Drive thrus are the worst. Even mcdonalds has more staffing than an average CVS/Wags

[SpartanLaser]

http://thedailycougar.com/2014/11/19/accuracy-takes-back-seat-speed-drive-thru-pharmacies/

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[Jibby321]

I don't miss having a drive thru. Screw that stuff

 

[Gombrich12]

Walmart workers are going to be making more than our techs to start out. It's so hard to find good help that will stick around more than a year.

 

[RX2090]

I agree 10000%. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. The other day I was at a McDonald's buying a coffee, it was dead, and you had 3 people working in the back, 2 cashiers just standing there waiting for someone to come, a chick standing by the drive thru and a manager pacing around. And they make $.40 cents margin on a cheeseburger.

Meanwhile we sell drugs for hundreds and hundreds of dollars and are allowed one tech maximum on Sunday's. It's mind boggling.

 

[lamasacrerx]

It is a shame..PBMs are killing a must trusted profession, they control must of the money supply so they command the game...but to honor the true I shall point out here that Mcdonald's wont have a +100k salary employee behind the counter ever..

 

[UofK]

Agree on all counts, but at the same time, nobody at McDonalds is making $100K either. Just playing devils advocate.

 

[zelman]

The pay differential corresponds to the accuracy differential

 

[RX2090]

Agree on all counts, but at the same time, nobody at McDonalds is making $100K either. Just playing devils advocate.

I wasn't talking about pharmacists though. I was talking about technicians. Stores need to be staffed so that the pharmacist can focus on verifying, counseling, and making patient care calls.

It's ridiculous how some days you have the rph running around like a monkey doing 3 workstations at once.

If McDonald's can have 7 people at once working making $9 an hour, while having margins of $0.40 per item sold, then we can should be able to have 3-4 techs at all times making $9 an hour while having much higher margins on items sold.

It's that simple.

 

[trailmix86]

It's sad how underpaid technicians are. They should get paid a lot more for the work they do. But I feel like pharmacy schools are pumping out so many students each year, that it's going to be hard to find a job. This is going to give companies more incentives to hire less pharmacies and more techs because they are paid less.

 

[RX2090]

I don't think they should get paid more than they do. They make a lot of money in some markets. I think in NYC they make $11 an hour minimum. There are not a lot of places that offer that kind of money for hourly employees.

Ideally you want everyone on the team to pitch in equally. It's a productive measure. If you have 3 super techs and 8 normal techs....the 3 "super techs" do it all and deserve $16 an hour, while the other 8 normal techs are ok at the $11 an hour range.

Now let's say you distributed the workflow and took what makes the super techs so super, and handed it evenly to the other 8 techs on your team. Now you've created a utopia. All your techs are at least very decent, nobody's burned out, everyone can do everything, and nobody deserves $16 an hour anymore.

Whenever you have retail giants like CVS or walgreens, the executives that run the company quickly realize that paying someone over $16-$17 an hour makes no sense. Multiply that x 8000 stores and you're looking at millions of dollars a month in lost money. To them, it would be so much easier if you could just have everyone on the team do the same exact work. Now you're getting the most out of every employee on your payroll, no money goes to waste, and you don't burn out your techs.

Seriously, the next time you go to work, watch what your best tech does. See what makes him so "great." See what he/she does that makes them worthy of $16 an hour. Then, take those traits, teach them to everyone in the pharmacy, and distribute all the workflow so that no one person is doing too much. Not only will your employee morale rise by 100%, but the super tech won't feel overwhelmed and therefore underpaid.

 

[UofK]

I wasn't talking about pharmacists though. I was talking about technicians. Stores need to be staffed so that the pharmacist can focus on verifying, counseling, and making patient care calls.

It's ridiculous how some days you have the rph running around like a monkey doing 3 workstations at once.

If McDonald's can have 7 people at once working making $9 an hour, while having margins of $0.40 per item sold, then we can should be able to have 3-4 techs at all times making $9 an hour while having much higher margins on items sold.

It's that simple.

I understand that. Pharmacies are vastly understaffed compared to fast food. The point is, reimbursement rates are low...almost as low as the margins of a fast food place. Okay not quite, but you get the point. McDonalds operating on it's slim margins is getting by with 10 people making $8/hour. The pharmacy is getting by with 1 guy making $55/hr and 3 others making $10/hr. Again, similar margins, but the overhead is about equal. There is your reason. It sucks, but that's the world we live in with corporate chain pharmacies worrying about share prices and reimbursement rates declining thanks to the clowns in DC.

 

[pharmacistforever]

this old fat woman asked me to grab her some milk the last time i worked in a drive thru stor

 

[BidingMyTime]

I
Seriously, the next time you go to work, watch what your best tech does. See what makes him so "great." See what he/she does that makes them worthy of $16 an hour. Then, take those traits, teach them to everyone in the pharmacy, and distribute all the workflow so that no one person is doing too much. Not only will your employee morale rise by 100%, but the super tech won't feel overwhelmed and therefore underpaid.

The thing is, it basically boils down to work ethic and intelligence, and that can't be taught to adults. The best tech, is the best tech because they care and because they are naturally smart & catch on to things. Jobs that offer minimum wage or slightly above, aren't going to get many applicants that are naturally smart and have a strong work ethic (and the very few applicants they get with those qualities will skedaddle to a better job as soon as they get a little experience under their belt.

And yes, pharmacy technicians "super techs" are underpaid compared to other comparable positions.

 

[owlegrad]

If it were that easy to train everyone to be supertechs, don't you think everyone would do that? It is a combination of traits, some of which can't be taught, that makes someone 'supertech'.

 

[The Cutest Ponytail]

Having every tech up to superstar status is not the solution. We need fewer in windows. Adding more techs no matter how good just increases the flow of interruptions to the pharmacist. Especially since overlap is a thing of the past. Used to have one rph concentrate on verification and the other put out fires.

Many of you are probably too young but pharmacies used to have only one small in-window or at least elevated above the floor with high counters and screenings. The whole department would be sealed off from the external world so that the rph could concentrate on accurately filling prescriptions. Wow! What a concept.

What's going happen is somebody close to a senator or muckity-muck is going to get killed and then there will be hearings and we're going to get to the bottom of this yadayadayada...

 

[zelman]

I don't think they should get paid more than they do. They make a lot of money in some markets. I think in NYC they make $11 an hour minimum...

The average non-doorman building studio apartment in NYC is $2,557 per month. If you're making $11/hr that's a 58-hour work week to pay your rent if you pay zero taxes and do not pay for utilities or food. Tell me again how that's a high paying position.

 

[OfficeRPH]

I don't think they should get paid more than they do. They make a lot of money in some markets. I think in NYC they make $11 an hour minimum. There are not a lot of places that offer that kind of money for hourly employees.

Ideally you want everyone on the team to pitch in equally. It's a productive measure. If you have 3 super techs and 8 normal techs....the 3 "super techs" do it all and deserve $16 an hour, while the other 8 normal techs are ok at the $11 an hour range.

Now let's say you distributed the workflow and took what makes the super techs so super, and handed it evenly to the other 8 techs on your team. Now you've created a utopia. All your techs are at least very decent, nobody's burned out, everyone can do everything, and nobody deserves $16 an hour anymore.
.

You do realize that your bosses think the exact same thing about your job right? No matter how good of a job you do you are as interchangeable as a black jack dealer to them

 

[SClENCE]

If you want the production tech to count while getting the drive-thru and pick-up in a 400 script/day store then at least pay them for it!

Or you can just keep the **** wages and allow more tech hours so someone can do register

I don't see what's so bad about paying someone 8 dollars an hour to run a cash register when we can pay Cardinal 17 dollars to ship a 3 dollar OTC item for a customer. We can make a lot more customers happy when their script is done/they don't have to wait in line as compared to some of the other losses that CVS eats.

 

[MountainPharmD]

Seriously, the next time you go to work, watch what your best tech does. See what makes him so "great." See what he/she does that makes them worthy of $16 an hour. Then, take those traits, teach them to everyone in the pharmacy, and distribute all the workflow so that no one person is doing too much. Not only will your employee morale rise by 100%, but the super tech won't feel overwhelmed and therefore underpaid.

You've obviously never worked a day in retail pharmacy. If it were only that easy...

 

[RX2090]

You've obviously never worked a day in retail pharmacy. If it were only that easy...

I work in a store that does 3700 a week on average. My previous store did 4200 on average. Blow me.

It is easy. Your head is so far up your ass that you think everything is impossible just because you can't do it.