Most pharmacy teams know they're stretched. What they don't always know is exactly where the hours go. When you break down the time cost of individual workflows — one refill call, one prior authorization cycle, one round of will call notifications — the numbers add up faster than expected.

This comparison is not about replacing pharmacists or pharmacy staff. It's about being precise about where manual labor is creating bottlenecks, and where automation closes the gap.

Refill Calls: 5 Minutes vs. 30 Seconds

Manual refill call: A staff member pulls the patient's profile, dials the number, waits through the ring, leaves a voicemail if no answer, documents the attempt, and moves on. If the patient answers, the call itself typically runs 3-5 minutes based on pharmacy workflow observations — collecting whether they want the refill, any changes in insurance or address, any medication questions. The staff member documents the outcome after the call. Total per-patient time: typically 5-7 minutes, not counting calls that require callbacks.

AI refill call: The AI initiates the call at the scheduled time, identifies itself and the purpose, collects patient responses in real time, handles common questions, and documents the outcome automatically to the patient record. The whole interaction — call, data collection, documentation — typically takes approximately 30 seconds of wall time in Pharmesol deployments per successful contact. Staff review the queue of completed refill interactions rather than making them one by one.

At 50 refill calls per day, the difference is 4+ hours of staff time daily. That's time that currently goes to refill calls and could go to clinical work, patient counseling, or problem-solving on complex cases.

Prior Authorization: Days vs. Hours

Manual prior authorization: A staff member identifies the PA requirement, contacts the prescriber office by phone or fax to request clinical documentation, waits for a response, follows up if nothing arrives, submits the PA to the payer, tracks status manually, follows up with the payer on a cadence that depends on how much time the staff member has, and notifies the patient when there's an update. Each step requires someone to initiate it. When that person is busy, the PA waits.

A single prior authorization cycle, under manual management, commonly takes 3-5 days based on industry observations. Complex cases with multiple follow-ups or payer pushback can extend to two weeks or longer.

AI prior authorization coordination: The AI contacts the prescriber office immediately when a PA requirement is identified, sends fax requests when calls don't connect, tracks payer status automatically on a consistent cadence regardless of staff workload, and notifies the patient of updates as they happen. No step waits for someone to get to it.

Pharmacies using AI for prior authorization coordination report cycle times measured in hours for straightforward cases, not days. The work that used to sit in a queue moves continuously.

Will Call Notifications: Staff Calling vs. Automated Outreach

Manual will call: A staff member reviews the will call bin, identifies prescriptions approaching the return-to-stock deadline, calls each patient, leaves voicemails for non-answers, and documents who was reached and what they said. For a pharmacy with 40 items in will call on a given day, this typically represents 2-3 hours of staff time — time that competes with everything else happening at the counter.

Automated will call: The AI reviews the will call queue against the PMS, identifies items approaching the deadline, and initiates outreach via call and SMS based on patient preference. Patients who confirm pickup get documented. Patients who need to reschedule get rescheduled. Items that need to be transferred or returned get flagged for staff review. The staff member gets a status report, not a to-do list.

Return-to-stock rates drop when outreach is consistent. Consistent outreach doesn't happen when it competes with counter volume.

Documentation: Post-Call Typing vs. Real-Time Notes

Manual documentation: After a patient call ends, the staff member types notes into the system — what was discussed, what was confirmed, what needs follow-up. Under pressure, this gets abbreviated or delayed. Abbreviated notes create gaps in patient records. Delayed notes create situations where the next staff member to touch the account doesn't know what happened.

AI documentation: Documentation happens during the call, not after it. The AI captures structured information in real time — adherence data, side effect reports, confirmed refill details, payment collected — and writes it directly to the patient record before the interaction ends. Notes are complete, consistent, and immediately available. For accredited specialty pharmacies, this means accreditation-ready documentation without a manual step.

The time saved per call is typically 2-5 minutes of post-call entry based on pharmacy workflow observations. At 80 patient interactions per day, that can represent 2-6 hours of documentation time recovered daily.

Pharmacy Efficiency with AI: Where the Time Goes

The workflows above aren't extraordinary. They're the daily grind of pharmacy operations. The cumulative time cost of manual refill calls, prior authorization tracking, will call outreach, and documentation can routinely add up to 6-10 staff hours per day that are absorbed by coordination and logistics rather than clinical care.

Pharmacy automation before and after AI looks like this: before, coordination work absorbs the majority of technician and coordinator time, and clinical staff spend portions of their day on administrative tasks because there isn't enough support. After, coordination work runs in the background, clinical staff spend more time on clinical decisions, and patients experience faster, more consistent communication throughout their care.

Actionable Takeaways

• Refill calls at 5 minutes each cost 4+ hours per 50 calls; AI brings that to under 30 minutes for the same volume.

• Prior authorization cycle times drop from days to hours when every coordination step is initiated automatically rather than waiting for staff availability.

• Consistent will call outreach reduces return-to-stock events — and consistent outreach only happens when it's automated.

• Real-time documentation during patient interactions eliminates post-call entry delays and produces more complete patient records.

• The productivity gains compound: time recovered from coordination work goes back into clinical care, which is where pharmacy expertise belongs.

Want to see this comparison applied to your pharmacy's actual call volume and workflow mix? Book a conversation with the Pharmesol team.