So I recently moved for pharmacy school and started at a new cvs... Im used to a CVS that does 850 a day with 3 RPHS's and a robot, but now at my new one were doing 650-700 with a robot and 2 to 3 RPHS's. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the busier store. Time went faster and miss the sheer madness of it (in a sadisitcal way). Anyone else every experience something similar, or have I lost my mind?
Missing a "Busier" store
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owlegrad
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My word, how common are stores like that?! My CVS did about 350 on a good day, and we were in the top 5 in our area (or division, whichever is smaller, I can't remember right now).
I can't relate to that kind of volume, but I preferred working my 300-350 store over being sent to the 100-150 stores. Time just drags on, and the staff wants to complain about having sooo much work. 🙄
Actually that's how I feel about working in the hospital. They just gripe, gripe, gripe about all the work. I am like, what?! This is paradise!
Not sure how common it is, Im thinking maybe 2-3 stores per region??? Strictly a guess. I was originally in Florida, but now live in the Boston. I know that our store is the 2nd busiest in the area. The other store caps out at about 800 or so a day. I love high volume stores. It makes life more interesting and time fly. I may try and transfer to the busier one, but the one Im at is so close to home!
My word, how common are stores like that?! My CVS did about 350 on a good day, and we were in the top 5 in our area (or division, whichever is smaller, I can't remember right now).
I can't relate to that kind of volume, but I preferred working my 300-350 store over being sent to the 100-150 stores. Time just drags on, and the staff wants to complain about having sooo much work. 🙄
Actually that's how I feel about working in the hospital. They just gripe, gripe, gripe about all the work. I am like, what?! This is paradise!
Have you worked at an independent yet?
We spend time talking to each other about things other than work. Sometimes I talk to them about pharmacy school, and when they ask me questions, I tell them about my experiences.
I can't imagine having a counting spatula glued to my hand the entire time I'm working.
I also can't imagine not being able to talk to the pharmacists, technicians, and interns about something other than work any time during the day. Am I exaggerating the busy-ness of some stores?
owlegrad
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Have you worked at an independent yet?
We spend time talking to each other about things other than work. Sometimes I talk to them about pharmacy school, and when they ask me questions, I tell them about my experiences.
I can't imagine having a counting spatula glued to my hand the entire time I'm working.
In my experience, no matter how busy you are, there is ALWAYS time for chit-chat. You make time to talk to your coworkers.
Truthfully it's probably dangerous because no matter how busy you are you find ways of talking. I mean it's not like you can count by 5 for 8 hours without talking to your coworkers! 🙂 So you work and talk. Too much "free time" is boring anyway, better to keep busy.
Nah, I have not worked at an independent. Not likely to happen anytime soon (retail is not my first choice at this point), maybe a rotation? Nothing against independents but honestly I like chains anyway.
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READ: Pharmacy Student
In my experience, no matter how busy you are, there is ALWAYS time for chit-chat. You make time to talk to your coworkers.
Truthfully it's probably dangerous because no matter how busy you are you find ways of talking. I mean it's not like you can count by 5 for 8 hours without talking to your coworkers! 🙂 So you work and talk. Too much "free time" is boring anyway, better to keep busy.
Nah, I have not worked at an independent. Not likely to happen anytime soon (retail is not my first choice at this point), maybe a rotation? Nothing against independents but honestly I like chains anyway.
From what I hear when I talk to people who work at chains, they always talk about how they're so much busier than independents, and no one else can be as busy as they are. Even though I'm sure they have time to talk to their coworkers and stuff, it's like they talk about how they think they're busier than everyone else in the world to make themselves feel like they're better. I tend to cut those conversations short
I keep myself kinda busy from talking to my coworkers about random stuff, and asking questions to my preceptors to learn more about independent pharmacies and how ours functions.
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On my last hospital rotation, my preceptor told me that she didn't want me working with the 2 youngest pharmacists and the male tech anymore because putting us together meant endless chatter about baseball, video games, football, UFC, etc.
If it was me and one of the older or female pharmacists in the IV room, we'd be done with 100 IVs in like 3 hours because they don't talk much other than asking me some pharmacy related questions sometimes.
If it was me and one of the younger pharmacists, we'd be in the IV room for 6-7 hours because we'd talk about pharmacy as well as all those other things I listed above.
If it was me and one of the older or female pharmacists in the IV room, we'd be done with 100 IVs in like 3 hours because they don't talk much other than asking me some pharmacy related questions sometimes.
If it was me and one of the younger pharmacists, we'd be in the IV room for 6-7 hours because we'd talk about pharmacy as well as all those other things I listed above.
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How many techs help run a store doing 800/day? 2 techs always on production, 2-3 on drop off, 3 on register/drive thru?
I Think our tech budget is something like 550 or 600 hours. We have about a total of 24 employees in the pharmacy area. Usually during the high point of the day (10-6p) we have 3 RPH'S, 2-3 Interns, 2-3 Techs, and 1 PSA. Sometimes we end up having to call the front end for cashiering backup. And honestly the robot is amazing, except for when it causes issues. We also have the call center here in Boston which keeps a lot of calls out of the store from 8-8 (monday-friday). I wish they were open weekends too!
And WTF is the "READ PHARMACY STUDENT" all about? I'm confused?
And WTF is the "READ PHARMACY STUDENT" all about? I'm confused?
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In San Diego, there is this independent pharmacy called "Alan's Pharmacy". They do 1000 rxs/day with 1 pharmacist working at a time and a gazzillion techs/cashier... They (2 pharmacist owners) bought the pharmacy from an older retired pharmacist when they do 300 rx/day. Now, their sales is about $15M+/year...
Who said independent is slow?
Who said independent is slow?
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And this is legal? Here in NY I think it's 3 techs/pharmacist.
In my state, it's 2 techs performing technician duties. If you have more than 2 techs, the remaining techs have to be cashiers or something.
I said the one where I work was kinda slow on most days of the month, and especially on the weekends.
During the first of the month, it's busy with about 400~500 that day.
I bet 1000 patients/day would be busier
Just kidding.But really, 1 pharmacist for 1000 scripts? Wow. Why doesn't that store have a second pharmacist?
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I can relate. I worked at a store that did about 800 scripts a day and it was in the ghetto but I loved staying so busy. You're right. The time does fly. On a slow day here at the hospital, I eventually run out of things to do and just sit and play on the internet until it is time to go home. Even when our census is low, we don't send people home. Those are, ironically, the worst days because I cannot take the boredom. When it is a super busy day (like the weekend they flipped the Cerner on switch), I sorta liked it. Labels were flying off the printer and I had about 15 chemos lined up to prepare. A couple of strange cases came into the ER and our ICU and intermediate care pod was filled. I complained a lot about how tired and crabby I was afterwards, but the truth is, the stress fuels me 😛
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Sounds like fun. Assuming a ten hour day, that averages to 100 rxs/hour or 5/3 rxs/min.
No way that is possible, if the pharmacist is answering questions and counseling.
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Sure it is... you don't waste your time "counseling" or "checking" anything... you just hit approve, staple, and dispense.
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Sure it is... you don't waste your time "counseling" or "checking" anything... you just hit approve, staple, and dispense.
It is very sad but very true.....getting to the point where if the computer does not catch it...its going out
I just left BIG RED MACHINE lokking for greener pastures. Life is not supposed to be spent like that.
I worked in a store like that years ago. We had multiple pharmacists on at most times (not the weekends or end of the day). They counseled more than any other store I've been at. 1000 prescriptions a day alone would be pretty much impossible, but there is a bigger budget for busier stores so the pharmacists aren't usually alone.
