CVS System Down Chain-Wide?
Started by josh6718
Sounds like another well scheduled/timed system update by good old CVS IT (text is radiating sarcasm...)
So glad this happened today. Been getting a huge influx of patient transfers from wags, riteaid, and walmart. This should drive them back to where they originally belong.
After 3hrs downtime, we had 6pages QT, and almost a book of rx to type in, 20+ pt’s refill request...
When I left, still 10 pages QV &5 pages QP were in the queue.
Hate to go back to work tomorrow.
Thanks, CVS IT team, for making us work unnecessarily harder.
When I left, still 10 pages QV &5 pages QP were in the queue.
Hate to go back to work tomorrow.
Thanks, CVS IT team, for making us work unnecessarily harder.
Your lack of meeting metrics is unacceptable to corporate.
Go write a 30 minute action plan about what you are going to do next time so this doesn't happen again & do it in your own time without pay & attend this upcoming conference call detailing said plan
Go write a 30 minute action plan about what you are going to do next time so this doesn't happen again & do it in your own time without pay & attend this upcoming conference call detailing said plan
CVS has gone insane....way too many updates on RX connect. every week they add more crap in their system and next year with med scheduling and next day delivery it will be even worse....the system is very fragile and weak to begin with and always freezes....if they keep adding more to it....it will just keep crashing more often like yesterday
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Last night was a **** show like I haven't seen for some time.
CVS IT department is absolutely its worst department. Incompetency on teh regular. Delayed readyfills on Saturday until 10AM, and system down nation wide for 5+ hours on a Monday. Seriously, how does that even happen?
CVS's Twitter is a show. They are replying back to every complaint about the outage. Active throwing of local staff under the bus in full effect. "There were issues until 8PM,but the staff should have still been able to fill prescriptions." is the company line on Twitter. Back in the real world, unless it's a refill, you are unable to get a price. Cash or third party. Do they want me to just guess prices? CVS, your broken, POS system doesn't work in offline mode. It barely works when online, so I'm not sure what I expected. They have the worst IT department in the United States.
What's even worse is that they won't even admit to it affecting all of their retail stores across the county. "As of 8pm ET, the connectivity issues have been resolved that affected some of our pharmacies."
I've never understood why CVS's computers aren't able to stay on 24-hours like Walgreens. Even when they're 'working' they still will shut off every night at 3 am for almost a half hour to do their end of day reporting.
We were down from 2pm-8pm yesterday and they went down again today at 10:30am. I went in to help clean up on my day off and couldn't do anything.
I feel like readyfills have been delayed that long the past month or so. So ridiculous.
Whyyyy would you go to work on your day off??
Yep chain wide down.
yesterday, today. gosh.
we're behind, lot of catching up to do.
yesterday, today. gosh.
we're behind, lot of catching up to do.
lol because it would have been worse when I actually work if I didn't. I was only there for about an hour before the system went down and I was like, " eff this, I'm leaving"
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
So the system went down again and we are told to process rx in offline mode.
Since offline processing does not give copay or cash price... how did you guys do? Just guessing price and reprocess later and refund/charge more copay??? What about deug interaction check?
We sent all urgent rx to neighbor pharmacy and accept new rx from customers who can wait. (Surprisingly, all patients were so understanding.) But seriously, how did you do offline processing?
Since offline processing does not give copay or cash price... how did you guys do? Just guessing price and reprocess later and refund/charge more copay??? What about deug interaction check?
We sent all urgent rx to neighbor pharmacy and accept new rx from customers who can wait. (Surprisingly, all patients were so understanding.) But seriously, how did you do offline processing?
Last edited:
Left at 9pm Central and we were running. Did it go down again since? And I'm not sure why they keep telling us we can actually do something in offline mode. I tried to verify something I had the hard copy with but at the register it did not say it was verified. Offline does not work ...
Hmmm if any of you are bold enough to fill a narcotic in offline mode, just be aware you will have to manually deduct it from the perpetual inventory when the system is back up. I speak from experience (essentially redo the script to cover the Rx 999xxxx so it counts in inventory as well as state monitoring programs).
Last edited:
I hated when we processed a claim and then system went offline. If you give the rx back to patient they will get insurance rejection at another pharmacy. You have to manually call the insurance to reverse claim. That is assuming patient even knows what insurance they have or their card on them.
I would make up the prices in offline mode. Try to guess based off previous copay or call insurance. The dayshift rph would actually waste time calling patients to tell them they have to come back and pay their correct copay when the system came online. He would ban customers who owed balances (via note in profile). The rx sup told us to write off the copays as a loss.
The rx sup can see report showing how many scripts each store filled in offline mode.
The rx sup can see report showing how many scripts each store filled in offline mode.
It used to be impossible to fill controls in offline mode, the system wouldn't allow it. Did they change that?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
We don't fill any controls or narcotics in downtime
we send all customers away if new scripts unless caremark pts
If refills we tell them to bring vials in and give them a 3 day supply
Only thing we process offline are non pill prescription refills ie inhalers, insulin etc
things seem to be running smoothly
we send all customers away if new scripts unless caremark pts
If refills we tell them to bring vials in and give them a 3 day supply
Only thing we process offline are non pill prescription refills ie inhalers, insulin etc
things seem to be running smoothly
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I think it's "possible" or at least I had done it for someone that had come from the ER overnight once and there were no other pharmacies open nearby. It was only for 12 tablets of 5/325, so I charged them their medicaid $3 copay and wrote their drives license down in case it needed to updated later.
This was before CVS had started the electronic perpetual inventory system/CFRx and all the "state regulatory refill too soon exceptions" though.
About time. Major news networks started hammering CVS this morning. I love the CNBC reporter's comment at the end "I don't even think the [CVS executives] board understands the problems."
CVS blames pharmacy outages on 'internal network' problems
Computer issues lead to prescription problems at CVS, company says
Last edited:
Meanwhile the top headline on Drug Store News this morning is “DSN A.M. - CVS Health expands apprenticeship program footprint, hiring goals”
No fire here! Industry news reporting is like PyongYang news reporting.
Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
I filled an ER Percocet during one of the system updates in offline mode maybe 1.5-2 years ago; perpetual electronic inventory was around back then. I do not quite 100% remeber how I got past the MD DEA issue, but probably could remeber if I had to do it again.
Finally, system up all day today. All we could do in offline mode was fill medications (no verifying for the most part), take phoned-in and voicemail scripts, and ring out patients manually (assuming the drug was already in waiting bin).
On the plus side, our super came in today, and said that because of the outage, the past 3 days (Monday-Wednesday) won't be reflected in this week's metrics.
On the plus side, our super came in today, and said that because of the outage, the past 3 days (Monday-Wednesday) won't be reflected in this week's metrics.
