Reportedly this was spotted on a pharmacy wall/door at a CVS Health Pharmacy
Longer wait lines ???
More stressed out staff ??
More med errors ???
Health is everything ???
Filed under: General Problems
At least third year in a row for staffing cuts starting out a new year.
Posted on December 12, 2014 by Pharmaciststeve
It is my understanding that it is the pharmacist’s job to ensure that the environment is “safe” and if that means staffing to meet those needs then it is your obligation to do so. In my law class, my professor (the author of our state pharmacy law’s) told us a story about a pharmacist he knew that worked in an environment that was not staffed properly and he had repeatedly gone back to the corporate office telling them he needed more tech hours which they constantly ignored. So the error occurs, a patient dies, and now his license is on the line, and the board says to him that since he admitted he was “aware” of the unsafe working conditions and did nothing about it (as he is obligated to do) that falls under negligence and the pharmacist lost his license. It seems to me that if all of us CVS (and other big box retail) pharmacists would staff the way we feel is necessary, any sort of disciplinary action against us could be won in court ???
Here is a recent job posting that I posted about https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=8744 I know that the state of Indiana has taken the term “Pharmacist in Charge” (PIC) out of the practice act and replaced it with “Responsible Pharmacist”.. if you look at http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2008-12-30-pharmacies-boards-mistakes-prescriptions_N.htm you will see that the majority of BOP’s are stacked with non-practicing corporate pharmacists.. now with the growing surplus of RPH’s there are a number of “bodies/licenses” waiting to take the place of the RPh that gets castrated because they caved to the demands of the corporation and accepted the totally inadequate staffing levels.. 10-15 years ago.. when there was 6000 RPH slots begging to be filled.. the BOP’s would just turn a blind eye to any “bad outcomes” or “bad apples”.. It would seem that the attitude was that it was better to have a “bad apple” with a license… than a unfilled job slot. IMO if that Pharmacist had engaged an attorney to send a letter to put the corporation and the BOP on notice that the work environment was dangerous and any consequences of such.. would be deliberate action of the corporation and they would be totally liable for any collateral damage. In the judicial world.. if something happens once.. it can be considered a accident.. if it happens again.. it is negligence.. If a professional employee puts the corporation on notice… it should automatically fall to being NEGLIGENT ..likewise… it would put the BOP in a difficult position.. their charge is to protect the public’s health.. I have not seen a BOP take a position other than – “we don’t have the authority to interfere with how a permit holder runs their business in regards to staffing level “
Maybe its not time to take a class action lawsuit against the corporations but pharmacist like “Simple” who don’t care about patients being hurt but just want a job~ the profession has gone to what? if you dont like the heat get out of the kitchen even though peoples lives are being threatened! Its time to say pharmacist are taking these dangerous positions knowing better all for the sake of the money! May be its time to go after the pharmacist accepting these conditions at the sake of patient safety and the chains might wake up!
Do I Understand what you just wrote? You want to take me to court Because I don’t care about patients. It is you that doesn’t care if you continue to work under the conditions you describe.
Simple pharmacist,
I feel that the chain pharmacies are a large part of the problem as does everyone involved with these issues. However, if we were to accept the premise suggested by many pharmacist’s that they have the right to operate on their own beliefs because it is their license then the pharmacist should be able to tell their employer to pound sand. The response we continually receive from the chains is that they cannot force a pharmacist to fill any rx. Both sides of this issue cannot be correct. Since many of us who have consulted with an attorney have been told that a lawsuit against the chain would be unsuccessful because the pharmacist holds the license that only leaves the pharmacist. I don’t believe that a pharmacist that obeys all the laws and verifies when required would be subject to a successful verdict. So why don’t you pharmacists concentrate on trying to determine which prescriptions are legitimate and fill all of those instead of trying to stroke your egos and try everything possible to deny properly written prescriptions?
Simple Pharmacist – what, do you live in a make believe world? Every one knows today with the surplus of pharmacists there are no jobs out there which is why pharmacist are taking whatever they can get and putting up with the strains of the corporate world regardless of the danger to patient safety. It’s also why it has become a dog eat dog world rather than a profession! If you know of all these other places to work please enlighten the rest of us! Yeah, I think the word “simple” is appropriate to the new grads – getting a job became much more important than the safety of the patient which is what is allowing corporate to get so out of control and put profits over patients. They know if you don’t tolerate the working conditions that are putting patients at risk they can always get a new grad willing to do it just for the sake of a job. Don’t worry though – each year will have more new grads and less jobs and the new grad from a few years ago will now be replaced with a newer one for less pay and more demands! The trend has started and, believe me, it is not going to stop. But with the demands of the job getting so out of control, who is going to be left hanging when some thing seriously hurts someone – guarantee you not the corporation! And you can not say the corporate environment today is a safe place to be practicing pharmacy if you can even call it that!
Caring, it seems that you care more about your pay check than your patients. Lots of friends that I know have left the corporate employment merry go round and opened their own pharmacies. They usually form a partnership with one or two others and work out of small rented spaces in medical buildings. You don’t need 20,000 sq ft to fill rx’s and sell otc’s.
My dear old grandma used to say, if you don’t like the heat in the kitchen, leave the kitchen. Translated…CVS is not the only place to work.
Sure, there are also Walgreens or RiteAid. Pss!!! They are exactly the same
Gene, it’s you that doesn’t get it. If all the disgruntled pharmacists in your city or town or whatever just got together and formed a partnership and opened their own Indy pharmacy or small chain of pharmacies you could hire some one to clean toilets. There is more to life than Wags or RA.
FYI I’ve been working for an indy compounding pharmacy for the past 1.5 years and loving it. Opening up your own place(on top of $150,000 student loans) is not as easy as it seems.
Great job, Gene (and I mean that without sarcasm.) You forgot about taking out shred, trash, recycle, dusting and vacuuming and vaccinations. The new grads will do anything to pay off the 150-200 thousand dollars of debt (even cleaning the bathroom.)
I simply skipped that part. How many hours I spent after my shifts cleaning and organizing the pharmacy – you have no idea.
This is my picture from my store. Yeah it sucks, we’re somehow supposed to get our scores up, with less people. Makes a lot of sense.
Oh and let’s not forget housekeeping duties…I recently heard from a CA RPh that was assigned to cleaning restrooms during shift..
They are looking for employees because they are chewing them up and spitting them out. The military doesn’t use and abuse as bad in the name of war. The newest technique is to get many part time employees vs full time. Actually that isn’t all that new of a tool for CVS.
Gene, sadly, this is nothing new. Our overlap was eliminated last year. 2 techs left and were never replaced. These are our busiest weeks of the year. Today, we had one pharmacist and one tech until 330p. The DM came to “observe” and reminded the pharmacist to help with the QT and QR, make PCQ calls,scan in the OV order, do cycle counts, answer the phone, help with production and pick up and (by the way) verify prescriptions. Sure, me and my left foot.
I did all that:) OV scan in the first thing in the morning(8am), then filling/verifying until 10am, then MD calls until 12:30(they actually have lunch time), 12:30-1:30 PCQ calls(all calls made while verifying RXs, generating eRXs, and fixing rejections). Then, full production,while helping the drive thru until 4pm, then getting swarmed with doctor calls until 5:30, then drive through and production, at 7pm Cycle Counts and OV order, then back to full production(and PCQ calls in between) and DT until 10pm. Overall around 500 RXs per day. And as my little 23 year old boy with high school diploma(aka Store Manager) said, if you don’t like it, we have a line of new grads willing to take your job.
Ironic because almost half the job advertised at times I’ve seen on the job boards are for CVS looking for pharmacists full time and PICS full time
Steve this is the point I’ve been trying to make.
When I started at the chain a few years ago I had an overlap(pharmacist) 2 days per week and a full staff of technicians. I could actually practice pharmacy(full counseling and medication reviews). Within a couple of years my overlaps were eliminated and my staff was cut in half, even though my prescription volume remained the same and the number of business metrics greatly increased(plus mandatory number of flu shots).