The driveup window at the CVS I use is closed between 1:00-2:00 everyday for lunch?????????
They can't stagger lunch breaks?????
What happened to customer service??

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:


I always talked to the pharmacy interns, getting ready to graduate, and I always asked if they wouldn't mind sharing with me the amount of their student debt. I was nothing to heard of $250,000 minimum in student loan debt, over $300K and one said $425,000.

How the **** are they supposed to pay that off?????
.

The cost of pharmacy school tuition is ridiculous. When I graduated in 2003, I was the last class that could choose between a BS (5 years) or PharmD (6 years). Now, it is a 7 year program. I would have new grads work at my store who couldn’t afford to live on their own, due to their student loan debt. Making well into 6 figures and living with parents. It’s unfortunate. When I left Walgreens, they were telling new grads they could only give them 20 hours per week. Now, they’re closing stores and reducing hours left and right.

Gene, you are correct. But the change started before Boots. When Express Scripts pulled out of Walgreens network, that was over 20% of most stores pharmacy business. Staff was reduced as a result and never added back when Express Scripts came back. When your RX volume is increasing, but staffing is decreasing, something doesn’t add up.

quote:

Originally posted by Vette02:
The driveup window at the CVS I use is closed between 1:00-2:00 everyday for lunch?????????
They can't stagger lunch breaks?????
What happened to customer service??

If they’re closing, then there is most likely only 1 pharmacist on duty. A pharmacist has to be on duty to dispense medications. Even just selling the verified Rx legally requires one, at least in MO and I would assume in all states.

^^^^^^ Same here, it’s the law ^^^^^
.

I've been wondering about this myself, ever since I went to get my sole rx at CVS recently, and the pharmacy was "closed for lunch'. WTH. The most convenient time for customers and they're closed. I have never seen a pharmacy in a busy urban setting closed in the middle of the day.

I asked about it and the girl said they needed time off for lunch. Really?

The lockdown eff'ed up everything, looks like forever.

quote:

Originally posted by sse:

I asked about it and the girl said they needed time off for lunch. Really?

The lockdown eff'ed up everything, looks like forever.

So they don’t need time off for lunch? I’ll tell you, from someone who worked at a high volume store (850+ daily avg) for 12 of my 15 years and 6 of those at a store in the top 10 in volume company wide, that break is important. You’re not going to want a pharmacist verifying your prescription that has not has a break. It’s just not safe, plain and simple. This has nothing to do with the lockdown or COVID.

There are 9 Pharmacy's in my town . And it's not a big town . None of them are open late . CVS is the worst .

quote:

Originally posted by sse:
I've been wondering about this myself, ever since I went to get my sole rx at CVS recently, and the pharmacy was "closed for lunch'. WTH. The most convenient time for customers and they're closed. I have never seen a pharmacy in a busy urban setting closed in the middle of the day.

I asked about it and the girl said they needed time off for lunch. Really?

The lockdown eff'ed up everything, looks like forever.

The Walgreens pharmacy here closes from 1 till 2 for lunch .

Interesting. The young folk are 100% vested in making Tik-Thot videos, streaming “IRL”, etc bullshit. Trying to make money doing nothing or little and not wanting to work a real job.

A close friend is a Pharmacist. The standing joke used to be what is missing behind the Pharmacy counter. The answer is chairs. Administration took them away.

My wife is a pharmacist and thank god she got out of retail almost 20 years ago where she almost never got a lunch or even a break. She took a pay cut to work in a hospital as a pharmacist where there are dozens, but not at the outpatient counter, but the conditions are much better and she does a variety of tasks but still very busy. Plus our health insurance is top notch (zero deductible) and what she lost in earnings we more than saved with her health insurance.

She is 65 now but apparently they want her to stay for a few more years. She got called into the office one day last year for a couple minutes and was told "your getting a pay raise and this is now much, thanks" with no review, etc. Being extremely pleased with her raise she will be staying on for a few more years. Though not as bad as the mess in retail, it is still very challenging work for her at the hospital. I don't know about other states but here at retail stores the Pharmacist needs to go to the resister for every time a customer checks out constantly interrupting what they are trying to do and also give out shots to customers for Covid/flu/shingles/etc.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Being responsible for the Pharmacy techs has got to be the worst part of the job. The real knowledge the Pharmacist has is kept well away from the public.

Having to close for lunch indicates poor management and planning to me. If you need to give lunch breaks, you should have enough people on at that time to make it work in a staggered manner. That’s the problem with all these businesses obsessed with only the bottom line and treating workers like pieces of equipment, they run minimal staffing so this is the result.

Maybe you would like this instead?

Maybe a good start would be to stop giving injections. A roving nurse could do that on limited hours

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
Maybe a good start would be to stop giving injections. A roving nurse could do that on limited hours

My local Sam's Club was doing the roving nurse thing for injections last September and October.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Having to close for lunch indicates poor management and planning to me Having to close for lunch indicates poor management and planning to me. If you need to give lunch breaks, you should have enough people on at that time to make it work in a staggered manner. That’s the problem with all these businesses obsessed with only the bottom line and treating workers like pieces of equipment, they run minimal staffing so this is the result.

Exactly right!

There's no need to quote and refute the other responses to my comment. Of course I agree with adequate breaks for the staff, but in fifty years I've never seen the pharmacy desk at a major drug store closed for lunch.

I see a CVS pharmacy is installed at a nearby Target, will have to check and see if it is closed for an hour during the day.

I find it strange, and the only way they could get away with it is if the big competitors are doing it, too.

After high school granddaughter went to work for a local Walgreens location and after about a year they gave here the opertunity for pharmacy tech school (Walgreens footed the bill). Passed / got certified / pay raise.. This was about the time that Walgreens bought out Rite Aid.. Then shortly thereafter proceeded without warning ( or asking ) told her she would become a roving pharma tech traveling all over the state of Louisiana as needed (daily / weekly /short term ) and after she turned in receipts for expenses she would be re-imbersed after processing.....She thought about about 24hrs then told the store manager to take the job and shove it and walked out of store.. Then less than 12 hours later was hired at a local family owned pharmancy ( 1 of 5 locations) with a nice pay raise included.. been there several years now and continuing her certifications upgrades. ... And as others have stated there is a heavy workload every day.... ......And the grandaughter almost flately refuses to even enter a Walgreens store now even for non-pharmancy items.. ..............drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Having to close for lunch indicates poor management and planning to me. If you need to give lunch breaks, you should have enough people on at that time to make it work in a staggered manner. That’s the problem with all these businesses obsessed with only the bottom line and treating workers like pieces of equipment, they run minimal staffing so this is the result.

It's more complex than that, but lower volume pharmacies aren't going to add one or more pharmacists just to cover 7 lunch hours a week. Even if they wanted too there simply not close to enough pharmacists available. By law a pharmacist must be present when anyone wants to buy their prescriptions even if they are already filled and ready for sale to answer any questions and advise the patient.

Normally such overlap in schedules can be covered by part times but there are very very few pharmacists that work part time.

My wife used to just skip lunch and eat on a break but many if not most states have laws about working an eight hour shift requires a mandatory lunch and usually after working no more than five hours. Well our state got really anal about that law and she could no longer do that and huge penalties for employers who do not closely enforce that on their workers with threats of discipline for those that fail to punch in/out for lunch.

As mentioned above this is a pretty complex issue but it basically boils down to company senior managements financial decisions in contracting with PBM's that force the pharmacy operations people to staff their pharmacies at a level that is unsafe for both the patients and the staff members.

PBM's come to these pharmacies offering to "allow" their members (usually in the hundreds of thousands) to fill their prescriptions at the chain's pharmacies for low prescription reimbursement rates. Company senior management sees all of these PBM members as an opportunity to cross sell other merchandise and increase sales. In their mind if the chain refuses to take the low prescription reimbursement rates they lose access to all these PBM members. So they use the pharmacy as a loss leader and then turn around and tell the pharmacy operations management that they still have to make a profit at the reduces reimbursement rate. Realistically the only way this can be done is by reducing staffing and/or the use of technology (central fill, robotics, call centers, etc.) So what you have is an extremely understaffed pharmacy with lots of turnover, as everybody who can find a better job does so.

In regards to the closure of pharmacies for lunch, this is in some cases mandated by the states board of pharmacy and in others by pharmacy management having to do so to have any pharmacist and sometimes technicians work at a location. Imagine working 12 to 14 hour days without a lunch break or ability to even go to the bathroom in many cases. And then throw in mandatory overtime when somebody calls in sick or takes a vacation and you have nobody to fill in for them. It's a recipe for prescription errors and employee burnout.

I am surprised that we have not seen more of a unionization movement from the pharmacist over working conditions, and don't understand why it hasn't happened. Almost to a person the people working in chain and grocery store retail pharmacy right now are stressed to the max and fear making an error because of their work conditions.

Pharmacy as a career is not what it was when I graduated years ago and this is reflected in the applicants the pharmacy schools are now seeing. Many of them are having to lower their admission standards in order to graduate the number of students they feel they need to.

The answer to this is to begin regulating the Pharmacy Benefit Managers the same way we do insurance companies and demand transparency in their processes. The fact that these companies make billions and billions every year for doing very little and will not show their financials is a crime.