"I thought I was too jaded to get excited by something like this, but I've got to admit it lights a fire under my balls to think a state board might have the cajones to step into the ring with any of the big retail chains." So says the alert reader who forwarded this copy of a survey sent out by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy. We shall see.........
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Please take a few minutes to fill out this opinion survey on pharmacy closing rules. The Iowa Board of Pharmacy
welcomes your feedback and your answers will be kept confidential. Thank you for your participation.
All responses will remain anonymous and will only be reported in the aggregate.
Do certain pharmacy business practices (such as 15-minute prescription guarantees, incentive coupons to
transfer prescriptions, quotas on # of prescriptions dispensed and time to complete DUR, and pharmacist/
technician staff cuts) interfere with the pharmacist's ability to serve as the safety net in the medication use
process?
Should boards of pharmacy set a rate for maximum average number of prescriptions dispensed per
pharmacist per hour?
Should boards of pharmacy require that individual pharmacies/pharmacists-in-charge determine and
document, in policy, a pharmacy-specific maximum average number of prescriptions dispensed per
pharmacist per hour?
If yes, should the pharmacy/PIC be required to regularly monitor that rate and make staffing adjustments as
needed to comply with their own policy?
Should pharmacy companies be allowed to offer incentives (such as coupons and other promotions) to
encourage customers to transfer prescriptions?
Should pharmacy companies be allowed to advertise guarantees on the amount of time in which
prescriptions will be dispensed?
Should pharmacy companies be allowed to set quotas or time limits on the amount of time it takes a
pharmacist to perform patient care responsibilities, such as DUR and patient counseling?
Agree/Disagree
Advertising or soliciting for patronage is not in the public interest and is a grounds for discipline if it offers
bonuses or inducements in any form other than a discount or reduction in an established fee or price for a
professional service or product.
Agree/Disagree
A pharmacy shall not guarantee, promise, advertise, or in any way promote the dispensing of a prescription
within a specified time limit or period that would jeopardize the health, safety, and welfare of the patient or
the ability of the pharmacist to complete the pharmacist's professional responsibilities including, but not
limited to, drug use review, patient counseling, and verification of the accuracy of the prescription.
Describe your typical workload in the pharmacy:
Do working conditions adversely impact your ability to practice pharmacy safely?
How long is your typical work shift?
Indicate time period in hours:
Do you receive a break during your shift?
If yes, indicate length of break in minutes:
Should pharmacies have a required meal break for pharmacy staff?
Should pharmacies have policies regarding workload?
Should pharmacies have policies regarding working conditions?
Should pharmacies have policies regarding maximum work shifts?
If yes, should pharmacies have a specified maximum shift for pharmacists?
What type of practice setting do you work in?
Mail (or fax) completed surveys to:
Iowa Board of Pharmacy
400 SW Eighth Street, Suite E
Des Moines, IA 50309-4688
FAX: 515-281-4609
http://www.iowa.gov/ibpe/index.htm
15 comments:
Way to go Iowa. I wish we could all vote!
Nice to know a state board is actually doing something to help pharmacists in order to protect patients/customers. If not doing, then acknowledging the problem.
Probably did more for Iowa pharmacists than APhA.
It is just a survey and may end up as the usual do nothing. I can't get excited until something is actual done.
Wow, I'll bet the big boyz are already lining up the local shysters to watch this one. Good for the Iowegians (Iowians?)..the Pharmacy board of Iowa....so long as they don't cook the results and release them ASAP
Blackjack
As a pharmacist in their state to the south... my answers would be as follows (as I would expect them to be from anyone in my chain, since I have one of the easiest workloads in my market comprised of ~120 stores)
1. Emphatic yes
2. It's a good idea, but not necessary
3. Probably not, due to the huge disparity in pharmacist ability. (I can do a helluva lot more than the old fucks that work for my company just as safely if not moreso)
4. Staffing adjustments with regard to prescription volume should be obvious, making it mandatory per the state indicates gross incompetence by the management of said pharmacy chain
5. Sure, if any other company can advertise and offer coupons, why not pharmacy, however, there should be some type of limitation regarding coupon shopping and transferring prescriptions multiple times between pharmacies.
6. Do any of the pharmacists who respect themselves and their profession need to answer this question? Would you like fries with that metformin?
7. Any time limit imposed on DUR and patient counseling should be mirrored in the pharmacist's participation in any lawsuit resulting from said time limit.
8. See answer 7
9. 60 - 230 Rx per day, 150 avg.
10. Luckily, no. My fellow pharmacists in larger volume stores would say yes 95% of the time.
11. 8-10 hours
12. No breaks are guaranteed, but on reasonable weekdays when more than 1 pharmacist works that day, 15-30 minutes may be experienced.
13. Required meal breaks should be considered normal, it is a shame that they are a luxury for some states/companies.
14. I see no reason why a company shouldn't have reasonable workload requirements as it prevents old farts and lazy people from making the rest of us look bad, however, there is too much flexibility with the word "reasonable."
15. I thought that was what OSHA was for.... I'm pretty sure my pharmacy is air conditioned and "reasonably" staffed.
16. Yes, I think anything more than 12-14 hours can only lead to endangerment of the public that patronizes said pharmacy. Personally, I get sleepy after 10...
17. I work in a chain pharmacy with "sophisticated new technology" that has the most 24 hour pharmacies in the nation. Thank god I'm in one of the slow ones. Those busy ones are dangerous.
Although I'm from Canada I must say I admire the Cajones on the Iowa state board. Maybe this type of thing will come north of the boarder.
(I'm not holding my breath)
hey "Spiro" what's your problem man!! another prick "hot shot" pharmacist (nerd) who thinks he's cool cause he can fill more rxs than old man Joe, who's been at it for 50 years. Big effing deal. Why would you be afraid of "looking bad" to your company, don't you realize you're just a license on their wall, ya wanna be DM one day? And when you do make that big mistake; and you will !! (while you're working at your lightening speed) they will throw you to the dogs. Also, there are NO LAZY PEOPLE working in chain pharmacies, this is an oxy..MORON! Also, do physical therapists offer competitor transfer coupons??! Also your #4 is absurd!! Yes, staff adjustment is OBVIOUS, and making it mandatory per the state DOES indicate gross incompetence by the management of the pharmacy which is and has always been GROSSLY INCOMPETENT. Clueless
Question #1 fails to mention 30 second time limits for answering phones. Responding to incoming calls in rapid succession just does wonders for your concentration when double checking, say, a steroid taper for some cute little 5 year old on the other side of the counter.
Texting while driving is illegal in many states. The resulting "inattention blindness" appears to be as deadly as drunk driving.
Why should working conditions that overload pharmacists with distractions and interruptions be treated any differently?
aHA! I knew you had to be from the Midwest! Council Bluffs, IA probably considering you mentioned NE in a previous post. Also, means you're probably a grad of Creighton or UNO (eww).
/UMKC SoP 2015
I actually know a little bit of how this started. A Walgreens pharmacist in Iowa wrote a letter of complaint about the company's practices after they began "workload balancing," which meant that prescriptions were open for data entry, DUR, etc. to all the stores in the area. It was first pushed through the board on an "emergency" basis to help cope with the massive flooding in June of 2008, and then that "successful trial run" was the basis of the argument used to keep it around afterward.
There was a huge push for the "slower" stores to take the workload from the busier stores (to the point that there was a minimum amount of work you were supposed to do or it would negatively impact the performance review/bonus). There was also a maximum amount of data entry errors techs could have, which was monitored pretty closely. Several problems arose, not the least of which was that there were techs calling pharmacists from other stores and screaming at them for flagging "errors" they didn't agree with. Different pharmacies had slightly different ways of doing things, and that became apparent very quickly.
The pharmacist who wrote the letter believed he was being pushed to approve prescriptions that he didn't believe were accurate or complete, and that staffing issues were spreading the pharmacists dangerously thin. The state board actually did come into a few stores and investigate, and I strongly suspect that this survey is part of what is coming out of that. It's been a while since I've been in a Walgreens pharmacy, so I'm not sure of the status of workload balancing, but last I knew it was still in place. The only change I ever saw being made was that class II narcotics could only be handled by the store in which the prescription was received.
In the meantime, all other prescriptions could be entered into the system and reviewed by a pharmacist in a totally different city, which means it was often sitting on your printer and waiting to be filled before anyone in the store even knew about it. You'll have to decide for yourselves how you feel about that.
I cannot decide if I am an old fart or fartess, but to the arrogant twerp who thinks he is better than every one else...good luck in life with that attitude. You will find out that karma is a bitch.
i work for walgreens and love workload balancing! i've worked in busy high volume urban stores and lower (13 rxs per day SLOW) rural stores. workload balancing allowing the computer to automatically route prescriptions (based on customer needs and promised time) to the next available tech or pharmacist (depending on what status the rx is in). this allow me the pharmacist at the busy store to step away from the bench and talk to my customers and not have to worry that the whole pharmacy's filling process will come to a halt because i needed 15 to 20 minutes with a customer for a shot shot or a BP check. until you have worked with the system for a while, it may seem strange or confusing but the system works well.
walgreens expects every pharmacist to meet a standard checking rate and will offer retraining or help if the pharmacist repeatedly doesn't meet the standard. but the standard it set store by store, district by district based on your store's volume and what all the other pharmacists in your area average. you are only compared to your pairs in your district and their is no set "minimum/ must have" # and every rx has the option to "send it back" or cancel if the pharmacist doesn't want to check it.
I will absolutely guarantee that any RPh routinely using send it back or cancel is getting "talked" to by their DM. Regardless how busy their store is. I overheard a DM's conference call (he put the call on speaker phone) where the mother ship was talking about how the busier stores would actually be doing MORE of the workload balancing Rx's. Reason being they are better at managing their Rx work flow. Your reward for being efficient isn't a respite to collect yourself. Instead you get to pick up the slack for someone who can't/won't take care of there own business.
We should all forward this survey to our own respective boards along with a letter asking them when they are going to pay this much attention to their responsibilities. My letter will go out tomorrow.
Thanks DM!
OMFG...I wanna move to Iowa! Next up - mail order pharmacies...even worse than chains on unrealistic and dangerous Pharmacist productivity quotas.
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