CASE $5\mathrm{.}2$ Health Maintenance Organization $($B$)$

The administrator of the Life$-$Time Insurance Company HMO, Ms$.$ Taylor, was anxious to solve potential problems before the new clinic opened in Austin, Texas. In Buffalo, New York, where the original clinic is located, the pharmacy had been extremely busy from the beginning, and long waiting times for prescriptions to be filled presented a very real problem.

Note: The activities of filling, checking, and dispensing prescriptions must be performed by a registered pharmacist.

The Buffalo HMO pharmacy was modern, spacious, and well$-$designed. The peak time for prescriptions was

between $10$ AM and $3$ PM $.$ During this period, prescriptions would back up$,$ and the waiting time would increase. After $5$ PM $,$ the staff would be reduced to one pharmacist and one technician, but the two had no trouble providing very timely service throughout the evening.

Ms$.$ Taylor became acutely aware of the long waiting times after several complaints had been lodged. Each stated that the waiting time had exceeded $1$ hour. The pharmacy is staffed with five persons on duty until $5$ PM$.$

Ms$.$ Taylor personally studied the tasks of all the pharmacy personnel. She noted the time required to accomplish each task, and results are listed in the chart. The prescriptions were filled in an assembly$-$line fashion by two technicians and three pharmacists, and each person performed only one task.

Questions

$1.$ Identify the bottleneck activity, and show how capacity can be increased by using only two pharmacists and two technicians.

$2.$ In addition to savings on personnel costs, what benefits does this arrangement have?