
Conclusion
The simulation of the process of trouble solving generally helps to review and summarize the experience of resolving the real trouble if it would appear. As for the solution of the documentation problems, it is necessary to mention, that in spite of the significance of this process, the solution appears to be rather simple, but the main point here is not to allow further mistakes and ambiguities in the process of data analysis and storage.
References
Ahire, S. L., & Golhar, D. Y. (1996). Quality Management in Large vs Small Firms. Journal of Business Management, 34(2), 1.
Avery, C., & Zabel, D. (1996). The Quality Management Sourcebook: An International Guide to Materials and Resources. New York: Routledge.
Lee, C. Y. (2004). Perception and Development of Total Quality Management. Journal of Business Management, 42(1), 102.