Mail order pharmacy is for anti-social pharmacists?

[crossurfingers]

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I'm thinking about my career options and was discussing them with the S/O, who responded with the title of this post. I've never worked in or even set foot in a mail order pharmacy but is their reputation with good reason? To me I've just pictured mail order to be like retail except with less stress (no 15 minute patient wait times, techs bombarding you with rx's to verify "NOW!", no dealing with asinine customers, etc.) At one of my rotations I overheard some techs discussing how one compounding company enforced a "minimal talking" rule. Pharmacists that work in mail order have other people around them to talk to right? Or is it mainly you in front of a computer verifying scripts the whole 8 hours?

 

[pinkyrx]

Pharmacists that work in mail order have other people around them to talk to right? Or is it mainly you in front of a computer verifying scripts the whole 8 hours?

I think in most cases you would have other people to talk to... it would just be the same people everyday and you just better hope that you like them.

 

[dgroulx]

I'm thinking about my career options and was discussing them with the S/O, who responded with the title of this post. I've never worked in or even set foot in a mail order pharmacy but is their reputation with good reason? To me I've just pictured mail order to be like retail except with less stress (no 15 minute patient wait times, techs bombarding you with rx's to verify "NOW!", no dealing with asinine customers, etc.) At one of my rotations I overheard some techs discussing how one compounding company enforced a "minimal talking" rule. Pharmacists that work in mail order have other people around them to talk to right? Or is it mainly you in front of a computer verifying scripts the whole 8 hours?

I toured Walgreens mail order facility in Orlando. Pharmacists rotate areas weekly. When you are doing doctor calls, you sit at a desk in that area and make doctor calls all day. The next week you might be doing patient care and on the phone with patients. You also have a week where you sit and verify. All of those are desk/cubicle jobs, where you can talk with others. When you rotate to the filling area, you stand in front of a conveyor belt. Bottles filled by robots come in for verification. You stand at your station. There is no one to talk to at that time, but you can wear an iPod.

I think rotating areas keeps you from going crazy. It's a huge warehouse with no windows.

 

[sdn1977]

I've never done mail order, but, for me it wouldn't be the problem of not socializing with my co-workers. I'm too busy in both my jobs to do anything more than exchange hellos & how 'ya been, how's the kids (not expecting or wanting an answer😳) or similar.

But, I would definitely hate the lack of interaction with either prescribers, nursing or, for me, most importantly patients. Yeah, I know they counsel over the phone. But, that's like a phone solicitation call. You really can't "tell" how their taking the information since you don't have any visual cues.The visual part gets me involved then in other aspects of their health - eating, sleeping, getting around, side effects....

So, I don't think these folks are antisocial, they just don't care so much for the professional interaction. Don't get me wrong - they do it. But, a patient or a prescriber with a question is not likely to call up Medco Mail Order to get drug information or an opinion on a rash or cough. The phone tree to go thru to talk to someone discourages personal contact all by itself. Just my opinion.

 

[Epic]

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Socialist Pharmacist.

 

[azPharmD2B]

I toured Walgreens mail order facility in Orlando. Pharmacists rotate areas weekly. When you are doing doctor calls, you sit at a desk in that area and make doctor calls all day. The next week you might be doing patient care and on the phone with patients. You also have a week where you sit and verify. All of those are desk/cubicle jobs, where you can talk with others. When you rotate to the filling area, you stand in front of a conveyor belt. Bottles filled by robots come in for verification. You stand at your station. There is no one to talk to at that time, but you can wear an iPod.

I work as a tech for a different mail order pharmacy and the above pretty much describes our operation as well. Most of our pharmacists work M-F normal daytime ours. I think they are required to work a couple weekends a year doing escalation type work answering questions from techs. No fighting with insurance companies, mostly no fighting with patients, lol. We also have compounding pharmacists.