Retail: working without a tech, anyone??

[clachan3]

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🙁 Do you work without a tech most of the time? How do you handle the phone calls, drop off, fill, pickup, counsel, help customers in the store, deal with insurance issue, give flu shots + paperwork, take care of audits, inventory, training, recalls, selling PSE+national database, etc? Two insurance calls can take up to 30 minutes. That leaves me 9.5 hours for 90 scripts. I can check prescriptions when I'm on the phone waiting, but I can't multitask with I'm counseling, helping customers, constantly answering the phone...

I am really struggling at this point. Staying half to even 2 hours pass scheduled shift when I'm not opening the next day just so I don't leave my partner tons of stuff to do, it's just exhausting. I only have a tech 4 hours out of my 10 hour shift every day.

Filling 90 scripts in 10 hours alone between all the other stuff that I had to do was really hard even though most of them were refills. I stayed an hour and a half to finish those, so it took 11.5 hours I guess (yes, we do have an 30 minute lunch and I work in the pharmacy most of the time).

I used to work at a much busier store, I checked 30-40 prescriptions in an HOUR. Of course I had 3 techs at the time. I'm just very stressed because I am doing everything alone right now (trash, fill vials, you name it.) I can do it, but it's not ideal. Being distracted while filling and checking prescriptions is just not a good idea. I feel like I'm just waiting for a mistake to happen. I wonder if I'm the only one working without a tech 6 hours a day... also when my tech is here, I want her to take care of the patients who are here, but there are 5 other things needs to be done

My supervisor is not a pharmacist, and it's very hard to get her to understand that why I had to stay an hour pass scheduled time when we only filled 50-60 some prescriptions. Do you think we need a certain number of tech hours in order to run the pharmacy properly?

Target is where I work that's me throwing their pdx on the floor . . .

 

[samuricool]

You will be begging for that PDX back once you get redrx.

 

[PharmD RPh]

The set up you describe seems very reasonable these days. I've worked by myself plenty. Personally, I think my limit is about 90 RXs per 8 hour shift and 90 sold. You have to learn to multi-task and work efficiently. Cut conversations to a bare minimum with patients. There is no time to ask a patient about how their dog is doing. You also have to constantly ask yourself, are you taking the fastest way from point A to point B? If I have the insurance put correctly and get a rejection such as "coverage expired obtain new card," I don't call the insurance. The only time I'm calling the insurance is if I need helping billing the card because I'm not sure if I have it in appropriately or if its something like a dose increase where I need to speak with a rep. to get the override. Prioritize you tasks. Are the patients waiting or coming back in an hour? Prioritize. At my store, if we get busy, I page a manager to just help me fill. Ask your colleagues how they run their day and see if they can give you any pointers. I also think of myself having 5 gears of speed. If we're getting busy I switch into 5th gear and start moving faster. Too often I only see one pace amongst pharmacists and techs in the pharmacy whether we have 1 waiter or 20 waiters, they move at the same speed. Hope this helps.

 

[PumpkinSmasher]

The set up you describe seems very reasonable these days. I've worked by myself plenty. Personally, I think my limit is about 90 RXs per 8 hour shift and 90 sold. You have to learn to multi-task and work efficiently. Cut conversations to a bare minimum with patients. There is no time to ask a patient about how their dog is doing. You also have to constantly ask yourself, are you taking the fastest way from point A to point B? If I have the insurance put correctly and get a rejection such as "coverage expired obtain new card," I don't call the insurance. The only time I'm calling the insurance is if I need helping billing the card because I'm not sure if I have it in appropriately or if its something like a dose increase where I need to speak with a rep. to get the override. Prioritize you tasks. Are the patients waiting or coming back in an hour? Prioritize. At my store, if we get busy, I page a manager to just help me fill. Ask your colleagues how they run their day and see if they can give you any pointers. I also think of myself having 5 gears of speed. If we're getting busy I switch into 5th gear and start moving faster. Too often I only see one pace amongst pharmacists and techs in the pharmacy whether we have 1 waiter or 20 waiters, they move at the same speed. Hope this helps.

Reasonable..? Sounds, terrible.

 

[taken2]

The set up you describe seems very reasonable these days. I've worked by myself plenty. Personally, I think my limit is about 90 RXs per 8 hour shift and 90 sold. You have to learn to multi-task and work efficiently. Cut conversations to a bare minimum with patients. There is no time to ask a patient about how their dog is doing. You also have to constantly ask yourself, are you taking the fastest way from point A to point B? If I have the insurance put correctly and get a rejection such as "coverage expired obtain new card," I don't call the insurance. The only time I'm calling the insurance is if I need helping billing the card because I'm not sure if I have it in appropriately or if its something like a dose increase where I need to speak with a rep. to get the override. Prioritize you tasks. Are the patients waiting or coming back in an hour? Prioritize. At my store, if we get busy, I page a manager to just help me fill. Ask your colleagues how they run their day and see if they can give you any pointers. I also think of myself having 5 gears of speed. If we're getting busy I switch into 5th gear and start moving faster. Too often I only see one pace amongst pharmacists and techs in the pharmacy whether we have 1 waiter or 20 waiters, they move at the same speed. Hope this helps.

Do you also work for target because that set up is not reasonable at all. like the OP said, it's mistake waiting to happen. I mean I don't mind doing it if there is an emergency but not on every shift.

 

[cycloketocaine]

Threads like these make me so happy I did residency.

 

[crossurfingers]

Wow, Target is cutting back on tech hours too? I thought they would always claim they had adequate staffing in order to lure pharmacists there.

Just the other day, I had to work a 12 hour shift and one out of my two techs called in sick and we weren't able to find a replacement. I was by myself for the 4 hours at the end of my shift (when you are exhausted). I've worked by myself on some Sundays as well. I suppose we are just supposed to be thankful to even have a job at this point, right? I wish there was some law in this state about adequate pharmacist/tech ratio. And with all of this they still expect stellar customer service to be given.

I can't really give any advice on how to handle it all. You can't do everything, and you can't make everyone happy. Do what you can and remember it's your license that's on the line.

 

[GreyFox2002]

This sounds very similar to my situation. I'm a new grad who took over a Kroger pharmacy that does ~ 500 rx's a week. Yes, my tech help is limited to around 40-45 hours/weekly. I'm the manager.

You need to learn to become more efficient. Yes, I have days where I stick around 45 minutes to an hour after my shift, but thats primarily to catch up on managerial duties such as audits, CII inventory/ordering, etc. I schedule my partner and I to have overlap on Mondays (9-5 and 1-9). That way we can handle the busiest time of the week together and I can catch up on certain things.

I don't call insurance companies unless absolutely necessary. I make sure to put everything on speaker phone (doctor calls, insurance, help desk) so that I can work on verification. As soon as the line is picked up, I immediate stop verifying. Doing anything (talking on the phone, talking to your techs) while verifying is completely unacceptable in my opinion. I also never walk away from an rx I'm verifying no matter if a patient comes up to the counter, the phone rings, etc. I ask them to politely give me a moment. Occasionally someone says something. I flat out tell them I do the same thing for their prescription. That usually shuts them up. Trust me, finishing an rx your verifying before proceeding to the next interruption is the safest AND fastest way to do it. It's the only way you get anything done. PRIORITIZE.

Distribute your workflow. Ask when people need to pick up an rx. Don't just say its a 15 minute wait (unless its an antibiotic, pain med, anything acute care). It gives them the option of saying they'll pick it up later. At Kroger, we have automatic refill now and I pimp the crap out of it. Anyone that annoys me with dropping off refills, calling on the phone every fricken day to call one in, etc. I just ask them to please sign up for it and we just fill it 5-7 days in advance. I'm not sure if Target has it but 95 times out of 100 I love the autorefill.

Figure out which interactions and interventions need to be called on. I actually am keeping a file of any major drug interactions that my partner and I call on. Once verified with the doctor, we document it in the file and keep it there. That way when we see it pop up again the next time we go to fill it we can refer to the file. It saves a lot of time and also covers you from anything legal. I also counsel patients on interactions to further protect myself.

Develop a quick way to check. I follow the name/date of birth/doctor's name + DEA/right drug/right strength, right sig, right quantity, refills. You can check an Rx in 15 seconds doing that. We have split verification at Kroger. I actually check accuracy twice: once with pre-verification before dispensing, and again checking for accuracy while also confirming product. It mean's I actually spent less then a minute checking an Rx all the while I actually verified it twice.

Also, some RPhs actually don't check for refills/right doctor because they say they don't have the time. That's stupid. When you miss refills, or miss the right doctor, you actually create yourself more work when patients complain that they should have a refill, or you're calling the wrong doctor for a refill, etc. Get everything right the first time!

Anyways, I'm not sure if any of this helps at all lol. These are just my suggestions to become more efficient. One piece of advice, try coming in a half hour early. Get your called in refills from the night before done before doors open. That way you can knock out your doctor calls by 9:30 and be working on new scripts from that way on until you close. I usually pop in early on my 12 hour day (Thursday) and on Mondays I open. Helps me prioritize so I can tackle the day.

Good luck.

 

[PharmD RPh]

This sounds very similar to my situation. I'm a new grad who took over a Kroger pharmacy that does ~ 500 rx's a week. Yes, my tech help is limited to around 40-45 hours/weekly. I'm the manager.

You need to learn to become more efficient. Yes, I have days where I stick around 45 minutes to an hour after my shift, but thats primarily to catch up on managerial duties such as audits, CII inventory/ordering, etc. I schedule my partner and I to have overlap on Mondays (9-5 and 1-9). That way we can handle the busiest time of the week together and I can catch up on certain things.

I don't call insurance companies unless absolutely necessary. I make sure to put everything on speaker phone (doctor calls, insurance, help desk) so that I can work on verification. As soon as the line is picked up, I immediate stop verifying. Doing anything (talking on the phone, talking to your techs) while verifying is completely unacceptable in my opinion. I also never walk away from an rx I'm verifying no matter if a patient comes up to the counter, the phone rings, etc. I ask them to politely give me a moment. Occasionally someone says something. I flat out tell them I do the same thing for their prescription. That usually shuts them up. Trust me, finishing an rx your verifying before proceeding to the next interruption is the safest AND fastest way to do it. It's the only way you get anything done. PRIORITIZE.

Distribute your workflow. Ask when people need to pick up an rx. Don't just say its a 15 minute wait (unless its an antibiotic, pain med, anything acute care). It gives them the option of saying they'll pick it up later. At Kroger, we have automatic refill now and I pimp the crap out of it. Anyone that annoys me with dropping off refills, calling on the phone every fricken day to call one in, etc. I just ask them to please sign up for it and we just fill it 5-7 days in advance. I'm not sure if Target has it but 95 times out of 100 I love the autorefill.

Figure out which interactions and interventions need to be called on. I actually am keeping a file of any major drug interactions that my partner and I call on. Once verified with the doctor, we document it in the file and keep it there. That way when we see it pop up again the next time we go to fill it we can refer to the file. It saves a lot of time and also covers you from anything legal. I also counsel patients on interactions to further protect myself.

Develop a quick way to check. I follow the name/date of birth/doctor's name + DEA/right drug/right strength, right sig, right quantity, refills. You can check an Rx in 15 seconds doing that. We have split verification at Kroger. I actually check accuracy twice: once with pre-verification before dispensing, and again checking for accuracy while also confirming product. It mean's I actually spent less then a minute checking an Rx all the while I actually verified it twice.

Also, some RPhs actually don't check for refills/right doctor because they say they don't have the time. That's stupid. When you miss refills, or miss the right doctor, you actually create yourself more work when patients complain that they should have a refill, or you're calling the wrong doctor for a refill, etc. Get everything right the first time!

Anyways, I'm not sure if any of this helps at all lol. These are just my suggestions to become more efficient. One piece of advice, try coming in a half hour early. Get your called in refills from the night before done before doors open. That way you can knock out your doctor calls by 9:30 and be working on new scripts from that way on until you close. I usually pop in early on my 12 hour day (Thursday) and on Mondays I open. Helps me prioritize so I can tackle the day.

Good luck.

Very sound advice. I also like the coming in early to get a head start part as I often do that as well. But come on guys, if you're filling less than 100 Rx's per day and you get 4 hours of tech help, it can be done. I'm not sure I'd be happy working this way every day, but the OP said sometimes they do only 90 scripts in 10 hours which is 9 per hour average.... And at Target don't most customers come in and shop while they wait giving you maybe 30-45 minutes before they pick up? How is the manager allocating hours throughout the week? This is also something that could be viewed. Make sure you follow volume trends and base your tech schedule around this. The Targets around here also don't have a drive-thru which works to your favor.

I think a lot of the problem sometimes lies with patients have high expectations and have the attitude that they want it NOW ASAP even though their script is months old. Maybe an initiative for your store could be to promote auto-refill, phone in scripts ahead of time etc. If a patient gets mad their refill is going to take 30 minutes because of how your staffed, politely let them know that the best way to get your refill is to phone it in ahead of time before they run out.

 

[PharmD RPh]

Also, I believe Target does $4 scripts too right? And transfer coupons? Maybe the company sees that is not a profitable way to run a pharmacy and they're trying to cut payroll. While I believe its not right to stretch pharmacists so thin, from the companies perspective, what else can they do? And, honestly, I'd say filling only 90 per day, doing $4 RXs and giving out $25 transfer gift cards, that pharmacy would be losing it's butt and would have a hard time justifying a lot of tech hours from a business perspective.

 

[PharmGirl31]

I work for a grocery pharmacy too and we get one tech who are only schedule 24-hr a week. Can't complain since our Rx number is <100 a day. But it does get lonely, especially on weekend when you're all by yourself. There are slow and busy time especially during flu season. But PRIORITIZE and having a sense of urgency is the key. Knowing which need to finish first. If it get busy and if they have to wait 30min or more, then be firm and tell them that that's the wait time. You can only do so much. And stay CALM!

 

[clachan3]

Very sound advice. I also like the coming in early to get a head start part as I often do that as well. But come on guys, if you're filling less than 100 Rx's per day and you get 4 hours of tech help, it can be done. I'm not sure I'd be happy working this way every day, but the OP said sometimes they do only 90 scripts in 10 hours which is 9 per hour average.... And at Target don't most customers come in and shop while they wait giving you maybe 30-45 minutes before they pick up? How is the manager allocating hours throughout the week? This is also something that could be viewed. Make sure you follow volume trends and base your tech schedule around this. The Targets around here also don't have a drive-thru which works to your favor.

I think a lot of the problem sometimes lies with patients have high expectations and have the attitude that they want it NOW ASAP even though their script is months old. Maybe an initiative for your store could be to promote auto-refill, phone in scripts ahead of time etc. If a patient gets mad their refill is going to take 30 minutes because of how your staffed, politely let them know that the best way to get your refill is to phone it in ahead of time before they run out.

Thanks for your input. I know 9 scripts an hour sounds like nothing, but I spend hours answering the phone and helping people in the store each day. So no I don't have 10 hours to fill 90 scripts. It's more like I have 4 hours to fill those 90 scripts. That's 22+ rx per hour, that's not easy to do alone when using pdx, it literally takes 3 times to run a script through because of those extra/sometimes meaningless overrides, split bill takes at least running through twice, Target scrapbooking labels (instead of 1 label for topical stuff, I use 5 labels!!!).

It is a great idea about adding longer wait time to promote autofills. I might ending up getting even more phone calls since some people can't handle the automated phone system... I'll need to check the survey questions to make sure it won't ruin our service scores though since that is the only thing that we are doing well at this point.

Target customers also like to say they are waiting just for the rx, sometimes I can tell they are going to shop, but I'm still filling their scripts like they are coming right back. If it needs to be done, I'm just going to do it right away because I don't know what's going to come up later. All it takes is one problem to screw up the flow.

Trends: we don't have trends at my store, sometimes we do less than 50, sometimes 70+ random days of the week. Busiest days of the week could be Monday and Thursday this week, can be Tuesday only the next. I don't know what to do about that. I just schedule the same number of hours every day so I can count on having some help each day without over spending tech hours.

 

[clachan3]

Threads like these make me so happy I did residency.

Good for you, Cycloketocaine! My classmates seemed to love working in hospitals. Too bad I don't think it's for me, I cannot see myself risking my patient's lives working there without any previous hospital experience.

 

[clachan3]

This sounds very similar to my situation. I'm a new grad who took over a Kroger pharmacy that does ~ 500 rx's a week. Yes, my tech help is limited to around 40-45 hours/weekly. I'm the manager.

You need to learn to become more efficient. Yes, I have days where I stick around 45 minutes to an hour after my shift, but thats primarily to catch up on managerial duties such as audits, CII inventory/ordering, etc. I schedule my partner and I to have overlap on Mondays (9-5 and 1-9). That way we can handle the busiest time of the week together and I can catch up on certain things.

I don't call insurance companies unless absolutely necessary. I make sure to put everything on speaker phone (doctor calls, insurance, help desk) so that I can work on verification. As soon as the line is picked up, I immediate stop verifying. Doing anything (talking on the phone, talking to your techs) while verifying is completely unacceptable in my opinion. I also never walk away from an rx I'm verifying no matter if a patient comes up to the counter, the phone rings, etc. I ask them to politely give me a moment. Occasionally someone says something. I flat out tell them I do the same thing for their prescription. That usually shuts them up. Trust me, finishing an rx your verifying before proceeding to the next interruption is the safest AND fastest way to do it. It's the only way you get anything done. PRIORITIZE.

Distribute your workflow. Ask when people need to pick up an rx. Don't just say its a 15 minute wait (unless its an antibiotic, pain med, anything acute care). It gives them the option of saying they'll pick it up later. At Kroger, we have automatic refill now and I pimp the crap out of it. Anyone that annoys me with dropping off refills, calling on the phone every fricken day to call one in, etc. I just ask them to please sign up for it and we just fill it 5-7 days in advance. I'm not sure if Target has it but 95 times out of 100 I love the autorefill. Yup, we do have autofills, but almost all of my patients were mad about the program because the computer kept refilling their rx on wrong dates and too early every month so they got stuck with tons of extra meds at home 🙄

Figure out which interactions and interventions need to be called on. I actually am keeping a file of any major drug interactions that my partner and I call on. Once verified with the doctor, we document it in the file and keep it there. That way when we see it pop up again the next time we go to fill it we can refer to the file. It saves a lot of time and also covers you from anything legal. I also counsel patients on interactions to further protect myself.

Develop a quick way to check. I follow the name/date of birth/doctor's name + DEA/right drug/right strength, right sig, right quantity, refills. You can check an Rx in 15 seconds doing that. We have split verification at Kroger. I actually check accuracy twice: once with pre-verification before dispensing, and again checking for accuracy while also confirming product. It mean's I actually spent less then a minute checking an Rx all the while I actually verified it twice. I also check new scripts at least twice, but we have to use a pen to check prescriptions. That kind of slow things down a bit. My classmates almost laughed at me about having to use a pen to check prescriptions.

Also, some RPhs actually don't check for refills/right doctor because they say they don't have the time. That's stupid. 👍 yes, very stupid. The prescription was basically filled wrong when not everything was correct. When you miss refills, or miss the right doctor, you actually create yourself more work when patients complain that they should have a refill, or you're calling the wrong doctor for a refill, etc. Get everything right the first time! 👍 I agree with you on doing things right the first time. I remember when I first started at CVS I kept finding mistakes from other pharmacists. It was not cool that I had to fix their mistakes.

Anyways, I'm not sure if any of this helps at all lol. These are just my suggestions to become more efficient. One piece of advice, try coming in a half hour early. Get your called in refills from the night before done before doors open. That way you can knock out your doctor calls by 9:30 and be working on new scripts from that way on until you close. I usually pop in early on my 12 hour day (Thursday) and on Mondays I open. Helps me prioritize so I can tackle the day.

Good luck.

Thanks for your great advice! The way we multi-task and prioritize are a lot alike. I do about 350/week with 20 tech hrs. I pretty much fill and check as fast as I was working at CVS 350/day deal. I know it probably doesn't make sense to those who have never worked alone. They just need to imagine answering every single calls that comes in, talk to everyone who dropped off prescriptions, input, fill, and check every prescription, then ring up everyone at register. We may look like we are not working hard at Target, but we are behind that counter.

I usually do managerial tasks during down times and when I have a tech because that's the only time when I have any help. I did try going in 1/2 hr early, but I still couldn't leave on time. I got even more tired because I had less sleep to show up early plus staying after. Pharmacist overlaps are great if it's allowed. I'm going to look in to that. Right now we don't have overlap, we work 10 hour shifts M-F, 8 Sat, 6 Sun. I used to work 8-12 hour shifts at CVS, it was a lot less physically demanding because I stood there all day. At Target I run around in the pharmacy like a gerbil 10 hrs + each day.

 

[PumpkinSmasher]

Good for you, Cycloketocaine! My classmates seemed to love working in hospitals. Too bad I don't think it's for me, I cannot see myself risking my patient's lives working there without any previous hospital experience.

Isn't checking a high volume of scripts per hour by yourself with many distractions risking your customer's lives?

Working conditions will most likely not improve in retail pharmacy, so if you are unsatisfied and dislike the job at this point, imagine what it will be like 5-10 years from now...you went through a lot of school and training, do not waste it doing something you hate. If you like the job and have high job satisfaction then great...stay where you are at.

 

[CastleG8]

.

 

[PharmDstudent]

I work alone overnight, and it's tough. I only have the means to help 3 customers who are waiting, at any given time, for me to help them. After that, I have to page for "customer assistance".

Things do take a lot longer whenever you work by yourself.
However, I would rather work by myself than work with sloppy help. In fact, I'm at my wits' end right now, because simple, basic procedure steps are not being followed by other staff members- like writing the date of birth on the hard copy and circling double-counted controls. The last thing we need is for a script to be typed under Jaime Smith instead of James Smith, because there was no date of birth on the hard copy!

Good luck with everything... and like the other posters have said, stop calling those pesky insurance companies!

 

[PharmD RPh]

Isn't checking a high volume of scripts per hour by yourself with many distractions risking your customer's lives?

Working conditions will most likely not improve in retail pharmacy, so if you are unsatisfied and dislike the job at this point, imagine what it will be like 5-10 years from now...you went through a lot of school and training, do not waste it doing something you hate. If you like the job and have high job satisfaction then great...stay where you are at.

Part of why these working conditions have gotten so bad is that stores like Target, Wal-mart and some grocery chains will practically give away RXs! Then when upper management sees how little profit they make, they cut the number 1 controllable expense which is payroll. Some of these chains will also sign any PBM contract even if it means they lose money on some RXs. I realize they hope to make up those margins on other products in the store with higher margins, but in the mean time the pharmacy is bleeding in the red. No company can sustain pharmacists salaries and give you tons of tech help with the way they're running the pharmacy financially. I personally believe that no matter how slow your store is, you should always have a tech for every hour your open. However, it appears that certain companies would still rather cut payroll instead of value our profession and get away from the giving stuff away for free attitude.

 

[Ackj]

Part of why these working conditions have gotten so bad is that stores like Target, Wal-mart and some grocery chains will practically give away RXs! Then when upper management sees how little profit they make, they cut the number 1 controllable expense which is payroll. Some of these chains will also sign any PBM contract even if it means they lose money on some RXs. I realize they hope to make up those margins on other products in the store with higher margins, but in the mean time the pharmacy is bleeding in the red. No company can sustain pharmacists salaries and give you tons of tech help with the way they're running the pharmacy financially. I personally believe that no matter how slow your store is, you should always have a tech for every hour your open. However, it appears that certain companies would still rather cut payroll instead of value our profession and get away from the giving stuff away for free attitude.

I work at a Kmart, and we fill 7-800/wk, so our store has staffing most of the time. The last few hours of the day a pharmacist might be alone. Other stores in the district fill less and have much more "alone time." I definitely agree with the comments about giving away rxs. Some of the drugs on our generic list cost us just pennies less than what we're selling them for, and occasionally we actually lose money on scripts. If we slightly adjusted our prices, we could easily afford the $8-10 for a tech hour. Better customer service would lead to better service and lower wait times, and most likely better sales. However, the pricing is set at a national level, so we don't have a say in the matter.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Thanks for your input. I know 9 scripts an hour sounds like nothing, but I spend hours answering the phone and helping people in the store each day. So no I don't have 10 hours to fill 90 scripts. It's more like I have 4 hours to fill those 90 scripts. That's 22+ rx per hour, that's not easy to do alone when using pdx, it literally takes 3 times to run a script through because of those extra/sometimes meaningless overrides, split bill takes at least running through twice, Target scrapbooking labels (instead of 1 label for topical stuff, I use 5 labels!!!).

It is a great idea about adding longer wait time to promote autofills. I might ending up getting even more phone calls since some people can't handle the automated phone system... I'll need to check the survey questions to make sure it won't ruin our service scores though since that is the only thing that we are doing well at this point.

Target customers also like to say they are waiting just for the rx, sometimes I can tell they are going to shop, but I'm still filling their scripts like they are coming right back. If it needs to be done, I'm just going to do it right away because I don't know what's going to come up later. All it takes is one problem to screw up the flow.

Trends: we don't have trends at my store, sometimes we do less than 50, sometimes 70+ random days of the week. Busiest days of the week could be Monday and Thursday this week, can be Tuesday only the next. I don't know what to do about that. I just schedule the same number of hours every day so I can count on having some help each day without over spending tech hours.

Just think of it this way. We make about 12 dollars profit per prescription. 12 times 9 is 108 dollars. If you get paid 60 dollars plus benefits, you have to do more scripts to justify tech hours. I know its hard but prioritize. I would cut the customer servivce crap like walking them in the aisle or calling the insurance for them that they can call themselves. Just be more efficient.

 

[stevephhs016]

Focus on 1 rx at a time. As Aznfarmerboi says, cut the customer service stuff. I don't have time to talk about how your day went. Clean up your workstation at any time you get. The more crowded and congested your work space gets, the more confused and annoyed I get. Focus on 1 rx at a time. Tbh, it would be easier for you if you took the time to get the script correct when you are putting the script into the system.

Coming in 1/2 hr early and leaving late to clean up for the next day are also things you can do to make your life easier.

If you are doing it right, by the end of the day, your head will hurt. At one 10 hour shift, I didn't even have time to think about anything outside of fill, count, verify, counsel.

 

[VP_Pharm2004]

What about federal and state labor laws?!

With situations like those, I bet most pharmacists don't submit for overtime for coming in early and staying later. They probably don't even get their proper lunches and breaks either.

Lawsuit anyone?

I heard that Target was sued in California recently for that violation and the pharmacist won the case. Thus, changes were made on tech help.

 

[JackM]

Just think of it this way. We make about 12 dollars profit per prescription. 12 times 9 is 108 dollars. If you get paid 60 dollars plus benefits, you have to do more scripts to justify tech hours. I know its hard but prioritize. I would cut the customer servivce crap like walking them in the aisle or calling the insurance for them that they can call themselves. Just be more efficient.

good thing, you don't own your own pharmacy. otherwise, you may have to declare for bankruptcy.

you go ahead and tell them to call their own insurance. let's see what your customers, will do/say.

 

[TemSirolimus]

Am I the only one here that feels that I could be paid a little bit less and use the money saved to hire more techs or reimburse them better for their services?

Seriously, these pple bust their a s s e s for some measly bucks. I was making $7.30 hr as a retail tech in 2004. I worked for 2 weeks and quit as soon as I opened my first paycheck (we were paid biweekly).

 

[clachan3]

Am I the only one here that feels that I could be paid a little bit less and use the money saved to hire more techs or reimburse them better for their services?

Seriously, these pple bust their a s s e s for some measly bucks. I was making $7.30 hr as a retail tech in 2004. I worked for 2 weeks and quit as soon as I opened my first paycheck (we were paid biweekly).

I totally agree, I would take a pay cut to get some tech help right now if Target allows it. But from what I'm seeing, they refused to shorten their pharmacy business hours, so that's why they cut tech hours instead. They can totally cut one pharmacy/pharmacist hour 5 days a week, that is $50/hour x 5= $250. That totally covers my tech one week's pay, killing two birds with one stone. But NO, that's just too smart for TARGET

 

[clachan3]

You will be begging for that PDX back once you get redrx.

Looks like I got lucky and didn't get REDRX, and now REDRX is out the window

 

[crossurfingers]

Does Target monitor everything like the other chains do? For example, wait times? I've worked by myself for a whole shift on the weekends and it sucked. I have to eat my lunch in between customers and then when we get the rush everything gets backed up because I'm the only one there. It's fine that they want to cut tech hours (somewhat) but don't expect a 15 minute wait time, idiots!

 

[clachan3]

Does Target monitor everything like the other chains do? For example, wait times? I've worked by myself for a whole shift on the weekends and it sucked. I have to eat my lunch in between customers and then when we get the rush everything gets backed up because I'm the only one there. It's fine that they want to cut tech hours (somewhat) but don't expect a 15 minute wait time, idiots!

No, they don't monitor wait time right now, I'm not sure PDX has that function since it's a piece o' shi~. Our customers basically expect the same 15 minutes wait time though. So PDX is freaking slow, and then we still need to finish in 15 minutes = less time than other pharmacies with better computer systems. Target survey includes Time to Fill so it's kind of the same thing, but more subjective.

 

[bob1234]

When the corporate masters control medicine, they expect a Mcdonald's like business model, with a touch of that pesky consultation the feds require. This isn't patient care, it is flipping burgers and counting pills. Retail pharmacy should be tech's prepping the meds, ringing up the order and the pharmacist taking up to 5 minutes to go over the patient's meds, all interactions, clear up any doubts/remaining questions, following up on continued therapy (reviewing labs). The pharmacist should be optimizing the patient's drug therapy, not trying to push them out the door as fast as possible. Please excuse me, but retail pharmacy has become so corporate businesslike, it is a joke. Maybe not of your own fault, but OP, are there any patients you feel that you thoroughly counsel? The store I work at runs a skeleton crew and we are just pushing people out as fast as we can. There is no time for extensive pharmacist/patient interaction when she has 4 patients waiting to drop off and 3 more in drive thru. Counseling suffers, the reason we are there is for the patients and they will ultimately suffer. It's a sad situation and the profession should not be stooping to the level of McDonald's like corporatism.

 

[jawnly211]

trust me

i know ALL about the Target way

in our district they adjusted the tech hours to make it minimum 40 hours a week.....which was great for slow stores like yours.....u had 8 hours a day monday thru friday and were alone on sat and sun

people really cant compare working solo at another pharmacy and working alone at target

target is seriously a different animal......it is WIDE open to the aisles......people will be asking you where shower caps are from literally 30 feet away.....and because the layout of targets are erratic and ever changing, u will literally answer the same questions 100 times about where a product is......i really can't explain it but people are magnetically attracted to the pharmacy to ask where something is when there are 50 other people in red and khaki they pass along the way

and the layout of most target pharmacies make it crazy to work alone.....there is the filling area which is behind a wall......if u need to go up to answer a question or ring out someone's doggy treats then u need to walk around the wall......u are literally going in circles all day around that wall......and then u have people constantly asking to check them out.......they aren't even pharmacy customers......one lone sunday i had a lady dump her catfood on the counter and told me to "hurry and ring her out".....this was when i was alone.......

but to make it any worse than it could possibly be, there is PDX.....what takes me 30 seconds to type and fill at my new pharmacy, at target it could literally take 5 mins.........its just a horrible system and there is no bar code or visual verification so u are quadrouple checking your own work......

my advise to you is to prioritize......get all the autos out of the queue first thing in the morning.....bag stage and pull all the medications and line them up to fill throughout your shift.....then u help each walk up as needed, filling every rx like its a waiter.......u are working non-stop for your entire shift, but u can definitely get the work done on time.........i could finish the autos in a couple hours if i worked nonstop at them......no rest, just go, go, go........

as for the other BS, such as leadership status, recognition, and business walks, u just copy and paste and build on what u did the month before........so much crap im glad i will never do again