Operations at scale
Scaling Digital Pharmacy Operations
Workflows and product infrastructure supporting ~10,000 processed prescriptions per day.
At a glance
- Problem
- Volume created queues, rework, and operational risk. Adding labor raised cost and error exposure. The system had to absorb throughput without breaking licensed work.
- My ownership
- I prioritized across operational workflows: discovery, requirements, backlog, sprint planning, and release validation. I led product requirements when the unit of work is a prescription.
- Constraints
- Pharmacists, technicians, prescribers, telehealth clients, fulfillment, compliance, controlled substances, insurance/claims, and multiple vendor systems on one path.
- Decision
- I made the product decision to map the lifecycle first, automate repeatable work, standardize before scaling, and measure prescriptions processed — not tickets closed. Do not automate pharmacist accountability.
- Collaboration
- I worked with approximately 12 full-stack and QA engineers, onsite and offshore, and aligned with COO, CTO, VP Product, VP Engineering, operations, vendors, and clients.
- Result
- Infrastructure and workflows capable of supporting approximately 10,000 processed Rx/day, intake through reporting.
System
Operational lifecycle
~10K Rx/day
Intake
Claims
Verification
Dispensing
Fulfillment
Shipping
Exceptions
Approximately 10,000 processed prescriptions per day is throughput across a connected lifecycle — not a number assigned evenly to each stage. Exceptions are where scale breaks.
~10K
Rx/day supported
01
Problem
Each additional prescription adds intake variation, insurance complexity, verification load, fulfillment exceptions, and reporting. Labor does not scale linearly without cost and risk.
02
What I owned
I wrote requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria, and I prioritized and validated releases across the lifecycle. I worked with engineering and QA across onsite and offshore teams, and aligned with operations and senior leadership on what “done” means when the unit of work is a prescription.
03
Product decisions
Prioritize automation where it removes repeatable manual load. Keep pharmacists accountable for verification. Validate releases with the people who process prescriptions.
04
Result
The operational system supports approximately 10,000 processed prescriptions per day. Scale held only where exception handling and verification load were designed, not hoped for.