Master of the Universe, “I gotta CVS Pharmacist with knuckles From Tupelo Wants To Meet You”
A couple weeks ago, I looked at my account at Google Analytics and saw that the number of “unique” visitors per day had been nearly 700. I took a look at what was on the Main Page. It was the letter written by a female WAG pharmacist. It was directed to Mr. Wasson, WAG’s CEO. It was highly critical. The pharmacist suggested that Wasson had ruined Walgreens and that he should resign.
Last week, I wrote the “Vacation” essay below. Google Analytics report that around 600 unique visitors visited last week. I had written, once again, about the non-pharmacist, bean-counting, MBA Masters of the Universe. I don’t have to be polite here. This is not Drug Topics. I’m not going to pretend anythng, but the truth. That is: I hate the MBA Masters of the Universe fuckers and what they have done to ruin our industry. Notice that I did not say profession. The fuckers cannot hurt the profession. Only pharmacists can hurt the profession.
I asked a sophomore at a Boston college to design this site. I asked Drug Topics to include www.jimplagakis.com in my bio in the magazine. That was in Novemeber, 2005. That’s it. That is the only way that traffic on this site went from arouund 10 a day to 700 unique a day. Ronald Benson in Alabama probably counted for 4 of the 10, coming back multiple times every day. Jay Pee’s most loyal fan, and a friend.
After looking at the 700 and 600, I concluded that you don’t give a shit about cutesy stories about the obese 30 year woman with a pretty face who comes to see the pharmacist for moral support for her diet. I am just a frikkin’ enabler. She still eats crap. I tried tough love. She has a pretty face. Those eyes kill me. She didn’t come back for three weeks. I am an idiot thinking that I can help people like her. Am I an idiot? My point is, If I am going to write a cutesy, feel good essay, I better follow quickly with some RED MEAT.
You are motivated to come, read and comment when the essays are about real shit. Finally, finally, we are getting attention shown to our working conditions. We had to come through the back door. Pointing at the fact that these conditions compromise the pharmacist’s ability to deliver POISONS safely. The public is in jeopardy every day around 8:00 PM in most CVS stores. Think about it. The pharmacist has worked 12 hours and still has 2 hours to go. The tech left. The pharmacist is working alone.
It was The Pharmacy Alliance that started punching the message a tired pharmacist is a dangerous pharmacist about 2 years ago. TPA planted the seed. I invite you to go to www.thepharmacyalliance.com take a look and join.
A couple weeks ago, at 8:45 PM on a Friday night, I was presented with 28 prescriptions. 19 for a just released heart transplant patient and 9 Rxs for a just released kidney transplant patient. What the…? We had other work to do. The technician was scheduled to leave at 9:00 PM. I called the manager on duty and said this, “I have all this new work.” I shook the 8 x 11 paper Rxs. “Plus other prescriptions. I am keeping Tom. We may not get out until after ten.” She said, “Okay”. Pretty cool. I would guess that a CVS or RAD pharmacist could be screwed. Tom took care of all of the regular work. I scanned, typed, reviewed, filled and verified all of the 28. Think about it. 28 new Rxs when closing time is in 85 minutes. Would your company allow you, a 2 day a week pharmacist, to make the call about keeping the tech. We got it all done by 10:00 PM. I did NOT counsel. My weekend was screwed. I am truly too old for that shit. It is killing me.
Now, what I really want to write is an invitation to non-pharmacist, bean-counting MBA Masters of the Universe to give us their view of the failing INDUSTRY and to tell us that I am wrong. It is not their fault. Here it goes.
Dear Masters of the Universe.
Come and tell is why Jay Pee is full of it. Now, remember that Jay Pee has accused you of having NO STANDING in pharmacy. He has claimed that none of you have ever stood at a Drive Through window and been forced to inhale poison exhaust from an old 1997 Cadillac Seville. Jay Pee has said that a drunk at the Drive Through has never been part of your work day. You have never had to deal with an old lady at the Drive Through. She pays with a check, then she doesn’t leave. She sits there and records the check in her check book and then.. she has to do the subtracting to record her check book blance. You have never had to deal with the NEXT person in line who blames you because she had to wait. “I have been sitting in this line for 15 minutes.” Then you tell her that her order is not ready. “What? I called it in to the computer.” You turn and see a guy at the register. His face is red. His throat is bulging. His eyes are damaging you. “Why did you help those people in their cars first? I brought my prescription in an hour ago.”
Admit it, MOTU, you know nothing about the Drive Through and you still send out policy statements about the Drive Through. Like how fast we should get to the window. You have NO STANDING, man.
Jay Pee says that you, Mr. MOTU, have never taken an insurance card for an out of towner who works for the Sisters of Mercy Grade School in East Original, Wyoming. You have never even entered a MEDCO card. (It’s Paid Rx). You have never entered a new patient, with allergies and health conditions. You have never typed in a new prescription.
You have never filled a prescription. You have never compounded a simple cream of two ingredients that are both water miscible. You have never put away an order. You, Mister MOTU, have NO STANDING in the pharmcy. How could you (or anyone who knows NOTHING about the pharmacy) think that your programs for the pharmacy are intelligent?
The duties I listed here are technician jobs. Guess what? You, Mister MOTU, could easily get qualified as technician. Take you 6 weeks of wood shedding.
I didn’t even list pharmacist jobs because you could NEVER qualify as a pharmacist. Your MBA would not transfer. You would have to do the 6 years. If you are NOT an RPh and if you have NOT worked in pharmacies for at least a year, you, my good MOTU friend, have NO STANDING in the pharmacy.
It is a joke when you go all happy faced to the executive suite and cheerily announce, “I got a good idea. Let’s promise WAIT TIMES of no longer than 15 minutes in the pharmacy. If we fail, we give a $25 gift card.” Throw money. That’s always your answer. You cut tech hours to pay for the gift cards. How fucked up is that?
Jay Pee says that you are a joke. You have NO STANDING and you believe that you can cut tech hours and save money. I know, I know, your job is to be like a pig rooting for waste. Asshole, cutting tech hours is an idiotic move. It pisses people off. They go elsewhere when they have to wait 2 hours and their order is still not ready. What happened to customer service? The 2 hours a day that you cut, the tech is not filing her finger nails. She is working hard to make money for the company.
Jay Pee says that you, MOTU, need to get out of the pharmacy and be sent to the variety store where you belong. He wants a good pharmacy merchant pharmacist to take your seat at the table.
What do you think of that?
Jay Pee says that he reserves the right to return to this subject. Because, you, have been ruining a great business for 3 decades. You really need for a pharmacist to find you and a pretty girl at a bar on Saturday night.
You are looking good MOTU. Nice black pants, sort of pegged. A jacket with thin lapels. A great shirt, not tucked in. The problem is the look on your face when the pharmacist leaves with the pretty girl and takes her home for the night.
Come on, MOTU, let’s be friends. Let’s work this out. Oh, ignore that guy behind me with the knuckles. He is just a CVS pharmacist from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Sincerely, with love
One of the 700
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There is now a CVS policy for techs to write up a form on all staff and float pharmacists who do not follow the “rules.” I have not been allowed to see this form or get clarification as to what the “rules” are. The lead techs have been told in our district that they are in charge. My techs restrict this to work flow and correction of other techs but the shift in power is noticeable in the pharmacy.
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Two CVS pharmacists back to back. One in pharmacy heaven and the next in a culture where the TECHS SPY ON THE PHARMACISTS? Tell me that is not so. Tell me that you are making that shit up.
It looks as if Walgreens has lost its way. They have bought a stake in Boots in Europe and they are looking to make money in Europe. I think this is a very bad move, especially considering the financial mess that we call Europe. And, Europe is the capital of socialised medicine. The CEO should be replaced.
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When are these stupid chains going to stop taking all these discount cards? People are getting free discount cards in the mail and cutting them out of the newspapers. Then, here they come to the pharmacy thinking those cards are going to save them tons of money and we waste our time on those cards. If they save the consumer a few bucks, those bucks come out of the pharmacies profits. Dumb..stupid idea!
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Those folks that come into the pharmacy near or at closing time are usually out of luck. We close at 7pm. I send them down to the stupid CVS that stays open until 9pm. On the weekends, when we and CVS have about the same hours, I will usually stay a little late if I think the prescription is urgent.
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Pharmacy is a business! I don’t fault these chains for treating it like a business. But, pharmacy is not just like ever other business. It is part of the healthcare sector and part of healthcare is taking care of the patient. Some of these chains think that operating a business is to always be trying to think up some gimmick to get customers in the store. CVS seems to be the king there. We don’t have time to play games and be a party to ever gimmick one of these MBA’s can imagine. We have a highly responsible job and we are responsible for providing healthcare services in a professional manner. We are not suppose to be acting as a clown and standing on the street corner advertising for our chain. These retard MBA’s need to be driven out of pharmacy!!!!
Speaking of losing their way … We here in Canada have a chain called Shoppers Drug Mart. About 1300 stores it is Canada’s largest pharmacy chain. For more than a decade, grocery, mass merchant, and sweat-shop independent pharmacies have been routinely waiving co-pays in an attempt get patients. Recent crushing reforms in Ontario has changed the profitability of dispensing in Ontario, making “waiving” of co-pays a very bad business decision. Shoppers had always held the high-ground, stating that they will not discount their professional service. That was their stance for more than a decade.
However, Shoppers expected many independent pharmacies to close down after the recent pricing reforms. That did not happen. So, in an effort to capture market-share from grocery store and independents, they just announced that they will start “waiving” part of the patient co-pay. Rather than invest more in developing clinical services, improving customer satisfaction, and making it more appealing to go into their locations, they decided that pricing will determine market-share. This is despite a pilot-study done at 2 Shoppers showing that waiving fees did not increase prescriptions.
Everything that happens in the US Pharmacy market is 10 years ahead of Canada. We are now just starting to get some mail-order pressure. Large chains are starting a “race to the bottom” much like CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid with their coupons and discount pharmacy. The MBA’s are starting to take over here as well. There are hardly any pharmacists involved in corporate decision making, much like the US. Fortunately, we have a couple legislative buffers that, for now, protect some of the dignity and professionalism of community pharmacy. However, all it takes is a legislative stroke of the pen and those protections are gone. Then we will join you guys in the slow slide to pharmacy hell.
I guess I better make the best out of the next 10 years.
JP…looks like the MBAs are infiltrating the dentistry world as well….
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48033848/ns/health-health_care/
I’d wager that soon doctors will be upselling heart transplants and given big bonuses to meet quota!
I have a dentist – about my age – that I have went to for some 35+ yrs.. a couple of years ago.. his son became a dentist and started working in his Dad’s practice. State of the economy apparently would not generate enough volume to support two dentist… son went to work for one of the “dental chains”.. while the Dad did not elaborate to me the details… his son was not happy with the “tactics” of practicing dentistry in their environment. He had learned the practice of dentistry from his Father .. a “old school dentist” and things apparently did not jive between a “private practice” and the “corporate practice” of dentistry.
Watch the Frontline episode of “Dollars and Dentists’
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
Re: CVS Pharmacist
I must tell you there is such a form, however it is to be filled out by Rph on duty after a floater. It is not filled out by a tech. I don’t know of any RPh’s that have
actually used that form however.
CVS pharmacist/Unhappy pharmacist, these forms have existed at RAD for a while now, however, I don’t recall any pharmacist ever actually filling one out nor have I ever been asked to by my PDM. A few years ago, while I was still a floater, this form was brought to my attention. I don’t believe I was supposed to see it. It had a checklist that was to be filled out by the “regular” pharmacist after a floater had worked a shift in the store. I sent a rather angry email to my PDM regarding the form and never heard anything more about it. My point is, things like this come and go in retail pharmacy. I find that silly programs, forms, etc. go away after corportae figures out that no one puts any effort into them.
CVS pharmacist/Unhappy pharmacist, these forms have existed at RAD for a while now, however, I don’t recall any pharmacist ever actually filling one out nor have I ever been asked to by my PDM. A few years ago, while I was still a floater, this form was brought to my attention. I don’t believe I was supposed to see it. It had a checklist that was to be filled out by the “regular” pharmacist after a floater had worked a shift in the store. I sent a rather angry email to my PDM regarding the form and never heard anything more about it. My point is, things like this come and go in retail pharmacy. I find that silly programs, forms, etc. go away after corportae figures out that no one puts any effort into them.