Question for Walgreens employees

[Pharfalle]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here, and stumbled across this site while searching the Internet for some information. I was wondering if someone (especially anyone from the Florida area) might be able to answer a question for me. I've noticed lately that my pharmacy supervisor is obsessed with how much remote verification everyone is doing. A little research helped me realize that it must be due to the expanding POWER program. My question is... who does F4 verification in this system? Is it the pharmacists in the stores? Or the pharmacists in the call center (or whatever the central location is called?).

I am currently working at a store with a middle pharmacist every day. I am sure that one of us will be relocated if this system reaches us. I am hoping to stay, and have been doing lots of remote verification. If I do that though, am I more likely to be seen as valuable to the central location?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! 🙂

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[Glycerin]

I can't answer your question, but it might be a good idea to do a search using the search feature. There is a thread a few threads down from this one with the same title as yours, and a few probably on the next page that talk more about Power.

Happy searching, and welcome to the forums. 🙂

 

[Pharfalle]

Thanks Glycerin. 🙂 I did do a search, and I found lots of good information. I didn't see any specifics on who does the F4 verification though.

 

[Glycerin]

Thanks Glycerin. 🙂 I did do a search, and I found lots of good information. I didn't see any specifics on who does the F4 verification though.

Not a problem! Hopefully someone around here in retail at Wags will be able to answer your question. 🙂

 

[Jeddevil]

I work in a central fill wags right now. We will be going to Power in about a month. Right now, I do all the f4 verification for my store and my store only. We are not tied into the system doing remote verification. It is my understanding that under Power, the script will get scanned in, they will type it at the central location, and pharmacists will then verify it there. I will then get a label printed to fill at my location, I will do the product review and counsel. So, the f4 in this situation should be done at central fill for a new one dropped off, I believe. (I havn't been sent to the meeting detailing everything yet). I have to believe that in the morning I will be able to come in and f4 my own queue for those called in overnight, or central might do that also. I will know more in Feb.

By the way, after some early hiccups with central fill, it is going quite smooth now. We have been on it for several months now. Every so often I have someone put in the fill for tomorrow, so it goes to central fill, then they show up and want it so we have to delete it and do it over for today. I then get the extra script from central fill the next day that we have to shelf. That happens every other day or so. Our pt's have been very receptive to getting stuff on auto-fill. We also offer the pickups of today or tomorrow after 10am, and many people are jumping right for the tomorrow pickup which allows central fill to fill the script.

Managing our daily waiters is the hardest thing with the central fill software, because there is not a waiter button. Anything put in for today gets time-stamped for 15 minutes, and true waiters get lost behind non-waiters time stamped first. We have got around this by just making a simple list next to the pharmacist of all waiters and how many scripts they have. I have my techs let me know the names of the waiters and I can make sure to go in the queue, pick them out of order and get them printed and filled. The order entry techs have to stay on top of typing, which isn't a problem at my store. They are very good at that. The list also gives me an accurate list to base a wait time off of for waiters. I believe that the wait button is going to be added back into the next software version. That will really take away our largest issue. Bring on Power.

 

[Wildember]

Correct me if I'm wrong (only an intern ATM)

But I know in workload balanced WAGS stores in NC techs F1 for their immediate district and RPh's F4 for the same stores (my store has 4 others in the immediate area that come up; was changed from anywhere in the district when I worked last before the software update)

So does this not mean that RPh's can do the verify but not the final check remotely? (Non-Power stores)

The system wasn't a way to get rid of pharmacists but more a way to balance workload between the busy and non busy stores.

I'm going to have to do some digging on POWER and related at the next market meeting this summer.

 

[museabuse]

I work in a central fill wags right now. We will be going to Power in about a month. Right now, I do all the f4 verification for my store and my store only. We are not tied into the system doing remote verification. It is my understanding that under Power, the script will get scanned in, they will type it at the central location, and pharmacists will then verify it there. I will then get a label printed to fill at my location, I will do the product review and counsel. So, the f4 in this situation should be done at central fill for a new one dropped off, I believe. (I havn't been sent to the meeting detailing everything yet). I have to believe that in the morning I will be able to come in and f4 my own queue for those called in overnight, or central might do that also. I will know more in Feb.

By the way, after some early hiccups with central fill, it is going quite smooth now. We have been on it for several months now. Every so often I have someone put in the fill for tomorrow, so it goes to central fill, then they show up and want it so we have to delete it and do it over for today. I then get the extra script from central fill the next day that we have to shelf. That happens every other day or so. Our pt's have been very receptive to getting stuff on auto-fill. We also offer the pickups of today or tomorrow after 10am, and many people are jumping right for the tomorrow pickup which allows central fill to fill the script.

Managing our daily waiters is the hardest thing with the central fill software, because there is not a waiter button. Anything put in for today gets time-stamped for 15 minutes, and true waiters get lost behind non-waiters time stamped first. We have got around this by just making a simple list next to the pharmacist of all waiters and how many scripts they have. I have my techs let me know the names of the waiters and I can make sure to go in the queue, pick them out of order and get them printed and filled. The order entry techs have to stay on top of typing, which isn't a problem at my store. They are very good at that. The list also gives me an accurate list to base a wait time off of for waiters. I believe that the wait button is going to be added back into the next software version. That will really take away our largest issue. Bring on Power.

So do you see the scanned in rx at all? Do you assume the rx is then correct and not question it. What if it was for coumadin and the central pharmacist verified it as 2 tablets a day and it was supposed to be one. Then you counsel the pt to take 2 and the pt dies. Are you completely free and clear?

What if it was some crazy high dose, do you go back and double check or just fill and give to pt?


Just wondering.

 

[HCTZMakesMeP]

We've had the POWER system at my store for a while now (NYC). Basically, they group a bunch of neighboring stores together, with the intention of "helping other stores out". How it works is lets say I'm at store A, and its really busy, and your at store B and your having a slow day/few minutes to spare, the rph at store B can hit F4 and verify some of store A's scripts. Technicians at store B can also type the neighboring stores scripts. The only exception are C2's which are only typed and verified in the store that gets the scripts. There are some snags however, like store B will only get the scripts that are put in as waiters. So, if your really busy, scan most of your scripts as waiters so that someone else can type them, while you can start working on that stack of labels sitting on the counter lol. Hope this helps!

 

[wellwell]

We've had the POWER system at my store for a while now (NYC). Basically, they group a bunch of neighboring stores together, with the intention of "helping other stores out". How it works is lets say I'm at store A, and its really busy, and your at store B and your having a slow day/few minutes to spare, the rph at store B can hit F4 and verify some of store A's scripts. Technicians at store B can also type the neighboring stores scripts. The only exception are C2's which are only typed and verified in the store that gets the scripts. There are some snags however, like store B will only get the scripts that are put in as waiters. So, if your really busy, scan most of your scripts as waiters so that someone else can type them, while you can start working on that stack of labels sitting on the counter lol. Hope this helps!

So what is your overall impression/feeling on POWER?

 

[Jeddevil]

So do you see the scanned in rx at all? Do you assume the rx is then correct and not question it. What if it was for coumadin and the central pharmacist verified it as 2 tablets a day and it was supposed to be one. Then you counsel the pt to take 2 and the pt dies. Are you completely free and clear?

What if it was some crazy high dose, do you go back and double check or just fill and give to pt?


Just wondering.

As far as product verification, I believe it will be the same as it is now. You can always pull up the image at product verification and double check that it was typed and filled correctly. I do this quite often now, especially on high risk drugs, whether I did the initial data review or some other rph did.

As far as being free and clear. I don't believe that I would be held liable if the data review was done incorrectly. The system isn't set up to make us duplicate someone else's work, and if they have checked off on it, they will be held liable for what they did. Something that might be contrary to that would be c-2's, where I have to double check the actual hardcopy and label it. If the data review guy missed it, then I did on product review also where I have to look at the hard copy again, then I would be held liable. A good case of that was in last months az state board minutes, where both rph's got finded for a c-2 misfill, one that did data, the other product review.

 

[Pharfalle]

We've had the POWER system at my store for a while now (NYC). Basically, they group a bunch of neighboring stores together, with the intention of "helping other stores out". How it works is lets say I'm at store A, and its really busy, and your at store B and your having a slow day/few minutes to spare, the rph at store B can hit F4 and verify some of store A's scripts. Technicians at store B can also type the neighboring stores scripts. The only exception are C2's which are only typed and verified in the store that gets the scripts. There are some snags however, like store B will only get the scripts that are put in as waiters. So, if your really busy, scan most of your scripts as waiters so that someone else can type them, while you can start working on that stack of labels sitting on the counter lol. Hope this helps!

This doesn't sound anything like POWER to me. It sounds like workload balancing. Isn't POWER where the scripts are scanned in and then typed and data reviewed in an off-site location? And where most refills are filled at a central location and then shipped out to the stores?

 

[phillypharm09]

This doesn't sound anything like POWER to me. It sounds like workload balancing. Isn't POWER where the scripts are scanned in and then typed and data reviewed in an off-site location? And where most refills are filled at a central location and then shipped out to the stores?

We've had the POWER system at my store for a while now (NYC). Basically, they group a bunch of neighboring stores together, with the intention of "helping other stores out". How it works is lets say I'm at store A, and its really busy, and your at store B and your having a slow day/few minutes to spare, the rph at store B can hit F4 and verify some of store A's scripts. Technicians at store B can also type the neighboring stores scripts. The only exception are C2's which are only typed and verified in the store that gets the scripts. There are some snags however, like store B will only get the scripts that are put in as waiters. So, if your really busy, scan most of your scripts as waiters so that someone else can type them, while you can start working on that stack of labels sitting on the counter lol. Hope this helps!

um HCTZ you're not on power. right now only 2 locations have power. central florida (orlando) and south florida (miami/fort laud).

this is what power is:

There is a central filling station with a ton of techs and a handful of RpHs. when a Rx is scanned in the store and asked if it's for today or tomorrow, it is typed by the techs at the central fill station and checked over a few times by the rphs. once it's checked, the label will print out at the store if it's for today and it will be filled and checked by the techs/rph at the store. if it is for tomorrow, it will be filled by the central fill station and sent to the store the next day by 10am. all auto-fill prescriptions will be done at central fill and dropped off.

the system hctz is on is the normal traffic balancing system.

in my experience so far, power has been terrible. the 15 minute wait time is never met as it takes at least 20 minutes sometimes for it to be typed by the central fill station. i give wait times of an hour right now.

HOWEVER: our central fill station just opened last monday in miami lakes so i hope it takes the burden off of the first central fill station in orlando which was doing the scripts for both power markets. next on schedule for power i am being told is phoenix/scottsdale/glendale area.

now for the OP:
in all other markets not on power, when u f1 (tech) or f4 (rph), if u do not have any waiters and ur all ur home store scripts r typed, u will get images from other stores to help relieve the burden on the rph there and techs.

 

[phillypharm09]

i forgot to mention this...

ALL STORES ON POWER OR ON PHASE 1,2, OR 3 OF POWER NOW HAVE A CALL CENTER:

meaning, if u call a store in any of the above, if u want to speak to a pharmacy rep, it sends u to the call center first to relieve the calls coming into the store. however, many times if patient's need stock checks, the call center does not have the most accurate info in the computer so patients get misleading information. even for us stores in phase2 or 3, to call a power store, we have to wait to get the rep then tell them to transfer us to the store. VERY TEDIOUS and the docs/pa's/nurses r hating it.

 

[SELDANE]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here, and stumbled across this site while searching the Internet for some information. I was wondering if someone (especially anyone from the Florida area) might be able to answer a question for me. I've noticed lately that my pharmacy supervisor is obsessed with how much remote verification everyone is doing. A little research helped me realize that it must be due to the expanding POWER program. My question is... who does F4 verification in this system? Is it the pharmacists in the stores? Or the pharmacists in the call center (or whatever the central location is called?).

I am currently working at a store with a middle pharmacist every day. I am sure that one of us will be relocated if this system reaches us. I am hoping to stay, and have been doing lots of remote verification. If I do that though, am I more likely to be seen as valuable to the central location?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! 🙂

Remote verification is done in both the stores and the call center. It's my understanding that the majority is done at the store level. I don't know if doing a lot of remote verification will help your store keep the 11-7 shift during the week days. I've been told that the majority of 24 locations will lose their mid shift and have remote verifiers from slower stores assume that work load. If you go into your Walgreens at Home website and look at the Market Scheduling tool you should be able to see that the number of 11-7 shifts that are available is decreased from previous times. Pharmacists at some of the 24 hout locations have been moved to other stores or put in a floater position. I don't know of any that have gone to the call center.

 

[gustavo32]

Are they going to hire pharmacists now that they open the new center?

 

[phillypharm09]

Are they going to hire pharmacists now that they open the new center?

i don't think so. many pharmacists r being removed from stores and placed in the cpo unless they don't want to be so they r becoming floaters or let go. i thnk most of the positions have been filled for the cpo. i've been waiting to hear back from them since i'll be done this may and have been with wags for 3 years. hopefully residency pans out and i can get a good clinical job with stability.

 

[crossurfingers]

I have a love/hate relationship with remote F4. I love it when I'm busy and the labels just print out. I hate it when you're so busy you can't meet your own F4 quota (no official one, just the one that the DM's encourage). They cut tech hours so I am basically doing my job and picking up the slack of the missing tech. I'm the in window, typer, filler, verifier and the cashier at times. And on top of that they want me to F4 for other stores?

They should have remote verification from home. There's a job I would sign up for!

 

[phillypharm09]

They should have remote verification from home. There's a job I would sign up for!

they do have that. i personally know a wags rph that got approved for one of those positions down here in south fla

 

[MindOverMatter]

For all intensive purposes, F4 doesn't exist in power stores anymore. If you have to do anything out of the ordinary (change a manufacturer, central types something up wrong and you need to change it, scanning tech doesn't circle all the necessary info, etc) then the pharmacist in-store will have to verify it.

Power is still a disaster in my store. For some reason, nobody types up Z-packs as the pack, instead selecting the regular bottle and dispensing 6 (instead of z-pack and dispensing 1-), so about 20 times a day we have to change that. Also, we've had a lot of prescriptions take in excess of 20 minutes to be typed, which is no good for the real "waiters". Sometimes you can grab it and type it yourself after a certain amount of time, but other times you can't. And don't even get me started on the cutting of 40 tech hours this last week. Great idea to roll this out in the middle of season.

I'm remaining optimistic, but in my store it's still a mess. It doesn't help that 95% of the patients don't speak any English and my Spanish is horrible at best.