technician hours chain comparison

[wagrxm2000]

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I'm curious how many hours other chains give their pharmacy. At my Wag store we average around 2700 scripts a week and get about 200 hours depending on the month. We aren't a 24 hour store.

 

[Whereismynorco]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...-for-chain-pharmacists.1098413/#post-15684756

 

[HouTX]

we do a third less but have more tech hours

 

[M0df]

So that is 1 hour per 13.5 scripts. In a 24h store, I am getting similar allocation. But I know stores with your volume, working on 250 tech hours. What is the pharmacist overlap though? There is no overlap in 24hr store, there is in the other location.

You are getting screwed unless you have significant overlap, your techs have 3 arms, or Wags system is very efficient.

 

[wagrxm2000]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...-for-chain-pharmacists.1098413/#post-15684756

This didn't help at all. Just looking for what others get

 

[wagrxm2000]

So that is 1 hour per 13.5 scripts. In a 24h store, I am getting similar allocation. But I know stores with your volume, working on 250 tech hours. What is the pharmacist overlap though? There is no overlap in 24hr store, there is in the other location.


You are getting screwed unless you have significant overlap, your techs have 3 arms, or Wags system is very efficient.

Only 2 hour overlap

 

[type b pharmD]

I'm curious how many hours other chains give their pharmacy. At my Wag store we average around 2700 scripts a week and get about 200 hours depending on the month. We aren't a 24 hour store.

.

 

[a student]

I

 

[a student]

i just wanted to point out that the system also matters a lot. Based on my personal opinion, 1 safeway tech hour = 0.8 walgreens tech hour

 

[romaniangirl]

I'm at wags and we are a pretty slow store and only do about 1300 rx/week and we have 95 tech hours.

 

[Prepharm1214]

Rite Aid, 1550/week with 165 tech hours. I believe the formula factors in much more than just script count though such as sales, % of scripts being controls etc. I routinely have customers with whole carts filled with groceries/FE merchandise which can tie a tech up for 3-4+ minutes on a single transaction and a high volume of controls...

Some of the other chains also have systems that can share data entry although I'm not sure how significant that reduces workload

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

Rite Aid, 1550/week with 165 tech hours. I believe the formula factors in much more than just script count though such as sales, % of scripts being controls etc. I routinely have customers with whole carts filled with groceries/FE merchandise which can tie a tech up for 3-4+ minutes on a single transaction and a high volume of controls...

Some of the other chains also have systems that can share data entry although I'm not sure how significant that reduces workload

The Walgreens I work at does the same volume and has 50 less tech hours...time to jump ship.

 

[SoylentGreen]

I'm curious how many hours other chains give their pharmacy. At my Wag store we average around 2700 scripts a week and get about 200 hours depending on the month. We aren't a 24 hour store.

That sounds terrible. Do you have central fill or a call center handling calls or anything like that? Does that include cashiers?

We do ~3500 and are allowed ~350, including cashiers, but have been going over without getting in trouble so far. I don't think we'd be able to get our work done following the guidelines.

 

[Momus]

RAD > WAG > CVS for tech hours. Stress/Pay is the other way around accordingly.

 

[M0df]

2700/200 is a bad ratio no matter how you slice it. Are you clearing the Queue by closing time?

 

[Old Timer]

2500 rxs per week/244 hours. No 24 hour, no drive through.

 

[wagrxm2000]

It is ridiculous to compare hours between chains and reach a conclusion based on a number alone. A comparison of hours is fine, but to say "we are getting screwed"... you are leaving out so many variables that go into the equation. I


For example, I used to work at CVS. In the drive-thru you could literally open a window and hand materials (prescriptions, forms of payment, signatures) directly to someone. The Walmart I currently work at has a drive-thru that was just serviced and they let me know that it was in working order "running at 15-17 seconds". That is how long it takes just to send a carrier out to reach someone in the drive-thru. Multiply that by a minimum of 2-3 times back and forth per transaction and by the number of cars per day and you are looking at additional hours there alone.

Think about the number of people that come into a CVS vs a Walmart throughout the course of the day. Will all of them spend time interrupting the pharmacy staff with some asinine question or phone call? No... but I can tell you that the number of those cases are exponentially higher now than they were with my previous employer.

So although it may seem like you are getting the short end, it's not ideal anywhere for more reasons than can be listed.

(BTW I do about 2500/wk and get about 1hr/10rxs)

I disagree mainly because I feel wags should be getting more hours then walmart not less and it sounds like you think its the other way around. Also, wag rad and cvs should be comparable.

 

[Lnsean]

I disagree mainly because I feel wags should be getting more hours then walmart not less and it sounds like you think its the other way around. Also, wag rad and cvs should be comparable.

Walgreens has been doing alot of cutting with tech hours for the past 6-8 years. I don't know any other pharmacy chain that runs so thinly than wags. I'm with wags right now as well and although we don't do alot of scripts it still gets really stressful and hectic---we do 800/week on 62 tech hours...close ratio.

 

[Robdawg678]

Walgreens has been doing alot of cutting with tech hours for the past 6-8 years. I don't know any other pharmacy chain that runs so thinly than wags. I'm with wags right now as well and although we don't do alot of scripts it still gets really stressful and hectic---we do 800/week on 62 tech hours...close ratio.

I floated to one Wags store that probably does about 700 a week on 36 tech hours. Wags is so cheap on their help.

 

[HouTX]

if you're not doing it by increasing script counts or sales. your hours get cut to show you are increasing profit year over year

 

[Lnsean]

I floated to one Wags store that probably does about 700 a week on 36 tech hours. Wags is so cheap on their help.

That's crazy...1 hour per 19 scripts...that's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[pharmalt82]

I floated to one Wags store that probably does about 700 a week on 36 tech hours. Wags is so cheap on their help.

That's crazy...1 hour per 19 scripts...that's a disaster waiting to happen.

My friend has been floating for Wags for a while. He was sent to a store like this. A 12 hour shift, long drive, and no warning about the fact that the tech had called out. He was so sore after that day, he begged corporate schedulers and DM for a few days off immediately. He didn't even have time to ask for help from neighboring stores. Just a barrage of customers angry at him giving 1 to 2 hour wait times.

 

[M0df]

That's crazy...1 hour per 19 scripts...that's a disaster waiting to happen.

... but if you are in certain range, whatever that number might be (300-500 a week?), you are most likely working by yourself anyway. No ratio to speak of!

 

[Ackj]

I floated to one Wags store that probably does about 700 a week on 36 tech hours. Wags is so cheap on their help.

For 700 a week? That's only around 100 rx/day, so that's not terrible assuming the tech is good. I know at many Wags in my area the Rph is alone on the weekends, and that's at stores with a higher volume than 700/week.

 

[Ace41690]

We only get 250-300 hours a week for ~4500 scripts at my wags. We are a 24 hour store with drive through. Not very many tech hours... I think the Yuyama replaced a lot. We also have 2 pharmacists during the weekdays, and 3 pharmacists for 2 hour period.

 

[Maplebar]

On an average 12-hour weekday at Rite Aid I will QA 250 and pull+fill 175-200 scripts. I never work alongside another pharmacist. (Not a 24-hour store either)

I was doing a transfer with Wal-Mart the other day and asked them about their script count vs tech hours... they have the same exact amount of tech hours and process about half as much as we do.

 

[type b pharmD]

Since the time of my original posting , I can confirm that tech hours at WAGS are definitely influenced by % waiters (meaning new vs refill) and % controlleds

I am at a very heavy store ..(3000-4000) with about 280 tech hours.. it still feels out of control sometimes ... Bottom line is its not all about techs vs scripts you also have to account for all the other random factors

 

[SClENCE]

CVS. We do 2,400 a week on around 170 hours, sometimes its a 162 sometimes 178 who knows why... I think the DM moves hours between stores from week to week or something

Not a 24 hour store, no pharmacist overlap

Pretty much been staffed by floaters since all 3 pharmacists quit (along with half the techs)

I'm a part-time tech and have to work 35 hours a week for min wage lol. I'm not sure how they plan on hiring "career oriented" individuals under these work conditions for garbage pay

Honestly if the store was staffed properly I would like CVS

 

[knight on horse]

If you think logically, it's obvious that RiteAid will have more tech help than Wags, and that's with the only known thing about them being their hours, not yet looking at reputation, management, etc

Given 2 hypothetical, neutral, faceless companies, one open 8-9 and the other 8-10 (most stores), if the pharmacy that's open 8-9 wants to do a similar number of scripts then it must schedule more help. One huge boon for working at RiteAid, better hours & more help, whatever their other qualities

Now, moving onto CVS, with their east coast plantation mentality and 12 hour, 14 hour shifts, we may guess the reason for WAGs chronic understaffing.

WAGs is the first pharmacy chain nationally, and CVS is competition. WAGs usually has 8 hour shifts with 2 hour overlap each day. Pharmacists are more expensive than techs. WAGs wants to have competitive salaries to retain quality personnel, so therefore they must pay their pharmacists and save money elsewhere i.e. tech hours

As an addendum: on the surface in and of itself, CVS 12-14 hour shift may be not so bad (though of course it is, this is just a thought experiment 😎), if the pharmacist can eat and focus and use the restroom and CVS surrounds them with cheaper tech help

Hope no trade secrets divulged 🙂

 

[Rxnupe]

We only get 250-300 hours a week for ~4500 scripts at my wags. We are a 24 hour store with drive through. Not very many tech hours... I think the Yuyama replaced a lot. We also have 2 pharmacists during the weekdays, and 3 pharmacists for 2 hour period.

Wow when I was in retail my store did roughly the same and we were using 350 hours and IMHO that was about 50 hours too short- doing 4500 scripts with 300 hours to me is unethical and a mistake waiting to happen.

 

[sosoo]

I'm a part-time tech and have to work 35 hours a week for min wage lol. I'm not sure how they plan on hiring "career oriented" individuals under these work conditions for garbage pay.

that may be a legal problem. if u work more than 30 hrs a week you're entitled to full time benefits. u should seek legal counseling against CVS.

 

[M0df]

Well... CVS is going away from 14 hour shifts. I don't know if they are splitting 12 hour shift. They are not interested in making 8 hour shifts. They will just do 7 and 7.

 

[Ace41690]

Wow when I was in retail my store did roughly the same and we were using 350 hours and IMHO that was about 50 hours too short- doing 4500 scripts with 300 hours to me is unethical and a mistake waiting to happen.

We actually do surprisingly well with the hours we have. #1 because the techs are competent and #2 because of the robot.

 

[cphtlifer]

that may be a legal problem. if u work more than 30 hrs a week you're entitled to full time benefits. u should seek legal counseling against CVS.

I don't think Science needs to worry about getting too many hours anymore- as of March tech hours got slashed and those of us that are only part time got clubbed (I went from over 30 also down to 9 hours a week) and with all neighboring cvs affected there aren't any extra hours at other stores either. I'm wondering just which one of my bills I can pay on 9 hours a week?