I don't have any experience with WAG but I did my rotation at busy CVS. WM certainly provides more staffing in comparison to CVS. But there are certain issues that only WM people have to deal with.
1. Opioid stewardship: We are required to verify if any narcotic is written for acute or chronic pain if it exceeds 7 day supply or 50 MME and if patient doesn't take it every month. This has severe implication on the workflow. Pharmacists spend significant amount of time reviewing pt history or calling doctor's office to verify this information. On top of that, we are also required to offer mandatory narcan counseling on high risk patients (> 50 MME dosage or Opioid + benzo combo etc.).
We are required to document these conversations otherwise there is a risk of getting written up or even terminated if you don't. Our DM would come and check the notes. At CVS, I dropped off my grandma's Tramadol prescription for 120 tabs and no questions were asked.
2. Mandatory counseling on all new rxs: I have gone to CVS, Kroger, Publix and Kaiser to get my family members' prescriptions filled and there was a grand total of one time where I was offered counseling by a pharmacist!
3. Inefficient system: Connexus has way too many checks and balances. For example there are look alike sound alike drugs that would automatically go into trouble and you will have to check the rx image and enter the PA666 code 10 times to fill the prescriptions (keep entering the code every time insurence gets applied instead of just doing it once). Also, if someone brings narcotic prescription for the first time, it will go into trouble and prompt you to either dispense 7 day supply or enter codes for override.
4. Strict compliance: My buddy used to work at Walgreens that did hundreds of shots and he used to tell me that vast majority of the times, they never reported the immunizations to state registry. Patient would fill out those forms and they would just put them inside the cabinet. At WM reporting is not only mandatory, pharmacists are required to make sure that not even a box is missing from the IMZ form that pt fills out. Otherwise you can get written up for it.
I am sure there are other things that I missed but the bottom line is with the expectations that are set up and the way Connexus is designed, they have no choice but to allocate more staffing in comparison to competitors. At CVS, the main focus is on filling prescriptions and immunizations. At WM, filling prescriptions and vaccine is only a part of of the responsibility. Providing clinical service (Opioid stewarsdship and promoting diabetic/ cholesterol adeherence) and maintaining strict compliance is just as important. WM can easily function with less hours but in that case company will have to let lot of the above things go.
Having said that, I would still choose WM over CVS any day.
