Automated phone priorities

• US 20030142810A1
• Filed: 01/25/2002
• Published: 07/31/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kozic, Dejan, Meehan, Karl E.
• Granted Patent: US 6,891,946 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.04
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms

Abstract

A method of automatically routing a telephone call in a pharmacy, comprising the steps of: activating a telephone when a pharmacy employee signs onto a workstation; identifying a position type for the pharmacy employee, wherein the position type is associated with a set of functions available to the pharmacy employee; assigning a phone priority to the pharmacy employee after the pharmacy employee signs onto the workstation; identifying a type of phone call associated with a caller; evaluating a set of resources available to handle the type of phone call; directing the caller to an available pharmacy employee having the position type preferred to handle the call type and having the highest phone priority; placing the caller in a hierarchical holding cue if no pharmacy employee having the position preferred to handle the call type is available until a pharmacy employee having the position type preferred to handle the call type becomes available; and deactivating the telephone when the pharmacy employee signs off of the workstation.

Claims

1. A method of automatically routing a telephone call in a pharmacy, comprising the steps of:

activating a telephone when a pharmacy employee signs onto a workstation;

identifying a position type for the pharmacy employee, wherein the position type is associated with a set of functions available to the pharmacy employee;

assigning a phone priority to the pharmacy employee after the pharmacy employee signs onto the workstation;

identifying a type of phone call associated with a caller;

evaluating a set of resources available to handle the type of phone call;

directing the caller to an available pharmacy employee having the position type preferred to handle the call type and having the highest phone priority;

placing the caller in a hierarchical holding cue if no pharmacy employee having the position preferred to handle the call type is available until a pharmacy employee having the position type preferred to handle the call type becomes available; and

deactivating the telephone when the pharmacy employee signs off of the workstation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of activating the telephone when the pharmacy employee signs onto the workstation is repeated to allow the pharmacy employee to sign onto a plurality of workstations, thus activating a plurality of telephones.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of allowing a manual increase or a manual decrease of the phone priority assigned to the pharmacy employee.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of call is selected from the group of calls consisting of a prescriber call and a patient call.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the position type is selected from the group of position types consisting of pharmacists and technicians.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the workstation comprises a controller, a display, a data input apparatus, and a telephone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the type of phone call associated with the caller is performed with the use of an automated attendant.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of automatically updating the phone priority for at least one pharmacy employee when the pharmacy employee signs off of the workstation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of automatically assigning another position type, that is associated with another set of functions available to the pharmacy employee, to the pharmacy employee when there is only one pharmacy employee of each position type signed onto the system.

10. A method of automatically routing a telephone call in a pharmacy, comprising the steps of:

activating a telephone when a pharmacy employee signs onto a workstation;

identifying whether the pharmacy employee is a pharmacist or a technician;

assigning a phone priority to the pharmacy employee after the pharmacy employee signs onto the workstation;

identifying whether the telephone call is from a prescriber or from a patient;

evaluating a set of resources capable of handling the telephone call, wherein the set of resources comprises one or more pharmacy employees that have each signed onto a workstation;

directing the telephone call to an available pharmacist if the telephone call is from a prescriber;

directing the telephone call to one of an available technician and an available pharmacist if the telephone call is from a patient;

placing the caller in a hierarchical holding cue if the set of resources capable of handling the telephone call does not have an available pharmacy employee, until a pharmacy employee from the set of resources capable of handling the telephone call becomes available; and

deactivating the telephone when the pharmacy employee signs off of the workstation.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of activating the telephone when the pharmacy employee signs onto the workstation may be repeated to allow the pharmacy employee to sign onto a plurality of workstations, thus activating a plurality of telephones.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of allowing a manual increase or a manual decrease of the phone priority assigned to the pharmacy employee.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the workstation comprises a controller, a display, a data input apparatus, and a telephone.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of identifying whether the telephone call is from a prescriber or from a patient is performed with the use of an automated attendant.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of automatically updating the phone priority for at least one pharmacy employee when the pharmacy employee signs off of the workstation.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of directing the telephone call to one of an available technician and an available pharmacist if the telephone call is from a patient has a preferred order comprising first attempting to direct the telephone call to a technician if a technician is available, then directing the telephone call to a pharmacist if the set of resources capable of handling the call includes a pharmacist that has agreed to receive calls from patients.

17. A system for automatically routing a telephone call in a pharmacy for an organization having a processor, the system comprising:

a memory;

a first software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of activating a telephone when a pharmacy employee signs onto a workstation;

a second software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of identifying a position type for the pharmacy employee, wherein the position type is associated with a set of functions available to the pharmacy employee;

a third software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of assigning a phone priority to the pharmacy employee after the pharmacy employee signs onto the workstation;

a fourth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of identifying a type of phone call associated with a caller;

a fifth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of evaluating a set of resources available to handle the type of phone call;

a sixth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of directing the caller to an available pharmacy employee having the position type preferred to handle the call type and having the highest phone priority;

a seventh software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of placing the caller in a hierarchical holding cue if no pharmacy employee having the position preferred to handle the call type is available until a pharmacy employee having the position type preferred to handle the call type becomes available; and

an eighth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of deactivating the telephone when the pharmacy employee signs off of the workstation.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of activating a telephone when a pharmacy employee signs onto a workstation is repeated to allow the pharmacy employee to sign onto a plurality of workstations, thus activating a plurality of telephones.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the system further comprises a ninth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of allowing a manual increase or a manual decrease of the phone priority assigned to the pharmacy employee.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the fourth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor is adapted to identify the type of call from the group of calls consisting of a prescriber call and a patient call.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the second software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor is adapted to select the position type from the group of position types consisting of pharmacists and technicians.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the fourth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor is adapted to be performed with the assistance of an automated attendant.

23. The system of claim 17, further comprising a ninth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of automatically updating the phone priority for at least one pharmacy employee when the pharmacy employee signs off of the workstation.

24. The system of claim 17, further comprising a ninth software routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to execute the step of automatically designating another position type, that is associated with another set of functions available to the pharmacy employee, to the pharmacy employee when there is only one pharmacy employee of each position type signed onto the system.