CVS

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Have any of you had trouble with the CVS pharmacy in Davis? They seem really disorganized, and I wonder if it's just my bad luck to always go in at a bad time. They haven't given me the wrong medicine. I'm just concerned about how many times I phoned ahead to refill a prescription, and they didn't have it ready. They couldn't do anything at all because the computer is down. Or I needed to wait half an hour while they scrambled to fill the prescription (something like 27 hours after I called in the refill and 90 minutes after I said on the phone I'd pick it up.) Or my doctor's office had just sent over a prescription, and they couldn't figure out how to send it to the Porter Square CVS which has the medication they're out of.

It's not a problem for a pharmacy to be out of a particular medication and tell me I need to wait until the next day, or the next day after midafternoon. I don't expect any pharmacy to keep everything in stock. It's a problem when they tell me on Thursday they will have something on Friday, and on Friday when they tell me it will be there on Monday, and it's REALLY a problem when on Monday they tell me it will be there Tuesday. This problem, thank goodness, only happened once.

The pharmacists and their assistants aren't rude to me, and I don't think they are deliberately dishonest. I just can't tell if I've had a run of bad luck in dealing with them (aggravated by the fact that I use a bunch of different meds and refill the prescriptions at different times of month,) or if they are incompetent enough that I should take my business to another pharmacy.

I used to be fairly happy with the CVS at Porter, though since they built one at Davis, I resent that the one in Porter is so far away. (When the weather is reasonable, I can walk to Davis, but not to Porter.) I refuse to do business with the East Arlington CVS--the pharmacy staff there is narrowminded, dishonest, rude, and viciously selfish, as well as incompetent.

Comments

[gingerkat.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I know this from the other side of the counter. I'm a pharmacist. I worked at a CVS for a period of time. The problem is with the corporation itself. They time you, and base your bonus on this. That is asking for an error to be made. You also get reprimanded if you don't fill things on time, even if you don't have enough help.

From what I've observed at Davis for my own scripts, my guess is that they started out slow with enough help. As business picked up, they haven't maintained adequate staffing levels. The people you see in line are only part of what's going on. We had a computer terminal filled with refills that were called in by customer, along with the stuff MD's would call in, fax in, or people dropped off earlier in the day. My guess is that store easily does about 500 scripts per day.

Add on the fact that you spend half the time on the phone with the idiot insurance companies or calling MD's for stuff people want filled now because customers can't seem to read the 0 refills on the bottle. The corporation unofficially "discourages" taking lunches or breaks, contrary to what they say. I've easily worked 12 hour shifts (which only ended because the law forbids working more) while trying to gulp down M&Ms so I don't pass out.

During that, I'll get screamed at for some expired coupon some dipshit tries to use on Pampers, a copay that I have absolutely no control over, and by the guy who wants his candy bar rung up immediately while I'm trying to discern the multiple drug interactions on the old lady who wants her 8 scripts filled in 10 minutes. And I'm crossing my legs the whole time because I've had to take a piss for the last 5 hrs and couldn't because it was so busy. I was more than surly with day after day of that. Thank gawd I quit and went to hospital pharmacy.

Order issues can be due to a couple of issues. Miscommunication quite often happens in a clusterfuck like that, or our vendor doesn't have the item in stock. You can have the pharmacist call other stores if you are willing to go there. I did that often if someone needed something important right away.

As far as our role in the health care community, if a doctor makes a mistake on a script and I fill it, we are equally liable. If you fill a script for 100 Percocet with Walgreens, then come to my CVS with a script for 50 Vicodin one week later, then OD, I'm liable. I lose my license. If I know a doctor isn't doing something safe and don't do anything to stop it, that's my license on the line. If it involves narcotics, I can be prosecuted by the DEA. Unfortunately the name of the game anymore is to cover your ass legally.

It sucks that it has come to this. I previously worked at a store where I knew my customers and they trusted me. The big evil corporations and their demands and ridiculous working conditions have ruined chances for that type of relationship for us. For better service, definitely go to some of the independents. They often will deliver. Harvard Vanguard is also really good to their customers. I loved working there as a student.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

This is funny (ironic). I did a recruiting CD presentation for CVS a couple of years ago targeted at pharmacy students. I guess there is a shortage of pharmacists. It was all about how great it is to work at a CVS.

For me, the CVS/Caremark thing is all about them ($$) and not about the client/patient. Apparently it is not so good for employees either. No surprise there.

Yeah... a universal health plan is some big 'socialist' plot. Given what we have now, I say bring it on!

[gingerkat.livejournal.com]

It is all about profit. They do target pharmacy students when they recruit professionally because students haven't had time to figure out what the world of retail is really like. Students end up with hefty school loan to pay back, and end up getting stuck.

Yeah, I laugh at some of my coworkers who try to tell me that we will be out of a job if we have universal health care. Really, they have no clue what they are talking about.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It doesn't surprise me that CVS management treats their employees badly. A lot of big corporations are like that, and it's awful. (It should be obvious that I don't just mean corporations related to health care in any way. This is all OVER modern business.) You get what you reward, and that's some minimal standard of measurable quality, maximum speed, and tolerance for abuse. Driving away their most careful and caring people (or pushing them to be less careful and caring) can't be good for business in the long run, but it looks like they don't care about the long run.

As far as our role in the health care community, if a doctor makes a mistake on a script and I fill it, we are equally liable. If you fill a script for 100 Percocet with Walgreens, then come to my CVS with a script for 50 Vicodin one week later, then OD, I'm liable. I lose my license. If I know a doctor isn't doing something safe and don't do anything to stop it, that's my license on the line. If it involves narcotics, I can be prosecuted by the DEA. Unfortunately the name of the game anymore is to cover your ass legally

I was not sufficiently clear, in my earlier comment about philosophical differences with some pharmacists. I didn't mean to condemn you and your well-meaning colleagues who are just trying to avoid filling invalid or mistaken prescriptions. My problem is with pharmacists who say there's no reason for anybody to ever use a particular drug, or stigmatized class of drugs. (Stigmatized drugs tend to be things that are often a bad idea, but occasionally the least bad option available.) My problem is with pharmacists saying anyone giving a child stimulants for ADD is abusing that child. Or that anyone taking methadone is a dangerous drug addict who should not be allowed in the store. Or that the only legitimate use of narcotics is for surgical pain, or terminal cancer. Or that hormone replacement therapy is an outrageous interference with a natural and healthy process. Other hormone prescriptions can be even more controversial, as I'm sure you know. I don't want a pharmacist to second-guess me and my doctor on the grounds that the FDA will eventually come around to share their opinion.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I do not mean to accuse the Maida pharmacists of holding all the problematic beliefs stated above.