Pharmacy. Jim Plagakis. Pharmacist

I want to know if you are getting paid for your knowledge, expertise and training for duties that you perform that are well beyond the parameters of the normal job description for a pharmacist. Are you getting paid above your basic salary when they add MTM to your daily contractual obligations? How about all of the specialized monitoring functions that pharmacists provide in a retail setting in the 21st Century? What about giving flu shots? Are you getting a fee for each shot? What about the payment you should get for managing a hepatitis series? This is not just stick them in the arms. You have to know something and manage the treatment over a period of weeks. You have earned MONEY. Why aren’t you getting it?

I gave close to 1,000 flu shots at Longs in 1999. I had this idea of getting maybe 50 cents a shot, but never explored the idea because I loved getting out of the pharmacy, sitting down, having a gab with the patient. I enjoyed serving the frightened patient. I was able to display rarely-used talents. Patience, kindness and compassion.

Needles do not bother me, but there are people who are TERRIFIED. My favorite was this ripped biker guy with multiple earrings, a scraggly beard, shades, denim jacket with HARD ASS on the nameplate. He wore shades so I could not see his eyes, but his mouth gave him away. As I filled the syringe, his lower lip started to tremble. He looked away. His head dropped and I popped him before he knew it.

All I got was his relieved smile. Longs was paid $10.00 for the shot. I wrote the Rx under the protocol of a doctor that authorized for the entire state of Washington. I administered the vaccine. Why is that not worth something? Even if they paid me $1.00, Longs would have made $8.00 profit. Where is it written THE PHARMACIST GETS FUCKED.

My problem is not really about you doing these duties. It is more about your employers advertising your services and not even thinking that you deserve compensation. Until a liability demon surfaced, there were chain retailers who touted the, “Our pharmacists are always available to assist you in choosing your over the counter medications.” Kinney Drug went further, “Our pharmacists are CERTIFIED over-the -counter drug counselors.” Since when did they send out Registered Pharmacists who WERE NOT experts on Claritin-D and Ibuprofen?

Walgreens opened their first Hawaii store on November 1st. One in five native Hawaiians is a diabetic. Walgreens CEO, Jeff Rein, did it again. “Our pharmacists can have a real impact on helping these patients (diabetics) manage their diabetes and live a healthy life.”

When does the pharmacist at Walgreens have time to sit down with a diabetic? If she does, will it overload the rest of her day? How about a $10.00 an hour premium for this?

My question is the one I have screamed about for decades: Did Walgreens ask permission to advertise your services? How are you going to get paid? I’ll give away my knowledge & expertise WHEN I WANT TO. I would not stand still for, “Here’s our boy Jimmy. He can help you with that eczema. And what a good boy he is. We don’t have to pay him and he never complains about it.”

And that is the nitty-gritty, my friends. WE NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. WE NEVER DEMAND CHANGE.

PS- See Paul Trusten’s Comment # 2 on the reaction of drug chain executives to a state board suggesting that pharmacists get their own, individual NPI numberds. Click Comments.

Regarding the NPI. I got the impression that these chain drug store executives were a little panicky. They did not want their pharmacists to have NPI numbers. This would technically make the individual pharmacists eligible to

• Meet the Parents release

receive payments directly to them. Of course, the drug chains don’t want this. One insurance company paying you
the first fee of $19.99 for your services and .. look out.. the dam is done for and the deluge is liable to start at any time.
CVS wants that $19.99. They don’t want you to have it. You are just goddam Galley Slaves

12/22 update…..
CONSUMERS WANT BTC. Study shows that 67% of consumers want FDA to make certain drugs obtainable without an Rx, but only after consultation with a pharmacist. They support BTC to get access conveniently, even if insurance is not in the picture. PS. Glaxo plans to be aggressive in promoting MEVACOR OTC. Are they kidding? Are they going to sell it in vending machines at hotels and airports? There is a disconnect here.

• Ocean’s Thirteen the movie

It is now or never, I think. Our chance to get that Third Class of drugs designated BTC (Behind The Counter) has never been better. But it is not just going to fall into our laps. We need, at least, to contact the FDA and our legislators to keep the ball rolling.

Check out Kathryn Foxhall’s well-written and complete “Latebreakers…In Depth” article in Drug Topics. I found it in the e-edition at … http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/advanstar/dt121007 .. or wait for the print edition to get to you, but that might be too late.

We have “enemies” who do not want to see a BTC class of drugs. Some for economic reasons. They will make much more money if these drugs are sold at truck stops and convenience stores like Tagamet and Monistat-7.

Some are against us because of, in my opinion, “turf” reasons. The AMA says that the law creates two classes, OTC and Rx Only, and there is no statutory support for a third class. It seems to me that if you read between the lines you get, “We like it just the way it is and we don’t want the pharmacist to have discretion.” I know. I have an AMA crudge.

What Joseph Cranston really said was, “While pharmacists are very knowledgeable about drugs, they lack the necessary education and experience in patient evaluation, clinical diagnosis, and prescribing for individual patients.” And I suppose the grocery clerk does possess these skills?

Anyway, if you agree that this may be our last best chance for that elusive THIRD CLASS OF DRUGS. The BTC class that will be sold only under the discretion of the pharmacist, make that phone call or write a letter now.

Your comments please. If you don’t agree. Talk to us. If you do agree, please help persuade your colleagues who visit here.

All of us know that bad handwriting costs money and lives.

The slant of pharmacy magazines has been leaning toward the clinical side for the last 10 years. One magazine is the last magazine standing that still gives us articles that deal with the issues that are vital to pharmacists and technicians who actually have their feet on the floor every day.

The leading magazine has been giving us more clinical pieces and, it seems, they are less interested in dancing with the girl who brung them to the ball.

I have one of their magazines from the mid-70s. I saved it because my article was featured on the cover. I took a look and there was not one ad for a prescription drug. Every single article dealt with what we put up with every day.

Sky High film

Advertising is down and you and I know it is because of direct-to-consumer ads in magazines and on TV. Big Pharma gets more bang from their bucks. What better way to promote a prescription drug than to get a patient to hound the doctor. My column JP at Large has been included only twice this year. The reason, we are told, is the lack of advertising.

Recently, I wrote an e-mail to the editor of the leading magazine. I expressed my view that their editorial focus needs to pay attention, at least once an issue, on what got them where they are. I suggested that a cover story on lunch breaks for pharmacists would get a lot of attention.

Then I suggested an idea for a cover story that I think would stop the presses. I suggested that a cover story on prescriber’s bad handwriting would get more pharmacists and technicians to actually read the entire article than any story in a decade.

I wrote that handwriting is a huge, huge problem. It is the turd in the punchbowl that everyone sees, but no one talks about, at least not in a national forum.

Bad handwriting costs millions of dollars annually in lost productivity, delayed therapy and faulty patient care. I gave her the Friday afternoon pitch. You all have seen this.

The very ill patient presents a prescription at 4:00 PM on Friday afternoon. You, your partner and two technicians fail. You cannot read the drug. Period! You are done until you can get a hold of the prescriber. False. You are done for the weekend because the doctor, her husband and two kids are on their way to Stowe Mountain Resort for a weekend of skiing.

“Oh, I am sorry”, a receptionist says. “The doctor never takes her cell phone with her for her long ski weekends. Yuck Yuck Yuck. She learned her lesson. Family time is family time.”

Worst case scenario: The patient dies. Second worse. Without the drug, she fails fast and the family rushes her to emergency. She ends up admitted and a new doctor starts from scratch with all of the expensive diagnostic tests.

Bad handwriting can end up costing a lot of money and a great deal of inconvenience.

Into the Blue download

Your turn: There are hundreds of scenarios. Let’s hear yours.

What do you think? Would a story on prescriber’s handwriting get you to pick up the magazine, whichever one dares to do this?

Bad prescriber handwriting is rude, impolite, discourteous, boorish, insolent…. Finish the sentence.

I wrote a small book about this and it is for sale here. It is entitled: Writing Prescriptions so the Pharmacist Will Love You (And your Patient will get the Right Medicine with the Right Dose at the Right Time)

Do not order this as a holiday present for your doctor friends unless they have a good sense of humor. I poke fun at them. Some of you are quoted prominently. In the end, it is a serious primer for the prescriber. This is something they need to get right before more people actually die because of their handwriting.