I’ve been lurking here on the forums here for a while and love all the CVS bashing. I felt the exact same as OP when I was first licensed about 7 months ago. CVS pretty much sets you up to fail and you have to learn a lot of things for yourself when you first start. That being said, I feel like I have improved exponentially over the past 7 months and I think my experiences can help you quite a bit.
Here are my store stats in case any of you CVS peeps wanna chime in.
-1300-1500/wk
-105-115 tech hours
-8a-9p
The most important thing to understand about working at CVS is that efficiency is paramount. In my experience, the biggest loss of efficiency is when you change tasks. For example consider the following two scenarios when filling 10 prescriptions:
Type 1 rx, count 1 rx, verify 1 rx. = 5min X 10 RXs = 50min
Type 10 rx, count 10 rx, verify 10 rx = 30min
Just a rough estimate, but the point is that the more repetitive movements/actions you perform the less time you will lose to transition. Keep this in mind as you’re reading my post. You can apply this concept to nearly every task at CVS and it will save you time. Never do just 1 thing, if you’re going to do something, do it 10 times.
1. Forget about the metrics. As many people above have correctly pointed out, learning the system is too overwhelming to worry about the metrics when you first start. That being said, if you want to please the PIC, MCE is the most important. Customer surveys have the biggest impact on this, not ready when promised. So the take away is even if all the ques are orange and past due, making people happy is always the key. If you are completely swamped, look terrified and tell them you’re swamped. In my experience, people understand the human aspect and it won’t affect your numbers as much.
2. Forget about the phone when it’s busy. Don’t ignore it all day like some chains (ahem, WAGS). But if you have 3 waiters, 4 people dropping off and 4 people picking up, with just you and 1 tech, guess who doesn’t get a survey and a chance to rate you poorly??? The customer on the phone. So just let that bad boy ring.
3. Work as fast as you SAFELY can. Obviously you won’t be fast at first, but within 1-2 months you’ll start to pick up the speed. The human brain is an incredible thing. Before you know it you will have the steps to typing an E-script memorized to the point that you will be entering key strokes and credentialing before you see the prompt. Even if it isn’t busy, the faster you get things done the better your life will be. The point is, the farther you are ahead, the less it’s gonna suck when you get slammed with CIIs, waiters, doctor calls ect. I feel like a lot of pharmacists work on things that are important within the next hour instead of considering workflow for the entire day.
4. Don’t Panic. CVS gets crazy and it gets worse if you panic. Say you have a technician call out and around 4pm you find yourself with 10-20 past due in each que. You immediately think about the metrics and how you need to get caught up as fast as possible. Keep in mind, it’s a numbers game. 60 past due scripts out of 1500 is not going to ruin your weekly numbers, it will decrease them, but not ruin them. I have made the mistake of trying to type, count then verify one script at time to keep things from going past due and that’s the worst thing you can do. Efficiency is lost when you change tasks. This means that the best way to get caught up is to focus on one que at a time and don’t waste time changing tasks. You also don’t want your technicians to panic. In my experience when you panic, your tech panics and when your tech panics, the customers get treated poorly. Even though they probably deserve it, you have to keep them happy.
5. Lean on your technicians. No they didn’t go to pharmacy school, but they have been working in a pharmacy (and specifically, for CVS) for much longer than you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you don’t know how to do something. I know CVS drills into your head that you need to appear to be all-knowing and never appear weak to your technicians but this is not reality, not when you first start. If you work hard they will respect you and work hard for you no matter how incompetent you seem at first. If you need help with a pharmacist task, call other stores in your district. Before I even started as a pharmacist I was on first name basis with 5-6 pharmacists in the district that I had met through various training exercises. Remember their names and their store numbers and they can help you a great deal.
6. Tips for each station. Some of these are “best practices” simply because they make sense and they work, others are things I’ve just figured out with trial and error.
Triage (QT):
-Triage is most important to keep caught up/ahead because after a script leaves triage, it goes to QP, then QV. For this reason backups in triage will punish you more than any other que.
-Try to clean it out in the morning before you open. This won’t be possible at busy stores or until you can handle all the rejections by yourself, but it helps a great deal
- If you can’t handle rejections work out of (QD) and just type e-scripts. Utilize the “1P” feature of RX connect. If you are unsure of package size for inhalers, fridge stuff and patches then the typing “1P” in the quantity box will solve most of your problems. There are exceptions but you’ll learn them.
- When grabbing scripts at drop you need a routine (especially for CIIs) to make sure you get all the right info before the person leaves. I know CVS wants you to type while they stand there, but most people make a paper airplane out of the thing and just fly to you as they walk out. I usually ask “Have we filled for you before?” give the RX a once over. Make sure you see everything you need to fill it (DOB, quantity, and DEA are the most frequent missing). Lastly if it’s a CII, as you pull up their profile to see if “we’ve filled for them before”, check the date it was last filled. There’s nothing worse than doing all the work to fill a CII only to realize it’s too soon when you verify it.
Production (QP):
- Don’t accuracy scan something until you’re sure you have enough to complete the fill. If you know you don’t have enough to complete the fill, you can easily add it to order from the production que. However, if you complete the accuracy scan and THEN realize you don’t have enough pills, it takes a few extra steps to add it to the order. Not a big deal, but still something to keep in mind.
Verification (QV):
- Pay attention to “Fill number” when verifying. If a script has been filled at least twice before (you will see “fill 02” in top left corner of the first verification page) then skip the first page of verification. There is no need to verify data entry for something the patient has already taken for 60 days. The ONLY thing you need to do is make sure the right drug was dispensed. This will save you tons of time when verifying refills. Verification should be the fastest step to filling and RX, don’t overcomplicate it.
- Hold your ground on controlled substances. Whatever you and your partner have decided on (most CVS will do 3 days early) is LAW. Don’t ever let people intimidate you. If it comes to it, blame the law. “ I’m sorry it’s federal law, if I fill this now and I am audited I can lose my license to practice”. Your customers don’t know any different and they don’t even know where to look to disprove you.
-There are options when filling controls early if you feel comfortable with it. If the patient hits you with the typical “I lost my RX, I’m going on vacation, I’m changing dose” story, then offer to call the MD to verify its ok to fill early. This will either corroborate their story, or scare them away if they’re trying to scam you. Either way, its lets them know that they don’t make the rules.
I know this is long but hopefully it helps you. Some of these lessons were hard learned for me and some of them are things I’ve just discovered in the last couple of weeks. You won’t get fired for bad metrics unless you are PIC (and probably not even then) so don’t sweat it. Good luck.
