Local Wags pharmacists not doing the job..

[Doctor M]

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As they say......the devil is in the details & surely these details explain so much!

So - rather than chaos (I was not meaning to be offensive, some pharmacies are just that way - chaotic! .... oh - pharmacists too!), you've got understaffing.

Your goals are to keep your patients, hopefully - provide good pharmaceutical services to your patients (counseling) & prescribers (answering prescriber calls) & not get a UTI or develop beriberi or kwashiorkor😛.....

You've done really well by decreasing complaints (& hopefully, not increasing errors!). I agree, staffing tech positions is terrible - they are very, very hard to come by. However, when you get down to one pharmacist & 3 techs, why don't you decrease your "flow" so to speak? You cannot staff 3 registers, 2 drop off & 2 drive ups adequately with your current staff. So close a few so you only have open what you can staff. People don't want to stand in lines - they'll come back if you tell them to....or they'll take their rx elsewhere - might be better for you & them if that happened, perhaps.

What is the worst that could happen if you indeed decided to reduce the flow in, tell your folks the wait time will be longer....thus putting more fills on the night crew, which has fewer patient/prescriber interactions & control your life a bit??? Would CVS really ever know about it? Would your dm, if he/she came in even comment on it??

Not criticizing - just questioning......At the end of the day, CVS won't give a rat's *ss about you, but your patients may question why they trust you-if you make a mistake, you'll forever regret a misfill due to too high a volume (whatever profit is totally lost in a malpractice case) & you might live just a day or two longer with your family...??

In CA - our changes began with one person at a time...went to more, then a county association, then a state association & we battled both our state & national hospital & retail professional organizations over our right to be treated as the lowest bagger would be in Walmart. Its been a tough ride, but I'd do it again!

I know u wern't criticizing, I can be sensitive sometimes😉. Yes,, understaffing is a start and yes, CVS wont give a damn about me or my staff. I dont like to hire just anyone. I am very picky.. You are wise and will follow some of these recommendations! Thank you !

Dr.M

 

[sdn1977]

I know u wern't criticizing, I can be sensitive sometimes😉. Yes,, understaffing is a start and yes, CVS wont give a damn about me or my staff. I dont like to hire just anyone. I am very picky.. You are wise and will follow some of these recommendations! Thank you !

Dr.M

I can appreciate your hesitancy - its harder to get rid of a bad tech than wait & hire a better one.

But - I control my workflow absolutely! There are times - both in hospital & retail where I'm working alone. In those cases, I ONLY answer dr calls (the ring is different, so I know) if I'm busy. I can only do/handle & think of one thing at a time (well not really - I'm a mom so a great multitasker). But, If I try to short change one issue - it suffers for another. I ABSOLUTELY will not kill or hurt someone for my job. I quit a job exactly over the issue of understaffing, but as a manager - you have control!

 

[Doctor M]

I can appreciate your hesitancy - its harder to get rid of a bad tech than wait & hire a better one.
But - I control my workflow absolutely! There are times - both in hospital & retail where I'm working alone. In those cases, I ONLY answer dr calls (the ring is different, so I know) if I'm busy. I can only do/handle & think of one thing at a time (well not really - I'm a mom so a great multitasker). But, If I try to short change one issue - it suffers for another. I ABSOLUTELY will not kill or hurt someone for my job. I quit a job exactly over the issue of understaffing, but as a manager - you have control!

Isn't that the truth!!! I have such a hard time getting rid of bad techs!! If I get rid of them, it will take me months to replace them!! There are times we have 3 techs, 1 Rph, the drive thru is going off, 3 people waiting to drop off at drop off, and one huge line forming at pick up! No lie, we once had a line heading down one aisle, no lie, at least 10 people going right down the aisle. Damn! You would think these people would just leave, but no, they wait. And if you tell them we are backed up and it will be 1 hour, ok ill wait😕. I want to say, no, leave and come back!! Anyway, you are so right about "I can only do/handle & think of one thing at time". SOmetimes I just cant think with the phones and consults and what not. I have control, but sometimes we get rushed and its downhill! I to will set the pace. If I am slammed, i give them a true wait time! These corporations are horrible ane are the reason I am studying for the MCATS! Anyway, thanks for the input!

Dr.M

 

[njac]

speaking of lazy/scary retail pharmacists:

boyfriend's uncle went to Target pharmacy for a Prednisone scrip. I believe the sig was 3 tabs daily, he called after leaving (and most likely declining counseling) and asked the pharmacist if they meant 3 at once or 1 tab tid. The pharmacist said "Who knows?" of course he replied "Well I thought you might"

greeat buddy.

 

[Doctor M]

speaking of lazy/scary retail pharmacists:

boyfriend's uncle went to Target pharmacy for a Prednisone scrip. I believe the sig was 3 tabs daily, he called after leaving (and most likely declining counseling) and asked the pharmacist if they meant 3 at once or 1 tab tid. The pharmacist said "Who knows?" of course he replied "Well I thought you might"

greeat buddy.

Did the pharmacist actually say this? Wow, very unprofessional!

Dr. M

 

[dgroulx]

speaking of lazy/scary retail pharmacists:

boyfriend's uncle went to Target pharmacy for a Prednisone scrip. I believe the sig was 3 tabs daily, he called after leaving (and most likely declining counseling) and asked the pharmacist if they meant 3 at once or 1 tab tid. The pharmacist said "Who knows?" of course he replied "Well I thought you might"

greeat buddy.

I did a rotation at Target. They don't seem to attract the best or the brightest, just those who prefer (need?) a slower pace.

 

[dgroulx]

One thing I like about Walgreens is pharmacist overlap. Shift one is 8am until 2pm. Shift two is from 11am until 7pm. Shift three is from 2pm until 10pm. The night pharmacist works from 10pm until 8pm.

At a slow store, the mid shift (11-7) is not staffed. This still leaves pharmacist overlap from 2pm until 4pm each day. I was told that they were going to use me to cover mid shifts which is fine by me. I'll never be the only pharmacist on duty and I get to sleep late and run errands every morning. I just don't get much time by the pool.

 

[Aggie07]

Sav-On finally got a new computer system?? That's incredible. I figured they were trying to get another decade of their circa 198(6?) program.

We are still rolling with adsrx at my location. 👎

 

[Pianopooh]

But, piano - your pharmacist is setting up a poor example for you! You can choose how you work & working without being given time for basic (& in CA REQUIRED BY LAW) things such as bathroom & lunch breaks is just bad - professionally & personally.

As a matter of fact, 4 chains in my area are paying daily fines to the CA Dept of Labor. Each has been caught with lunches that were less than 30 min & not within the required hours (no less than 3.5hr & no more than 4.5hrs if working 6 or more continuously). So, after the initial fine, each "clocking" is being recorded & they are fined daily for each violation until their "probation" period is over. It runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars - ouch! That cuts into the stock.

Supposedly we get half an hour lunch, and two 15 min breaks. But the two 15 min ones never really comes into effect because we get so busy! The pharmacist told me at first he didn't get used to the schedule for food since he eats at random times but now he's more used to it. The store really needs another technician. 🙁

 

[MountainPharmD]

Supposedly we get half an hour lunch, and two 15 min breaks. But the two 15 min ones never really comes into effect because we get so busy! The pharmacist told me at first he didn't get used to the schedule for food since he eats at random times but now he's more used to it. The store really needs another technician. 🙁

I do not understand how Walgreens gets away with what they do. Maybe some current employees should take a stand. File a wage and hour complaint with the state would be a good start.

I just hired a tech from Walgreens. He was actually written up for taking breaks. They said he was leaving the pharmacy without permission and wrote him up. Eventualy they cut his hours to almost nothing and he had to quit.

 

[MountainPharmD]

Supposedly we get half an hour lunch, and two 15 min breaks. But the two 15 min ones never really comes into effect because we get so busy! The pharmacist told me at first he didn't get used to the schedule for food since he eats at random times but now he's more used to it. The store really needs another technician. 🙁

You should get a job that has a union. I get an hour lunch everyday (take our breaks and lunch together) without exception. It is the greatest thing ever! After Walgreens it took me months to get used to having that long a break.

Trust me there are much better places to work then the mail order wanna be retail slave shops that Walgreens and CVS run. There is not a big enough bonus or salary to make it worth it. I suppose as long as the doe eyed, naive students graduate and only worry about how big the bonus is and how high the salary is, Wags and CVS will have no reason to change.

 

[Doctor M]

You should get a job that has a union. I get an hour lunch everyday (take our breaks and lunch together) without exception. It is the greatest thing ever! After Walgreens it took me months to get used to having that long a break.

Trust me there are much better places to work then the mail order wanna be retail slave shops that Walgreens and CVS run. There is not a big enough bonus or salary to make it worth it. I suppose as long as the doe eyed, naive students graduate and only worry about how big the bonus is and how high the salary is, Wags and CVS will have no reason to change.

Amen to that! I will start intensly studying for the MCATS. The pharmacy profession needs to change before its becomes a "profession". Just my opinion.

 

[Pianopooh]

You should get a job that has a union. I get an hour lunch everyday (take our breaks and lunch together) without exception. It is the greatest thing ever! After Walgreens it took me months to get used to having that long a break.

Trust me there are much better places to work then the mail order wanna be retail slave shops that Walgreens and CVS run. There is not a big enough bonus or salary to make it worth it. I suppose as long as the doe eyed, naive students graduate and only worry about how big the bonus is and how high the salary is, Wags and CVS will have no reason to change.

An hour lunch!? 😱 I usually buy my lunch and chew on it when we have downtime. I mean.. the store doesn't tell you, but it gives you the hint they always want you to take a break when there's nothing going on than when there are customers. But because the pharmacy I'm at is understaffed, you don't really get a chance to have a downtime. Also, my pharmacist told me that we're encouraged not to speak to any Union reps if they approach us! I think the exact words were along the lines of, "We are not authorized to speak to Union represenatives on any topics regarding the pharmacy." I think I'll intern in a hospital next summer just because I want to see how it's like. But as a poor poor pharmacy student with a bunch of loans, corporate is extremely appealing to help me pay my loans and finally support my parents as they have for me for so long. 🙁

 

[imperial frog]

Mrs. Z got her scripts filled at the local Wags...

I asked her if she received counseling from a pharmacist. She said..

"heck no...I didn't even see a pharmacist..."

What's the deal...🙄

Was she offered counseling?

 

[honeykrown]

Most people dont bother to wait for counseling if they have to stand on their feet in the presence of the public while someone tells them how to use their meds and all that.

At the CVS i know in MD, they dont bother to ask for counseling, yes u can see the pharmacist but they dont even pay attention to u. U even wonder if they know its a new prescription or not. people might go to rite aid today adn tomorrow take the next prescription to CVS cos its cheaper there. The techs and pharmacists just do whatever they basically want to. Its like there's little relationship between them. One CVS i know actually mentioned that if they were short on staff they would take a pharm tech to work the floor.

 

[MountainPharmD]

Amen to that! I will start intensly studying for the MCATS. The pharmacy profession needs to change before its becomes a "profession". Just my opinion.

Do you think being an MD is going to be any better? Talk to a few Docs before you decide to go that route. There are plenty of problems there as well. I think you will find you spent an extra 4 plus years in school and quadrupled your debt load, all for different but no less serious set of problems.

How about invest that same amount of time in Pharmacy and be an agent of change. Things will only get better if we stand up and make it better. How does leaving the profession help anything?

 

[Doctor M]

Do you think being an MD is going to be any better? Talk to a few Docs before you decide to go that route. There are plenty of problems there as well. I think you will find you spent an extra 4 plus years in school and quadrupled your debt load, all for different but no less serious set of problems.

How about invest that same amount of time in Pharmacy and be an agent of change. Things will only get better if we stand up and make it better. How does leaving the profession help anything?

I agree that the profession as a whole needs to stand up, but where do we start? How do we compete against some of these huge corporations. They make pharmacy into coupons and drive thrus. Unionize? As far as being an MD, there will be problems there too, but as far as what the MD does is what I want to do, more hands on. Nothing personal toward the pharmacy profession itself. Just a change in career.

 

[Old Timer]

I agree that the profession as a whole needs to stand up, but where do we start? How do we compete against some of these huge corporations. They make pharmacy into coupons and drive thrus. Unionize? As far as being an MD, there will be problems there too, but as far as what the MD does is what I want to do, more hands on. Nothing personal toward the pharmacy profession itself. Just a change in career.

I really think you should speak to some physicians. The exact same thing that is happening to pharmacy is happening to medicine. Medicine like pharmacy has been turned into piece work. Doctors can't make it in solo practice (just like pharmacists) so they band together in huge group practices that are frequently corporate owned, just like pharmacies. They need to see so many patients per hour/day/week just like pharmacists.

If you are going to Medical School because you love it, go for it and you will be happy you did. If you are going because the practice of pharmacy is not professional enough for you ideals, I am afraid medicine will disappoint you as well.

 

[Doctor M]

I really think you should speak to some physicians. The exact same thing that is happening to pharmacy is happening to medicine. Medicine like pharmacy has been turned into piece work. Doctors can't make it in solo practice (just like pharmacists) so they band together in huge group practices that are frequently corporate owned, just like pharmacies. They need to see so many patients per hour/day/week just like pharmacists.

If you are going to Medical School because you love it, go for it and you will be happy you did. If you are going because the practice of pharmacy is not professional enough for you ideals, I am afraid medicine will disappoint you as well.

Nah, Im going to medicine because I want to. making money is no issue. We as pharmacists make great money. I work a lot as a pharmacist, so really my motivation is that I always wanted to do medicine. It's just that I had some bad luck in my early 20's and medicine was not right for me then. My dad is a physician (a pathologist) so I know what I am getting myself into and I would try my hardest to specialize in cardiology. Who knows what type of physycian I would be! I still have to take the MCATS! Anyway, I will always have my pharm.d and am truly proud of it contrary to what some may believe. Retail will always be retail! I try to help as many patients as I can and could careless about the wait times at these corporations.! In fact I am a PIC at CVS OLDTIMER and read your post about CVS in another thread and found it to be 100% on the money! I myself get my waiters out on avg 6-7minutes but sometimes it is just impossible! I hate being rushed and then having the DM come in and ask why we had a 87% on wait time😡. Oh well👎 Thanks for the input oldtime!🙂

 

[ZpackSux]

Was she offered counseling?

No she wasn't.

 

[woodcrest]

but isn't counseling just reading what's on the pill bottle to the patient...out loud or am i missing something here?

by the way i think it is wrong not to at least offer some sort of consolation, not everyone is a pharmacist.

 

[dgroulx]

but isn't counseling just reading what's on the pill bottle to the patient...out loud or am i missing something here?

by the way i think it is wrong not to at least offer some sort of consolation, not everyone is a pharmacist.

No, it's not just reading a bottle. When we review a filled prescription we look at possible drug interactions, allergies, and major side effects of a drug, then discuss these with the patient.

Sometimes, it's just simple things like telling the patient not to take more than 5 Vicodin ES tablets in 24 hours and to not take any extra Tylenol. Last night, I had an ER MD write for #30 ketorolac. I had to phone the ER, correct the dosage and counsel the patient on the maximum dose.

With anything serious, I click the CAP required button which makes it impossible for the prescription to be sold until I counsel the patient and remove the CAP.

 

[pharmdinfl]

One thing I like about Walgreens is pharmacist overlap. Shift one is 8am until 2pm. Shift two is from 11am until 7pm. Shift three is from 2pm until 10pm. The night pharmacist works from 10pm until 8pm.

At a slow store, the mid shift (11-7) is not staffed. This still leaves pharmacist overlap from 2pm until 4pm each day. I was told that they were going to use me to cover mid shifts which is fine by me. I'll never be the only pharmacist on duty and I get to sleep late and run errands every morning. I just don't get much time by the pool.

I WISH I had a midshift pharmacy at my Walgreens store! We are the 2nd busiest store in the district and do not have a midshift pharmacist! I just got my license on July 11th and I'm struggling to keep up with the volume at my store. They just hired at least a dozen of us fresh out of school pharmacists so I was hoping the staffing would be better than it is.

 

[Mags]

I always offer counseling. It's surprising how few patients want it. Especially at the drive-thru where all they have to do is push the button and the meds pop out - all in the name of convenience.

So it's easy to blame the retail pharmacist for not doing his job, when really it's the synergistic relationship between consumers pressuring for convenience and the profit motive of corporations that have brought things to this point.

AMEN! Thank you. Comments like "Oh thats typical of retail" don't help.

I myself work in a locally owned chain pharmacy after years of thinking I wanted to do hospital work, and love retail. I didnt get enough patient interaction in hospitals (oh the irony) even doing clinical work, so I am in retail.

Our techs say "and the pharmacist will be over to speak with you". Its not an offer, in WA state its not offered (obra 90), its required, thus the strong language.

And its hard when patients act like they know "oh i know, i can read" or "oh i know my so and so relative is an MD" or no I dont want it. I hate what the drive thru has done to our profession, I hate counseling ppl thru it. Which is why I'm glad when I work at some of our stores that dont have them.

Granted we all know there are some bad pharmacists out there, but there some of us "retail soldiers" that are awesome pharmacists, try our best (even with patient denial) to counsel ppl on their meds, and do more than "lick stick count and pour"

 

[alwaystired]

AMEN! Thank you. Comments like "Oh thats typical of retail" don't help.

I myself work in a locally owned chain pharmacy after years of thinking I wanted to do hospital work, and love retail. I didnt get enough patient interaction in hospitals (oh the irony) even doing clinical work, so I am in retail.

Our techs say "and the pharmacist will be over to speak with you". Its not an offer, in WA state its not offered (obra 90), its required, thus the strong language.

And its hard when patients act like they know "oh i know, i can read" or "oh i know my so and so relative is an MD" or no I dont want it. I hate what the drive thru has done to our profession, I hate counseling ppl thru it. Which is why I'm glad when I work at some of our stores that dont have them.

Granted we all know there are some bad pharmacists out there, but there some of us "retail soldiers" that are awesome pharmacists, try our best (even with patient denial) to counsel ppl on their meds, and do more than "lick stick count and pour"

😀 👍

 

[sdn1977]

Yep - CA too.....not a choice, a requirement.

They don't even get to hold the meds until the pharmacist gets to them. In fact, they don't get rung up unless the pharmacist has spoken with them.

Its a pain in the rear end to void the sale if they don't want it after counseling.

But, you gotta train your tech right. I've got a floater tech who floats in CA & NV. He "rings & runs" - every time he comes in I've gotta sit him down & read him the riot act.

If he doesn't comply - he's on his way home....without pay for the day!