Struggling CVS PIC here

[cuckoo879]

I’m really frustrated recently, I work for a store that does about 3000-3500 rx weekly. We had a great team before my PIC decided to transfer to another store during my maternity leave. Then the place turned into a sh$$hole. We had 4 rph in the store, me, my manager, a new grad, and an older rph who’s about to retire. They asked me if I would become the next PIC after I come back from my leave, idk why I said yes, but that’s a huge mistake I would regret for the rest of my life.
so after my manager left and I went on maternity leave. The district leader put a new grad who’s not very good, so we end up having 2 new grads, and a near retirement rph ( who use to be super fast, but give up due to retirement)well, it turns out the interim manager (one of the new grad) absolutely didn’t do much. When I came back C2 counts were off, they were 15 pages red, ( but I manage to clear that,) pharmacy was a mess. And my 2 of techs were quitting. (Driving bus pays more than CVS)

I’ve never consider myself a good leader. I’m a good support person, like the staff you would want for your store. But anyhow, due to the baby and money lure, I signed my soul to the devil. As I was struggling to find replacement techs since CVS only wants to pay $14/hr, both of my staff rph (new grads) told me they gonna quit, due to stress/high volume/fear of losing license/patient safety etc. And the fun part, my district leader also quit... so I have the perks to work with another district leader who I’m not very familiar with. Also I’m so new at this, I felt like I was tossed under the bus cluess, maybe some more experienced PIC would handle this better than I do.

I just felt like a failure in life questioning my life decisions. Out of shear stress, I applied to a bunch of clinical position and pray to god that they’d consider me somehow. Also was told hospital pays lower than CVS which I don’t know if it’s true or not..

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[Momus]

Imagine selling your soul for $1-4/hr extra pay to be the designated person to blame in the whole pharmacy

 

[Thoughtfulsinner]

Imagine selling your soul for $1-4/hr extra pay to be the designated person to blame in the whole pharmacy

Guaranteed 80 hours

 

[PharmDBro2017]

I’m really frustrated recently, I work for a store that does about 3000-3500 rx weekly. We had a great team before my PIC decided to transfer to another store during my maternity leave. Then the place turned into a sh$$hole. We had 4 rph in the store, me, my manager, a new grad, and an older rph who’s about to retire. They asked me if I would become the next PIC after I come back from my leave, idk why I said yes, but that’s a huge mistake I would regret for the rest of my life.
so after my manager left and I went on maternity leave. The district leader put a new grad who’s not very good, so we end up having 2 new grads, and a near retirement rph ( who use to be super fast, but give up due to retirement)well, it turns out the interim manager (one of the new grad) absolutely didn’t do much. When I came back C2 counts were off, they were 15 pages red, ( but I manage to clear that,) pharmacy was a mess. And my 2 of techs were quitting. (Driving bus pays more than CVS)

I’ve never consider myself a good leader. I’m a good support person, like the staff you would want for your store. But anyhow, due to the baby and money lure, I signed my soul to the devil. As I was struggling to find replacement techs since CVS only wants to pay $14/hr, both of my staff rph (new grads) told me they gonna quit, due to stress/high volume/fear of losing license/patient safety etc. And the fun part, my district leader also quit... so I have the perks to work with another district leader who I’m not very familiar with. Also I’m so new at this, I felt like I was tossed under the bus cluess, maybe some more experienced PIC would handle this better than I do.

I just felt like a failure in life questioning my life decisions. Out of shear stress, I applied to a bunch of clinical position and pray to god that they’d consider me somehow. Also was told hospital pays lower than CVS which I don’t know if it’s true or not..

Have a serious sit down with your district leader and tell him your concerns and needs (good techs to be $16-20/hr).

You'll be ok. Read some leadership books in the meantime. The dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink.

 

[Dr Wario]

In times of crisis, the best thing to do is to get back to basics and take care of what is the most important. For a pharmacy, this simply means filling the prescriptions that come in, everything else can be put on hold. To fill prescriptions and get them sold, you need people on production and people at the cash registers (with a balance between them, having 3 people at the registers and no one producing/typing is not a good idea). I would highly suggest the rph do as much data entry as possible, and for god sake get those reqs open for new people and get them trained. By the way, getting your staffing correct (interviewing/training) should be the only reason you are working off the clock, just scrambling to clear the que is not a good use of your time or mental energy.

Adhere to the old adage that is it better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, get new techs in the door and use hours to get them trained. When the DL comes down on you because you are going over hours and not making pcq calls, let them know that these are the steps necessary to recover the crisis and is not permanent, if they would like to find someone else to lead the ship they are welcome to do that.

 

[cuckoo879]

In times of crisis, the best thing to do is to get back to basics and take care of what is the most important. For a pharmacy, this simply means filling the prescriptions that come in, everything else can be put on hold. To fill prescriptions and get them sold, you need people on production and people at the cash registers (with a balance between them, having 3 people at the registers and no one producing/typing is not a good idea). I would highly suggest the rph do as much data entry as possible, and for god sake get those reqs open for new people and get them trained. By the way, getting your staffing correct (interviewing/training) should be the only reason you are working off the clock, just scrambling to clear the que is not a good use of your time or mental energy.

Adhere to the old adage that is it better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, get new techs in the door and use hours to get them trained. When the DL comes down on you because you are going over hours and not making pcq calls, let them know that these are the steps necessary to recover the crisis and is not permanent, if they would like to find someone else to lead the ship they are welcome to do that.

Been doing that from above, and the problem is rph not doing enough really. Before my manager left, both me and him are pretty good at multitasking. We were able to keep the near retirement rph at verification, since he’s super fast. When we only had one new grad who can’t multitask we kinda worked around him. Now with both new grads getting 32-40 hrs (near retirement rph only wants to work one day a week) they just can’t/ refuse to multitask. Even after I explain to them it is critical for a store this volume. They just wanna stay at verification do nothing except verify, don’t even help go into QD to type new script, while I run around like crazy filling, typing, verifying.
I mean In a way it’s good they are leaving, but with my current DL out of picture, since he just quit and they haven’t found a new DL yet. I don’t even know if they can find a good replacement soon.
My req for new tech has been open for weeks and absolutely got no one, zero, candidates

 

[cuckoo879]

Have a serious sit down with your district leader and tell him your concerns and needs (good techs to be $16-20/hr).

Well, that’s what I was trying to do for over a week. Been emailing him, texting him with no response. Then got the news on Friday that he’s quitting...

 

[Sine Cura]

If your lazy sacks for staff RPH are gonna quit could it really get any worse?

I can't even get any good tech hits at $20-21/hr (granted it is one of the ****ter areas, notorious for street walkers for decades and white trash galore)

For your sanity and well being you should quit ASAP and find another job. No one is owed "quality" pharmacy services. **** CVS

 

[owlegrad]

Something that helped me when I needed techs was emailing all the local tech schools and letting them know I have immediate openings. I even got one of my best techs ever that way (along with some of the usual bottom of the barrel type).

Honestly my impression of your situation is that you need to be more forceful with your staff pharmacists. Tell them that you will handle QV and make them do drop off so they can get experience typing scripts so they can feel comfortable helping with QD. If they refuse, get with your DM to fire them or transfer them out. Make it clear once they feel comfortable helping with QD you can put them back in QV. Yes it is a dick move but what they are doing to you now is a problem and you can’t let it stand.

Good luck!

 

[Momus]

One of my best hire was a girl I poached from subway.

 

[cuckoo879]

Something that helped me when I needed techs was emailing all the local tech schools and letting them know I have immediate openings. I even got one of my best techs ever that way (along with some of the usual bottom of the barrel type).

Honestly my impression of your situation is that you need to be more forceful with your staff pharmacists. Tell them that you will handle QV and make them do drop off so they can get experience typing scripts so they can feel comfortable helping with QD. If they refuse, get with your DM to fire them or transfer them out. Make it clear once they feel comfortable helping with QD you can put them back in QV. Yes it is a dick move but what they are doing to you now is a problem and you can’t let it stand.

Good luck!

Yeah, that’s what I did. I was making progress with them when I was there and there’s overlap. Of course cvs like to cut my hours to bones, when there’s no overlap they revert back to what they were like before and the store basically falls apart. I do think that it’s good they are leaving, just can’t imagine with current pharmacy market full of unemployed pharmacist, CVS still struggles to get good pharmacists.

 

[owlegrad]

One of my best hire was a girl I poached from subway.

I miss the days of being able to hire off the street. Where I work now the techs have to be certified before we can hire them. It dramatically limits the applicant pool. Nearly all the best techs I ever worked with were not certified beforehand.

 

[Sine Cura]

I have found tech school techs vs randos off the street to be a mixed bag in either case. 2 out of 3 of my very best techs (well 1 of them I hired) were just randos but 1 of them went to tech school.

You can teach people but I won't hire anyone who got a tech license years ago with no evidence of pharmacy employment since then. They are just desperate at at that point.

Hiring a tech for corporate retail in this climate? GOOD LUCK!

 

[cuckoo879]

I have found tech school techs vs randos off the street to be a mixed bag in either case. 2 out of 3 of my very best techs (well 1 of them I hired) were just randos but 1 of them went to tech school.

You can teach people but I won't hire anyone who got a tech license years ago with no evidence of pharmacy employment since then. They are just desperate at at that point.

Hiring a tech for corporate retail in this climate? GOOD LUCK!

I know, I’ve talked to other managers and my friends who are also PIC. Everyone was telling me the same thing, they put req out and no body is applying. Literally in n out near by pays higher than CVS and doesn’t require a license

 

[johnpharm01]

Retail pharmacies, especially the major chains, are bad business partners for pharmacists nowadays. Why anyone would go to school now for around 6 years for pharmacy is beyond me. I think what you need to do is to take a step back and define your goals. I would imagine a 30 year stint at CVS wasn't one of them. Next, find a new job. Good rph positions are hard to find but worth it. Then just do what you have to do as manager until you start your new position.

 

[Wickett]

I miss the days of being able to hire off the street. Where I work now the techs have to be certified before we can hire them. It dramatically limits the applicant pool. Nearly all the best techs I ever worked with were not certified beforehand.

Yup....most externally hired certified techs with experience I've had have been bad/castoffs from some other chain. The best ones I've had were ones working in the store front that I noticed seemed smart and had a good work ethic and brought them on as a tech trainee. There are some growing pains, but they seem to be much more trainable/none of that "that's not how I did it before" attitude you get from more veteran techs hired on.

 

[rx2010]

Have you tried contacting other CVS stores and asking if any of their techs want to pick up extra hours at your store until you can find new techs?

 

[owlegrad]

Have you tried contacting other CVS stores and asking if any of their techs want to pick up extra hours at your store until you can find new techs?

Translation: Send me your garbage techs that you can’t get rid of.

Not to be cynical but I don’t think I ever worked with a competent tech who was sent to me to “help”. It was always techs what couldn’t get enough hours elsewhere (meaning trash or so new they could only barely do pickup). I guess an argument could be made that any help is better than none but I worked with some who put that to the test.

 

[Deja]

Translation: Send me your garbage techs that you can’t get rid of.

Not to be cynical but I don’t think I ever worked with a competent tech who was sent to me to “help”. It was always techs what couldn’t get enough hours elsewhere (meaning trash or so new they could only barely do pickup). I guess an argument could be made that any help is better than none but I worked with some who put that to the test.

well for the new techs maybe she can train them and steal them away from other stores... also sometimes it isn't that the techs are bad, its that a lot of pharmacists are clueless in how to train them

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

In this over saturated market, without any clinical experience or residency, youre not gonna be able to find hospital or clinical jobs.

I suggest applying for a position at an independent pharmacy. Best decision ive made as a pharmacist. CVS wanted me to be a pic, i quit before they can enslave my soul lol

 

[cuckoo879]

The independent near me are only hiring prn pharmacist. Sadly CVS bought one of them. And thanks to covid-19 my already quitting staff almost walked out on me today due to shear pressure

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

The independent near me are only hiring prn pharmacist. Sadly CVS bought one of them. And thanks to covid-19 my already quitting staff almost walked out on me today due to shear pressure

I would consider that prn. Get your foot through the door.

If youre in a city with multiple indies then youre probably looking at the wrong indies. You want to look for an indie in a small enough city where there is just one indie.

 

[rx2010]

Translation: Send me your garbage techs that you can’t get rid of.

Not to be cynical but I don’t think I ever worked with a competent tech who was sent to me to “help”. It was always techs what couldn’t get enough hours elsewhere (meaning trash or so new they could only barely do pickup). I guess an argument could be made that any help is better than none but I worked with some who put that to the test.

When I worked for Kroger, none of my techs were full time. We only hired part time techs so that we didn't have to guarantee them full time hours cause they were very stingy with our tech hours. So a lot of good techs from other stores wouldn't get 40 hours a week, so they would pick up extra hours at other stores. When I would pick up extra shifts at other stores and worked with the good techs, I would ask them if they would be interested in picking up extra hours at my store and get their numbers. When I borrowed techs from other stores, I did the same. If they were good, I got their number. Collecting all of the good techs' numbers helped me tremendously with tech coverage since all I had to do was text them. When you collect a lot of good techs' numbers, you're bound to find coverage.

Also, if you're a good pharmacist that helps with data entry, dispensing, drive through, etc, then more techs are willing to work at your store over others whose pharmacists are lazy and only wants to do verification and nothing else.

 

[SClENCE]

You need to give 110%, but don't try to make up for everyone else's weaknesses. Give 110% and expect 110% from everyone else. Don't wait until the phone rings for 10 minutes and ask the tech to please get it. Don't let the pharmacist sit there doing QV2 when QT has a page of red and say "please help in QT when you get a chance". You need to be aware of what everyone is doing and direct them IMMEDIATELY. It might be uncomfortable but in the long run it is to the benefit of your own staff when the pharmacy isn't a disaster. Set goals for your techs. Tell them "nice we are down to 7 pages, lets get to 5 by 6pm". Don't ask people to do something, direct them to do what you want and when you want it. They will respect you more and moral will go up then you bring structure and your staff sees results. If your staff doesn't see leadership or respect you they are going to do whatever they want. Techs will stop getting register and phone, pharmacist will sit in QV all day, etc.

 

[johnpharm01]

Lazy? You have a corporate attitude. Truth is pharmacies are understaffed and techs will only do so much work. So how do you get it down if you are corporate? Play the blame shifting game and call the pharmacists lazy if they don't pick up the slack. As if verifying 300 rxs in 8 hours, counseling, immunizing etc isn't enough.

 

[Sine Cura]

On a continuum of "being a shiftless sack of manure" and "balls to the wall 150% of the time" there is a happy medium to be achieved depending on the pharmacy. The biggest challenge in chain retail is getting everyone on board and unfortunately some techs and pharmacists are incompetent to achieve what needs to be done.

For example, some people have trouble with arithmetic. If you do 300 data entry verification in 13 hours that means 23 an hour, so your slack ass doing 38 in 8 hours is total garbage. Same for techs. If there are 30 inputs an hr over 9 hours then typing only 20 scripts in 4 hours at in the in-window is total garbage.

However I'm sure working at Chik Fil A for $17/hr is much easier than being a pharmacy tech for a chain

 

[Pharmacy is a Scam]

On a continuum of "being a shiftless sack of manure" and "balls to the wall 150% of the time" there is a happy medium to be achieved depending on the pharmacy. The biggest challenge in chain retail is getting everyone on board and unfortunately some techs and pharmacists are incompetent to achieve what needs to be done.

For example, some people have trouble with arithmetic. If you do 300 data entry verification in 13 hours that means 23 an hour, so your slack ass doing 38 in 8 hours is total garbage. Same for techs. If there are 30 inputs an hr over 9 hours then typing only 20 scripts in 4 hours at in the in-window is total garbage.

However I'm sure working at Chik Fil A for $17/hr is much easier than being a pharmacy tech for a chain

I hear Amazon is hiring on the spot for minimum pay of $17/hr nowadays and working at Amazon is a heck of a lot less stressful than working as a tech.

 

[owlegrad]

I hear Amazon is hiring on the spot for minimum pay of $17/hr nowadays and working at Amazon is a heck of a lot less stressful than working as a tech.

I don’t know any techs that pee into bottles to keep their numbers up so I am not sure that’s true.