Pitfalls of pharmacy... vs. the positive

[ethyl]

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Feel free to add to the list.

Cons:
1) Customers

Pros:
1) Customers

 

[ultracet]

Feel free to add to the list.

Cons:
1) Customers

Pros:
1) Customers

patients would be the term you are looking for

 

[ethyl]

patients would be the term you are looking for

Them too. 😉

 

[megrxgirl]

patients would be the term you are looking for

is it not appropriate to call them customers when you work in a retail pharmacy?

 

[ultracet]

is it not appropriate to call them customers when you work in a retail pharmacy?

no
sorry
its not

actually
i take that back
make sure you refer to them as customers about 500 times during your interviews... they will eat that stuff up!

 

[Maestrojo]

well, if you work in ahospital (inpatient) then it would have to be:

pros: not having to deal with patients upfront

cons: having to deal with nurses phone calls. I mean really simple stuff too. they will sometimes call just to ask questions like: "Whats the generic to Ancef?" When they have a Nurses guide book with them at all times. I think they just don't feel like looking it up.

 

[ndearwater]

no
sorry
its not

actually
i take that back
make sure you refer to them as customers about 500 times during your interviews... they will eat that stuff up!

At my interview someone actually did refer to them as customers.... This was when we were all asked why we wanted to become pharmacists. They said something about customer interaction. I thought, at the time, that that was probably not a good move. Do you think something like that would keep them from gaining acceptance considering how competitive the whole process is?

 

[bananaface]

If they come and want me to ring up their newspaper and only their newspaper, then they are a customer. Customers need to go to the regular checkstands!

Really they are both patients and customers. They are buying a service from you. Without their business you will not be able to operate for lack of funds. But, their status as a customer should be secondary to their status as a patient. You have to have a primary and a secondary mindset to do well in this profession/business.

 

[megrxgirl]

no
sorry
its not

actually
i take that back
make sure you refer to them as customers about 500 times during your interviews... they will eat that stuff up!

i know definitely not to call them customers during my interview. but i work at a retail pharmacy and both pharmacists i work under refer to them as customers.

 

[pharmdwannab]

OK, first of all if someone used the term "customers" in an interview I don't think that they should be downed because of it. I mean come on, they are customers as well as patients. If I am giving them medical information that is confidential in nature I would refer to them as a "patient" but if I were pointing them to the aisle where they can find the hair care products or magazines and in turn ringing up their purchases they are "customers". I currently work in a hospital and I have to go to continuing education classes on "Dealing with the difficult customer" ~ Meaning they are not only patients they are customers as well. It goes hand-in-hand. Especially in a retail enviroment.

 

[ultracet]

Honestly....
you better not refer to them as customers here during an interview... and that's all i'll say about that...

where i believe this actually comes from is back in the day the profession refered to them as patients....
then there was a shift to customers (hence a lot of people with the mindset) and now they are moving back to a patient focus.

everyone at some point or another is a patient....

 

[b*rizzle]

Honestly....
you better not refer to them as customers here during an interview... and that's all i'll say about that...

where i believe this actually comes from is back in the day the profession refered to them as patients....
then there was a shift to customers (hence a lot of people with the mindset) and now they are moving back to a patient focus.

everyone at some point or another is a patient....

I got irritated at work today, because Target wants you to call them "guests," even folks that frequent the pharmacy. The general store manager stopped by while I was talking to the pharmacist and I referred to one of our "pharmacy guests" as a patient in the course of a conversation. He overheard me say it, and I got a 5 minute lecture.

Thank goodness I don't deal with that nutjob on a regular basis.

And my feeling on why retail sucks so much is because we started calling them customers and catering to the "customer is always right" mindset. Yes, patient care is a two-way street, but true patient care doesn't involve friggin' gift cards either.

This is a prime example of why we think of our patients as customers and not patients:

Not to hijack the thread, but one guy brought in an Rx for Duac, dated from early June of this year. Naturally it was a non-formulary drug and his copay was $35. After trying to explain to him why his copay wasn't the $20 brand copay, he proceeded to raise a fuss at the counter about why then he could not use the gift card to pay for the Rx in the same transaction.

I suppose there are winners everywhere but there seem to be a lot less at my new store. 🙂

 

[ndearwater]

Publix loves to give away free Turkeys at Thanksgiving when your transfer or bring in a new RX. Well that's when the chaos breaks out in full force! Everyone is digging up old Rx's they've had in the bottom of their purse all year, or they all want to transfer their prescription to Publix that month only to turn around in December and transfer it to whatever pharmacy is giving out a gift card.
Last year they altered the fine print to include "No Turkey vouchers may be used by a patient receiving Federal Aid for prescriptions". The reason being, it's actually illegal to provide incentives to seek medical care for individuals whose healthcare is paid for my the government. It makes sense but a lot of people just don't understand. Needless to say, there is some serious upset at the pharmacy during the holidays 😉

 

[b*rizzle]

Publix loves to give away free Turkeys at Thanksgiving when your transfer or bring in a new RX. Well that's when the chaos breaks out in full force! Everyone is digging up old Rx's they've had in the bottom of their purse all year, or they all want to transfer their prescription to Publix that month only to turn around in December and transfer it to whatever pharmacy is giving out a gift card.
Last year they altered the fine print to include "No Turkey vouchers may be used by a patient receiving Federal Aid for prescriptions". The reason being, it's actually illegal to provide incentives to seek medical care for individuals whose healthcare is paid for my the government. It makes sense but a lot of people just don't understand. Needless to say, there is some serious upset at the pharmacy during the holidays 😉

'
😱

Chaos seems like a light term.

 

[Caverject]

Publix loves to give away free Turkeys at Thanksgiving when your transfer or bring in a new RX. Well that's when the chaos breaks out in full force! Everyone is digging up old Rx's they've had in the bottom of their purse all year, or they all want to transfer their prescription to Publix that month only to turn around in December and transfer it to whatever pharmacy is giving out a gift card.
Last year they altered the fine print to include "No Turkey vouchers may be used by a patient receiving Federal Aid for prescriptions". The reason being, it's actually illegal to provide incentives to seek medical care for individuals whose healthcare is paid for my the government. It makes sense but a lot of people just don't understand. Needless to say, there is some serious upset at the pharmacy during the holidays 😉

Gotta love our buddy Fred up in Lakeland! My favorite was the 15 dollars worth of beef coupons a few months ago. I can't wait for the generic warehouse to come online. This has disaster written all over it....

 

[ultracet]

But, their status as a customer should be secondary to their status as a patient. You have to have a primary and a secondary mindset to do well in this profession/business.

i think that bananaface makes a very good and valid point here...

pharmacy will not survive if we cannot afford to pay for the drugs as well as the pharmacists.

i cannot imagine the quality of care some would receive if they were thought of as primarily the customer
there are people out there who rely on their community pharmacist as a key component of their healthcare

 

[PHARMDhope2b]

The way i see it, is that the patients in retail are part of both the pros and cons.

The interaction is great, however, their bad ass attitudes suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Especially, the MD's, RN's, PHd's, etc. that refuse patient counseling because of their degree. Plus they say it in a snooty way.

The store managers at walmart never come over to the pharmacy. I dont even know their names or who they are. Therefore, we dont really know what the rest of the store is doing in terms of how they are greeting the customers or anything like that. So we dont really have that problem of tip toeing around which phrase to say to customers. Do you guys have to run the cash register as well? (OH YEAH THIS IS A BIGGGGGGGGGG CON) I HATE RUNNING THE CASH REGISTER!!!!!!!!.

 

[ndearwater]

Someone told me Wal-Mart pharmacists are responsible for stocking the OTC in the health/beauty dept. Talk about a CON! Anyone know if this is true? It's enough work keeping up with Rx inventory!
Yeah and Publix is supposed to be doing this generic warehouse very soon... they're losing too much money because they have to send away a patient who wants to fill 1 tab of Zofran because the bottle will probably expire on the shelf and it can't be sent back to the manufacturer opened anyway.
PROS: field is always changing, new advancements, lots of practice settings so you are bound to find the perfect fit somewhere
CONS: patients with a "customer is always right" attitude... this a the problem in retail but it's probably inevitable 😎

 

[bananaface]

Yeah, at Wally World the pharmacy manager is in charge of the OTC area too. If no one else is able to stock it sometimes they have to do it themselves.

 

[Caverject]

Someone told me Wal-Mart pharmacists are responsible for stocking the OTC in the health/beauty dept. Talk about a CON! Anyone know if this is true? It's enough work keeping up with Rx inventory!
Yeah and Publix is supposed to be doing this generic warehouse very soon... they're losing too much money because they have to send away a patient who wants to fill 1 tab of Zofran because the bottle will probably expire on the shelf and it can't be sent back to the manufacturer opened anyway.
PROS: field is always changing, new advancements, lots of practice settings so you are bound to find the perfect fit somewhere
CONS: patients with a "customer is always right" attitude... this a the problem in retail but it's probably inevitable 😎

dude...if we would of stuck with Bergen like we have for 12 years before we went to Cardinal...we wouldn't have the problems we have. It's Fred's magical way of making it worse to make it appear better so he can look like a hero in the minds of the Jenkins Family.....total con artist

 

[ndearwater]

dude...if we would of stuck with Bergen like we have for 12 years before we went to Cardinal...we wouldn't have the problems we have. It's Fred's magical way of making it worse to make it appear better so he can look like a hero in the minds of the Jenkins Family.....total con artist

UH.... Fred Ottolino is my dad.... 🙁

 

[Caverject]

UH.... Fred Ottolino is my dad.... 🙁

talk about foot in mouth syndrome....

I hope it's not news to you how much your father is disliked within the company. There used to be a blog dedicated to him which im sure you know about. It's sad how far down the tubes Publix Pharmacy has gone recently but who knows....maybe the ship will be righted soon by Captain Fred. Sorry if I seem like an dingus...im just being honest.

 

[funny_pharm]

UH.... Fred Ottolino is my dad.... 🙁

Uh-oh..lol. Caverject got owned Now that we know you have some pull within Publix...[Joey Tribbiani stare & voice] How you doin'? 😛

 

[Caverject]

Uh-oh..lol. Caverject got owned Now that we know you have some pull within Publix...[Joey Tribbiani stare & voice] How you doin'? 😛

Don't count on it...the new mantra is to see how many hours of help we can cut...good luck on getting that job unless you want to be in the deli!

 

[ndearwater]

talk about foot in mouth syndrome....

I hope it's not news to you how much your father is disliked within the company. There used to be a blog dedicated to him which im sure you know about. It's sad how far down the tubes Publix Pharmacy has gone recently but who knows....maybe the ship will be righted soon by Captain Fred. Sorry if I seem like an dingus...im just being honest.

HAHAHAHAHA gotcha foo'!
I didn't think you'd believe me.... 😉 And you even apologized! Now I feel bad!

 

[funny_pharm]

HAHAHAHAHA gotcha foo'!
I didn't think you'd believe me.... 😉 And you even apologized! Now I feel bad!

That just wasn't right...lol. I retract my "how you doin?"

 

[ndearwater]

I might still be able to get you that job in the deli, if you're really lucky!
Seriously, Publix loves to cut tech hours! They need an extra tech just to collect beef-certificates

 

[funny_pharm]

I might still be able to get you that job in the deli, if you're really lucky!
Seriously, Publix loves to cut tech hours! They need an extra tech just to collect beef-certificates

I have a friend working at new Publix (took over the Sav-rite) and he doesn't seem too happy. I couldn't work in deli b/c I'd laugh everytime someone said, " did you cut the cheese?" 😳

 

[ultracet]

talk about foot in mouth syndrome....

i cant believe you bought that

 

[ultracet]

Someone told me Wal-Mart pharmacists are responsible for stocking the OTC in the health/beauty dept.

perhaps it depends on the walmart??

b/c the one i rotated at had an OTC manager and the rph wasn't allowed to touch any of it.

 

[bananaface]

Speaking of foot in mouth... the worst thing I ever did as a mod was to accidentally tell an SDNer that his dad looked at porn at work. That person now goes to school with me. I guess that's like shoving in both feet. 😳