NY Times: How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk

[WVUPharm2007]

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How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk (Published 2020)

Pharmacists across the U.S. warn that the push to do more with less has made medication errors more likely. “I am a danger to the public,” one wrote to a regulator.

www.nytimes.com

 

[BMBiology]

Merlo must know he is killing people but hey, he wants the stock to go up because he owns a lot of shares.

 

[ancienbon]

How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk (Published 2020)

Pharmacists across the U.S. warn that the push to do more with less has made medication errors more likely. “I am a danger to the public,” one wrote to a regulator.

www.nytimes.com

Thank you for this article

 

[BackRowChi]

Every pharmacist needs to hand this article out like Chick tracts.

 

[projektreverb]

Except patients don’t care until it’s them. Someone has said it on this board and I’ll say it again: nothing will change until some beautiful/picture perfect, 20 something year old media friendly lady dies because of it. Then things will change.

 

[BenJammin]

TSBP will continue to ignore news coverage like this. Nothing to see here! Keep moving!

 

[mentos]

It won't let me read the article. Anything new that we haven't heard before?

 

[wagrxm2000]

Does everyone here really have a subscription to the New York times?

 

[BackRowChi]

You can sign up for free just to read that article.

 

[RxPal]

Should be a required reading for pre-pharmers.

 

[projektreverb]

Should be a required reading for pre-pharmers.

*shrieks in prepharm* but I’m special bro, I did all the things! I’m going to be a super special ninja clinical pharmacist who works in a vacuum and will feel none of the stress!

 

[Socrates25]

As I suspected all along, CVS management is a bunch of con artists. I refuse all prescription refills that are generated from CVS. If a patient needs a refill from CVS, they have to contact me directly.

Hell I'm thinking about making the patient pick up the script by hand and walk it over to CVS if they want to keep using that abomination of a pharmacy.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Does everyone here really have a subscription to the New York times?

You can read for free if you sign in with your Google or Facebook account.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

As I suspected all along, CVS management is a bunch of con artists. I refuse all prescription refills that are generated from CVS. If a patient needs a refill from CVS, they have to contact me directly.

Hell I'm thinking about making the patient pick up the script by hand and walk it over to CVS if they want to keep using that abomination of a pharmacy.

It really depends on the pharmacy. There are terrible CVSs, there are great CVSs.

 

[mentos]

Should be a required reading for pre-pharmers.

But it's my passion!

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

As I suspected all along, CVS management is a bunch of con artists. I refuse all prescription refills that are generated from CVS. If a patient needs a refill from CVS, they have to contact me directly.

Hell I'm thinking about making the patient pick up the script by hand and walk it over to CVS if they want to keep using that abomination of a pharmacy.

My group just plain doesn't except any faxed or electronic refill requests from pharmacies. Its been great.

 

[BMBiology]

You won’t see Merlo working at one of his stores.

 

[wucool33]

I blame the MXT error in the article on all the diploma mill pharmacists...

 

[APN-59 rph]

It IS an interesting situation...There has to be a pretty good error rate...but you never hear about it.....AND....my malpractice insurance never goes up.....which seems to indicate that the big boys and probably the boards are backstopping the bad mistakes somehow....Anyone have words on "what's up"...?

 

[APN-59 rph]

I blame the MXT error in the article on all the diploma mill pharmacists...

I (thanks to some guardian angel I guess)..caught a Methotrexate error twice...anymore I open every bottle and found methotrexate instead of some antihistamine..like "twice a day" with a year's refills....The so called manager was a kneepads type...AND.....I caught the same thing again.....(same angel?)

 

[confettiflyer]

Except patients don’t care until it’s them. Someone has said it on this board and I’ll say it again: nothing will change until some beautiful/picture perfect, 20 something year old media friendly lady dies because of it. Then things will change.

But it’ll be settled out of court for a vast sum of money and an non-disclosure/non-disparage will be part of it.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN

 

[mentos]

He actually recently sold half of all his shares in the past few months. Lots of articles. Google it. Gotta cash in before it burns to the ground.

CVS shares have been in freefall ever since.

CVS executives also sold a couple years ago before the stock price plummeted:

CVS Insiders Sell $100 Million in Stock

The CEO and CFO have joined in the year-to-date selling, which includes large September transactions.

www.barrons.com

If that isn't inside trading then I don't know what is.

 

[Rouelle]

My group just plain doesn't except any faxed or electronic refill requests from pharmacies. Its been great.

That sounds incredible from a pharmacist point of view also. Virtually every time I work retail I get a patient call up and say something along the lines of “I called my doc for a refill and the receptionist/nurse/MA told me I had to call the pharmacy and get them to submit a refill request electronically.” Such a waste of everyone’s time and effort.

 

[Rouelle]

Does everyone here really have a subscription to the New York times?

I actually do. They were having a sale last summer...something like $1 / week for 52 weeks for the digital subscription.

 

[Wickett]

Shocking response from CVS.

CVS Health Responds to Recent News on Pharmacy Workplace Concerns | CVS Health

cvshealth.com

 

[ancienbon]

Really

 

[zelman]

Shocking response from CVS.
CVS Health has been on the forefront of advocating for states to increase pharmacy technician to pharmacist ratios. By allowing additional pharmacy technicians behind the counter, we are able to ensure that we are safely and effectively filling prescriptions, and most importantly, that pharmacists are able to provide more effective patient care and counseling

If only there was some way to have more people work in a pharmacy without increasing tech ratios!

 

[deleted562805]

*shrieks in prepharm* but I’m special bro, I did all the things! I’m going to be a super special ninja clinical pharmacist who works in a vacuum and will feel none of the stress!

* shocked pre-pharm, now PGY-2 resident realizes that hospital has metrics too and inadequate staffing, especially night shift. Oh, gets yelled at by nurses instead of customers.

 

[Dr Wario]

I think I should blast this article to all of the managers on our wonderful district email/text list. Enough really is enough, I am now doing 15% more scripts than last year with the same pharmacist and tech hours, where exactly will it end?

 

[sfachine]

To say pharmacists at CVS has a low turnover due to job satisfaction is absurd.Every pharmacist knows its because CVS pharmacists have no other options to go to.Typical corporate PR bull ****.

 

[mentos]

* shocked pre-pharm, now PGY-2 resident realizes that hospital has metrics too and inadequate staffing, especially night shift. Oh, gets yelled at by nurses instead of customers.

Still way better than retail.

 

[BMBiology]

To say pharmacists at CVS has a low turnover due to job satisfaction is absurd.Every pharmacist knows its because CVS pharmacists have no other options to go to.Typical corporate PR bull ****.

I wonder how they measure the “low turnover rate”? If you are leaving and they offered you a per diem position, does that mean you have not left the company?

Merlo is lying. I would love to see the law catch up with him one day.

 

[mentos]

I wonder how they measure the “low turnover rate”? If you are leaving and they offered you a per diem position, does that mean you have not left the company?

Merlo is lying. I would love to see the law catch up with him one day.

Yes, a per diem means you are still employed by the company and you still have to do all those stupid competencies.

 

[owlegrad]

Yeah I am a little confused by this “low turnover rate”. That certainly wasn’t my experience with the company. I wonder what CVS’ rate is compared to the industry standard?

 

[WVUPharm2007]

To say pharmacists at CVS has a low turnover due to job satisfaction is absurd.Every pharmacist knows its because CVS pharmacists have no other options to go to.Typical corporate PR bull ****.

I've found that the turnover rate at CVS for pharmacists with another job offer is nearly 100%. Interestingly, I have been offered two jobs since I started and turned them both down because they can't compete with CVS on salary. I've got some golden handcuffs holding me here at CVS.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Still way better than retail.

I can unequivocally say that my night shift retail job is better than my old hospital inpatient job.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

1. I wonder why employees would submit surveys to their company saying they love working there and have no concerns?

It's anonymous. Sure, they ask for your store number, position, age, race, and years with the company...but they'll never be able to figure out which of the few pharmacists that work at your store submitted the critical survey.

 

[Dr Wario]

It's anonymous. Sure, they ask for your store number, position, age, race, and years with the company...but they'll never be able to figure out which of the few pharmacists that work at your store submitted the critical survey.

Don't forget that you have to be logged in to the system to "prevent fraud and misuse of the survey system".

 

[mentos]

LoL nothing is anonymous. One time a tech complained about the PIC through the "anonymous" ethics line and the next day the PIC knew exactly who complained.

 

[projektreverb]

1. I wonder why employees would submit surveys to their company saying they love working there and have

Easy, those surveys aren’t “anonymous” ... If I remember correctly I had to log in to take mine at wags. And they can figure out who it is based on the personal parameters you enter in the survey anyways.

 

[8turkeys]

How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk

 

[8turkeys]

Here is the same article from nyt on MSN for free

 

[PharmtoCS]

In other news, Kim Jong-un won the election with 100% of the popular vote of Korea.

 

[Xarelto-10]

This is partly why I am secretly happy that prescribing authority isn’t afforded to pharmacists

Still way better than retail.

way better ? I won’t say that. And it is coming from someone who have done both.

Comparing retail stress with that of a hospital SM night shift stress does not necessarily make one situation more valid than the other. Each are unique circumstance and need to be judged on its own merits.

 

[confettiflyer]

I actually do. They were having a sale last summer...something like $1 / week for 52 weeks for the digital subscription.

Yeah, I have a separate NYT and WSJ subscription + I pay for Apple News. Not very expensive relatively speaking and I mean...it’s news/reading. Spend money to educate yourself first, I would probably cut Netflix before I cut my news/reading subs.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN

 

[mentos]

This is partly why I am secretly happy that prescribing authority isn’t afforded to pharmacists



way better ? I won’t say that. And it is coming from someone who have done both.

Comparing retail stress with that of a hospital SM night shift stress does not necessarily make one situation more valid than the other. Each are unique circumstance and need to be judged on its own merits.

You get to sit in a hospital right? Thousands of pharmacists would trade retail for that.

 

[JustFillIt]

As I suspected all along, CVS management is a bunch of con artists. I refuse all prescription refills that are generated from CVS. If a patient needs a refill from CVS, they have to contact me directly.

Hell I'm thinking about making the patient pick up the script by hand and walk it over to CVS if they want to keep using that abomination of a pharmacy.

I have disliked your posts in the past. However I do like this concept.

If physicians started picking up the fight and refusing business with the giant chains due patient safety issues - this would lend a lot of support to the cause

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I have disliked your posts in the past. However I do like this concept.

If physicians started picking up the fight and refusing business with the giant chains due patient safety issues - this would lend a lot of support to the cause

Yeah, but people are forced to go to chains sometimes. People will be punished for the inconvenience of having to physically pick up prescriptions because of what insurance their employer decided to purchase their health plan through.

 

[JustFillIt]

Shocking response from CVS.

CVS Health Responds to Recent News on Pharmacy Workplace Concerns | CVS Health

cvshealth.com

Reading this horse**** was disgusting. It is a classic example of how we, in this country, use twisted language to deceptively describe a controversial topic.

In this article, “measurement = improvement.” Let’s not call it metrics to evaluate productivity and weed out those who don’t fall in line. Let’s call it a “measurement in order to find out how we can improve, and improve patient safety” - this sounds nice right?

I actually see this response as directed more toward the staff than the general public. They are sternly saying to their workers - “don’t expect things to change”

 

[tlh908]

Good news to those who work CVS, I heard they are following the wag raise model. That should boost morale.