The LTC that I work for use WAGS as a back up pharmacy… when I work, I normally work the closing shift… since I am not a real “morning person”.. as far as I am concerned.. the best thing about the morning.. is that it ends at LUNCH…
For some reason, it would seem that the typical nursing home only gets admits after 18:00 and they don’t get the paperwork to the pharmacy until after 20:00.. and the phones goes off at 22:00.. when the regional -24 hr – distribution center takes over.
I don’t know exactly what WAGS is paid for providing backup service… I have heard that it is something like AWP + $10… and they bill it to the company .. just like any third party drug card.
There is a 24 hr WAGS about 2 miles from the LTCP… I always try that one first.. because the delivery staff – which is a outside firm – pays the driver a flat fee to pick up at WAGS.. doesn’t make any difference if the store is 2 miles or 12 miles.. So .. trying to be considerate of the driver’s and their pocketbook … I always try to use the closest WAGS… if they don’t have a product.. I try to find a WAGS on the way to the LTCF where the order is going… so that the driver gets paid to go the facility and to WAGS.. which is on their way… so the driver basically gets a “bonus payment” for the delivery..
I normally fax over a form with the patient label on it… and follow up a phone call in 30 minutes or so.. to make sure they have the product and how far behind they are… when the order can be picked up..
Last Tues night – the day after the holiday – the last admit of the evening was received ~ 21:30 – 21:45… 22:00 comes.. phone goes off… I log off the computer and the phone system .. as far as I knew.. the techs had everything ready to go out the back door..
Just as I turn away from my work space .. here is a tech standing with a label in hand… “we don’t have Levemir “… that was the THIRD order for insulin that night that was not in inventory … plus several other “common items”… which – IMO -should not have been out of stock…
So I thought that I would call the local WAGS and do a verbal call in for the Rx… push 1-1-0 … since that is the “doctor’s line”… and I get this “all our employees are busy.. you are next in line”.. so I throw the form on the fax machine and send it over…
For 10-15 minutes.. I hear… “all of our employees are busy.. you are next in line”… I ask one tech to call them on another line… she gets the same message.. I thought.. maybe they are screwing with me.. seeing the caller ID and did not want another order from us that night… so I called in via my cell phone… now we have three phone calls into them getting the same “we are all busy”… after 20 minutes of listening to this message… I gave the form to the delivery driver and told them to take it over to WAGS and if they had to charge the company for waiting or making a second run to retrieve the order..so be it.. I had myself and three techs… waiting around for WAGS to get “un-busy”… all on the clock !
I heard RPH’s at the other chains state that they are expected to answer the phone in SECONDS.. at this particular WAGS store… they can’t answer the “doctor’s line” in a 1/3 of a HOUR at 22:00 on a Tuesday night !
WAGS is now forming ACO’s.. to get itself aligned with the structure that Obamacare wants.. IMO – ACO’s are going to be the 21st century’s HMO’s…. imagine the kind of “service” that some of these WAGS stores will provide.. if pts are “locked” into them via the ACO?
Filed under: General Problems
Often the pharmacist is alone or with one tech. Both may be at the register and several feet from the nearest phone. Although we are supposed to pick up the phone in 20 seconds, it is impossible to do so when there is a line of impatient customers.
Here is an article that made me say “Duh”…
//japha.org/article.aspx?articleid=1686691
WAG also has a bizarre phone system that rings at the station it “thinks” it should be answered at. The one phone rings and that station’s phone, and for about 30 seconds, then it transfers it to another line. The transfer takes about 30 seconds. .If there is no answer, it transfers it back to the preferred line. So the problem is that if someone randomly signs onto a computer in the back, it can trigger that computer as a “preferred” station and calls keep getting routed and rerouted back to it. Therefore, if you are on hold for 5 minutes, there have probably been around 5 intervals of thirty second ringing, most of them in the far away back station that is probably unmanned
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I’m sure they were cutting down on spending by cutting down on techs and clerks. It was probably an RPH left by themselves.