I have asked myself recently, “Jay Pee, are you over-the-top with your incessant snooping on CVS?” I have heard plenty about CVS and their 14 hour shifts and the egregious manner in which they behave regarding pharmacists, chattel, galley slaves, piece-workers. The metrics are king and professional services are neglected. That is what I thought. That is what I believed. That is what so many people who say they are CVS pharmacists report. How do I know? Perhaps they are just ringers.
The trials of K**** H***** and 3 P X are not bull shit. K***** took 3 P X to the wood shed. Both sides had their hands slapped when the North Carolina State Board of Pharmacy should have rightfully taken a club to Big Evil. We still do not know the final disposition of this case. Any legal opening and K**** will sue. It may have already happened. 3 P X may have already settled. The settlement may have gagged K***** forever. That is okay with me as long as K**** gets to pay off his mortgage, set aside a ton of money for the college education of his triplet toddlers and make appropriate investments so he and his wife will retire to a beach place on the Carolina coast by age 50.
Too bad K***** was not in Oregon. Can you imagine how the Oregon BOP will look at a non-pharmacist, community college Associate degree store manager walking into the pharmacy and usurping the pharmacist’s authority?
“You will open the drive-through right now. A fat woman drinking a monster Slurpee complained.” That is what the North Carolina non-pharmacist store manager said, essentially.
North Carolina has laws about such a thing. So, what the hell….?” K***** expressed that he was not able to safely do his job.
So, I look for anything that makes CVS look good. A few days ago, a person who claims to be a CVS pharmacist left this comment.
“I work for CVS. I love my CVS. Maybe it is my supervisor. She is concerned about both customer satisfaction and patient safety.
RxConnect (our computer system) is not antiquated. It mostly does what it is designed to do, and works well (Rx2000 was a problem).
The problem of more, faster is not unique to CVS or Walgreens, or Kroger. The entire industry is having this problem. However it is as much the fault of the government and PBMs increasing regulations and decreasing reimbursement than anything. Yes, some managers are only concerned about the bottom line. But that is not reflective of the whole company.
If you come to my store, we will treat you well. I will counsel you on a new Rx. I will not rush, but it will be right. It is about knowing how to both serve customers and take your time. It can be done.
BTW I love my techs. They are the best I could ask for. The training is what they make of it, and all of mine are eager to learn to do things right. I would almost guarantee that all of the stores that have these problems are missing something that they have been told to do, but aren’t.
So, I said, “Okay, Plagakis, there it is. A comment from a pharmacist that puts new light on CVS. This guy loves his job.
I looked at the next comment in line and the peace I felt was shattered. Another CVS pharmacist wrote this.
“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.”
This looks like frikkin’ Nazi-shit. CVS is a huge company. If this is true, Rhode Island has definitely gone to the dark side.
I take it back about giving CVS some slack. How can we look the other way when our fellow pharmacists are treated like this?
A technician spying on any pharmacist is not acceptable. A technician behaving in this manner needs to be shown the door. She works in the pharmacy at the discretion of the pharmacist on duty. Not CVS.
Is this another K***** case brewing? Is there a pharmacist who does not need CVS out there willing to not just rock the boat, but sink the fucker?
CVS is The Bismarck. Who’s going to sink The Bismarck?
@JP.. if what you have said.. has the least bit of truth in it.. then – if I was in that RPH’s place… I would be saving written documentation of such edict from above and/or sending emails to whomever this came from trying to document that this is an official company policy and not some rumor floating around or a edict started by some “loose cannon” non-RPH management.
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As a full time “floater” .. I work for temp services not a “floater” as a staff member.. I have THREE CARDINAL RULES when I first go to a particular store and make a point to share them with the tech staff.
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1. we don’t mis-fill any Rxs nor break any rules/regulations
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2. We don’t piss off anyone enough to go postal
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3. We leave the counter “clean” when we leave at the end of the day and anything left over is well documented as to what needs to be done.
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I have yet to have the tech staff to “reject” any of my cardinal rules.
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In my world.. whenever a tech has tried to “direct me”.. they quickly learn who has the license and who is ultimately in charge. I have threatened to close a Rx dept over safety issues being mandated by a tech. who believed she was in charge.
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In my world… the CVS tech that was appointed to “supervise me” would quickly find him/herself with a big bulls eye on their back.. and the Policy and Procedure manual would be all the authority I need to make their life very miserable… as well as anyone else who elects to side on this lame edict.
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The CCO/HR would quickly learn my name.
I have commented a number of times about me working for Wal-Mart and that I don’t see anything like the problems that pharmacists are reporting here on this blog that work for CVS. However, there is a difference between stores and this is due to the pharmacy manager. In my area, there are a couple of stores that have problems. One of the stores has lazy tech help because the pharmacy manager hired the wrong people to be techs. The other store has problems because of the way the pharmacy manager handles the work flow. The rest of the stores are well run. The store where I work is an excellent place to work. A few months ago I talked to a local CVS pharmacist and she said that she likes her job. The question is whether all the bitching by CVS pharmacists is due to them working at poorly managed stores or is it a corporate wide problem.
Pure and simple-Evil Monster needs to be stomped on! It is too big, a chain virus gone bad. As far as Mrs. or Mr. Brown nose pharmacists comments I call it what it is. Pharmacists need to unite and fight if they want to preserve any dignity left in our profession! http://www.uspha.co/ Please like and share link if you care for our profession!
Peon–WMT & CVS–how many scripts/hr=1 hr tech. It is all about work load and what metrics are looked at. Expectations might be quite different!
CVS technicians in a certain Central PA store will do anything to secure their jobs and special schedules….. This includes calling the Cvs snitch line or running to the Pharmacy Supervisor. The Pharmacists in this store did not get raises this year, but the techs will get a 2% raise. Only a few make a a decent wage so in order to maintain they will go along with the Suits.
New hires start at 8.50 per hour and leave as soon as they have a little experience to go elsewhere. The Burger King across the parking lot starts at 11.50 per hour…. I guess this is because of the drive thru. I too have heard of a form that tech’s use to rat out the RPH’s every move and I am very close to getting my hands on it.
I work in Oregon. I am wondering when/if we will see some pharmacists start to push back against their employers. Most of my colleagues were too scared or apathetic to even send in public comment on the rule that is now in place.
I am ready to document pushing by the nonRph management.
RE: The CVS RPh. are you sure that is not a corp. snoop? I can not name 1 CVS pharmacist that loves their job. Too little help, to many long hours, too many metrics, too many non pharmacy MBA’s making policies!!!!!
@Peon: It has nothing to do with poorly managed stores!! It is about to little help!! CVS expects 2 people to handle 5 work areas (drop off, production, QA, pick up & drive thru!!! The pharmacist is expected to do QA as well as help with all other areas. If the store is a busy one they might allow 2 techs & 1 cashier with Rph. Its all about # of scripts!!!
Another problem with CVS appears to be a lack of floaters!! Try to get a sick day @ CVS!! You are told open up & work till we find a replacement!! REALLY!! This is how CVS treats their R.Ph.s. Try working with a migraine or the stomach flu or any ailment!!! Is that promoting patient safety? Never mind the message it sends to its employees.
I must add the computer system is lousy. It is better than Rx 2000, but it still sucks! It is slow & crashes regularly. They keep adding more metrics & programs to it & I think it is overloaded & antiquated. With all the money CVS has one would think a functional system would be a priority.
I must a agree with the individual I believe to be a corp. snoop,though, I do love my techs. I wish CVS would pay them what they are worth!!! A mere $9-10 per hour is not enough for all they do!
What amazes me.. as I go around from corp Rx dept to corp Rx dept.. they have all of this electronic systems in place and none have a simple – inexpensive(~ $2000) – electric tablet counter. Like http://www.rxcount.com/
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I had one of these types of machines in my store in the late ’70… before I had a computer.
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The last pharmacy that I was PIC at .. I talked them into putting one of these in place and it allow me to stall of hiring a second tech.. long enough that it was paid several times over…. and then we still had it to expedite things…think double counting 120 controls doses for a Rx.
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Of course, the computer system that I had to deal with.. was chosen by the pres of the corporate .. who was a CPA and liked the A/R function of this particular Rx software.
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The ironic thing was the business format of this place was nearly 100% Medicaid.. so the A/R function was used for < 1% of store's volume.
unhappy pharmacist, from all the folks talking about how bad CVS is, I pretty much expected it was something chain wide and not just a store issue with pharmacy managers. Glad you clarified this.
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Steve, you mentioned those tablet counters. Yes, what in the heck happened to them. We have techs counting all these tablets, but why?
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Wal-Mart started about a year ago with all sorts of metrics. One tech got upset yesterday because she showed up on a report as being slow at inputting. The poor girl is part time, has been off to college, and she has come back to work a bit rusty. However, she does a very good job inputting. I will take accuracy over speed any day! The problem with all these metrics is that they don’t apply in the real world of pharmacy. For instance, we had a cashier leave for lunch and not come back to work until the next day. What do you think that did to our metrics that day because our techs were having to stop what they were doing and go to the cash register? Ok, I get behind on checking prescriptions because I am trying to get a rx paid by an insurance company for a sick old lady. Where are the metrics to measure this? There is a lot we do to which no metrics can be applied. This is the way it is in the REAL PHARMACY WORLD. Maybe we should all send a letter to our home offices to inform those MBA idiots that they are clueless about the real pharmacy world.
That is what I like about working in LTC.. there is a whole dept that handles billing issues… they monitor the billing hang up ques and take care of them.. The only time that I have to even look at the ques is when we are finishing up a run and need to figure out how long it will be before billing will have their job done.. The the nursing homes.. if they get pushy about why the med is not coming out as fast as they want.. all we have to do is tell them… we can bill the facility for it… that usually puts things back in perspective and when billing gets their job done.. they get their job done… and the med will go out then..
Retail pharmacy, when it comes to insurance cards, has gotten crazy. Half of the people that come to the pharmacy either don’t have their card or have an old card. Then, there are insurance companies that suddenly change the group numbers and never inform the patient.
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I had a woman yesterday, from out of state, and she could not find her pharmacy card and kept trying to tell the tech that her medical insurance card was the right card, but it had none of the info we needed. Then, she said that we could call Walgreen’s and get the info. I let her know quickly that we did not call Walgreens to get insurance info. Geez!
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After all these years, why don’t patients have insurance cards that are like bank atm cards that we can simply scan their info into our computers? Is this not ridiculous? All these chains that seem to want to apply all sorts of metrics to us about how fast we do our job should FORCE the insurance companies to provide those atm type cards to patients and we should have scanners to scan those cards. Now, that would really be a time saver!!! And, why not just have a policy…no insurance card then you pay cash? We don’t play nurse maid to you.
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When these chains negotiate contracts with the insurance companies, why don’t they stipulate that the insurance company must provide patients with the atm type cards?
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Pharmacist Bobb, at Wal-Mart, our tech help is not based on rx’s per hour but on the amount of money we are allowed for payroll and this is based on a percentage of overall sales. I will say this about Wal-Mart, they do allow enough payroll to have adequate help.
Sick days.
When you are sick do not let them intimidate you . I had a DM tell me to open up and he would find someone for me. He didn’t.I was in pain when throwing out my back. The DM told me I could have an extra tech since I could hardly walk. I showed up and the extra
tech never showed up.
Now if I am sick I call in and stay home. If my partner is sick I let the DM know I am not
available. It is the DMs job to schedule. I am not going to die behind a pharmacy counter
so I dont have to inconvenience the DM.
Some bloggers complain that their DMs are not pharmacists. Most of my DMs were pharmacists and most of them were jerks. The less I saw of them the better I liked it.
MSDEMEANOR,it is an old game….they try to prod on work ethics. They say they have no one to replace you at this time. If you are sick and don’t feel like working, call in sick! It is just a freaking job and not some life or death situation. If you work for a chain, you don’t own the store and, even if they say you are the pharmacy manager, you are not the manager. You are just a freaking employee barely above a share cropper in the old South. You work for the money. It is not your business. If you get a bonus, I am sure it is a misers amount as compared to the money the chain rakes in. Don’t kill yourself nor damage your health for some freaking corporation that will throw you to the wolves at the first chance they get.
@Peon
You are right…at CVS all the only thing a PIC gets is to be the fall guy for an extra ~$1 an hour…no real power or authority…just do what you are told…and the bonuses are lame too…I might be able to purchase a few packs of gum with the bonuses we get…stock options we are given suck…while we work our asses off and the store rakes in millions for the company…
Anyone know what happened to all the floaters for CVS??
McPharmacist you are so right!! Why anyone would be PIC for CVS is beyond my comprehension!!!
CVS cut Pharmacist hours to the bare bone. Floaters that were working 24- 30 per week are now lucky if they see 8 hours a pay period. A few hungry young guys (full-time) work 12 days straight at 12-13 hours per shift with one day off and then do it all over again. One young guy ran under a truck on interstate 81 in PA after doing one of these long runs. A tired Pharmacist is a dangerous Pharmacist …. to himself and the patient.
Whistleblower, i figured something like that had occured! Its explains why they have so many coverage issues. They have no bodies to cover sick or vacation days,
I have to disagree with some of the talk here. I work for CVS and I do love my job. Is it stressful at times? You better believe it, but I don’t know a job anywhere that is not stressful.
I have never heard of any form to evaluate or snitch on pharmacists. The only thing that is close to that was one district manager did have evaluation forms that he had pharmacists fill out on floaters. It was not a whole company thing just something that this manager wanted to do.
I do love SOME of my techs, I inherited most of them and being in a store where the techs are unionized means the slackers are hard to get rid of. Those that preform are stuck with the same crappy raise that those that don’t work hard get. Nothing is merit based its all based on equal pay even of the work level is vastly different. This is something to think about before calling for unionization etc. I got a very nice bonus this year because I was seen as “exceeding expectation.” I think the rating is well deserved compared to other that I know have just met expectations and there for received a small bonus.
As far as technician pay, CVS, Walmart, Walgreens, etc all pay what the market value is. If these people could find higher paying jobs they should. If any company pays less than the market value they will lose employees with high skill levels. I have a few techs that complain all the time about not being paid more to which I always think if you “should” be paid more find the job that will pay more and prove you are “worth” more.