Thursday, April 28, 2011

It's A Little Sad Opening Up The Mailbag These Days.

Of course these days "opening up the mailbag" means "checking your email" which means "glancing down at your Blackberry." And ever since my latest column in Drug Topics about Walgreen's POWER program appeared a few days ago, it seems like every time I glance down at the Blackberry there's another message from a Walgreen's pharmacist telling the same story.

We're too rushed.

I can't keep up.

They're breaking me.

It's not safe.

It's getting worse.

I read a tale today that absolutely made my hair curl, but I won't share it with you. Walgreen's is big and bad and has all the resources a multi billion dollar cash flow can put at their disposal you see, and while I'm not particularly worried about what they could do to me, I decided it's not worth risking what they might do to some poor schlep who's just trying to feed his family and needed a shoulder to cry on. Walgreen's was not amused at the appearance of the letter from one of their pharmacists that started all this, and I'm still not sure of the exact contents of the conversation they had with Drug Topics' editor.

So words that would have appeared on this page never will. Perhaps if I really wanted to share them I would go to your doctor and buy his prescription records.

That last sentence wasn't the nightly scotch kicking in. It seems as if we have a little different definition of free speech rights these days than you might remember from civics class. From yesterday's Los Angeles Times:

A Vermont law bans pharmacies from selling doctors' confidential prescription records to drug makers. Firms say they have a free-speech right to buy and sell information to market their products.

At issue is whether states can forbid pharmacies from selling to drug makers the confidential prescription records of physicians. Armed with this information, drug company salesmen have targeted doctors who are not prescribing new and costly brand-name drugs. 
A Vermont state lawyer, backed by the Obama administration, argued that no one had a 1st Amendment right to this "inside information." 
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the state was "censoring" the message of the drug company salespeople.

Thank God. If only someone would have stopped Hitler when he cut off Bayer's access to medical records in the Third Reich. I basked in the glow that surely must have been the smiles of the founding fathers beaming down from heaven as I read this story.

Then I deleted what was going to be my original post about Walgreen's. That is the state of free speech in turn of the 21st century America. Words are stopped and your prescription records are sold. And although the words "freedom of speech" appear clearly in the Constitution and the word "corporation" never does, it doesn't matter.

Because they are breaking you.

And it's getting worse.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The Fact I'm So Not Surprised Kinda Bugs Me A Little.

From The Orlando Sentinel, slogan "covering all the news we can get for free from the surveillance cameras of others"

Sanford police are looking for a man who urinated on more than 100 unopened cough-drop packages at Walgreens last week. 
The man went into the store at 2501 S. French Ave. at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday and walked to the cough-drop aisle. 
Police say the unknown man looked around, unzipped his pants and urinated on 110 packages of cough drops.

Here comes the least surprising part of the whole story:

Afterward he walked to the pharmacy and tried to fill a prescription, but didn't have the correct paperwork.


I bet Walgreen's was really mad when they had to mark those cough drops down to half price.

 

Thanks to the alert reader who tipped me to the story.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A Big, Big Highlight From A Lifetime Of Pill Counting Action.

I saw her walk down the aisle and took in the world of difference. She was radiant and glowing and with it and well. She's been a regular customer for years, and it wasn't always that way. I've seen her haggard and tired and world-weary. Once when it was obvious something was wrong I simply asked her how things were going and she burst into tears, anxious for someone to talk to. I call them "monkeywrench moments," moments when you know a person needs a good chunk of your time and you give it to them, knowing full well it's gonna throw a monkeywrench into the rest of your day. She got all the time she needed and I got a counter full of unfilled prescriptions and three phone calls on hold in return.

I've seen her battle the hold hydrocodone can put on a person and I've seen her forced to deal with mental health demons of the type I wouldn't wish on any person on this planet. Demons  I've seen destroy people close to me, so I knew exactly how tough she was, even if she didn't know it herself. To her it was just getting through one more day. A couple months ago we had a talk about the risk of weight gain versus the possible benefit of a new med. Today as she picked up a refill it was obvious the benefits were winning. I made a joke about taking all the credit.

"You really did help me." she said with a look of earnest seriousness in her eyes. "You always answered my questions and never made me feel judged. Seriously, thank you."

Those last two words were worth more than the entirety of dollars that will show up in my paycheck this year my friends. Those last two words are the profession of pharmacy. And in this world of drive through prescriptions guaranteed in 15 minutes or less, of $1.50 dispensing fees and coupons for dog food given out with every flu shot, every once in awhile, like a weed that manages to poke through a crack in an asphalt covered parking lot, you'll still have a chance to actually practice pharmacy.

Take it. Grab that chance the way a starving bear grabs a piece of raw meat. It will most likely annoy your corporate masters, but I promise you it will be worth it.

Before she left she hugged me. The only time I've ever let a customer hug me. I figured we'd both earned it.  

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

You May Have The Wrong Idea About Rite Aid's 15 Minute Prescription Guarantee.

CAMP HILL, PA- In a fictional news conference held today to counter real criticism of the company's new 15 minute prescription guarantee, John Standley, President and CEO of struggling drugstore operator Rite Aid gave a surprising explanation for the new initiative. Taking the podium half an hour late "Due to unforeseen circumstances" Standley told reporters "When organizations such as the Institute for Safe Medication Practices say things such as 'the message from pharmacy chains is clear, it's all about speed.' they miss the larger point of our plan. While there is certainly a customer service component involved, the main idea here is customer assurance. Namely, assurance that Rite Aid will stay in business long enough to successfully complete the filling of your prescription."

"Let's face it." Standley didn't add. "This place could go under any minute now. And having us close up shop while waiting for medication could range anywhere from simply inconvenient, to, in the case of a narcotic dependent customer in need of a fix, absolutely harrowing. Well that won't happen at Rite Aid. Let me give my word to everyone out there that we will close the in window at each of our stores at least a quarter of an hour before any Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, giving us time to take care of the needs of each and every person in our waiting room before we join the ash heap of business history"

"I can say this because for me, it's personal. I understand the anxiety a customer goes through in that period between dropping off a prescription and completing the register transaction. Will someone from the sheriff's office come in and start seizing assets in order to satisfy a creditor? Could a bank possibly swoop in and conduct a foreclosure? Will they have to sell off inventory in order to make the next junk bond payment? These are all very good questions. Ones of a type I sometimes ask myself while checking 5 or 6 times a night to make sure my paycheck was credited to my bank account."

"My 4.5 million dollar paycheck" He didn't say as he went on. "I got paid four and a half million dollars to lose over half a billion last year. Isn't that something?" Standley then didn't wistfully stare off into space before being interrupted by a reporter asking about the wisdom of repeating the Domino's Pizza 30 minute delivery guarantee fiasco.

"Domino's mistake was that they never put in writing that they in no way intended for their employees to shortchange safety." Standley never said. "We have made it clear in official corporate communications that we expect our pharmacists not to sacrifice accuracy in order to meet our time requirement, meaning that when one of them does and the lawsuit comes, our butts will be covered."

"Besides, we don't have any money anyway. We went over that, remember? You can't get blood out of a turnip"

When reached for comment, a spokesman for CVS laughed hysterically for five minutes.