Eating and drinking in the pharmacy

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

So what is your experience with eating and drinking in the retail pharmacy setting?

At my old pharmacy we brought our food and drinks and set them in a specific area of the pharmacy (back counter) and did not bring the items into the other areas of the pharmacy. The downside of this was that often when extremely busy times occurred the drink I had purchased at the beginning of a shift was still unopened nearly six or so hours through the shift.

However, at the pharmacy I am currently doing my grad intern hours at has people eating food and drinking all over the freaking place. One of the techs had a huge bag of tortilla chips open at the front counter and was filling prescriptions in between shoveling handfuls of chips into her mouth. I was speechless.

For those that are CVS employees especially do you know where I can find company policy regarding eating and drinking in the pharmacy?

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[trailerpark]

Wouldn't that get chip dust on patient pills? Seems like it would only take one customer to complain to corporate to take care of that.

 

[zelman]

I'm sure BOP doesn't allow it. Lay down the law.

 

[sosoo]

LP audit tells us not to, but they still do it. at least one metric thats increasing is the number of flies flying around..

 

[Jibby321]

When I worked at cvs we ate and drank whatever and wherever we wanted to.

 

[BidingMyTime]

OP, I'm pretty sure what you are describing is against health regulations in most states (it would be in IL)

 

[owlegrad]

We eat and drink all over the pharmacy, although I do try to limit it at pick up/drop off. It is probably against company policy and almost certainly against some law or another. The real question is, why do you care? Who cares? The job sucks, for techs the pay sucks, everything about the work sucks. You want to pile on and not even let people eat in the pharmacy? Lame.

 

[trailerpark]

They could at least keep the food to a confined area on a back counter or something. Covered drinks could move a little more freely, but a bag of chips on the counting counter is a little much.

 

[sosoo]

stores in Dc have mice and i actually saw one while floating. the mouse just ran across the production counter. other stores have mouse traps on the floor. pharmacies in Dc are disgusting b/c of these ppl liking to have food lying around.

 

[Dred Pirate]

when I floated for CVS I would have my drink (usually a covered water bottle) and often a bag of chips or something close by. You work 12-14 hour shifts without a break, seriously, you can eat there, just keep it under control. I have often taken a bite of a sandwhich between filling scripts. If you don't get a break, what are you supposed to do?

screw retail - that is just one of the reasons I left.

 

[littleowl]

The guidelines for food and drinks in every pharmacy I've ever worked (10+years in the field) are no Subway sandwiches on the production/input/check-out/counseling areas (back counter out of site of the patient is fine...but NO ONIONS on the sammy. Onions=breakroom or cafeteria) and absolutely no food in the production/counting areas because you never know when you're counting something for a patient with a peanut/gluten/egg allergy.Chips in small bags or Skittles or something like that is perfectly ok. Drinks are fine as long as they're covered. We've never been allowed to have open-top cups in the pharmacy...mostly because there was a problem with someone spiking their Pepsi with Tussionex once upon a time. Pharmacy fishbowls are stressful enough without pulling rank and griping about someone's chips. Just tell them to scale back their snacking habits to smaller bags and enjoy your day Just my 0.02.

 

[Dred Pirate]

spiking with tussionex = awesomely hilarious. In Hospital we can have covered drinks and food in non-patient care areas away from production (ie. at our desks or on a back table

 

[littleowl]

Yeah it was pretty bad. Nobody caught it until the annual control inventory...then they decided to roll back the stockroom security footage and BAM! Tussi-flavored Pepsi party. It was kinda funny.

 

[Silvermist]

Reminds me of a retail pharmacy I rotated at once... it was *disgusting*. People snacked wherever they wanted to snack, including the counter where they were filling prescriptions. The drawers that housed all of the empty pill bottles, of course, were under this counter and the bottom of the drawers was completely coated with crumbs and pieces of tortilla chips. I seriously wanted to call the board of pharmacy--not sure why I didn't. It was revolting, I would never get an Rx filled there. Who knows what bonus snack (Tostitos? Or hey maybe Doritos today!) is at the bottom of your pill bottle. Ugh ugh ugh.