24hr CVS how many tech hours do you get on weekday?

[ineeddrug]

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gosh. I helped 24hr CVS yesterday (Tuesday) and that store is one of the busiest store. Doing 650-750 rx/weekday.

It was Tuesday and I worked late shift 1-10.
I thought someone called in sick but it wasn't.

From 8am-10pm. 2 rphs. 4 & 1/2 techs.
I checked the schedule. Tech hour was 37hrs.

Many c2 and nonstop in-out window. 2 techs are in pick up line. 2 techs are out window most of the day. Nonstop calls. (6 lines are on hold). Couple ppl waiting for counselling. I did 10 flu shots and pic did 8.


I asked manager how they can handle 600-700 rx but he said that is what MySchedule gave.

I dont know. Whoever works at 24 cvs, how many tech hours do you get?
This store was union A store(i dont even know what it is). Is it common?
Thank God I am not staff here..

 

[Carol is Alpha]

This is what us ole war dogs call a Hamburger Hill store.

 

[Sine Cura]

I used to work at one that had the dropoff line go out the door some days (30+ long) and 100% of CIIs were hard copies because no prescribers did electronic prescribing. When I left, MySchedule had this store (~3200/wk) at 210-220 tech hours.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

This is one population subset of pharmacists you don't hear much from on this forum. The ones working the meat grinder stores. They must be too sick, tired and stressed to put thoughts down.

Too many unicorns here working candyass stores.

 

[doublehh03]

We do minimum 3500 and max 4200. We get 240-260 throughout the year. Flu season up to 270.

 

[mgarph]

most of these store should have at least 270-280 tech hrs/week this time of year, which is around 45 tech hours/day during the week or ~6 tech shifts of 8 hrs or so. not generous but should be more than you mentioned, we get that and we only get about 19 RPh overlap hours per week spread over M/T/W. Not generous at all considering I usually have 4 techs between 10-6 only and 2-3 of those are almost always tied up at pick up/ drive thru

 

[ldiot]

It's hard to compare hours though because a 24 hour store has the night pharmacist filling at least a couple hundred and a lot of them have a robot. I'm not at all trying to say that they aren't severely understaffed; just that it's kind of comparing apples to oranges.

 

[ericn2k3]

gosh. I helped 24hr CVS yesterday (Tuesday) and that store is one of the busiest store. Doing 650-750 rx/weekday.

It was Tuesday and I worked late shift 1-10.
I thought someone called in sick but it wasn't.

From 8am-10pm. 2 rphs. 4 & 1/2 techs.
I checked the schedule. Tech hour was 37hrs.

Many c2 and nonstop in-out window. 2 techs are in pick up line. 2 techs are out window most of the day. Nonstop calls. (6 lines are on hold). Couple ppl waiting for counselling. I did 10 flu shots and pic did 8.


I asked manager how they can handle 600-700 rx but he said that is what MySchedule gave.

I dont know. Whoever works at 24 cvs, how many tech hours do you get?
This store was union A store(i dont even know what it is). Is it common?
Thank God I am not staff here..

You stated that you work 1-10 pm. The overnight person doesn't come in until 10 pm? Just curious.

 

[doublehh03]

It's hard to compare hours though because a 24 hour store has the night pharmacist filling at least a couple hundred and a lot of them have a robot. I'm not at all trying to say that they aren't severely understaffed; just that it's kind of comparing apples to oranges.

Yes that's why the 24 hour stores have nearly the same tech hours as certain midvolume stores. My store has less tech hour than a store in my district that does 2600-2700 script right now.

But there's a reason they need a robot and a night rph. They get way more in person traffic during the day + they process way more new prescriptions during the day.

I've worked at a 3100 script non-24 hr store, 1900 script store, and now a 24 hour store. The 24 hour store is harder b/c the rushes are crazier, and you have less help. Plus pretty much during the day you're processing new scripts (let's be real filling and verifying readyfills are easy).

There are challenges at every store regardless of script count, but it's way easier to get behind at a 24 hour store b/c of all the new scripts.

 

[maria1oh]

I have seen overnight stores start the night rph at 7pm,8pm,9pm, and 10pm. Oh yeah another one started at 11pm but they switched it back.

The main issue isn't the tech hours it's about finding good techs who make minimal errors with the prescriptions and customer service. Having interns also can help.

 

[ineeddrug]

You stated that you work 1-10 pm. The overnight person doesn't come in until 10 pm? Just curious.

Yes. Overnight rph came at 10pm. His shift was 10-8pm.

most of these store should have at least 270-280 tech hrs/week this time of year, which is around 45 tech hours/day during the week or ~6 tech shifts of 8 hrs or so. not generous but should be more than you mentioned, we get that and we only get about 19 RPh overlap hours per week spread over M/T/W. Not generous at all considering I usually have 4 techs between 10-6 only and 2-3 of those are almost always tied up at pick up/ drive thru

When I worked yesterday, 3 techs were working 8-5, 9-6, 10:30-7:30pm. So after 7:30pm, I only had 2 tech left.

One of the two left at 8:30pm. From 8:30-10pm, just me and one tech. She did non-stop pick up (10+ ppl standing) & I did drop off(5ppl standing) &qp & qv.
We just let phone ring.

One of the longest night ever.

 

[Sine Cura]

Sounds about right if your store has automation, especially if your store is the go-to for acute Rx in your neighborhood/area. Overnight pharmacist hours take away from the overall hours also. And it is probably typical for many 24 hour stores.

For example, I worked at a non-24 hour that had approximately 1 tech hour for every 9 Rx and it was claimed our store had a "busy" drive-thru compared to others in the district. The 24-hour store had 1 tech hour for every 13-14 Rx because of automation and no drive-thru, so there are fewer tech hours and they are distributed over a (potentially) larger time period versus a non-24 hour store.

 

[doublehh03]

Sounds about right if your store has automation, especially if your store is the go-to for acute Rx in your neighborhood/area. Overnight pharmacist hours take away from the overall hours also. And it is probably typical for many 24 hour stores.

For example, I worked at a non-24 hour that had approximately 1 tech hour for every 9 Rx and it was claimed our store had a "busy" drive-thru compared to others in the district. The 24-hour store had 1 tech hour for every 13-14 Rx because of automation and no drive-thru, so there are fewer tech hours and they are distributed over a (potentially) larger time period versus a non-24 hour store.

A CVS has that tech hour to script ratio? That must be a heaven store.

My 24 hour store has a 14-15 script to tech hour ratio and we have 2 drive through lanes.

Another 24 hour store in my district that does roughly the same volume and 1 drive through has 50 more tech hours.

MySchedule demand is really uneven among the stores.

 

[Sine Cura]

Yeah wasn't too bad aside from non-stop CIIs. Just have to verify 450-550 in 13 hours (more like 9 hours if you want downtime) if you don't mind that.

 

[doublehh03]

Yeah wasn't too bad aside from non-stop CIIs. Just have to verify 450-550 in 13 hours (more like 9 hours if you want downtime) if you don't mind that.

I think my issue with demand is that it isn't consistent with script count among stores, 24 or non-24 hour stores.

I have a store that does 2700 but gets 275 tech demand this week, while another store does 2600 that gets 220. My store gets 270 next week, while the other 24 hour store that does comparable amount gets 320. And then you have a brand new store that does 100 scripts a day but gets 50 tech hours lol.

It's like what's the deal? lol

 

[maria1oh]

I never have seen a 24/7 store without a drive thru. I did once work at a 300/day store with no drive thru but usually they are the slower stores without them.

 

[maria1oh]

The tech hours must also be tied to profits. A store doing 3000 a week with a bunch of cheap generics like aspirin, loratadine, multivitamin on medicaid is going to get less hours than a suburb store with commercial insurances doing the same script count.

 

[sosoo]

u have to understand that you'r a floater. often times that meant you'r less productive than a regular staff working there. usually the techs would cheer up A LOT when floaters leave, n their regular staff comes back, n go through all the pains of having floaters with them. i had 2 floaters working a monday, n the moment i walked in at 9pm there was already a corporate complaint.

 

[Old Timer]

I'm not saying it's perfect or even good, My Schedule takes into account volume, drive through, number of register transactions, amount of front store stuff rung through the rx registers, number of phone calls, etc. There are about 15-20 criteria that goes into the soup that makes up your tech hours. There is no formula that takes only scripts into account x hours per y scripts. It doesn't work that way.

 

[M0df]

I'm not saying it's perfect or even good, My Schedule takes into account volume, drive through, number of register transactions, amount of front store stuff rung through the rx registers, number of phone calls, etc. There are about 15-20 criteria that goes into the soup that makes up your tech hours. There is no formula that takes only scripts into account x hours per y scripts. It doesn't work that way.

Just for fun of it but ... are you talking about number of phone calls picked up or put on hold/dropped?

I worked in a low volume 24 hour store (no drive through). Tourist central. Their front store sales were ~50% of overall sales. It might be higher now. Huge OTC section. Some weeks tech hours were in 120-130 range and on good weeks 150-160. But as I said, low volume of about 2000 a week. I bet those hours are still the same even after the company eliminated (converted) half of the 24 hour stores in the area and their volume went up 20%+.

 

[M0df]

The tech hours must also be tied to profits. A store doing 3000 a week with a bunch of cheap generics like aspirin, loratadine, multivitamin on medicaid is going to get less hours than a suburb store with commercial insurances doing the same script count.

Are you sure doing Medicaid scripts are not that profitable? It is state by state but you get reimbursed cost + fee for Medicaid where I work. Some commercial insurances are not as profitable as you think. But I don't work for independents to see all the financials. I do see a lot more numbers than what I saw working for CVS though. But that is a topic for another discussion.

 

[Sine Cura]

Medicaid managed care plans in my county frequently reimburse below cost (based on the immediate results of the claim submission, so I suppose this could be considered "nominal"). Gross profit % for my pharmacy is typically 20-21% and there is a clear downward trend. It has gone as low as 17% (several months ago). % of Rx that are billed to some form of Medicaid is around 35-40%. The pharmacy itself operates at a loss.

In regard to fee-for-service Medi-Cal there have been several occasions where brand is mandated due to formulary restriction but the MAC is hundreds of dollars below the acquisition cost. Medi-Cal will even reject treatment authorization requests (TARs) if you intentionally submit one for a generic NDC when only brand is on the formulary, like with Abilify. I harbor no illusions that when we are "lucky" because the person approving the TAR didn't notice this that Medi-Cal won't try to clawback in the future.

 

[mikejones123]

If you feel your store is not budgeted correctly, the most likely reason is because of high medicaid scripts. All the "challenge stores" in my district are stores with a high percentage of medicaid scripts. I know your supervisor will point to all these reports and metrics as the reason but this isn't brain surgery. CVS screws stores over with high medicaid scripts because it doesn't make that much off them. The only remedy is to decrease the percentage of medicaid scripts. Ideally you want it under 25 percent. My friend is a PIC in a ex challenge store. He got his medicaid percentage down from 37 percent to 23. Now he is in a store of excellence and number one in Wecare. Of course his script count went down but CVS doesn't care about that. Cvs doesn't adequately staff stores that fill a high volume of medicaid scripts. So why fill them??

 

[sosoo]

Just for fun of it but ... are you talking about number of phone calls picked up or put on hold/dropped?.

he meant the phone rings that never get answer, n they magically hang up on their own after 30-40 minutes. this happens a lot on weekends at night b/c all the pharmacies in the district close at 6pm, n you'r the only one open 24 hr, n you're by yourself with long lines left n right (on your own) (by yourself)(long lines left n right). n the phones keep ringing for 30-40 minutes before they magically disappear.

 

[doublehh03]

If you feel your store is not budgeted correctly, the most likely reason is because of high medicaid scripts. All the "challenge stores" in my district are stores with a high percentage of medicaid scripts. I know your supervisor will point to all these reports and metrics as the reason but this isn't brain surgery. CVS screws stores over with high medicaid scripts because it doesn't make that much off them. The only remedy is to decrease the percentage of medicaid scripts. Ideally you want it under 25 percent. My friend is a PIC in a ex challenge store. He got his medicaid percentage down from 37 percent to 23. Now he is in a store of excellence and number one in Wecare. Of course his script count went down but CVS doesn't care about that. Cvs doesn't adequately staff stores that fill a high volume of medicaid scripts. So why fill them??

I had that notion to explain my low demand. My store does pretty much primary Medicaid and Caloptima. But we are pharmacists. Our job is to serve the people in front of us. CVS just sucks balls when it comes to staffing its pharmacies period. That's my main gripe with CVS and I work for them for 10 years now.

My friday demand for techs is usually 28-32 hours and I do around 550-600 a day on Friday. My demands on weekends is 14-18 tech hours and we do 350. I'm like wtf??? Obviously I don't follow that and go over b/c that's criminally wrong.

 

[Old Timer]

Profit level has nothing to do with demand. Nothing. Not a thing. Demand in 24 hour stores is mentally ******ed because they thing absolutely all administrative work, ordering, returns, paper work, state counts and many prescriptions are done overnight so you need less help during the day. It is a flawed model.

The other thing that drives your numbers up or down is scripts V budget. If you are beating budget they add hours. If you are not they subtract hours....
I get decent hours because I am beating budget...... and I am in an urban store with great deal of welfare.

 

[Humble Sloth]

If you feel your store is not budgeted correctly, the most likely reason is because of high medicaid scripts. All the "challenge stores" in my district are stores with a high percentage of medicaid scripts. I know your supervisor will point to all these reports and metrics as the reason but this isn't brain surgery. CVS screws stores over with high medicaid scripts because it doesn't make that much off them. The only remedy is to decrease the percentage of medicaid scripts. Ideally you want it under 25 percent. My friend is a PIC in a ex challenge store. He got his medicaid percentage down from 37 percent to 23. Now he is in a store of excellence and number one in Wecare. Of course his script count went down but CVS doesn't care about that. Cvs doesn't adequately staff stores that fill a high volume of medicaid scripts. So why fill them??

How did he get the poor script carriers to stop coming into the store? Did he like purposely mistreat them and delay their scripts or just lied and said they don't have their medicine at the store

 

[maria1oh]

In ohio a medicaid managed plan (united health care community plan) is no longer accepted at cvs. This is the only insurance I know of not accepted at cvs in the area. Walgreens accepts it but they do not accept the molina medicaid plan.