CVS Readyfill smoothing/Double verification

[WVUPharm2007]

Wait, you're a 24 hour store and only get 215 tech hours? What even. My store isn't 24 hours and we do roughly 3200 a week and get 250+ tech hours consistently.

These past few weeks have been 280+

You get a reduction in tech hours if you are a 24 due to the night pharmacist. But like I said, another 24 hour store that is nearly identical to hours gets 50 more hours a week, every week.

But then in January, all of a sudden we are getting hours per what MySchedule is telling us. Which is awesome. But now we have to hire people and get them trained. And they won't be ready to help until February at best thanks to CVS's HR department moving at glacial pace. Oh, and they put off putting through hire dates until January every December. So that will make them even slower.

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[RxPreceptor]

Just started 2 step verification last night....I'm just glad knowing Mikey's store is worse off by the #s compared to the **** show that is my store.
Just glad @Modest_anteater has that suicide hotline # ready....just kidding...some adaptation is all.

 

[stevephhs016]

All I can say is **** this company and everything it stands for. Cut my hours drastically too to almost unimaginable numbers.

So since they took out optimization in MSH, would they care less about over hours now?

 

[stevephhs016]

You get a reduction in tech hours if you are a 24 due to the night pharmacist. But like I said, another 24 hour store that is nearly identical to hours gets 50 more hours a week, every week.

But then in January, all of a sudden we are getting hours per what MySchedule is telling us. Which is awesome. But now we have to hire people and get them trained. And they won't be ready to help until February at best thanks to CVS's HR department moving at glacial pace. Oh, and they put off putting through hire dates until January every December. So that will make them even slower.

You also forgot that hopefully the people you hired can actually perform....

 

[owlegrad]

You also forgot that hopefully the people you hired can actually perform....

That would be a true Christmas miracle.

 

[stevephhs016]

That would be a true Christmas miracle.

I don't blame them though, with this high stress/ non stop/ get **** on by entitled customers/barely get a break/ low pay/ "could give a **** about its employees" company environment, why would someone want to work here?

 

[RxPreceptor]

I work overnight in a store that goes live soon. Anyone have advice on how to best manage workflow overnight on that night and just in general with two-step?

Try to clear out the queue going into midnight (everything that is in production will get dumped back into QT then labels need to be reprinted from production - massive duplication potential - avoid this because daytime people (><)...easier said than done especially when e-scribing goes down, you get MD phone calls every other minute & everything starts coming in as manual faxes (I'm not even sure if all of what should have been e-scribed actually came though via fax as some scripts did not eventually come through...then sorting out the duplicates from verbal orders). Fun times

Not 100% sure on the best/most efficient method of work flow yet. Makes sense to go through QT then Data entry review first before starting on production. Product review is pretty simple/straight forward.

 

[jack_hen]

my step pharmacist verifies all rx again at product review. he doesn't feel comfortable verifying the product without verifying the rx. so we are so backed up and he expects us to check all rxs too at production verification q. rx manager is on vacation so cant do anything. I am so stressed working with him. HELPPPP...

 

[lane one]

No, no. Only like 39 of them are red!

Last week we did 3200 scripts with about 215 or so tech hours allocated in mySchedule. I have no idea how that is supposed to work. There is one pharmacist and two techs from 8-3. The PIC tell me that the techs are stuck, one at drive thru, one at the register for basically the entire shift. The pharmacist basically has to do QP, QV, dropoff, and answer phones by themselves. He isn't prone to exaggeration and works very efficiently.

So every day, it just piles up higher and higher and higher. Just add 5-7 more pages every day. In perpetuity.

Thanks for the nightmares I'll be having tonight.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Just started 2 step verification last night....I'm just glad knowing Mikey's store is worse off by the #s compared to the **** show that is my store.
Just glad @Modest_anteater has that suicide hotline # ready....just kidding...some adaptation is all.

I have no idea how it's going. I'm in Seattle right now. Hopefully it's under control. (It isn't.)

 

[ancienbon]

my step pharmacist verifies all rx again at product review. he doesn't feel comfortable verifying the product without verifying the rx. so we are so backed up and he expects us to check all rxs too at production verification q. rx manager is on vacation so cant do anything. I am so stressed working with him. HELPPPP...

At production for all new rx i scan the label to double check data entry while i am bagging the script. Cvs cares so much about thing going red,it is always better to double check

 

[Sine Cura]

I just point to this thread to tell my "colleagues" not at CVS to stop crying so much about work

 

[browneyes021]

I'm at a 24hr store and I don't know what to do. I have 15 pgs in qp, 9 pgs of data review, not including the ones for production and readyfills haven't come in yet. Not even knowing where to start. Oh and next year, we were told we'd get rph hours cut. How are they supposed to run a business this way? Is this because customers don't have a choice because Walgreens is doing the same I just want to know what the **** is going on with the American Healthcare system. Some bs this is. And patient safety my ass. They don't give a **** about their safety. Pray for your customers that no one misfills a script and hurts them.

 

[Mambo#5]

I'm at a 24hr store and I don't know what to do. I have 15 pgs in qp, 9 pgs of data review, not including the ones for production and readyfills haven't come in yet. Not even knowing where to start. Oh and next year, we were told we'd get rph hours cut. How are they supposed to run a business this way? Is this because customers don't have a choice because Walgreens is doing the same I just want to know what the **** is going on with the American Healthcare system. Some bs this is. And patient safety my ass. They don't give a **** about their safety. Pray for your customers that no one misfills a script and hurts them.

Comforting to know I wasn’t the only one in this situation. I thought I was just having a bad day. I was in a similar situation and the system was extremely slow.

 

[browneyes021]

Comforting to know I wasn’t the only one in this situation. I thought I was just having a bad day. I was in a similar situation and the system was extremely slow.

I don't understand why have two step verification if you can't even handle the workload you currently have It makes everything so much slower. It would be fine if other stores could help out with remote verification, but cvs is too damn cheap to invest in that technology and we saw how long it took them to connect the register to rxconnect. I hate this company.

 

[ancienbon]

Yesterday we had a floater who had no idea how to do 2 step qv. I had to come 30 minutes early.There were 100 red in qv. Very unusual for a low volume store that averages 250 scripts a day . I thought the system was down . I asked the techs and they said the computer was not down...

 

[Ra1nMak3r]

My store only averages 200 scripts a day and my workflow is pretty good so far. I come in 30 mins before we open and clean up QT and QV1. Once we open I usually just do QT and QV1 and have my techs do drop off, QP and pick ups. Unless there’s acute or waiter, I usually don’t do QV2 until there’s 4 pages which should only take 30 mins to verify. The most annoying about this new verification is having to reverify data entry when my techs change insurance or apply coupons

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I'm just tired of getting yelled at by people for something that isn't my fault. I go in and get as much **** done as humanly possible. And no matter how hard and how efficiently I go at it, I wind up further behind than I was the night before. I get that it sucks that we are an entire day behind...and I'd be pissed off, too. But the general public gives zero damns about the local staff. And why should they? This is America. People buying a product get to dehumanize the people selling it to them. That's just the society we live in. And boy do they exercise that right and just let us have it. Like I own the place and personally decided to not have enough help to get the work done. There's nothing I can say or do to make it better. The feeling of helplessness that CVS is putting me in at that moment is really morale destroying. And I'm really starting to see it from my staff. The PIC, staff RPHs and lead tech at my store are still giving it their best. But the techs that are only getting like $13 an hour to deal with vitriol every day? I can see it in their faces that they contemplate why they come to work every day. A year ago, this store was beautiful. We had everything going perfectly. And it had been that way for years. Always at the top of the district. Then all of a sudden, it's devolved into a broken mess once Fall volume tsunami hit and myschedule glitched our hours. (I'm giving CVS the benefit of the doubt and assuming it's a bug and not a feature.)

Man, I hope it gets better in January when that boost in hours hits...

 

[Ra1nMak3r]

it's devolved into a broken mess once Fall volume tsunami hit and myschedule glitched our hours. (I'm giving CVS the benefit of the doubt and assuming it's a bug and not a feature.)

Man, I hope it gets better in January when that boost in hours hits...

I’m surprised your DL didn’t fixed your demand hours. Ours glitched earlier this year and my tech demand hours was down almost 20%. My DL fixed it the next week.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I’m surprised your DL didn’t fixed your demand hours. Ours glitched earlier this year and my tech demand hours was down almost 20%. My DL fixed it the next week.

We were told there was nothing he could do.

 

[browneyes021]

I’m surprised your DL didn’t fixed your demand hours. Ours glitched earlier this year and my tech demand hours was down almost 20%. My DL fixed it the next week.

Yours fixed your hours? We've been short with tech hours since before school began and have been lied to every week that we'd be getting more. We've had our customers call corporate to complain about the lack of help and still nothing happens. It's just a constant feeling of defeat everytime we come into work. We're still a day behind.

 

[APN-59 rph]

Very likely consultant driven......The plan is to stomp the pharmacy crews into a puddle of spit to see how much they will tolerate...mistakes will be dealt with...... with firings..then hushed up and bought off..Likely they will evaluate this plan and ease up a bit as needed ..throw some crumbs to the grateful peons..STS.....Word is that the mid-level weenies are going nutz too. The pharmacy boards are owned by the chains and will divert all punishment to prior referenced peons as needed...And yet the pharmacy schools are apparently full AND....see remote tech run satellite operations expanding soon....

 

[Ra1nMak3r]

Yours fixed your hours? We've been short with tech hours since before school began and have been lied to every week that we'd be getting more. We've had our customers call corporate to complain about the lack of help and still nothing happens. It's just a constant feeling of defeat everytime we come into work. We're still a day behind.

Damn that sucks. MySchedule is broken feature that doesn’t even work properly.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Very likely consultant driven......The plan is to stomp the pharmacy crews into a puddle of spit to see how much they will tolerate...mistakes will be dealt with...... with firings..then hushed up and bought off..Likely they will evaluate this plan and ease up a bit as needed ..throw some crumbs to the grateful peons..STS.....Word is that the mid-level weenies are going nutz too. The pharmacy boards are owned by the chains and will divert all punishment to prior referenced peons as needed...And yet the pharmacy schools are apparently full AND....see remote tech run satellite operations expanding soon....

You are giving CVS too much credit.

 

[puregoldenboy]

So the new system goes by whats in your ques?

Anything in the refill smoothie queue that you don't finish drops next day as a 9pm readyfill time. So when your opening RPH comes in if you are doing 100 percent of the readyfill smoothing you should have ZERO 9pm scripts drop in. There's a cutoff on when they drop the readyfills (2.5 hours before close) and they check your QP pages vs readyfill smoothing pages left to determine if more should drop in.

 

[browneyes021]

Anything in the refill smoothie queue that you don't finish drops next day as a 9pm readyfill time. So when your opening RPH comes in if you are doing 100 percent of the readyfill smoothing you should have ZERO 9pm scripts drop in. There's a cutoff on when they drop the readyfills (2.5 hours before close) and they check your QP pages vs readyfill smoothing pages left to determine if more should drop in.

Bs. We have over 20 pgs and another store had over 40 from several nights of readyfills dropping in and we can't get caught up.

 

[6GodPharm]

Bs. We have over 20 pgs and another store had over 40 from several nights of readyfills dropping in and we can't get caught up.

Yeah i don’t think it works that way. CVS system is the worst in all the chains. No way they go store by store customizing the drops lol

 

[puregoldenboy]

Bs. We have over 20 pgs and another store had over 40 from several nights of readyfills dropping in and we can't get caught up.

What part is BS? Sounds like you guys can't get your qp down so no readyfill smoothing will drop during day for you and you just get hammered next morning with more readyfills.

Yeah i don’t think it works that way. CVS system is the worst in all the chains. No way they go store by store customizing the drops lol

I agree, I really enjoyed Rite Aid's system when I was a clerk. I didn't say they customize each store's drops. Just that they do a check on your qp every 15 minutes and then drop more scripts in based on how "healthy" your queue is. If you in red or got a bunch in qp they won't feed you anything.

 

[6GodPharm]

What part is BS? Sounds like you guys can't get your qp down so no readyfill smoothing will drop during day for you and you just get hammered next morning with more readyfills.



I agree, I really enjoyed Rite Aid's system when I was a clerk. I didn't say they customize each store's drops. Just that they do a check on your qp every 15 minutes and then drop more scripts in based on how "healthy" your queue is. If you in red or got a bunch in qp they won't feed you anything.

Then why aren’t some stores able to catch up? How many days of readyfill is it dropping? Just the next day or 2-3 days out?

 

[puregoldenboy]

Then why aren’t some stores able to catch up? How many days of readyfill is it dropping? Just the next day or 2-3 days out?

It only drops a day's worth of readyfills. The readyfill smoothing queue consists of scripts that are 4 days early. If none drop then they all drop the next day in the morning and appear in qp/qv. Let's say for example you get 10 pages of readyfills every day and you currently have 20 pages in qp/qv. You end the day with 8 pages left still and none of the readyfill smoothing dropping in. Next day you'll have 10 pages from the smoothing+8 pages left from previous day plus any too soon schedules. Your DL gets data on how much readyfill smoothing each store completes in the form of a percentage. It's something you can ask them about if you think the data will help. As to why some stores aren't able to catch up? Well to "catch up" you have to finish the usual days work plus a few extra pages every day to catch up. I mean it is December which is our worst month so there are plenty of stores struggling. As a district last week we were completing 70 percent with the worst store being in the 30s. You'll need a strong AM production tech to crank out scripts. Is your store ending the evening with pages left in QP? Is your help front loaded or backloaded for the day? How many scripts/tech hours you do per week?

 

[browneyes021]

It only drops a day's worth of readyfills. The readyfill smoothing queue consists of scripts that are 4 days early. If none drop then they all drop the next day in the morning and appear in qp/qv. Let's say for example you get 10 pages of readyfills every day and you currently have 20 pages in qp/qv. You end the day with 8 pages left still and none of the readyfill smoothing dropping in. Next day you'll have 10 pages from the smoothing+8 pages left from previous day plus any too soon schedules. Your DL gets data on how much readyfill smoothing each store completes in the form of a percentage. It's something you can ask them about if you think the data will help. As to why some stores aren't able to catch up? Well to "catch up" you have to finish the usual days work plus a few extra pages every day to catch up. I mean it is December which is our worst month so there are plenty of stores struggling. As a district last week we were completing 70 percent with the worst store being in the 30s. You'll need a strong AM production tech to crank out scripts. Is your store ending the evening with pages left in QP? Is your help front loaded or backloaded for the day? How many scripts/tech hours you do per week?

24 hr store where readyfills drop around 1,2am with about 7 to 10 pgs nightly even though we had 10 pgs or more already in there. Our readyfills are all due at that night at 11:59pm. I'm curious what readyfills look like at day shift stores because I haven't seen this smoothing technique you speak of.

 

[puregoldenboy]

24 hr store where readyfills drop around 1,2am with about 7 to 10 pgs nightly even though we had 10 pgs or more already in there. Our readyfills are all due at that night at 11:59pm. I'm curious what readyfills look like at day shift stores because I haven't seen this smoothing technique you speak of.

Readyfill smoothing is not active in 24 hour stores.

 

[6GodPharm]

It only drops a day's worth of readyfills. The readyfill smoothing queue consists of scripts that are 4 days early. If none drop then they all drop the next day in the morning and appear in qp/qv. Let's say for example you get 10 pages of readyfills every day and you currently have 20 pages in qp/qv. You end the day with 8 pages left still and none of the readyfill smoothing dropping in. Next day you'll have 10 pages from the smoothing+8 pages left from previous day plus any too soon schedules. Your DL gets data on how much readyfill smoothing each store completes in the form of a percentage. It's something you can ask them about if you think the data will help. As to why some stores aren't able to catch up? Well to "catch up" you have to finish the usual days work plus a few extra pages every day to catch up. I mean it is December which is our worst month so there are plenty of stores struggling. As a district last week we were completing 70 percent with the worst store being in the 30s. You'll need a strong AM production tech to crank out scripts. Is your store ending the evening with pages left in QP? Is your help front loaded or backloaded for the day? How many scripts/tech hours you do per week?

We clear the que every night. I get a lot of scripts 2-3 hours after opening that are ready fill and it slowly dies down throughout the day. Is that why the morning doesn’t start with much?

 

[puregoldenboy]

We clear the que every night. I get a lot of scripts 2-3 hours after opening that are ready fill and it slowly dies down throughout the day. Is that why the morning doesn’t start with much?

Correct. Readyfills starts dropping 2.5 hours after open and stops 2.5 hours before close. So they want the technicians to focus on other stuff early on instead of just looking at QP. I usually just make sure we clear whatever cycle counts drop in or pull expires.

 

[6GodPharm]

Correct. Readyfills starts dropping 2.5 hours after open and stops 2.5 hours before close. So they want the technicians to focus on other stuff early on instead of just looking at QP. I usually just make sure we clear whatever cycle counts drop in or pull expires.

So is it still good to clear the que asap or should you take your time so they don’t drop all at once

 

[ldiot]

Does anyone know why yesterday we had 7 pages of 5PM with nothing dropping throughout the day? How did that happen?

 

[puregoldenboy]

So is it still good to clear the que asap or should you take your time so they don’t drop all at once

Still good to clear ASAP so more can drop in because eventually it'll stop if you are doing things right. Here's outline for my usual weekday 8-9pm. 8-1030am clear the 2-4 pages that drop in the morning, do pcq calls sneak a few dr calls in finish non-c2 cycle counts. 1030 am -630pm readyfills will drop throughout the day. If I have time, rather than verify readyfills, I will help pull for my production tech so everything can drop in before the cutoff time. Once 630pm hits, I know no more stuff will drop in and focus more on pharmacist stuff (verifying readyfills, c2 counts) and there should be 2-4 pages remaining in QP which should be easy in 2.5 hours. At 630pm, tech can start checking the OV order review and make sure it submits correctly. I try to shift some of the morning tasks for the store for the evening now. So like I'll print the waiting bin report 13 days out and do the 14 day RTS in evening before we close. So in the AM all they have to do is the patient requested RTS and then that 2nd tech can help production pull or help tackle QT. Last 2.5 hours of mostly product verification is easy to get through.

Does anyone know why yesterday we had 7 pages of 5PM with nothing dropping throughout the day? How did that happen?

My guess is you guys close at 5 pm on weekends? That means you had 7 pages of readyfill that didn't drop in on Friday because you were probably slammed so it dropped in on Saturday morning as leftovers.

 

[ldiot]

Still good to clear ASAP so more can drop in because eventually it'll stop if you are doing things right. Here's outline for my usual weekday 8-9pm. 8-1030am clear the 2-4 pages that drop in the morning, do pcq calls sneak a few dr calls in finish non-c2 cycle counts. 1030 am -630pm readyfills will drop throughout the day. If I have time, rather than verify readyfills, I will help pull for my production tech so everything can drop in before the cutoff time. Once 630pm hits, I know no more stuff will drop in and focus more on pharmacist stuff (verifying readyfills, c2 counts) and there should be 2-4 pages remaining in QP which should be easy in 2.5 hours. At 630pm, tech can start checking the OV order review and make sure it submits correctly. I try to shift some of the morning tasks for the store for the evening now. So like I'll print the waiting bin report 13 days out and do the 14 day RTS in evening before we close. So in the AM all they have to do is the patient requested RTS and then that 2nd tech can help production pull or help tackle QT. Last 2.5 hours of mostly product verification is easy to get through.



My guess is you guys close at 5 pm on weekends? That means you had 7 pages of readyfill that didn't drop in on Friday because you were probably slammed so it dropped in on Saturday morning as leftovers.

Also, how does some ready full drop with due times that are prior to closing? It hasn't done this on weekends but I see it on weekdays where the smoothing thing drops due times at 11,1,3 etc. Would it drop leftovers in the same way?

 

[6GodPharm]

Still good to clear ASAP so more can drop in because eventually it'll stop if you are doing things right. Here's outline for my usual weekday 8-9pm. 8-1030am clear the 2-4 pages that drop in the morning, do pcq calls sneak a few dr calls in finish non-c2 cycle counts. 1030 am -630pm readyfills will drop throughout the day. If I have time, rather than verify readyfills, I will help pull for my production tech so everything can drop in before the cutoff time. Once 630pm hits, I know no more stuff will drop in and focus more on pharmacist stuff (verifying readyfills, c2 counts) and there should be 2-4 pages remaining in QP which should be easy in 2.5 hours. At 630pm, tech can start checking the OV order review and make sure it submits correctly. I try to shift some of the morning tasks for the store for the evening now. So like I'll print the waiting bin report 13 days out and do the 14 day RTS in evening before we close. So in the AM all they have to do is the patient requested RTS and then that 2nd tech can help production pull or help tackle QT. Last 2.5 hours of mostly product verification is easy to get through.



My guess is you guys close at 5 pm on weekends? That means you had 7 pages of readyfill that didn't drop in on Friday because you were probably slammed so it dropped in on Saturday morning as leftovers.

Does it only check the qp before dropping? Or will it also check how much is in qt and data entry before dropping as well?

 

[puregoldenboy]

Also, how does some ready full drop with due times that are prior to closing? It hasn't done this on weekends but I see it on weekdays where the smoothing thing drops due times at 11,1,3 etc. Would it drop leftovers in the same way?

I haven't seen this. All my readyfills drop with the correct time. Maybe you should report this to help desk with specific times and rx numbers so they can investigate.

Does it only check the qp before dropping? Or will it also check how much is in qt and data entry before dropping as well?

Only checks qp volume versus readyfills remaining volume and whether you have 15 or more "reds" in the queue. Too many red scripts will freeze the system from dumping more scripts for you.

 

[Good_RX2018]

Me at work yesterday: I just cleared 6 pages out of my que and another 7 pages drop in my QV1...where are these 7 pages came from?????

Btw, I did this all alone yesterday. We usually have 2 rph on weekdays. Xmas miracle

 

[RxPreceptor]

2 step verification is not too bad @ 24H stores....just some time doing data entry review (usually my eyes are drawn to the fill # i.e. 03, DUR #s, & duplicates...like how you can just delete duplicate therapies (i.e out dated thyroid strengths, outdated statin strengths, 30 vs. 90 day supply, etc.) before going to production. Put in forced notes when needed

Time-frame wise can do about 5 pages of product review in < 1 hour (faster than 1 step). System is so tedious to the point I have patient's medications memorized short term. I do notice the system varies how much will go in @ 12:15am...I'm getting stuff up to 2 days in advance...i.e. 11:59s 12/25/18-12/27/18

 

[SDRPH90]

So based on all the comments above, I can tell that CVS is pretty hectic place and miserable, but I got an offer from CVS which is 15 miles away from where I live in San Diego, which is really great that it's close to family, but I did my internship in Sacramento with Safeway and they offered me a full time float position also, any advice I can get from you guys regarding CVS? Should I consider their offer? the pay difference is only $4.5 extra per hour with Safeway.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

We are now over 80 pages of QP.

80.

WTF, corporate?

 

[Good_RX2018]

Anyone in here know if DL and scheduler know how many rx floaters filled a day? Why they keep sending certain rph to the 24 hr stores but not others? Does it based on how fast you are as a floater?

 

[RxPreceptor]

We are now over 80 pages of QP.

80.

WTF, corporate?

Risen from ****-show status to full on **** storm/hurricane, well done (I am no where near that level of hopelessness)

 

[maria1oh]

Last time a cvs had 50 pages of qp they paid 3 rphs to work overnight to try and catch up.

 

[Charcoales]

We are now over 80 pages of QP.

80.

WTF, corporate?

Lol and I thought I felt bad walking into 100+ on the counter, and leaving 50-80 rxs to fill for the morning crew pretty much daily (down the street from an er so get slammed until 1am usually workload only increases until then :/). I feel like people think I'm incompetent but I work damn fast if only they knew how hard we worked... but only get the stink eye.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Lol and I thought I felt bad walking into 100+ on the counter, and leaving 50-80 rxs to fill for the morning crew pretty much daily (down the street from an er so get slammed until 1am usually workload only increases until then :/). I feel like people think I'm incompetent but I work damn fast if only they knew how hard we worked... but only get the stink eye.

I'll set my pedometer on my phone. I challenge any day shift anywhere in the company to compare.

We deal with no help, sleep deprivation, and walking a few miles every night. Most can't do our job and they know it. Just ignore then.

 

[mikejones123]

We are now over 80 pages of QP.

80.

WTF, corporate?

Wow. This is all on your pharmacy manager. Sounds incompetent. They should give you a couple techs overnight to catch up. It’s not the end of the world if you go over 10-16 hours. Especially in an extreme case like this