Kroger going the way of Walgreens

[vardenafil]

well friday we had a "big" district pharmacy meeting discussing the future of kroger. my understanding from the meeting is that kroger is going to implement a prescription monitoring system much like walgreens. you know the dials in the corner of the screen that monitor everything you do. supposedly we will now be monitored on our average wait times for both waiting on non waiting prescriptions. if fail to meet the goals set by the company we may face additional training, write ups, and or termination. we were also informed that each and every employee will be tested for efficiency on our computer systems. basically a timed trial doing basic tasks. this is to ensure that we know how to properly utilize or computer systems. i left walgreens for this very reason and now kroger is following their business model?

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[MountainPharmD]

well friday we had a "big" district pharmacy meeting discussing the future of kroger. my understanding from the meeting is that kroger is going to implement a prescription monitoring system much like walgreens. you know the dials in the corner of the screen that monitor everything you do. supposedly we will now be monitored on our average wait times for both waiting on non waiting prescriptions. if fail to meet the goals set by the company we may face additional training, write ups, and or termination. we were also informed that each and every employee will be tested for efficiency on our computer systems. basically a timed trial doing basic tasks. this is to ensure that we know how to properly utilize or computer systems. i left walgreens for this very reason and now kroger is following their business model?

What state are you in? Have you received the new computer system?

 

[vardenafil]

im on the west coast. we currently run the easy fill prn computer system. its the newest system kroger has. i dunno if thats what you meant by the new system or not. we do not have this system that our dpm was talking about. they made it sound like it was a few months off. but i know we are getting an update to easy fill prn next month so maybe its sooner? who knows? maybe im just having flashbacks from when i worked at walgreens. all those talks with my dpm on why i cant keep my kpi's in the green doing 400 scripts with 2 techs.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Rather than forming a union and gaining power when there was a shortage, everyone just took their pay increases. Now there is a surplus and they will begin abusing us at an alarming rate.

We did this to ourselves by not being more aggressive when we held the higher cards.

.....

And the Kroger people in my neck of the woods told me they haven't heard anything about this yet.

 

[J ROD]

Sounds like more retail hell.......

 

[DAW2]

if you have ezfill already then theyre already watching you. notice the orange cone/triangle in the bottom left? if it's grayed out, that's good

 

[J ROD]

they are always watching.......

 

[MountainPharmD]

im on the west coast. we currently run the easy fill prn computer system. its the newest system kroger has. i dunno if thats what you meant by the new system or not. we do not have this system that our dpm was talking about. they made it sound like it was a few months off. but i know we are getting an update to easy fill prn next month so maybe its sooner? who knows? maybe im just having flashbacks from when i worked at walgreens. all those talks with my dpm on why i cant keep my kpi's in the green doing 400 scripts with 2 techs.

I guess I am a little confused. Easy Fill PRN is the new Kroger computer system. Are you talking about Key Retailing Wave 5? That is the newest update to our workflow and the computer system.

If you have Easy Fill PRN then they are already watching you. The system is connected to a central server in Cincinnati. They monitor your wait times, percent ready for both waiters and non-waiters and a host of other performace metrics. It is not as bad as CVS by a mile. Honestly, it is easy to game the system and have the numbers come out the way you want. It requires a little work but it is possible.

They certainly have not threatned to fire anybody for missing thier performace metrics. I get little love notes from my pharmacy supervisor telling me what my wait time is and asking if I know of ways to improve it.

 

[crazybob]

if you have ezfill already then theyre already watching you. notice the orange cone/triangle in the bottom left? if it's grayed out, that's good

How closely do they "watch" you?

 

[genesis09]

In my district average wait times vary from 8 minutes to nearly 30 minutes. The average is about 13 minutes. No body ever gets written up for regularly having wait times > 15 minutes. My store has the lowest percentage of waiters in all of Walgreens, and yet, nothing ever happens.

 

[torchbearer]

I've always wondered:

If you were fired, deprived of a salary increase, etc. because of not meeting these metrics, wouldn't you have grounds for a lawsuit?

In court, you could argue that you're not able to meet the metrics because you're taking time to counsel--as required by law.

The corporation will respond by saying that all of their pharmacists are required to counsel. Of course, this is farce. You simply prove that the other pharmacists are, in fact, not counseling adequately.

The corporation would find itself in a no-win position. If they press the issue, they risk bad publicity.

They would probably try to quietly settle out of court, then they'd fire you later for trumped-up reasons (e.g., if you make an error). You would have to be committed to keeping it in court and generating as much publicity as possible.

 

[ValeRx]

I work for Kroger as well and I have no clue what this person is talking about. Just wait for ELMS to take over your store and dictate how many hours you are allowed to have based on projected script counts.

 

[DAW2]

How closely do they "watch" you?

nobody has ever said anything about me personally, but there has been times when the big dawgs come in and look around, check out the graphs and comment on those. we have better than average wait times so we just get a complement and move on.

i've been at busy stores where the wait time is really long, but when the higher ups came by and saw we were frickin busy they didnt say anything much and just trolled around. later we got an email about we need to come up with ways to decrease the times but they never followed up.

 

[crazybob]

nobody has ever said anything about me personally, but there has been times when the big dawgs come in and look around, check out the graphs and comment on those. we have better than average wait times so we just get a complement and move on.

i've been at busy stores where the wait time is really long, but when the higher ups came by and saw we were frickin busy they didnt say anything much and just trolled around. later we got an email about we need to come up with ways to decrease the times but they never followed up.

So how many pharmacists do you have in the higher ups?

 

[DAW2]

2+
depends on how many they bring also

 

[MountainPharmD]

nobody has ever said anything about me personally, but there has been times when the big dawgs come in and look around, check out the graphs and comment on those. we have better than average wait times so we just get a complement and move on.

i've been at busy stores where the wait time is really long, but when the higher ups came by and saw we were frickin busy they didnt say anything much and just trolled around. later we got an email about we need to come up with ways to decrease the times but they never followed up.

This is what happens at my store. Lots of talk and no action...yet.

 

[MountainPharmD]

I work for Kroger as well and I have no clue what this person is talking about. Just wait for ELMS to take over your store and dictate how many hours you are allowed to have based on projected script counts.

ELMS is here baby!! It is awesome!

 

[ValeRx]

ELMS is here baby!! It is awesome!

Where's the giant thumbs down image?

 

[Style]

Post Fill Audit done electronically now. Whatcha think about that?

 

[297point1]

The corporation will respond by saying that all of their pharmacists are required to counsel. Of course, this is farce. You simply prove that the other pharmacists are, in fact, not counseling adequately.

Good luck trying to find another pharmacist to willingly testify on your behalf and admit that they aren't counseling adequately.

 

[ValeRx]

Post Fill Audit done electronically now. Whatcha think about that?

I think it's great. No more lazy techs using the excuse they are "doing double checks" to sit in the back for 3 hours at a time and not do anything else.

 

[Trankuil]

Im pretty new to working in the kroger chain, just got on at Smiths as an intern. We average about 2100 scripts/week. I like Easy fill PRN so far. I hope a turn towards walgreens isnt in store though, that would be no bueno