PHARMACIST STEVE

I’m not talking about the top 40’s song hits or the biggest box office movie of the week.

I opened up my email this morning.. to find the typical few dozen of things in my unread inbox…  Like most of you… many go directly to the “trash bin”… whittle down the “trash” from the “non-trash” and typically start from what seems the most important first…

First on the list was the monthly newsletter from The Pharmacist Activist http://www.pharmacistactivist.com/2013/March_2013.shtml

Written/published by  The newsletter is written by Daniel A. Hussar of the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

For anyone who regularly reads this newsletter… you know that Dr Hussar is no big fan of  CVS and how they function and the general work environment in the Rx dept.

The first line….

“I Quit CVS Today”

“These are the first words in an email message that I received recently from a pharmacist who became so disgusted with his experience as an employee at CVS that he took this precipitous action. His concerns include the safety of his patients, medication errors, inadequate staffing, pressure to fill more prescriptions faster, computer crashes, coercive/unauthorized refill practices, CMS sanctions, possible insurance fraud-and this is just a partial list of his concerns.”

For those of you uninitiated in the “ways of CVS “… H.I.T stands for

Harassment…. Intimidation…. Termination….

I agree with Dr Hussar’s comments 100 %… but… IMO… he failed to state/reinforce that as a RPH.. it is your license… your – as possibly your family’s – livelihood… I may be wrong.. but.. I have no memory of ever hearing about a Pharmacist losing his/her license for any reason and the permit holder suffered much more than a nuisance fine… MAYBE !

Next in my inbox I find this…

I was terminated after  XX years as a staff pharmacist with CVS. I was told, initially, that I was in violation of a federal and state law and a policy. Well, I was not breaking any laws and they claimed that it was a policy violation, which I was never able to verify. After I walked out of the office following my termination, my supervisor followed me out and apologized and offered to write a letter of recommendation, which sounds out of the ordinary. Did he know that this termination was wrongful?
I would appreciate any information you could share with me.

Later on I got another email from this FORMER CVS RPH…. “I have a neighbor across the street who also worked for CVS and may have suffered the same fate. I will speak with her, as well.”

With all the new “fresh meat” coming out of schools ready to get their licenses… the above concept came to mind.. but instead of  “killing off  the young”… it would appear that if a RPH has > 10 years service with a company and/or >50 y/o… you are “in-season”

Maybe I am wrong… but.. I know that more and more states are “at will employment”…  but… to dismiss an employee … making accusations that laws/rules/policies have been violated… without divulging which had been violated/broken…  and then offering a “good referral”… makes one sort of wonder..

What happens if — the supervisor follows thru with the letter of recommendation and it is in conflict with a verbal reference – if any – that is given to a new prospective employer by CVS ?

A  referral from HR can “kill” a consideration of hiring a applicant by saying … ” it is company’s policy to not give out verbal referrals, all I can say is this person is not eligible to be consider as  being re-hired by our company”

If this ends up being the case… could we be talking slander/liable because we are talking about a professional’s reputation.. costs could be very high on this one… depending on how the dust settles…

They may be able to employ you at will .. they may have a very narrow line to walk… after the two parties goes their separate ways…

 

Filed under: General Problems