Slow pharmacist - Need advice.

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rphola123

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Hello Guys,

I need some advice on how to go about a situation as I really need some advise from seasoned professionals. I have an incredibly slow pharmacist that has show an inability to keep up with workflow. we are losing a lot of prescriptions from customers waiting too long to get acute medications filled. Our wait time on even the simplest fills on this pharmacist's days is usually 3-4 hours or sometimes next day if we get behind. The pharmacists refuses to pickup the pace on basis of risking making mistake which I do understand. However, store performance and metrics falls on my head as manager and our numbers are terrible mainly due to this one pharmacist. Its a difficult situation as I don't really want to do something that will set me up for some karmatic justice in the future but this pharmacists is really bringing my stores performance down.

need some advice.
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They will replace him with a new grad making $50/hr soon enough. If you don't say anything to the DM then the techs will.
 
Wow. Yeah, things can get crazy, but 3 - 4 hours for a waiter is beyond normal crazy. I would start by talking to the pharmacist, about what s/he thinks are the problems with the long wait time. Tell the pharmacist, that you (as manager) must come up with solutions, and ask him/her what s/he thinks are the solutions. If, they have any ideas, the consider if they can be implemented to any extent. Granted they may have no ideas, or even just completely unrealistic ideas. But, if they do have any reasonable idea in regards to workflow or such, give it a reasonable try. If their idea works, great problem solved. If not after 3 -4 weeks, meet with them again, let them know their idea isn't working, then tell them what idea *you* have for them to try (you've tried their idea, so their is no reason why they shouldn't try their idea.) Obviously you need to have a specific idea besides just "work faster." At this point, hopefully your techs can give you some idea at what the hold up is. Phone calls? Tell the pharmacist not to answer the phone and have the techs screen all phone calls. DUR's? This is tricky, because there are some pharmacists who are just stupidly obsessive about DUR's....but if you can discuss with the pharmacist about specific type of DUR's that are concerning....if the DUR's your pharmacist is worried about are stupid, explain to him from literature why these DUR's are stupid, if the DUR's are real DUR's, then have the pharmacist pass on the concern to a technician to call the office and leave the message. Is the pharmacist getting tied tied down with hypochondriacs who come into the store? Have the technicians first field all customers, and then talk to the pharmacist about how to have a reasonable length interaction with a hypochondriac, and strategies on how to cut off the conversation after a certain amount of minutes.

Bear in mind that most pharmacists are passive and easily run over. If you can give your pharmacist strategies to be more assertive and let your pharmacist know what reasonable expectations are, most likely your pharmacist will learn and respond to that (pharmacists are generally smart.) But, of course, there are some who can not/will not respond...at this point, follow the discipline policy of your company. You do have to protect your job, and if you've done everything you can to help and build up another pharmacist and it's just not working, then you have to protect yourself and your job.
 
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Make the DL aware and move him out of your store. If DL doesn't do anything, you can continue to blame everything on this guy... Until they move him 🙂
 
Damn. Its better to take your time than make mistakes. This isn't fast food.
 
rphola123 said:
I have an incredibly slow pharmacist that has show an inability to keep up with workflow. . However, store performance and metrics falls on my head as manager and our numbers are terrible mainly due to this one pharmacist.
need some advice.
Click to expand...

Maybe the problem is the system, not the pharmacist. Check out the pharmacist's public record for disciplinary action or civil suits. He's probably had the crap scared out him with some close calls.Listen, this guy is going to properly fill prescriptions pursuant to the state's pharmacy act. And if that means a 3 hour wait time then so be it. It's his balls on the line, not the C-suite. We should all emulate him by having a national work slow down.
 
Involve your DM. Pull the actual numbers that prove your point. Tell your DM that you and other rphs working with this person are verifying lot more rxs compared to him and how it's increasing your workload and stress level which might result in actual error. Basically you are risking your license by working with this person so to speak. DM will have to start working on this issue. Also, put everything in writing if possible (like writing an email to DM) so that you have actual proof in case if they come behind you instead due to poor performance.

But make sure that numbers support your claim and it's not just empty talk.
 
Balls on the Line said:
Maybe the problem is the system, not the pharmacist. Check out the pharmacist's public record for disciplinary action or civil suits. He's probably had the crap scared out him with some close calls.Listen, this guy is going to properly fill prescriptions pursuant to the state's pharmacy act. And if that means a 3 hour wait time then so be it. It's his balls on the line, not the C-suite. We should all emulate him by having a national work slow down.
Click to expand...

Haha - I agree with... balls on the line....
 
No, he/she has productivity standards to meet. We all face the same risks. Make contact with the DM, start your offender on a PIP with termination as the stick. Manage this liability out before you get managed out. It's not a karmic problem if the work is not accomplished. Rather, you are asking for karmic retaliation from the good workers that your problem employee is bringing down through stress and anxiety.
 
I would try my best to try to resolve the issue first. I know he is refusing to pick up the pace to prevent errors but try to work with him to figure out why he is taking 3-4 hours for waiters. Maybe there is something in his workflow that is inefficient. If he refuses your efforts to help him then I would definitely speak to the district supervisor regarding his work performance because those metrics will fall on him as well when his boss finds out.
 
3-4 hours for a waiter... So does he stand there and stare at the screen the whole time?
 
Be aware that if you can't manage him, you will be replaced. Possibly before him. Your primary duty is to manage. You have your work cut out for you but it will be a good learning experience.
 
mentos said:
3-4 hours for a waiter... So does he stand there and stare at the screen the whole time?
Click to expand...

I have the same question. If the person is standing there looking at you, and the script is for something obviously important (ie antibiotic), and the tech hands it to you and asks you to verify it next...

You occasionally have DURs to resolve and office calls to make for clarification, but that is the exception not the norm. Having multiple waiters queued up sometimes happens and obviously affects wait time. Being generally behind sometimes happens. But I have a hard time rationing out 3-4 hours for someone waiting in-store.
 
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