CVS wait time

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VictorOfHungerGames

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I know cvs is usually busy with no tech help but Im noticing that as of late, wait time for transfers is getting longer and longer. I had to wait 45 mins today for a transfer haha. I put the phone on speaker and my entire staff was going crazy over the waiting music...

Are yall just really busy or did cvs come up with another BS policy about calls? Haha

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I often work by myself in the mornings now and there are times when I just can't answer the phone. I've decided the customer in store has priority. I know it sucks waiting on hold.
 
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They cut our tech hours more this year . Unfortunately the calls are the last thing we answer. I usually tell the other pharmacies to just leave a voicemail if it’s not urgent
 
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Same here - I called CVS the other day and I waited for about 25 minutes before a tech answered..

I get it though - retail is tough
 
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They cut our tech hours more this year . Unfortunately the calls are the last thing we answer. I usually tell the other pharmacies to just leave a voicemail if it’s not urgent

Wow sorry to hear that. I knew it was getting bad when a couple of my friends quit cvs without any other job lined up but... ita bad to a point where we have to leave voicemails?! Good lord.
 
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My impression:

Acquisition led to lots of debt for the company

That, combined with increased operational efficiency encourages them to budget for less

Not to mention that most pharmacies fill less scripts in Q1 than Q4. So there usually is an adjustment period (this time with more challenges).

The company is also focusing more on customer interaction and personalized care at Pick Up.

For teams at the end of their tether, sometimes we can only help the person in front of us.

It takes all our energy to be engaged and present with the resources we have.
 
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yes, staff is now focusing on customer service more and the line at pick up. Usually we tell our transfers up to 24 hours, so 45 minutes is extremely fast by my standards.
 
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yes, staff is now focusing on customer service more and the line at pick up. Usually we tell our transfers up to 24 hours, so 45 minutes is extremely fast by my standards.
Uhhhhh...45 minutes to answer the phone is fast by your standards? So you answer fewer than 10 phone calls per 8 hour shift? Sounds nice.
 
There are so many things at CVS that make workflow unnecessarily bad. Prompts at the register, PCQ calls (who thought these were even remotely a good idea?), having to credential everything 15 times just to see someone's profile, I could go on.

My time at CVS was probably the most unenjoyable 6 months of my working life.
 
Yet-an old dude from a chain pharmacy, I don't remember if it was CVS or not, threaten to complain to the board when he had to wait 15 minutes on the phone to get a transfer from me.
 
They cut our tech hours more this year . Unfortunately the calls are the last thing we answer. I usually tell the other pharmacies to just leave a voicemail if it’s not urgent

Wouldn't a voicemail be even worse since you have to get it within 15mins?
 
There are so many things at CVS that make workflow unnecessarily bad. Prompts at the register, PCQ calls (who thought these were even remotely a good idea?), having to credential everything 15 times just to see someone's profile, I could go on.

My time at CVS was probably the most unenjoyable 6 months of my working life.

Sure - I understand this point of view. However when your take home reaches $4000 every 2 weeks it suddenly becomes more tolerable. You were making technician wages correct? Every day in retail pharmacy I would look at the very hard working technicians and think to myself, “my goodness these people have so much more heart than I do...”. After thinking that - I would cross my fingers and hope that they never find out how much a pharmacist makes
 
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Wouldn't a voicemail be even worse since you have to get it within 15mins?

I save all the voicemails before the 15 min mark to get the points and then just go through them later.
 
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Sure - I understand this point of view. However when your take home reaches $4000 every 2 weeks it suddenly becomes more tolerable. You were making technician wages correct? Every day in retail pharmacy I would look at the very hard working technicians and think to myself, “my goodness these people have so much more heart than I do...”. After thinking that - I would cross my fingers and hope that they never find out how much a pharmacist makes

Im sure they already know. And thats probably what the doctors are thinking when they call you lol
 
I save all the voicemails before the 15 min mark to get the points and then just go through them later.
Are supervisors still cracking the whip on WeCare metrics?

I stopped looking at it end of 2017.. changing the way we work just for 'points' and not financials seems counterintuitive.
 
Are supervisors still cracking the whip on WeCare metrics?

I stopped looking at it end of 2017.. changing the way we work just for 'points' and not financials seems counterintuitive.

Yeah our wecare sucks too. It just became a habit for me to just save the voicemails for later and do other urgent matters
 
Does anyone know of a specific time frame that a pharmacist must transfer a Rx? I know that indy pharmacies basically wait and almost hold the Rx hostage until they have to release it. I mean if its a 30 day supply then they wait 30 days. Just saying if the BOP wants to do something about it they can or wait it might be another antitrust case...idk anymore.
 
I was 1 hr on hold for a transfer from WLMT. I gave up and called the patient and told her she needs to call them and yell at them.
 
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Yeah our wecare sucks too. It just became a habit for me to just save the voicemails for later and do other urgent matters
Sounds like you're in the eye of a tornado..

Hope you are crushing your P&L. That way you can get some extra help in there!
 
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Does anyone know of a specific time frame that a pharmacist must transfer a Rx? I know that indy pharmacies basically wait and almost hold the Rx hostage until they have to release it. I mean if its a 30 day supply then they wait 30 days. Just saying if the BOP wants to do something about it they can or wait it might be another antitrust case...idk anymore.

Could a pharmacist refuse to transfer? Is that even legal? Haha
 
Once the greeting comes on at CVS, just dial 8001 and you'll get the pharmacist. I typically will leave a VM and have them fax me if not urgent. The CVS across the street from me and I have a good working relationship.
 
Once the greeting comes on at CVS, just dial 8001 and you'll get the pharmacist. I typically will leave a VM and have them fax me if not urgent. The CVS across the street from me and I have a good working relationship.

8001 does not get you the pharmacist, it gets you the pharmacy. Anyone that pulls this to cut in front of my actual customers waits longer in my pharmacy FYI.
 
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Yup we also focus on the customer. They get first priority. I don’t care about phone calls either. We leave them on hold all day long. I’d rather have 3-4 registers going and someone at drive thru all day. I hate when techs are stuck on the phone. Waste of time.
 
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Yup we also focus on the customer. They get first priority. I don’t care about phone calls either. We leave them on hold all day long. I’d rather have 3-4 registers going and someone at drive thru all day. I hate when techs are stuck on the phone. Waste of time.
Reminds me of my last CVS gig. Never thought I’d hear “15 pharmacy calls” in my life...
 
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Yup we also focus on the customer. They get first priority. I don’t care about phone calls either. We leave them on hold all day long. I’d rather have 3-4 registers going and someone at drive thru all day. I hate when techs are stuck on the phone. Waste of time.

Interesting... so you purposely put people on hold longer than necessary just because? Haha. Ill make sure to let my patients know that next time. Thanks.
 
There are legitimate phone calls like a patient trying to figure out where the prescription was actually sent because the MA is too stupid to figure out the correct pharmacy and the clinic will not answer any calls but most of them are people too lazy or unintelligent to use the website, use the phone app, or use IVR correctly, or lazy/cheap clinics that don't want to do e-scribing
 
Could a pharmacist refuse to transfer? Is that even legal? Haha
No. Not sure about other states, but in Texas you have 4 hours from the initiation of request. Probably not enforced, but I'm pretty sure it's law.
 
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I've had an indy refuse to transfer because the patient owed them money. My state has no law AGAINST it that I know of.

As an indy owner, I assure you I'd do the same thing. Not only that, I would bill the Rxs they receive to create a "block" so that even with new scripts, they still couldn't get them. I'm a jerk--I know:).
 
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Yup we also focus on the customer. They get first priority. I don’t care about phone calls either. We leave them on hold all day long. I’d rather have 3-4 registers going and someone at drive thru all day. I hate when techs are stuck on the phone. Waste of time.

I try to be understanding and patient when I call bigger chains since I know you guys are busy, but there's also something to be said for professional courtesy. I don't mind waiting, but being put on hold for an hour plus and/or fighting for days to get a transfer is a bit excessive. We are all in the same retail **** sandwich and should try and be helpful to one another.

Luckily the CVS near my store and I have a good relationship. I let transfers know it'll be at least a few hours and I call the CVS and either let a tech know what I need or I leave a vmail asking them to fax over the transfers when they can in the next couple of hours. I always get what I need without tying up my phone lines or rushing the RPh on duty.
 
I try to be understanding and patient when I call bigger chains since I know you guys are busy, but there's also something to be said for professional courtesy. I don't mind waiting, but being put on hold for an hour plus and/or fighting for days to get a transfer is a bit excessive. We are all in the same retail **** sandwich and should try and be helpful to one another.

Luckily the CVS near my store and I have a good relationship. I let transfers know it'll be at least a few hours and I call the CVS and either let a tech know what I need or I leave a vmail asking them to fax over the transfers when they can in the next couple of hours. I always get what I need without tying up my phone lines or rushing the RPh on duty.
Just call the dr line. I let all Pharmacy’s know to call it. I give no sh*ts about the regular line. Come in the store and you get everything you need. I can’t have my techs on the phone with old betty for 5-10 minutes of garbage. Someones at drive thru we attend right away, or the front or drop off. I have the 3 registers or 2 people at drop off all day. Guess what suffers the phones. Patients come in and we tell them, how rude would it be to tell you to wait and then pick up the phone while you’re in line waiting for us. They understand and get it. Phones is last priority and I really don’t care if anyone’s opinion is against that. It’s not a metric so not important to me lol
 
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Just call the dr line. I let all Pharmacy’s know to call it. I give no sh*ts about the regular line. Come in the store and you get everything you need. I can’t have my techs on the phone with old betty for 5-10 minutes of garbage. Someones at drive thru we attend right away, or the front or drop off. I have the 3 registers or 2 people at drop off all day. Guess what suffers the phones. Patients come in and we tell them, how rude would it be to tell you to wait and then pick up the phone while you’re in line waiting for us. They understand and get it. Phones is last priority and I really don’t care if anyone’s opinion is against that. It’s not a metric so not important to me lol


Good to know that CVS didn’t entirely rob you of your humanity :rolleyes:
 
I often work by myself in the mornings now and there are times when I just can't answer the phone. I've decided the customer in store has priority. I know it sucks waiting on hold.
Just call the dr line. I let all Pharmacy’s know to call it. I give no sh*ts about the regular line. Come in the store and you get everything you need. I can’t have my techs on the phone with old betty for 5-10 minutes of garbage. Someones at drive thru we attend right away, or the front or drop off. I have the 3 registers or 2 people at drop off all day. Guess what suffers the phones. Patients come in and we tell them, how rude would it be to tell you to wait and then pick up the phone while you’re in line waiting for us. They understand and get it. Phones is last priority and I really don’t care if anyone’s opinion is against that. It’s not a metric so not important to me lol
Ditto. I have to abandon the idea of answering the phone within 15 minutes of opening. I take care of the people in front of me, and keep my work queues manageable. We're filling 1400 Rx per week on 86 tech hours (155 Rx on 5.5 hours, 275 on 14 hours, etc). It gets worse as you go higher in script count, and you cannot judge us for ignoring the phone until you have successfully lived through that nightmare. I come in early, I stay late, and I'm hours behind every single day without answering the phone. I do not like doing it, but that is the only possible way of surviving.
 
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Ditto. I have to abandon the idea of answering the phone within 15 minutes of opening. I take care of the people in front of me, and keep my work queues manageable. We're filling 1400 Rx per week on 86 tech hours (155 Rx on 5.5 hours, 275 on 14 hours, etc). It gets worse as you go higher in script count, and you cannot judge us for ignoring the phone until you have successfully lived through that nightmare. I come in early, I stay late, and I'm hours behind every single day without answering the phone. I do not like doing it, but that is the only possible way of surviving.
Same here. Unfortunately we have to stop answering the phone at some point otherwise we get nothing done. But we still have to answer md calls.My store fills over 1700 a week with only 99 tech hrs. It is bad everywhere. Some stores are over 300 to 500 scripts behind.
 
Just call the dr line. I let all Pharmacy’s know to call it. I give no sh*ts about the regular line. Come in the store and you get everything you need. I can’t have my techs on the phone with old betty for 5-10 minutes of garbage. Someones at drive thru we attend right away, or the front or drop off. I have the 3 registers or 2 people at drop off all day. Guess what suffers the phones. Patients come in and we tell them, how rude would it be to tell you to wait and then pick up the phone while you’re in line waiting for us. They understand and get it. Phones is last priority and I really don’t care if anyone’s opinion is against that. It’s not a metric so not important to me lol
Unfortunately that is how to survive
 
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i came to a store and the pharmacist phone was silent, other phones were ringing off the hook. *41. those who knows will survive, those who don't will perish.
 
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Just learn to answer the phone while you verify data entry or product review. Learn to be concise, and quick and end the phone call as soon as the issue is resolved. My store does 2,000-2,200 a week.

They are generally quick calls, mostly asking if their rx is ready... I can answer that in 5 seconds and tell them to have a good day, mmmmh bye.
 
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Just learn to answer the phone while you verify data entry or product review. Learn to be concise, and quick and end the phone call as soon as the issue is resolved. My store does 2,000-2,200 a week.

They are generally quick calls, mostly asking if their rx is ready... I can answer that in 5 seconds and tell them to have a good day, mmmmh bye.

I refuse to talk on the phone while data verifying. I have to be intensely focused when verifying. However, I will product verify while on the phone - that’s easy.

Verifying data while you have someone telling you about how everyone in the pharmacy is stupid because you can not bill their Medicaid for herbal supplements is a bad idea and will lead to medication errors
 
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Just don't work for CVS.

Problem solved
 
Just learn to answer the phone while you verify data entry or product review. Learn to be concise, and quick and end the phone call as soon as the issue is resolved. My store does 2,000-2,200 a week.

They are generally quick calls, mostly asking if their rx is ready... I can answer that in 5 seconds and tell them to have a good day, mmmmh bye.

I don't understand why people call the store to ask if the medication is ready.
One of the first things they'll hear during automated response system is "to check if your medication is ready, press X".

Just don't work for CVS.

Problem solved

Wish we had that kind of luxury.
 
I don't understand why people call the store to ask if the medication is ready.
One of the first things they'll hear during automated response system is "to check if your medication is ready, press X".



Wish we had that kind of luxury.

Haha...

Which button is X? Screw this I’ll just hold
 
At CVS, it is every pharmacist for themselves and the devil takes the hindmost.
 
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Can't wait for the new phone IVR system and the end of "Golden Dragon."

Supposed to screen out 50% of phone calls for us.
For me it will screen 100%. If they get thru auto click, hang up and use the IVR again. They will be trained like zoo animals to use that F’n IVR to learn it or give up calling because it will take a bunch of prompts to again connect to the pharmacy. It’s CVS, I can bet calls like whats ready will still get thru. Will teach my staff hang it back up and that will force these animals to restart the IVR and do it again.
 
Just learn to answer the phone while you verify data entry or product review. Learn to be concise, and quick and end the phone call as soon as the issue is resolved. My store does 2,000-2,200 a week.

They are generally quick calls, mostly asking if their rx is ready... I can answer that in 5 seconds and tell them to have a good day, mmmmh bye.
How cute. Try stores that do over 3800/week where its off the hook all day.
 
At CVS, it is every pharmacist for themselves and the devil takes the hindmost.
So true. I have seen so much backstabbing on the bench where everything is blamed on others. Everyone is working at least 2 hours extra every a day to keep up. Patients are complaining ;customer service at all time low, employee morale at its lowest point !We have to bring customer service up or else we will get written up going forward. It is a dog eat dog environment!
 
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Just learn to answer the phone while you verify data entry or product review. Learn to be concise, and quick and end the phone call as soon as the issue is resolved. My store does 2,000-2,200 a week.

They are generally quick calls, mostly asking if their rx is ready... I can answer that in 5 seconds and tell them to have a good day, mmmmh bye.

People coming on here bragging about their cushy low mid-level stores and having enough time to answer the phone.
 
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Just learn to answer the phone while you verify data entry or product review. Learn to be concise, and quick and end the phone call as soon as the issue is resolved. My store does 2,000-2,200 a week.

They are generally quick calls, mostly asking if their rx is ready... I can answer that in 5 seconds and tell them to have a good day, mmmmh bye.

Please post your store number, we'd like some help with our prescriptions. Asking for a friend.
 
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