Question for overnight pharmacists

[Daikon]

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I've been working overnights lately and I can't seem to get everything done. Patients seem to come in until around 2 or 3 and then start again at 6 or 7. I've barely been able to get the Q done lately, which is usually around 140 rx's. I've been working with walgreens for a year, am I just really slow? I am wondering if you guys review the rx's you filled? I'm wondering if there is something I am doing extra that's slowing me down. I'm treating every step of the process like someone else did it.

 

[Lnsean]

No you are not slow....Walgreens has been cutting back ALOT. There are not many 24 hour stores left and the ones that remain are bound to be SUPER BUSY. Your store should have a YUYAMA but even with that I'd be surprised if you could clear everything in the work queue for the morning shift. Ask your other overnight partner if she has managed to clear the Q and just keep up with his/her pace.

 

[owlegrad]

Not a Walgreens RPh, but 140 scripts by yourself (presumably?) sounds quite good to me.

 

[Daikon]

Yeah we do have a yuyama but i've got a love/hate relationship with that beast. I hate when I'll dump the Q and all of the sudden the yuyama must reset and lose everything in its "to be filled" memory banks . That's a good idea, I'll check wit my partner overnighter when I'm at a store long enough to have one. Right now I'm a 3rd shift floater so I don't know many of my fellow graveyarders very well. Do you think some technicians might decide to leave more in the Q if they know it's going to be a floater coming?

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

Typically the yuyama only needs to be reset once a week...or that's what they say. Maybe just restart it before you dump the queue.

Don't spend too much time with customers (as awful as that sounds). That can easily waste time if you're listening to their small talk. Just politely say "time to get back to work" or something to that effect.

I like to fill whatever makes the fill number go down faster. Purely psychological, but it makes me feel better. Unit of use, yuyama, then small quantity scripts, then whatever is left.

Overnight isn't easy! Sometimes it's pretty stressful. Just go with the flow and remember that only one person can do so much.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

You have to know all of the strategic short cuts. For instance, I go though and print out all of the birth controls at the beginning, grab them all at once, and plow through those. Just imagine how much time that saves you going back and forth to where they are all stored. Right there is a page or 2 by itself. I can usually get 90-100 Rxs or so done by 3AM with a few interruptions thrown in. If you plan out your auto fills, you can cut a lot of time.

 

[waiter]

you could page an IC3 back to the pharmacy to help count but I wouldn't recommend it

 

[Dred Pirate]

When I worked overnights for a different chain - I had a tech for 2 hours and a by myself for 8. We didn't have the central queue that wags has. I usually did about 80-100 scripts - 40 new and the rest the ready fills or whatever that crap hole called their auto fill system. I was bored, I would spend hours doing cycle counts, etc. So that being said 140 sounds like it would keep you busy - that is 14 scripts and hour - or 4 minutes a script start to finish with no help I don't know wags system, but I could do that, but I wouldn't have any downtime. Refills should be faster, BUT in my system I didn't have electronic access to the scanned script, so most were just checking pill in the bottle vs NND on the label. That is not hard. Plus, there isn't a lot of insurance companies that are open that you can call for problems, and refills generally don't have that many problems with them. A crappy night shift job is better than a average day shift at the chains I think (that is if I ever have to go back)