What do you like about your chain/best to work for?

[Digsbe]

With all the negativity lets have a positive thread.

If you work in a chain pharmacy, what do you like about your chain? Which one do you think is the best to work for? Every job is going to have metrics, managerial overhead and other things everyone hates, but what do you actually like about it? Is your place good about pay, vacation, tech help, other things?

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[SpartanLaser]

I love making pcq calls. It keeps the patients adherring on their prn meds such as fluticasone and proair. It's also a plus when I remind my patients to refill their old warfarin doses that they are no longer on because their silly doctors are so worried about it bringing their INRs too low or high. Who even cares about INR? PCQ adherence values are so much more important to my district managers. Also it gives me the opportunity to talk to hundreds of patients on a given satuday or sunday when my only tech calls out.

I also love giving flu shots. It gives me a time of solace admist the 15 waiters in orange during rush hour.

 

[owlegrad]

I like being able to pickup shifts whenever I want. I like the stability and job security of knowing my employer is not going out of business. I like my pay, benefits, and vacation time. I like helping people and occasionally even being recognized for it.

 

[CUpharmD2013]

Mine is a small chain in the local area run by a local health system. No drive thrus, more than adequate tech help, and multiple pharmacists except for the slowest of locations. Extra week of vacation, but pay is less than CVS. Since we are a part of the health system, we have access to EMR and private lines for MDs. This makes problems much easier to deal with.

 

[MatCauthon]

I love making money for corporate shareholders. Whenever I need to cut my tech hours, all I need to do is remember that we have to create a budget for the executive bonuses somehow. Good leadership cannot be understated. I love making a store-wide sacrifice to help the corporate bottom-line. It makes me feel like I am part of team. The team experience is why I love working for a chain. I know that upper management would make the same sacrifices for me, so I feel like we have a very powerful symbiotic relationship.

 

[Sine Cura]

Don't have to do split shift.

Don't have to work with other pharmacists.

Can fill C2 scripts almost as fast as other scripts now that paper logs are abolished (and no need to write hard counts on hard copies unlike other companies).

Job security in difficult to staff areas (basically if you have a pulse you can keep your job because no one wants to work for a ****ty company in a ****ty area) as long as you don't steal

 

[ancienbon]

Dont have to overlap with some crazy psychopath rphs like i used to at wags
Dont have to report to store manager that microminages the pharmacy
Boss leaves you alone if your store is doing fine
High turnover,so unlimited OT most of the time
FOCUS on customer service
Help the non English speaking customers
Salary is decent
401 k at 5 percent company match
Supervisor helps understand the metrics

 

[CynicalIntern]

We have three full time pharmacists Monday through Friday despite doing sub 400 a day.
My supervisor and his supervisor have literally no idea what I do, so when they say something, I can say "no you're wrong, because x, y, and z" and they don't have a retort because they don't know what x, y, and z are.
There are a total of 40 pharmacists in my chain who are properly trained to do what I can do, so I've as irreplaceable as is possible in a chain pharmacy.

It's not perfect by any means, but I've carved out a pretty good niche for myself.

 

[radio frequency]

We have three full time pharmacists Monday through Friday despite doing sub 400 a day.
My supervisor and his supervisor have literally no idea what I do, so when they say something, I can say "no you're wrong, because x, y, and z" and they don't have a retort because they don't know what x, y, and z are.
There are a total of 40 pharmacists in my chain who are properly trained to do what I can do, so I've as irreplaceable as is possible in a chain pharmacy.

It's not perfect by any means, but I've carved out a pretty good niche for myself.

What exactly do you do?

 

[CynicalIntern]

What exactly do you do?

Without getting into too much identifying information, WAGs has made a move to try to develop more "specialty" stores (CF, transplant, CID, etc) to act as cash cows to offset the lowering reimbursements from the standard dispensing model. I spearheaded one of those in one of their more obscure "specialties" - it's an opportunity I would never have gotten working for any other chain

 

[radio frequency]

Without getting into too much identifying information, WAGs has made a move to try to develop more "specialty" stores (CF, transplant, CID, etc) to act as cash cows to offset the lowering reimbursements from the standard dispensing model. I spearheaded one of those in one of their more obscure "specialties" - it's an opportunity I would never have gotten working for any other chain

I thought that might be the case. It's a route that sounds interesting...

 

[Leper Messiah]

I like that I can probably work in a Target store in the near future.. or Omnicare, or Coram, or Caremark, and whatever else they buy next, all while keeping my accumulated vacation time.

 

[Sparda29]

Some people who graduated from my school posted articles after Cuomo expanded immunizations for pharmacists and how it was such a great thing. When I commented that they aren't being paid extra for it, they responded that it is part of the salary, lmao. The chains get away with what they do because of people like that.

The independent I'm at is going to eventually do immunizations and will pay me 50% profit per immunization.

 

[Digsbe]

I think some places give an increased bonus at the end of the year if you meet the immunization metrics. But it stinks that pharmacists aren't directly reimbursed by the chains for it.

 

[pillpharmer14]

I think some places give an increased bonus at the end of the year if you meet the immunization metrics. But it stinks that pharmacists aren't directly reimbursed by the chains for it.

At my previous chain you get the exact opposite of compensation for flu shots. You get increased pharmacist workload, preventing you from reaching the metrics that you CAN receive a bonus for achieving. More shots = less time = lower service scores = less bonus. Win win for the chains.

 

[ancienbon]

I should also add that at CVS the rphs i work with are more team players than at wags. At wags i worked with some crazy pschycopath rphs- 3 of them.
I guess because cvs is much busier there is not enough time to be a dick

 

[SpartanLaser]

It is less likely to get robbed in a bigger, more crowded store.

My independent got robbed a few days back. Scary dude with a knife...took all the pain pills. Left my 4 techs shaking and crying...

 

[Leper Messiah]

It is less likely to get robbed in a bigger, more crowded store.

My independent got robbed a few days back. Scary dude with a knife...took all the pain pills. Left my 4 techs shaking and crying...

We're not immune. Before my time, my store was robbed through the drive thru by some guy with a shotgun. My cousin's store was also robbed by a guy claimimg to have a bomb.