Dealing with Technician Errors

[Sparda29]

Retail pharmacists:

How do you guys deal with technician errors? Do you put the tech on notice in front of the other techs? Or deal with it quietly.

Personally, I just quietly fix their error and don't tell them about it unless it was something crazy. Like today, we had a script for Flavoxate 100 mg #120. We only had 40 in stock.

Technician puts 40 Flavoxate 100 mg in one bottle, and in the other bottle puts in 80 Fluvoxamine 100 mg. I fixed it and made an owe label for the 80 Flavoxate. I didn't put the tech on blast in front of everyone but I let the tech know that the drugs were very different and it was a bad mistake later on.

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[All4MyDaughter]

I don't fix the errors. I walk down to the input tech and ask her to fix them.

 

[Its Z]

If you made the same error, how would you want your boss to correct you?

That's how you should correct the tech.

 

[Sparda29]

If you made the same error, how would you want your boss to correct you?

That's how you should correct the tech.

Personally, I learned the best about a mistake by being yelled at in front of everyone whether it was pharmacy, baseball team, or tennis team.

Not sure how an 18 year old girl is gonna take that.

 

[BallerinaRx]

When I was a tech, the pharmacist would just send back the incorrect Rx and ask whoever made the mistake to fix it. I didn't want to keep making mistakes over and over again so I appreciated the corrections I got and tried not to make the same mistakes again.

 

[Its Z]

Personally, I learned the best about a mistake by being yelled at in front of everyone whether it was pharmacy, baseball team, or tennis team.

Not sure how an 18 year old girl is gonna take that.

Well, then by all means you should yell at her in front of everyone including the customers. It will probably be more effective if you throw the misfilled bottle at her forehead and knock her out because you're a baseball player.

 

[smercer]

Well, then by all means you should yell at her in front of everyone including the customers. It will probably be more effective if you throw the misfilled bottle at her forehead and knock her out because you're a baseball player.

Should they smack her butt when she does a good job too?

Guess they would love it if they made an error, then the next day the DM walks in and just starts yelling at them because they made an error.



Seriously, if you want everyone to hate you, then yes call them out and yell at them for errors. A competitive sports environment =/= a professional environment, thus use of the same tatics will not always get you the results you are looking for.

The best solution is to tell them an error was made and that they need to correct it. Clearly if errors become consistent or the same error is being made repeatedly, then you need to address it in more detail. Still at that point there is no reason to make a scene about it.

 

[joetrisman]

Should they smack her butt when she does a good job too?

This is acceptable only if you say "good game" afterwards.

 

[rph3664]

I would just say "The order was for X and you gave them Y" and that's that. Same thing for when I found a pharmacist error too.

That can be challenging when you have a tech who, if you change anything she does, will come back and yell at you and maybe throw things at you too, or who accuses you of going back and changing things to make them look bad. You can probably guess where THAT happened. These were speshul sneauxflaykes who, according to management, could do no wrong, and one was also immune from disciplinary action because she had a disability.

 

[Carboxide]

The RPh best at doing this at my store just tells you casually and exactly what is wrong, while handing it back to you to fix.

Eg: "Hey, can we make this 20 mg instead of 40 mg omeprazole?"

Or: "Hey, is this how we're spelling constipation now?" (jokingly, not meanly).

 

[All4MyDaughter]

The RPh best at doing this at my store just tells you casually and exactly what is wrong, while handing it back to you to fix.

Eg: "Hey, can we make this 20 mg instead of 40 mg omeprazole?"

Or: "Hey, is this how we're spelling constipation now?" (jokingly, not meanly).

Yep, this is how I do it as well.

Yesterday: Can we change this from "ANUL" to "ANAL"?

Or: Hey, this is supposed to be under Dr. Scribble, not Dr. Messyhand

Etc.

I find that it's best not to make a big deal about it.

 

[crazybob]

I don't fix the errors. I walk down to the input tech and ask her to fix them.

That's what my pharmacists did when I started working in the pharmacy for the first time.

 

[Praziquantel86]

Be nice about it, don't call them out (especially not in front of anyone else). People make mistakes, its the nature of the game. If you notice the person consistently making the same sort of mistakes, it might be worth a non-accusatory discussion (use the compliment sandwich method) behind closed doors. If you notice multiple people making the same mistake, you're better off addressing the system error than the individual people responsible.