Monday, December 07, 2009

The Editor Of Pharmacy Times Has It All Figured Out.

From the mailbag:
I am at the end of my rope....as if we aren't overworked our tech hours just got cut by 10! That's about 7%....going into the flu season...are they out of their fucking minds? I truly don't understand how they expect employees to provide any customer service let alone good customer service when we are exhausted and feel completely screwed over. I am looking to switch to anywhere that does less than 1000 rxs a week. I am a quitter...I have been beat. God I hate retail and people, not necessarily in that order.
Thank you for your stories to remind me that I am not alone!

That comment came in awhile back, but in a sense I've been getting it ever since I started my little blog garden. I'm never surprised to read about the working conditions out there, but I am surprised at the number of times I see something along the lines of "I thought I was all alone"

You are not all alone. It's not just your store. It's not just your chain. The profession of pharmacy is on fire and will collapse soon if something doesn't change.

Fred Eckel knows you're not alone as well. He's the editor of the trade magazine Pharmacy Times and he's got the problem all figured out. Here's a snipit from his October Editor's Note column:

On occasion I talk to a pharmacist who has been working for a while and doesn’t feel good about being a pharmacist. He expresses disappointment about choosing pharmacy as a career, wouldn’t do it again, and doesn’t want his children to be pharmacists. Because I personally have really enjoyed being a pharmacist, I wonder whether those disappointed in pharmacy would be disappointed in most jobs. Is the problem more in their attitude rather than in the pharmacy profession?

So Fred Eckel has declared, while sitting on his perch at the University of North Carolina, that the problem in the profession is.....you.

Let me tell you something Fred Eckel. When you get a thousand prescriptions out the door in a day I'll listen to what the fuck you have to say.

But it's not about getting prescriptions out the door the pompous little egghead says:

The days of count and pour, lick and stick pharmacy are going away. Pharmacists who delegate this role to technology or others so that they can help patients make the best use of their medications will be what society needs from their pharmacist. And if that is not why you wanted to become a pharmacist, then maybe you need to rethink why you are a pharmacist.

Huh. So evidently Fred Eckel wants you to have a little conversation with your District Manager that would go something like this:

District manager: We had a compliant about a lady who was very upset you did not leave the pharmacy and personally show her where the milk was.

"Excuse me, I was in the middle of figuring out the correct warfarin dose for a patient based on INR lab data. The days of count and pour, lick and stick are over. So I won't be doing any of those things anymore. I read In Pharmacy Times that it is my sole role to help patients make the best use of their medications"

District Manager: You're fired.

I hate to tell you this Fred Eckel, but no one is paying for anything other than to get the right med to the right patient. At the rate of around $1.50 per prescription for most insurance companies. Do you think that maybe that's what the problem is? Maybe that's why pharmacies have become places that need to crank out five or six hundred prescriptions a day while cutting tech hours? And expecting seven hundred a day next year? After another round of tech hour cuts? Places that give absolutely NO thought to patient care other than creating a little OBRA checkbox to cover our legal asses because patient care doesn't even pay $1.50?

No, of course not. It's all our fault. Because individual pharmacists have so much fucking control over the forces that have painted the profession into the one dollar dispensing fee and four dollar full retail price generic corner. It's certainly not the fault of any of the retail pharmacy corporations that sit on the Board of Advisors to Pharmacy Times and set the working conditions for the profession, now is it?

The whole problem is we just don't want to help patients.

You fucking prick.

19 comments:

CD Covington said...

Ha. I went to UNC. Fred and Steve (his son) teach a class on being pharmacists or some shit (I never took it; I think it was called "pharmacy practice"). One of my friends who took the class said that one of the Eckels said you were absolutely unprofessional if you wanted to spend any time doing anything for yourself. Like, I don't know, sleeping. Or spending time with your spouse/SO/children.

To which I just gotta say, fuck. that. shit.

UNC wants to turn out hospital pharmacists and go-getters and faculty. They feed you all this crap about patient education in pharmacies, which we, even as 1st or 2nd year students, knew was a load of bunk. Sure, maybe in a small-town pharmacy or independents, but most jobs are in retail chains! None of us are going to be doing any of that crap.

I'm glad I went there; I got a damn good education. Pity I don't use half of it.

Anonymous said...

I have been beat as well. I want out but am trapped. You are the man and the true voice for the profession. Lets get a posse together and go get this little prick. We could force him to work in your pharmacy for a month and then see what kind of an editorial he writes.

Keep spreading the truth my friend. We are listening.

misbehavis said...

And sadly, if that was in your inbox for a while, chances are tech hours at the writer's location have been cut again since that was sent to you. It's not just tech hours. The store staff where I am has been cut to the bare minimum so that no one else is working to show that little old lady the milk. I am confined to a location where little old lady can always find me and ask me where stuff is. Shoplifters are well aware that my understaffed store exists for their shelf sweeping desires. Who is there to stop them? The hour cuts are costing far more money than they are saving. The "consolation" we are getting in my district when hours get cut repeatedly is something like this, "you know, once Christmas is over and the stores have raked in huge profit on crappy plastic toys and stinky drugstore perfumes I bet they will reward us by giving us more hours." Bullshit. We should have the staff to do our jobs in pharmacy and front end all year.

Anonymous said...

Thank you DrugMonkey!

Anonymous said...

the likes of Fred Eckel is a the reason the profession of pharmacy has gone to the crapper.

reimbursement that is below your cost?? not a peep from these people...but they are quick to attack their colleges that speak up. nice.

Anonymous said...

I think you should send this to Mr. Eckel.

Anonymous said...

I have been a pharmacist for a long while--but most of the time was spent in hospitals and management. I have been in retail about nine years. It has only gotten worse. More prescriptions have to be filled with less people and for less reimbursement. How can anyone expect to make a profit when they get $4 for a prescription which was filled by a pharmacist getting over $50 dollars an hour? It doesn't add up. Does Mr. Eckel really think we are really going to be paid to just consult or help patient with their meds? How much time does he really think we have to devote to teaching patients? I think he needs to spend some time in a Wal-Mart or Walgreens and they tell us why we are not satisfied with our profession.

Anonymous said...

Fred E. has been saying this kind of shit since 1971 when I had his course at UNC. The first comment hit the nail on the head. Jim McAllister also has a monthly colume in the same birdcage floor. So far as I know, he's never worked a day in retail either.

Anonymous said...

Fred Eckel is full of $hit. I'm
lucky that the pharmacy I fill
my rxs at doesn't appear to have
the problems discussed, but I'm
just a know-nothing customer. The
only real complaint is that their
usual generic brand is Mylan,
probably the suckiest generic mfr
in the world.

Amylou said...

I don't know how anyone can work retail without going insane. This is EXACTLY why I work hospital pharmacy. Yes, I do get my ass kicked quite frequently, but at least I feel supported by our pharmacy administrators. I hope the pay in retail is higher, because you deserve it.

Anonymous said...

That guy doesn't have a clue. As a pharmacist I spend more time working the (double) drive thru window than I do counseling patients.

Anonymous said...

Thanks drugmonkey...that was my comment you posted and your column is EXACTLY why I stopped reading those crappy ass magazines (OK I still read the articles on drugs but I bypass all editorial and MTM crap). They are so out of touch with reality! When I did read them I would start to wonder "Are there really pharmacists out there who have time to do this?"

This asshole would probably try to make me feel guilty for leaving the profession, which is planned for approximately 3 years from now...but when I leave I will never look back....EVER! I would love to meet him face to face when I am happy in my new job---which has nothing to do with people or corporations----and then spit on him! What a DICK!!!

And no my tech help hasn't been cut again but guess what--we are now supposed to check scripts for other stores--previous expectation 200 rxs/week, new expectation 500 (yes FIVE hundred) with NO additional tech help and we are still supposed to have a wait time of less than 15 minutes AND do 1 Pneumonia shot per day.,because we care about our customers health---unless you read the other email where we are supposed to increase sales of cigarettes by 50%--then I guess we see the real motive--MONEY! ASSHOLES!

misbehavis said...

Hi Anon, I think we work for the same corp in the same district. They just upped remote verify requirement from 200 to 500 rxs per week. Do you know how much time it takes me to correct errors that got past the remote verifying pharmacist? Sometimes they are minor, sometimes scarey, but no matter what, my customers trust me, to get them the right drug, dose, direction, etc and 99.99% of them have no idea that their Rx can get into their hands without me ever laying eyes on it, except to look at the pill in the vial and match it to a picture on the screen. We all spend all our time checking for other stores and may not even see Rxs for our own patients actually in our location. Regardless of proper "workflow" I double check every hard copy when I check the product, (hence slowing down the process) and I've started keeping a tally of Rxs that got past the remote verify wrong. I think I am labeled by the DM as a problem child because I am not quiet about ignoring the corporate games in favor of getting things right. So what if I'm not #1 remote verification? I'm not here to play games. I'm here to work.

misbehavis said...

Oh yeah, and I laughed out loud when I read the e-mail about one pneumo shot a day! I am so not playing that game. Not to mention, all the patients who wanted a pneumo shot when they got their flu shots (thank god that's over) were not eligible because they got a pneumo shot last year.

Anonymous said...

Fred is a douche, his ilk are all douches, all of those jackasses who travel to the pharmacy school making their declarations are douches. I actually love practicing pharmacy on those occasions where I get to do it, but I spend most of my days just hoping I haven't killed someone or let something go by me that will cost me my license.

I also read that article he wrote and wanted to punch that fuck-face in the throat. God help you if you went into this profession because you wanted to help people...

Anonymous said...

misbehavis---Again glad to know I am not alone, I use the view rx on every script, and I have found way too many errors. I only work part time and have tried to convince my 2 partners to do this as well, but they don't think they are ultimately responsible and feel to overwhelmed to add the extra time. I think they may be changing their minds, they are now screen printing all the rxs they cancel because of inadequate info from the remote store (lack of dob, first initials only for patient name, no phone for md). I think they should be using this time to view rxs for our patient's safety. The boss was in this week because we are an underperforming store. He couldn't find anything wrong with our workflow or offer any suggestions on HOW we could F4 more but just said we need to do it. Peter Principle at work!

I, too, am ignoring the Preumonia crap as well as the tell every patient about the PSC or they'll get 5 bucks--not my money,not my program and I get nothing in return.

My New Year's Resolution---new job!

Anon somewhere in the Tri state area

Anonymous said...

I am amazed by what pharmacists have to deal with every day. I have watched and have seen that working in the fishbowl that is retail pharmacy is insane. You deserve every red penny that you get. I've seen academicians who are completely out of touch with the day to day reality, but this guy sounds like a real gem. Blame the guy/girl in the trenches for whatever goes wrong.

Robin Fonner Andersen said...

the Pharmacy Tech mag says the same stuff. I complained about a lame poem (2 pages!) about the joy of being a retail pharm tech and got blasted by the editor of the mag. He told me I should reconsider my job and do something else. And he refunded me the money for the subscription...but sheesh, have these people ever work retail? I haven't for quite a while but I can see it's a lot worse than when I did...

Anonymous said...

You folks seem to love to hear from those who confirm your beliefs. I am a pharmacist and have worked in retail, hospital, nursing home, and academia. Guess what, the attitudes of pharmacists ARE in part to blame for this misery. The problem is that it starts before they walk in to pharmacy school. They believe that truly all they need is a degree to let them cash a 6 figure paycheck. They complain about learning therapeutics they think they will never use. They don't care where the profession is going. They don't get involved in associations at any level and think CE is only valuable for the free food. There are only two ways out of the mess. Get more education or find something else to do.