Do you buy things for your pharmacy?

[HaleyRX]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

😕This topic has come up at my pharmacy lately. I had not seen it previously in other pharmacies I worked at. However, at my current one, it is a constant thing. First I noticed that our lead tech buys all the rubber bands we use himself, and I thought it was odd. Last week another tech bought Sharpies for the pharmacy. Then another tech bought Kleenexs for the pharmacy.
I thought they were all nuts..then yesterday we were out of pens and I told the store manager I need to store-use some, and she flipped out. She ranted and raved for 20 minutes, said we use too many pens, just store-used a pack 2 weeks ago, where do all the pens go?, blah blah..I told her customers walk off with them, drive off with them, etc. She said double check for pens before the customer leaves each and every time. UM, okay. As customers scream about their copays, ignore me when I ask for date of birth, and talk on the cell phones, I'll do one more thing. Seriously.......
So how much do you guys buy for your pharmacies? I REFUSE to buy things like that for my job. A coffee maker if I want coffee? Yes, I'll buy it. That's a luxery. Pens and rubber bands? No, that's CVS' job. This company makes billions--how do they have US buying basics like this?
No way. I'm not doing it. Let them go without pens..when audits happen and they lose money for not having signature logs completed, then they will find out real quick the cheapest way to go...and yes it has gotten to the point a few times that we just cannot find a pen and people walk off without signing..😡
Anyone else deal with this?

 

[type b pharmD]

My coworkers go buy eggs at the store when we run out. Eggbeaters, in a carton, that is, for gastric emptying studies.

 

[DAW2]

nope. i store expense all that stuff. i spend enough buying starbucks and pizza and whatnot for the staff just as a morale booster

 

[FarscapeGirl]

Attach empty Rx vials to the pens. It'll make it so people don't walk off with the pens. If I didn't do that at my pharmacy, I'd seriously spend my entire shift there looking for pens. Now, we always have a pen at the front, even if it does make them top heavy and occasionally hard to grip.

Not that this will solve the other problems, but it will at least solve the pen problem.

And, no, I've never had to buy any office supplies for the pharmacy and neither has anyone else that I know of. That's really horrible.

 

[tlh908]

I would never buy supplies for my pharmacy, CVS has plenty of money and our store has a budget. Although, it is usually possible to order cheap CVS pens from CVS so that you don't have to get them from front store. I also wouldn't consider buying printer paper or vials for our store....

 

[Vyvanase]

Wow, the recession must have changed some things. Back in 2006 when I was an intern at CVS we just took whatever we needed for the pharmacy and cut the UPC bar code out and saved it. Later on when I worked for Target as a Pharmacist, I would requisition candy, cookies, water, orange juice, pens, and post it notes, again anything that was for pharmacy use only.

 

[PharmDman3901]

what a f*&^in joke, that manager is a real cheapskate, and poor manager. If the store has a budget, I say never buy anything! ITS there job to provide basic supplies to do the job. Wow the tech's must be pretty intimidated if they are buying stuff.

 

[deleted205891]

what a f*&^in joke, that manager is a real cheapskate, and poor manager. If the store has a budget, I say never buy anything! ITS there job to provide basic supplies to do the job. Wow the tech's must be pretty intimidated if they are buying stuff.

Suggestion: if you have to buy pens out of your own pocket, instead of doing this, every time someone needs a pen, call up the manager to come to the pharmacy and bring a pen since you ran out.

 

[Sparda29]

Any supply we need for the pharmacy I store supply (including utensils, plastic plates, etc).

I find it disgusting that nobody ever store supplies antibacterial soap for the bathroom. WTF!! Only thing with me is that I don't store supply cheap pens, I usually store supply the higher quality pens.

 

[confettiflyer]

yeah it was never a big deal with my CVS...we just got a managers initial on a "store supply" sticker and got it.... antibacterial soap, generic swiffers to dust with, pens, staples....you name it.

 

[aelephant]

I say let the manager flip out.

Grab them off the shelf, cut out the UPC and leave it on her desk.

Hissy-fit bypassed (for now >🙂

I also endorse paging the manager for pens, that is freakin' hilarious.

 

[Sparda29]

yeah it was never a big deal with my CVS...we just got a managers initial on a "store supply" sticker and got it.... antibacterial soap, generic swiffers to dust with, pens, staples....you name it.

Really? We have a bunch of store supply stickers in the pharmacy, anyone who knows how to use the gun can store supply here.

 

[confettiflyer]

Really? We have a bunch of store supply stickers in the pharmacy, anyone who knows how to use the gun can store supply here.

yeah...either way, our managers weren't douchebags about it. all i had to do was grab it off the shelf, show a manager, and he'd sign it. i think we even store supplied cups and plates when we had a drug rep come in with cuban food. haha

 

[PharmDstudent]

Haley,
Attach something really aggravating to the pens, like double-sided tape.

 

[deleted205891]

At Rite Aid we just ring it up as "damaged/shopworn" and have the pharmacist OK it in the computer and just attach the receipt.

 

[exsomnis]

Hahahahaha! What a cheap manager! I had a manager that would get all pissy about 'pharmacy use' items. I looked at him and said, "Well, you want a clean compounding station or dirty one? You want to explain to our DM why we're using the 'wrong paper towels' for compounding? "(We can't use the brown paper towels, it has to be the white ones. Racist compounding!)

He just kind of stared at me, so I riped off the plastic handed him the UPC and walked away. D-bag never said another word. Hell, we've had other managers expense us ibuprofen. I guess some tech threatened to go home because of a headache or migraine, so they expensed some and left it in the pharmacy.

Don't buy pens/rubber bands/soap yourselves, ever! They definitely make way more money than we ever will, and psh I'd rather spend that money on coffee, food, or other happier items than things that can be store expensed. They are supposed to provide it.

Definitely page the manager for pens, and when patients ask for one, tell them the manager is too cheap to provide pens and wouldn't give you any for them to use.

 

[clachan3]

The only thing I bought so far was rubber bands because our store only has low quality CVS rubber bands in so called assorted sizes but more than half of them are the tiny ones (can't even stretch those to 1 inch). How are we supposed to file scripts with those? I got so irritated, I brought my own. 😡

 

[Doctor M]

Pens and rubber bands...I would store supply...Paper plates and cups, I would but myself...

 

[DAW2]

my store manager got mad at me cuz i expensed a stapler and staples...now thats a load of bs. but if its for the use of customers i will expense it. including tissues cuz they always ask us for one

 

[HaleyRX]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I was curious to see what everyone else does.
I think it is crazy that they make such a big deal about this stuff--my pharmacist works a TON of hours, with NO overlap, they say "overlap isn't in the budget"..at a store doing over 2000 a week..um, yeah, I think it is! but he uses the pens that are $4/pack of 4..he said they write smooth and are great for taking transfers, voicemails, etc..he said he uses 1 pen per week on average..I mean, he works 6 days wk, all day long..so yeah. Anyways, store manager told him no, use the cheap pens..so he said he did for a while..and one day he just decided no, he would use whatever pen he wanted! ha! 😉 so now he uses the nice ones again.
I understand they don't want it becoming excessive..but still. We keep spare extra care cards to scan randomly for people who don't have one, to keep our scores up..and first of the quarter one printed $12 extra care bucks..I reaaallly wanted to use it to get the pharmacy some pens, paper towels (when we washed our hands we had to dry them on an old smock), kleenexs, sharpies..but NOPE, violation of company policy. Blah.
SO, what I have done to the pens is put a lid to a vial on the ones at pick-up..and we HAVE HAD THE SAME PENS ALL WEEK! this has never happened. at drive thru I used a few rubber bands to tie the pen to the clipboard..my co-workers think I'm crazy and laugh at my ideas, but I don't care. 😛

 

[Dezixn]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I was curious to see what everyone else does.
I think it is crazy that they make such a big deal about this stuff--my pharmacist works a TON of hours, with NO overlap, they say "overlap isn't in the budget"..at a store doing over 2000 a week..um, yeah, I think it is! but he uses the pens that are $4/pack of 4..he said they write smooth and are great for taking transfers, voicemails, etc..he said he uses 1 pen per week on average..I mean, he works 6 days wk, all day long..so yeah. Anyways, store manager told him no, use the cheap pens..so he said he did for a while..and one day he just decided no, he would use whatever pen he wanted! ha! 😉 so now he uses the nice ones again.
I understand they don't want it becoming excessive..but still. We keep spare extra care cards to scan randomly for people who don't have one, to keep our scores up..and first of the quarter one printed $12 extra care bucks..I reaaallly wanted to use it to get the pharmacy some pens, paper towels (when we washed our hands we had to dry them on an old smock), kleenexs, sharpies..but NOPE, violation of company policy. Blah.
SO, what I have done to the pens is put a lid to a vial on the ones at pick-up..and we HAVE HAD THE SAME PENS ALL WEEK! this has never happened. at drive thru I used a few rubber bands to tie the pen to the clipboard..my co-workers think I'm crazy and laugh at my ideas, but I don't care. 😛

Lol, someone did that at my pharmacy. It looks silly as hell but the pen has been in place for quite some time.
I feel bad for those that do have to buy crap. Our manager is cool so we're mostly taken care of.

 

[DAW2]

at starbucks they tape a plastic spoon to the pen. go with your theme

 

[DrugDealer]

Then another tech bought Kleenexs for the pharmacy.

I store supply pens and rubberbands, etc. but i DO buy my own Kleenex. I like Puffs Plus and I feel I can only get away with store-supplying the crappy CVS version that I can practically see through.

 

[Dezixn]

I store supply pens and rubberbands, etc. but i DO buy my own Kleenex. I like Puffs Plus and I feel I can only get away with store-supplying the crappy CVS version that I can practically see through.

Those CVS ones smell bad too. Not a good combo for something going very close to your nose.