<p>PSA for my collegues who work in retail pharmacy. When you find yourself at the boiling point because you cannot get your prescription in the same 5 minutes that you can get your Big Mac, please don’t call corporate and complain about the staff (or lack thereof). Please call corporate and complain that THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH HELP to do their jobs and therefore the district offcie needs to get them more help in order to provide better service. At McDonald’s does the same person who cooks your Big Mac also have to then run out front and ring it up for you? No? Then why should pharmacists and techs be expected to do multiple things at the same time, which of course, any thinking person knows is impossible. Please share this with your friends and family. Don’t take it out on the poor folks who are struggling to help you, who often don’t get bathroom or meal breaks (Va. passed a law requiring a meal break, yay!!) and who are answering up to 5 incoming phone lines, a fax machine, a drive through, giving flu shots, counseling patients, dealing with insurance hassles and running the cash register and FILLING YOUR PRESCRIPTION. All at the same time according to the powers that be, somehow. ??? The bosses put on the blinders and demand more and more and more with less and less and less. My retail collegues are having tech hours cuts drastically. Can you imagine doing all that all alone? They have to. Please don’t take it out on them. They are doing the best they can, as fast as they can and as safely as they can. Thank you. And when you see them next time, thank them.</p>
<p>The pharmacist is not someone I want overworked and understaffed. That’s an accident waiting to happen.</p>
<p>Situation in hospitals is similar for nurses. Not enough support staff and often a way too high nurse to patient ratio. And people wonder why there are so many medication errors made.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4, I am a hospital pharmacist and it’s the same for us since we have been swallowed by a health system corporaton. They pile more and more and more on us every day with less staff. I’m sometimes just completely paralyzed in a spot where I’m asked to do 4 things RIGHT NOW and I just sort of spaz out. Deep breaths.</p>
<p>At the pharmacy I go to, there seem to be pharmacists and also clerks who are not pharmacists.</p>
<p>Many may be pharmacy techs.</p>
<p>My line about my position, hospital RN , is that I am happy with all the myriad parts of my job, but what I dislike is the expectation to do it all simultaneously, while documenting real time, on the computer, in detail. After a busy 8 hours today, I asked a few co workers for another co workers name. We all had frozen brain, and could not come up with it. It is exhausting, yet in a crisis, we are well trained and efficient. </p>
<p>The whole trend of not enough help is a scary one in the American work world. We’re all being pushed to greater and greater efficiencies, of time, money and resources. While efficiency is great, and examining processes to save money important, there are points of no return. Efficiency does not always work when an elderly lady needs time to take her meds, or make her way to the bathroom. Human interactions as well as safe processes for giving and dispensing meds require some time. </p>
<p>The rapidly rising costs of medical care in the US means that those who see the costs have incentive to try to squeeze as many of them out as possible. But if nurses and pharmacists are already overworked due to bare minimum staffing levels, that must mean that something else is causing medical care costs to bloat. Drugs? Medical devices? Physician pay that has to be high so that physicians can pay down their medical school debt? Billing and insurance bureaucracy? Luxurious medical office buildings?</p>
<p>I agree that many pharmacies are short staffed but have also had my share of pharmacists and techs who were condescending or unhelpful. Our local CVS pharmacy which used to be horrid. Techs and pharmacists would have a problem with your scrip or insurance and instead of trying to find a solution to the problem their attitude would be “oh well, sucks for you”.</p>
<p>About a year ago, they hired a phenomenal tech and the attitude of the whole pharmacy has changed. She is a problem solver and probably embarrassed the rest of the staff into actually providing customer service rather than trying to find a reason not to help you.</p>
<p>I don’t care about having to wait for a scrip as long as I am told the correct wait time. If you tell me ten minutes and the wait is one hour, I am not going to be happy.</p>
<p>I feel so fortunate to have the best pharmacy ever! We live in a first tier suburb of a major metro area and have been going to the same pharmacy for 35 years. 5 years ago a Walgreens opened up across the street (which means a CVS also joined the party) My pharmacy is just as busy as ever. Why? Because they are amazing. There are always 3 pharmacists working plus techs. They know us all by name and know our family stories. They ring if needed, come out to help folks find the right bandaid or shaving cream. They will look up other drug options for us to discuss with our doctors if we are having side effects or a problem with cost. I wish everyone (pharmacist and customers) could have this experience! </p>
<p>Pharmacies are not fast food places. They need qualified technicians as well as licensed pharmacists to be sure the proper medications are dispensed accurately. Getting your prescription in an hour from the time you "placed your order"is not the same as quelling your hunger immediately. Having to wait relative to the use of the product is very short. That food is consumed rapidly, that prescription doesn’t need to be used immediately (or you would be in the clinic/hospital getting it stat).</p>
<p>Anyone know of pharmacist shortages in this country? I suspect it is easy for pharmacists to find jobs. Likewise pharmacy technicians- are there enough or too many those with the training can’t find jobs? As with other health care fields I suspect there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the way management runs things in the search for the almighty profit. Customer impatience/demand for instant service driving the industry?</p>
<p>Well. By 2018, supposedly 30% of graduates will not be able to find a job. In my area, there already is a pharmacist excess. Why? Well, as the scuttlebutt goes, it was a conspiracy by the big chains starting about 12 years ago. They convinced the powers that be that there needed to be so many more pharmacy schools to crank out so many new pharmacists for the shortage, which admittedly did exist at that time. So some phenomenal number of new pharmacy schools came into being and therefore there will be an excess in another few years. Now, isn’t that just wonderful for employers who can now drop starting salaries to a more acceptable level (for them) and pharmacists will have to accept in order to work. Nice huh? So glad I’m almost out.</p>
<p>VaBluebird, I’ve heard the same thing from the posters over on the StudentDoctorNetwork forum. That is one of the reasons I chose not to pursue pharmacy school. </p>
<p>My husband graduated from pharmacy school in the mid 1990’s. At that time there was a huge shortage of pharmacists. In our area now, there is certainly not a shortage, but not a ton of unemployed pharmacists either. The pay is still excellent. Lots more pharmacy schools now. Also some demographic changes. The baby boom generation has begun to retire. My husband is busier than ever at work (retail). What OP described is accurate as far as working conditions. The recession closed a lot of corner drug stores in our area. Demands on the employed increased, and we keep waiting for things to turn the corner in terms of working conditions. His employers used to trip all over themselves to cover his time off (even though they expected 12 hour shifts with no break of any kind), now he’s expected to ask for time off six months in advance. My husband hates to make people wait longer than absolutely necessary for their prescriptions, and will bend over backwards to help his patients with medication or insurance problems, take an interest in their lives, and answer their questions. It’s tough these days. He certainly appreciates those who treat him like the professional he is, and are reasonable in their expectations.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There does not need to be a conspiracy for this sort of thing to happen. If some type of job is in high demand and short supply, but the educational path takes several years, it could take several years for the students who were following the money to graduate and find that there is now a plentiful supply of people chasing that type of job.</p>
<p>The whole trend of not enough help is a scary one in the American work world. We’re all being pushed to greater and greater efficiencies, of time, money and resources. While efficiency is great, and examining processes to save money important, there are points of no return. </p>
<hr>
<p>So very true. I see it in my H’s job in the auto industry and in my job in higher ed. </p>
<p>The whole trend of not enough help is a scary one in the American work world. We’re all being pushed to greater and greater efficiencies, of time, money and resources. While efficiency is great, and examining processes to save money important, there are points of no return.</p>
<hr>
<p>So very true. I see it in my H’s job in the auto industry and in my job in higher ed.>>>>>>>>>>>>></p>
<p>In my job, we are totally saturated and overflowing now. We have peoples’ lives in our hands. I am so afraid it’s going to take killing a patient for a “root cause analysis” to be done and I wonder even then, if they would admit it. All the bosses up the line are just “yes” suits, each one afraid of his/her job if they don’t make things happen as it comes down from the top who don’t seem to know that the basis of healthcare means a living human being is the bottom line, not your $$$$$$$$ bottom line. It’s a horrible road we have taken. It’s making me become more and more a believer in universal healthcare that is HEALTH CARE and not a money making enterprise. Ugh.</p>
<p>We use three different pharmacies:
- my insurer’s captive, Optum for mail-order prescriptions, when that is the most economical route. They’re annoying, but for vanilla prescriptions I haven’t had too many problems, other than HIPPA hurdles that verge on the ridiculous,
- Costco, for two generic prescriptions that are way cheaper there than our co-pays through our insurance plan, though the Costco pharmacist has some of the worst bedside manner I’ve encountered,
- And a local, high-end “chain” pharmacy called Pharmaca that provides fantastic personal assistance for any other prescriptions. I love these folks. It costs exactly the same to fill insurance prescriptions with them as it does at the grocery store or Walgreens pharmacy, but the customer experience could not be more different. They’ve got it figured out. I’ve had pharmacists there who’ve questioned doctors on the appropriateness of certain prescriptions or dosages, and techs & pharmacists who managed to work through Medco’s convoluted system when I wanted a generic version of a drug even though the brand version was on the “preferred list”. (Still convinced Medco was getting kickbacks from the drug manufacturer on that one.)</p>
<p>Well, in the “olden days” it was easier to give some customer service. Now to get refills, question dosages, ask a doctor anything you have to wait forever. I worked at a volunteer free pharmacy (we served those who slipped through the medicaid and insurance cracks with no ability to pay) and I would be SO frustrated at the inability to
get timely answers. We weren’t open on a daily basis so a lack of answers really did mean hardship for the patients.</p>
<p>Try having a back load of scripts to fill (and/or check) and try calling the health department (and now many doctor’s offices) with a voice mail system with 10 options (at least)–none of which have anything to do with pharmacy. And get the nurse’s voice mail. Or the receptionist.</p>
<p>And while computers are great–it seems insurance boggles things up. I actually remember when someone could call and get a price–now a lot of pharmacies can’t give straight answers until info is entered in their system.
And things were discounted by quantity–you get 30, 60, 90–it was cheaper the more you got. Forget it.
And even if there are cheaper ways to do it–your insurance will stop you at that 30 day supply. I sympathize with the pharmacist who says “too bad for you”. I do not mean that in a harsh way–it takes a time to figure out a cheaper way, better therapy and sometimes multiple calls to a doctor (see above). With no recompense nor time to do it.</p>
<p>Oh yeah. And now a pharmacist is supposed to counsel everybody (we always did this) and everybody has to sign papers and fill out paperwork (we didn’t do this). And give you a flu shot while you get your foot cream.</p>
<p>And if you think your neighborhood chain store pharmacist is actually filling that Rx…a lot of chains have them filled at a distant location and then shipped back to your store to be picked up.</p>