Does CVS really make pharmacists reconstitute everything?

[RiteAidRockStar]

I had a new tech who used to work for CVS. I asked her to reconstitute some amoxicillin and she refused, saying that would be illegal. WTF? She says she worked for CVS for over a year and pharmacists were required to do it.

This is in California, btw. The law says she can do it.

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[zelman]

I had a new tech who used to work for CVS. I asked her to reconstitute some amoxicillin and she refused, saying that would be illegal. WTF? She says she worked for CVS for over a year and pharmacists were required to do it.

This is in California, btw. The law says she can do it.

Yup. You can thank the tech who reconsituted amoxicillin with ethanol at some point.

 

[RiteAidRockStar]

Yup. You can thank the tech who reconsituted amoxicillin with ethanol at some point.

How would that even happen??? Even the stupidest of techs know what water is.

 

[zelman]

How would that even happen??? Even the stupidest of techs know what water is.

Once upon a time, before the fillmaster, we had a bottle of distilled water and a bottle of ethanol. Benzamycin was all the rage and 35+% of reconstitution was ethanol.

 

[Rouelle]

So techs can make IV drugs that are injected into your veins, but they can’t add water to a powder with an automated dispenser. This seems unreasonable.

 

[Lexington2012]

CVS let's techs prepare IV bags? Surely this doesn't happen in a retail store. You mean some CVS subsidiary, right?

 

[Rouelle]

CVS let's techs prepare IV bags? Surely this doesn't happen in a retail store. You mean some CVS subsidiary, right?

Hehe, no. Techs (in hospitals) make IVs yet techs (at CVS) can’t reconstitute. Same job - different locations- vastly different functions.

It made total sense in my head before being translated into writing.

 

[PharmDBro2017]

Hehe, no. Techs (in hospitals) make IVs yet techs (at CVS) can’t reconstitute. Same job - different locations- vastly different functions.

It made total sense in my head before being translated into writing.

IV training required though.

I only trust a very few amount of techs to make IVs, and I much prefer to make them myself.... I don’t like signing off on any IV that I didn’t make.


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[maria1oh]

At cvs it depends on the store. Some techs would mix but most stores it was only rph or intern. I heard a story once the tech accidentally typed in 600 instead of 60 into fillmaster and water spilled all over. Now you can scan the bottle so fill master knows how much water to put in. I have also worked with techs who thought 100 ml is what you add to the 100 ml amoxicillin bottle.

 

[dblock05]

Just a reminder....its your license on the line for everything they do.

 

[Hulkbuster333]

At cvs it depends on the store. Some techs would mix but most stores it was only rph or intern. I heard a story once the tech accidentally typed in 600 instead of 60 into fillmaster and water spilled all over. Now you can scan the bottle so fill master knows how much water to put in. I have also worked with techs who thought 100 ml is what you add to the 100 ml amoxicillin bottle.

How does that happen with fill master? You just scan the bottle and it automatically knows how much water to dispense.

Anyway, yes, it is CVS policy that a pharmacist must reconstitute. Techs aren't supposed to even though it's kind of idiot proof.

 

[VA77]

So techs cannot reconstitute but yet they are pushing for vaccination ability. Okay....

 

[strongest_survive]

So techs cannot reconstitute but yet they are pushing for vaccination ability. Okay....

Techs can reconstitute. CVS doesn't allow techs to do it, but I do it for my pharmacists all the time.

 

[zelman]

How does that happen with fill master? You just scan the bottle and it automatically knows how much water to dispense.

Anyway, yes, it is CVS policy that a pharmacist must reconstitute. Techs aren't supposed to even though it's kind of idiot proof.

You overestimate how often those scanners are functional.

 

[DrVader]

I had a new tech who used to work for CVS. I asked her to reconstitute some amoxicillin and she refused, saying that would be illegal. WTF? She says she worked for CVS for over a year and pharmacists were required to do it.

This is in California, btw. The law says she can do it.

It is CVS's policy. The reason being that they hire the cheapest person they can or just train a upfront cashier. Look at the retention rate, they figure most techs won't be there long enough to learn how to do it.

 

[maria1oh]

Cvs stores are also all pretty strict about only letting pharmacist count c2s. I know a couple cvs stores where techs counted c2s but the policy was only the rph can count them. At several other companies techs are allowed to count them.

 

[Charcoales]

Cvs stores are also all pretty strict about only letting pharmacist count c2s. I know a couple cvs stores where techs counted c2s but the policy was only the rph can count them. At several other companies techs are allowed to count them.

That's gotta be annoying and time consuming esp for all those 180+ counts