How do you get everything done?

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Hulkbuster333

Hulkbuster333

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How do you get everything done when you have doctor calls, patient calls, techs handing you the phone to answer simple questions they should be able to answer, counseling, verifying?? On top of that you have to count and enter prescriptions because you only have 1 or 2 techs and a line at the drive thru and counter.
 
if u do get everything done, they will continue the punishment. the medication error. the chaos. once u start to show them u have 20+ pages of prescriptions not printed, and lots of customer complaints, then they start giving u more help. they once asked me to help out at a 24 hr store b/c they have 25 pages print ready. i was there working with the other staff night pharmacist. and a third night pharmacist also came to help for a few hours. .. your focus is not to get everything done. it's to do things correctly. // close the drive thru if no one is there to work it. // as a staff, u should join the union for more job security.
 
The best pharmacists I know focus on verifying and every 10 minutes or so they type some eScripts/faxes to make sure drop off stays ahead.
 
"Good" pharmacists do not waste time verifying stupid **** like which albuterol HFA or which doxycyline. The vast majority of your "cognitive" output should be spent on DUR, counseling and problem-solving.
 
Sine Cura said:
"Good" pharmacists do not waste time verifying stupid **** like which albuterol HFA or which doxycyline. The vast majority of your "cognitive" output should be spent on DUR, counseling and problem-solving.
Click to expand...

Yeah some pharmacists just switch the inhalers they don't give a damn. Other pharmacists won't dispense even if the patient is standing in front of them needing it. My preceptor right now makes me call for ****ing anything and everything. I'm not sure if she actually calls on this stupid **** or just wants to give me something to do but I literally called today to verify a medrol dosepak because it said take as directed. I just do what makes her happy...
 
ldiot said:
The best pharmacists I know focus on verifying and every 10 minutes or so they type some eScripts/faxes to make sure drop off stays ahead.
Click to expand...
That's what I try to do but when there's no one producing you have to do it or else it'll go red. So I end up getting overwhelmed because I feel like I have to do everything and queues go red. Plus I'm in a different store every day with floating. I'm becoming very bitter towards the company I work for.
 
By stating that you are willing to crank **** out, you give more of a **** than about 90% of pharmacists I've dealt with.

Some stores are just bad because of a lot of indigent patients who can't speak English, lots of acute/ED Rx where refugees abuse the ED for ibuprofen and acetaminophen Rx for their spawn, lots of community clinic Rx where it's impossible to get in touch the office with regarding legitimate clinical issues or just even to inform them of PA required (because they claim the "fax machine" is always down), lots of crappy "pain management" Rx (in other words "ghetto stores") but some stores it's really the techs are just lazy, stupid and slow, don't give a ****, and get nothing done (remember being a chain retail tech is a horrible job so you get what you pay for). Unfortunately you can't really control that as a floater, just have to get through the day the best you can.
 
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One huge flag is techs giving you the phone on questions they could answer... next time when your tech say line 2 want to speak to the pharmacist, ask them what did the patient need, if they don't know, tell them to ask, train your techs to handle the easy stuff
 
Metrics are not a big deal if you are in an understaffed store. If it goes red, who cares. As long as patients are getting their meds in a timely manner, thats all that matters.
 
I've never really had problems and I've seen some stuff. The only time I didn't get everything done "expected of me" was a weekend where two techs with less than a month experience each were all I had on a Saturday afternoon in a store that did 500 that day. So there I am...doing QT, QP, QV, and answering phones completely by myself while the techs did nothing but register/dropoff by necessity. I got all the scripts done... but I only got 11 out of 13 pages of the PCQ calls done that weekend (RPhs at this store are expected to do all of them by themselves). The PIC yelled at me and didn't care that it was impossible.
 
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I'm kind of sad...I clicked this thread thinking it was asking how you get everything done in life, in general.

Then I realized it was another bitching at work thread. Doh.

Well I'll answer the question I wanted it to be...you get everything done in life by narrowing your goals and only taking on things that meet those goals.

So if something doesn't fatten my paycheck equivalent to 1.5x my hourly rate at work or bring me joy, I cut it out or pay someone else to do it. Makes life much better.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
Hulkbuster333 said:
How do you get everything done when you have doctor calls, patient calls, techs handing you the phone to answer simple questions they should be able to answer, counseling, verifying?? On top of that you have to count and enter prescriptions because you only have 1 or 2 techs and a line at the drive thru and counter.
Click to expand...

With me, the phone is the lowest priority. Whoever is in the store comes first. Phone calls, just place them on hold.
 
Hulkbuster333 said:
That's what I try to do but when there's no one producing you have to do it or else it'll go red. So I end up getting overwhelmed because I feel like I have to do everything and queues go red. Plus I'm in a different store every day with floating. I'm becoming very bitter towards the company I work for.
Click to expand...

You have to stop caring if things go red.
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
.. but I only got 11 out of 13 of the PCQ calls done that weekend (RPhs at this store are expected to do all of them by themselves). .
Click to expand...

LoL... u have 13 phone calls and u couldn't get it done ? all day ?
 
Ignoring the phone? Man, my pharmacy got busy sometime that we do ignore the phone. Then some patient come in and complain that they can never get through the phone and get mad at us. Or the patient said the Dr office should already called in a Rx for them, but then we've been ignored most of the phone call throughout the day, so no, we didn't get into it. Sometimes I can't help but understand how patients can be frustrated by how we couldn't get things done right/on time. They can't call in to refill, or ask if Rx is ready. Then once they get to the pharmacy, nothing is done, no new rx from dr office yet, etc. Then we say we will get it done by xxx, call us before you come to make sure it's ready. Lol, they can't even get through the phone call to a staff.

Man, understaffing sucks. How can patient understand this? How can we get things done appropriately and safely...?
 
What other advices do you guys have to get things done on time?

Some pharmacist take short cuts like: switching formulation without calling md. (For example, Capsule to Tablet inter changing.) Is this appropriate?
When listening phone voice mail for new Rx, some pharmacist don't care or guess the caller's name, instead of calling back to verify when it is unclear. Is this appropriate? What about DEA # for control, just look up or call back if they did not left in message?

I am quite confuse some time on what short cut is okay, what is not. As a new grad, I am thinking to follow the law, be safe, be caution on checking everything is appropriate. But this will not allow me to get things done on time, with understaffed busy store.

It is hard to balance to get most things DONE (by short cut/law bending/breaking), vs getting only some things done( done correctly, but leaving many tasks unfinished by the end of the day).... As a professional, we are not supposed to be focus on speed to get things done by taking short cut, bending the law, or skipping/rushing the counseling with patient.
 
The law says switching formulation is fine so long as they have therapeutically equivalent. Guessing the caller's name is fine because that means its a new patient to your pharmacy which means u need their insurance card and can update their name with the name on the insurance card. You dont need the DEA for controls because 99% of the time the doctor is already in your system.
 
Twentytwelve2 said:
The law says switching formulation is fine so long as they have therapeutically equivalent. Guessing the caller's name is fine because that means its a new patient to your pharmacy which means u need their insurance card and can update their name with the name on the insurance card. You dont need the DEA for controls because 99% of the time the doctor is already in your system.
Click to expand...

I feel like this is a troll post written by an MA at a doctor's office who is tired of taking messages from pharmacies.
LOL

You're absolutely wrong about the DEA.

Guess what?
There are doctors with the exact same name but different DEA numbers.

Guess what happens when someone looks at a prescription two years later, and the doctor says he never wrote it?

The DEA comes to ask you why you fabricated a phone script.

What do you say?
 
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"The pharmacist need not reduce to writing the address, telephone, license classification, federal registry number IF SUCH INFORMATION IS READILY RETRIEVABLE IN THE PHARMACY."

+ Honestly, I find it a joke if a pharmacist asks for the DEA # for a known doctor every single time he calls in an Ativan script. No wonder some techs despise some new pharmacists who are clueless
 
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Next post- you do know you always ask for their office number right?
 
"I find it a joke if a doctor can't e-prescribe controlled substances."

"I find it a joke if a doctor's employee can't retrieve a DEA number to state over the phone."

"I find it a joke that a pharmacist is citing something that cannot be attributed to any written statement by the DEA."

Etc. etc.
 
Twentytwelve2 said:
"The pharmacist need not reduce to writing the address, telephone, license classification, federal registry number IF SUCH INFORMATION IS READILY RETRIEVABLE IN THE PHARMACY."

+ Honestly, I find it a joke if a pharmacist asks for the DEA # for a known doctor every single time he calls in an Ativan script. No wonder some techs despise some new pharmacists who are clueless
Click to expand...

Oh cool, here's what the DEA has to say:

Telephone Authorization for Schedule III-V Prescriptions
A pharmacist may dispense a controlled substance listed in Schedule III, IV, or V pursuant to an oral prescription made by an individual practitioner and promptly reduced to writing by the pharmacist containing all information required for a valid prescription, except for the signature of the practitioner.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input, newbie.
And congrats. If the Californian board of pharmacy finds out the DEA is wrecking you for falsifying a DEA number on a prescription, I'm sure they'll go to bat for you because you followed their rule instead of federal law.
I'm sure.

Usually pharmacists like you take a few decades to become so confidently apathetic and wrong.
Congrats on your speed.
 
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CetiAlphaFive said:
Guess what happens when someone looks at a prescription two years later, and the doctor says he never wrote it?

The DEA comes to ask you why you fabricated a phone script.

What do you say?
Click to expand...

What happens if I take a phone in for a legit prescription and later the doctor denies calling it in?
 
nasacort24hr said:
Ignoring the phone? Man, my pharmacy got busy sometime that we do ignore the phone. Then some patient come in and complain that they can never get through the phone and get mad at us. Or the patient said the Dr office should already called in a Rx for them, but then we've been ignored most of the phone call throughout the day, so no, we didn't get into it. Sometimes I can't help but understand how patients can be frustrated by how we couldn't get things done right/on time. They can't call in to refill, or ask if Rx is ready. Then once they get to the pharmacy, nothing is done, no new rx from dr office yet, etc. Then we say we will get it done by xxx, call us before you come to make sure it's ready. Lol, they can't even get through the phone call to a staff.

Man, understaffing sucks. How can patient understand this? How can we get things done appropriately and safely...?
Click to expand...

It's a lose lose situation
You need more staffing, more tech hours, higher tech pay (so the good one will stay as well)
 
nasacort24hr said:
Ignoring the phone? Man, my pharmacy got busy sometime that we do ignore the phone. Then some patient come in and complain that they can never get through the phone and get mad at us. Or the patient said the Dr office should already called in a Rx for them, but then we've been ignored most of the phone call throughout the day, so no, we didn't get into it. Sometimes I can't help but understand how patients can be frustrated by how we couldn't get things done right/on time. They can't call in to refill, or ask if Rx is ready. Then once they get to the pharmacy, nothing is done, no new rx from dr office yet, etc. Then we say we will get it done by xxx, call us before you come to make sure it's ready. Lol, they can't even get through the phone call to a staff.

Man, understaffing sucks. How can patient understand this? How can we get things done appropriately and safely...?
Click to expand...

The market should always correct itself. The patients who aren't satisfied with your service will transfer out, leaving you with just the right volume of patients.
 
Twentytwelve2 said:
"The pharmacist need not reduce to writing the address, telephone, license classification, federal registry number IF SUCH INFORMATION IS READILY RETRIEVABLE IN THE PHARMACY."

+ Honestly, I find it a joke if a pharmacist asks for the DEA # for a known doctor every single time he calls in an Ativan script. No wonder some techs despise some new pharmacists who are clueless
Click to expand...
Have you never heard of the DEA or their manual? This does NOT come from the DEA.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
 
owlegrad said:
Have you never heard of the DEA or their manual? This does NOT come from the DEA.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
Maybe the practicing law is different in other states then I'm sorry but in California we study from "A Guide to California Community Pharmacy Law Practice" by Weissman, JD, PharmD as the sole review source for the CPJE and as mentioned:

"Are prescription requirements for all schedule III, IV, and V controlled substances basically the same?"
-If a prescriber orally orders a Schedule III, IV, or V prescription, the pharmacist or intern shall reduce the prescription to writing on a regular prescription... the address, telephone number, license and federal registry number of the prescriber need not be reduced to writing if such information is readily retrievable in the pharmacy."
 
no need to argue about DEA requirement. if you're a pharmacist, u already know what to do. if u don't, the board or the DEA will eventually come to u. if you're not a pharmacist, buzz off. take a hike. stop being stvpid.
 
CetiAlphaFive said:
I feel like this is a troll post written by an MA at a doctor's office who is tired of taking messages from pharmacies.
LOL

You're absolutely wrong about the DEA.

Guess what?
There are doctors with the exact same name but different DEA numbers.

Guess what happens when someone looks at a prescription two years later, and the doctor says he never wrote it?

The DEA comes to ask you why you fabricated a phone script.

What do you say?
Click to expand...

(Half-Joking) When I was first in practice, I told the Irish field DEA special agent in charge that Dr. John W. IV (heme/onc), his dad (John W. III, orthopedic surgeon), his uncle (John W. Jr., periodontist), and his grandfather (John W. Sr., family medicine) need to stop the Irish tradition of naming their children for their paternal grandfather and their father or else go into some other line of work or use birth control. Who can tell them apart by voice? And two of them practice out of the same office! (And very annoyingly, Jr. and III have very similar DEA numbers that have the rare A as does IV and Sr.).

Had the right DEA on the dicta, but selected the wrong physician in the system. Honest mistake that everyone in the city makes.
 
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lord999 said:
(Half-Joking) When I was first in practice, I told the Irish field DEA special agent in charge that Dr. John W. IV (heme/onc), his dad (John W. III, orthopedic surgeon), his uncle (John W. Jr., periodontist), and his grandfather (John W. Sr., family medicine) need to stop the Irish tradition of naming their children for their paternal grandfather and their father or else go into some other line of work or use birth control. Who can tell them apart by voice? And two of them practice out of the same office! (And very annoyingly, Jr. and III have very similar DEA numbers that have the rare A as does IV and Sr.).

Had the right DEA on the dicta, but selected the wrong physician in the system. Honest mistake that everyone in the city makes.
Click to expand...
LOL, very possible.

Here's a clearer example of what I meant illustrated in a hypothetical situation designed to support my point:

Let's say someone in Texas takes a phone script for a new patient that they don't have any contact info for. Nurse from a urologist named PJ Somerville and she talks super fast.
The newly transferred to-Austin-from-California Rph writes down "Dr. J. Somerville" and nothing else under the grand authority of Ye Holy Tome written by Lord Weissman, RPh, JD, GF, CHADS2, BBQ.

Let's say the tech types in Somer and hits tab as techs are wont to do and selects Judson Somerville, MD.
Script gets checked 45 mins later, long after the RPh has forgotten what first name the nurse mumbled into the phone.

Surprise surprise techs forgot to update patient info at pickup.

DEA shows up asking why RPh filled a prescription from a suspended MD without an active DEA number.

[Cue theme music from Curb Your Enthusiasm]
 
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Twentytwelve2 said:
Maybe the practicing law is different in other states then I'm sorry but in California we study from "A Guide to California Community Pharmacy Law Practice" by Weissman, JD, PharmD as the sole review source for the CPJE and as mentioned:

"Are prescription requirements for all schedule III, IV, and V controlled substances basically the same?"
-If a prescriber orally orders a Schedule III, IV, or V prescription, the pharmacist or intern shall reduce the prescription to writing on a regular prescription... the address, telephone number, license and federal registry number of the prescriber need not be reduced to writing if such information is readily retrievable in the pharmacy."
Click to expand...
You understand that you have to follow the stricter of the law between federal and state, right?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
 
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