Thursday, May 17, 2012

One Thing I've Learned About CVS Employees. They Really Seem To Hate CVS.

I mean really hate CVS. Every company has its disgruntled and malcontents, and I've found those types can be useful ones to seek out when I'm writing about drugstore shenanigans. But man, every time I put out a call for people willing to give me the skinny on these guys, I am inundated with volunteers. No other company even comes close.

And now, I don't even have to go seeking. This email from a CVS employee showed up completely unsolicited. I know every company has executives that like to play business hardball, but it's becoming clear that this company is distinguishing itself in an industry that seems to take pride in treating its employees like shit.

Of course I could be wrong. Having given space to this employee, I'll happily give more to anyone who would like to pen a rebuttal. Anyone who's itching to tell the world all the great things CVS is doing to advance the profession, or even just how they aren't as bad as the other guys.

The offer is open. There's an email link to the right of this page where it says "tell me what you think"

Without further delay, from a CVS employee. Complete and unedited.


I open this post with a quote from Hunter S. Thompson:


"In a closed society where everyone is guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."


Why do I quote Thompson when talking about CVS, or indeed any Corporate Pharmacy? Because we live in a culture that silently condones cheating and fudging to make the numbers look good. If you work in retail, you know what "The Numbers" are. If you don't, I won't waste time explaining it. If you google "Triple S" or "Key Pharmacy Metrics" you'll get it. Let me get to the heart of what's wrong with CVS's culture of numbers:


If a store is not selling enough scripts (notice I didn't say filling), getting high enough ratings on the Triple S/KPM, or their inventory is out of whack in any way - they get endless hassles from district. This forces stores to do whatever necessary to make themselves look good. Refilling scripts without asking patients, filling dubious CII scripts to make their script budgets so they can maintain staff levels, and literally stealing receipts to boost their customer survey scores. This sort of thing is ignored by the higher ups because it boosts the district's numbers, until someone blows the whistle. I've seen Pharmacists fired not because they were cheating at the scores, but because they slipped and forgot to cheat one month and made it far too obvious that they were doing so.


Notice that it wasn't a manager or district supervisor who called attention to the CVS stores in Sanford, FL who were filling ridiculous scripts for Oxycodone and other narcotics from pill mill doctors. They were tickled pink and the gobs of money that were coming out of these stores. If a technician hadn't blown the whistle and called attention to what was going on, it would still be happening and those stores would still be the most profitable ones in the area. Once it was out, CVS immediately sent emails to every store with instructions that no one at any level talks to the press. CVS associates are to forward all requests to some yahoo in the corporate PR office (Head of Media Relations or some such nonsense). Everytime we see that email, we know that something's gone wrong again for CVS somewhere in the country. We've seen that email more in the past 4 months than in the previous 2 or 3 years combined. The CEO and everyone high up in management said the same thing, "It was irresponsible of these people to accept these dubious scripts and to keep filling them. They did so in contravention of CVS policy." Policy that was quickly changed from "Fill the scripts, or you're fired!" to "We stand behind you. Don't fill scripts that you think are improper or outside the standard of care." shortly after this story hit the airwaves.


Pharmacists used to be able to simply wave these people off by saying that it was out of stock, but now that's been abolished too. The policy changed again, "You can only say you're out of stock if you are legitimately out of stock. Otherwise you have to explain to the customer that you cannot verify the script and will not be filling it because in your professional opinion..." et cetera. Why? We were never given a real reason. My theory is that it's a way of ensuring that these people end up at our competition rather than another CVS. Maybe it's some sort of reverse Honeypot trap, trying to get Walgreens or Rite-Aid to fill a pill mill script and get them nailed to the wall instead.


Going back to that earlier point, about people being fired for not filling scripts they thought were bogus? Not an exaggeration. Customers would complain to corporate and demand the Pharmacist give a full explanation why they would not fill the script. These dressing down sessions would end in a filled prescription for the patient and a gift card for their inconvenience.


The culture of numbers is to blame for the CVS stores in Sanford filling those bogus scripts. That culture is also responsible for CVS's outside vendor of scripts Cardinal Health losing the DEA license at their Lakeland warehouse for providing those stores with the narcotics. Now CVS has to appeal and fight to have those stores' DEA licenses restored. At the same time they're fighting to fix these two stores, they're going to close two completely legitimate stores in other locations that do good business for their communities.


It sucks to work for a company with such a warped sense of priorities, but what can you expect from a retail company that sees pharmacy only as a way to make money? A store doesn't make it's RX Script budget by filling scripts, but only by ringing them through the register. 'Did you fill 4500 scripts this week, while lacking two technicians? Well, you only rang 1950, so we're cutting your hours again. You'll have to let someone go. What's that? You won't be able to cope with the extra workload? I'm sure you can go somewhere else then and we'll get someone who can, and boost your store's Triple S at the same time. Bye!'





It's disgusting, and we're stuck with it.



136 comments:

Từ Thanh Giác said...

It's times like this that remind me why I left pharmacy after working for Thrifty Drug. It is a decision that I have never regretted.

Anonymous said...

"Fill the scripts, or you're fired!" to "We stand behind you. Don't fill scripts that you think are improper or outside the standard of care." shortly after this story hit the airwaves.

Funny, that very nearly sounds just like my own company right now. We went from "you must fill every oxy from a 'legitimate' doctor" to "good job Florida pharmacists for using your professional judgment!"

However, in the past, when I told patients that I wouldn't fill their RXs because my "professional judgment" spidey senses screamed that a 24 year old on 240 tablets of oxycodone 30mg a month plus 180 tablets of oxycodone 15mg a month for "breakthrough pain" wasn't proper pain management for "back pain", we got calls from irate doctors claiming slander and threatening to sue for telling their patients we wouldn't fill prescriptions from them. So now, I don't care, we're out of stock. And no, I don't know when my next shipment is coming in.

Anonymous said...

This is a true narration. I was fired by cvs after our triple S and KPM scores fell. We had an increase of 16% over the number of budgeted Rxs since Jan first. No increase in staffing was given. The day after I was fired, they placed an intern in the store to help. Nothing has changed - they are still at 29+ pages, at least 4 in (now) orange. One of the PIC's in our district signed up DEAD patients to boost his KPM's. This is the cvs culture!

Anonymous said...

Looks like I'll be hitting up CVS up this month.

Anonymous said...

As a long time CVS employee I can't think of anything good to say about it. So glad I am back in school so soon I will be able to leave.

bcmigal said...

Amen, brother or sister, amen

Anonymous said...

As far as those already snarled in the system we are "stuck with it". It remains to be seen if new arrivals to this so called profession will follow lemming like into that good night (sorry). If they do then the whole system will collapse of its own weight with the newbies at the bottom. If they push back a little then the box peddlers at corporate will adjust a little bit. If they push back a LOT and all of the book cooking...sleigh of hand...etc.gets exposed then...who knows? Why anyone with an ounce of brains would buy stock issued by these outfits is a true puzzle...probably because they are cooking their OWN books...blowing smoke etc. At the top they are all pals. So you really want to put your hard won degree to work at such a place? Then pal...you are a putz...Loup Garrou

Anonymous said...

Kroger does it to, a little worse every year.

Anonymous said...

First off, if ANYONE told me I had to fill a prescription or be fired, I would hand them my name badge and walk out and then call my lawyer. Although I never have to worry about it as my company backs me 100%. I actually have a policy in my pharmacy that we do not fill narcs from Florida as I have seen too many sketchy ones. Know what my bosses have to say about it to me? WE AGREE, be safe, don't fill them. (I am 2000 miles away from there but I still see one or two a month from FL) Guy came in yesterday saying that he was in a car accident in FL and he was from CT but has now moved to my state and had a script for 270 Oxycodone 30s...really who in their right mind would right that for someone who had a car accident and is not even from your state? Do they think I am a moron?

Pharmacists need to stand up for themselves! I do and no upper manager messes with me. I had one upper management that tried, I asked him who's name was on the pharmacy permit and the DEA permit...guess what it is MINE, not his. If he does it again we can call my board and see what they say (and I know that they will side with me because I know them all!)

Anonymous said...

Yes, CVS really is brilliant in their gangster-like approach to the retail pharmacy model. I work for'em. I have seen them at work.
To wit: Longtime neighborhood RPH fired point blank because his store got robbed! Context: Robbery was quietly brushed under rug because, as another insider told me, "this was the biggest robbery CVS has ever had." Someone had to account for a quarter million dollar loss in Oxycontin/oxycodone. The narcotic ordering process, though, was encouraged by Corporate prior to this robbery. They were saying: Put up signs saying Oxycontin may be ordered next day (as a deterrent to robbers) but keep as much as you need on hand to fill every script.

You pharmacists really need to step up collectively or the abuse will only get worse from these corporate masters. Imagine the impact if you ladies and gentlemen, all capable and hard-working, said on such-and-such-day we are not going to work, or something like that. National No Filling Prescriptions Day. Do it for yourselves and your patients. You'll get attacked of course by your supervisors but it will die down after people look into what you are protesting against: corporate interference in your professional ability and judgement. Make a goddamn declaration of independence or something. It could be tough to come together and take this stand but you have to ask yourself a question: Is it any worse than the stress/little indignities you have suffer ever day at your job?
You can die a little every day, or you can die once after it's all said and done.

Anonymous said...

Walgreens pharmacist from FL here. We are definitely not pressured by corporate to fill bad scripts however we do have a store in our district getting its DEA license taken away although they are no longer filling all the bad scripts they were before, when they were filling all these bad scripts they were getting plaques left and right for increasing volume, sales, blah blah blah, the store manager was back in the pharmacy every day helping them with the enormous volume of scripts they were doing and loving all the attention he was getting from corporate... So messed up right? On another note, My tech hours go down to zero in one week, yes that means 12 hour shifts with not one soul back there to help me or let me take a break, cant wait. And I'm pretty sure most people who work for wag hate it just as much as cvs employees hate cvs. How do we get out of this mess!?

pharmacy wonk said...

Collective action. People in every profession are asking the same questions and are just as disgusted. Wages have stagnated while corporations make more money. Every recession starts as an "unprecedented" disaster which our corporate masters didn't anticipate (again) and ends up being used to squeeze employees (reducing pay & benefits, lay-offs, increased workload) to prop up the bottom line, because, god forbid, a company actually become less profitable than last year.

Pharmacy is no different except for the details. The only solution is to unionize and fight back. But don't hold your breathe most pharmacists are far, far to timid to take this step. The evidence? This conversation. RPhs being forced by high school diploma-holding managers to fill Rx. This has NEVER happened to me because I stand up for myself not just in this situation but every time it matters. I get pissed off at every pharmacist in my district who tells me it happened to them. I don't chastise the manager (what do they know, they don't understand what we do any more than the customers), I chastise the PHARMACIST for having no spine.

Look I'm a pharmacist, too. I know the pressure. I run the busiest store in the district. And you know what? My store manager is good but I always thank her for her INPUT. I do not say yes ma'am. The managers come back and ASK (because I have made it clear thru all of our interactions that I am superior to them in ALL things not just behind the counter) and then I make the decision. And I sure as heck call the police and have my local DEA officer's card in my pocket when I see fraudulent crap.

Oh and even when I can't set up an arrest I KEEP the fake! Notice I don't say fake Rx. It's not an Rx, it's a piece of paper with no legal protections. So I keep 'em. I explain, hey this is a fake. I know it, you know it, and you can either sit and wait for the police or hit the road. And I usually do this after asking for their ID and making a copy.

Do I still fill oycodone, yeah. But it you have the cops show up or the DEA or whatever law enforcement you'll make your pharmacy an unwelcome environment for fakes/unnecessary Rxs and the number you'll see will go down.

Lots of thoughts. Love the blog, really interesting. Tear me a new one in response; let out the stress, it's therapeutic.

Crazyjane said...

As a former cvs pharmacy tech i read these kinds of things with barely contained glee. When I started working there (in 1994) it was a pretty good place to work, but it got more 'corporate' every year. After 16 years there a new pic decided that he was having no part timers anymore. I was told to put my kids in daycare or he would no longer schedule me. In the end I was glad to be let go.

Anonymous said...

How do you get out of this mess. You stand up together and say "No," in unison.

Anonymous said...

I know it's easy for me to write Fl Wag guy BUT I think you are going to have to fall on your sword on this one...It might be a good idea to make sure that the students going to these career days are made aware of what's happening because the "stretch it till it breaks...replace as needed" management theory is going to be your life. You studs actually have the chains by the cojones IF you induce so much churn into the labor pool that it becomes intolerable...i.e. hire on...quit repeat as needed.

Anonymous said...

damn. I just started as a CVS intern in CA and I honestly didn't know what I was getting into. I was getting my balls busted by my PIC on the first day for not filling fast enough. Geez, first day, new store, new placement of drugs, completely oblivious to how the system works...calm down! Also, PIC has been giving me so much crap about all these little nuances that any person new to CVS would have trouble. Even her counseling scares me. I really want to switch stores or districts after almost 4 months but I really don't know what to do since I will probably will be stuck with another one of these...

Anonymous said...

As a CVS employee, this is 100% accurate. My pharmacists are amazing but from pharmacy supervisor and up, they treat all employees like shit.

ThatDeborahGirl said...

From a patient's daughter's perspective.

If you knew the hoops my mom had to jump through to get oxycontin, maybe, just maybe you all would have some sympathy.

If I go get it, I have to show my driver's license, they take my driver's license number and I have sign for the prescription at the doctor.

If I have to work and can't go then my mom, 63 with MS goes, she has to schlep herself and her hoveround to the doctor because this prescription cannot be phoned in, it must be picked up in person.

Then she must go to Kroger because she got a letter from her insurance company saying Walgreens didn't take them anymore.

Kroger has a drive thru, but often, they too, claim not to have her prescription, which now I'm starting to see as "Pharmacist so thinks this black woman is faking a script".

And don't get me wrong, but I can't help but wonder how many of you get people of color and think "they can't be in this much pain" or "there's no way a doctor wrote this" only to be wrong.

Because there was a case like this recently. And when I think of Karen Brauer and Pharmacists for life, I can't help but think that maybe some of you are more like her and Drug Monkey's favorite Lloyd Duplantis than you might think.

My mom is 62 and has MS. She used to get by on one Vioxx a day. After Vioxx was no longer available, her pain level wen tup and her quality of living went down until she was considering selling her house and moving into an assisted living facility.

She opted to endure two operations in the same day (operate on one side then hey, flip you over) to get a medical pump for baclofen installed. And too refill that sumbeach she endures a hell of a needle through her stomach that I can't stand to watch. In addition to the baclofen dripping into her spine, she gets 3 oxycontin a day, cortisone shots for her knees quarterly and when all that fails there's Extra Strenth Tylenol and sometimes she still has take a sleeping pill when the pain and fatigue become too much to bear.

All that being said - who gives a shit if some addict gets some extra pills and pays for them? I honestly don't - not when it makes life the least iota bit harder for my mom than it already is.

Anonymous said...

Thatdeborahgirl~

The "problem" with an addict getting a few extra pills is that we are responsible for the safety of our patients when we dispense a medication to them. In addition, with each prescription that leaves the pharmacy under our watch, our pharmacist license is on the line to make sure it was legal, for a legitimate use, safe dose, etc. Personally I'm not willing to lay my license on the line for an addict....

Riann said...

CVS is the worst!!

Anonymous said...

I work for CVS unfortunately and it gets worse everyday. How corporate treats us is unprofessional. How customers treat us is like I should be wearing a big red nose, size 20 shoes, and asking if they would like to super size their order. CVS tries in every way to devalue what we do and take the profession out of pharmacy by taking the power out of our hands.

That being said we are now to "refuse" transfers to Walgreens (just them) by lying to the Walgreens pharmacist until we speak with the customer. Whatever happened to professional courtesy? What ever happened to following state law and the pharmacy boards mandates? Doesn't matter to CVS......

Anonymous said...

I love how people who don't work in pharmacy and have no idea just make generalizations about the pharmacists. Is your job on the line every day to make sure you aren't giving out bogus prescriptions. When Joe crack head comes into our pharmacy for 350 norco and whatever else and then takes it home and OD's who is going to be the one blamed. Joe's family is going to want to know why he was able to fill all those narcs and guess where they will come knocking.

Anonymous said...

I'm a CVS employee coming up on my 10 year anniversary with the company and I feel like I'm working in a completely different business than I was when I started in 2002 even though I've been at the same store. Every district manager is worse than the previous one and every new program instituted by corporate contributes further to the decay of the pharmacy profession. When a company decides that techs should stop filling prescriptions and waiting on customers to go make telemarketing calls on a daily basis, you know things are headed for disaster. Every day I have to field at least 5 calls from customers angry that their prescription was automatically refilled and I have to lie to them and tell them I'm going to take them off automatic filling: I can't because corporate yells at me every day for having not enough people enrolled. A few elderly patients even picked up automatically refilled scripts their MD didn't want them taking anymore and took them, but corporate doesn't care. It's all about money: despite the fact that, in the decade since I've started, my store has gone from filling 200 scripts a day to almost 700, we literally have the exact number of techs and RPhs we did when we were doing 200. And you're not going to believe this but it's 100% true: corporate just informed the store managers in my district that they'd have to mulch their own flower beds due to budget cuts! Yes, the 18th most profitable company on the planet (according to the Fortune 500 list released last week) simply can't afford landscaping or any more minimum wage techs. It's so disgusting. Oh well, I just keep filling out another job application every day and drink to numb the pain....

Anonymous said...

Our corporate masters are convinced that Walgreens will just transfer scripts back from us without the patients consent. Its some sort of reverse protection racket.

Anonymous said...

@ThatDeborahGirl
Here is the thing. I worked at a pharmacy that had a high volume of narcotics for patients of a variety of races. I rarely had a problem with my "regulars" but was always wary of a new customer for the reasons stated by others. I would suggest that you and your mom speak with the pharmacist and pharmacy manager at the pharmacy where you are filling her rx and see if your mom can sign a contract. Hopefully, the pharmacist will also make sure that they stock the medication she needs. A lot of drs are doing this too for patients who need chronic pain management. Also, make sure that she has something signed and on file at both the physician and the pharmacy that says that she allows her health information to be shared with you. If you have medical power of attorney that would be even better.

While reading the original pharmacist's comments, it was like reading a conversation a friend has had with me. Is this the price of doing business? To me the price got too high when WAGS lost the contract with Express Scripts and we were inundated with transfers without a real plan or increase in staff. I left retail in January. People always ask if I miss it. I miss the patients that I knew so well after 7 years, but I don't miss the corporate metrics, dm's, lack of lunch or bathroom breaks, limited tech help or none at all, and inventory management.

wiley said...

The measure of mental health is to adapt to corporate expectations, doncha know?

If I had a dollar for every time a mental health professional told me that he/she took a particular psychoactive drug...

I suspect that most pharmacists know better, or at least do some serious vetting before trying to treat the awfulness of working in such an abusive and venal environment with medication.

Because I seldom took any medication most of my life and wanted to know what I was taking when I did, I have very much appreciated the knowledge and helpfulness of pharmacists. Seeing pharmacists reduced to clerks has bothered me since I first noticed it.

Pharmacists should be much higher in the hierarchy of a medical system that so reflexively prescribes drugs for treatment and prevention. There should be a class of drugs that doctors can't prescribe without consulting a pharmacist. The same should apply for drugs that can be addictive or cause rebound and drugs used in combination with other drugs.

ThatDeborahGirl said...

The addicts are gonna get their drugs one way or another.

There has to be another way to help legit patients without treating them as badly as you do criminals.

I am very sympathetic with a pharmacists plight and workload. But I have my mom to take care of and I know what she goes through isn't just her.

There has to be a better way. It seems to me if you all fought for patients rights to not be treated like they stole something, then your workload would be easier.

Anonymous said...

"Thatdeborahgirl" just does not fucking get it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear that. Did you get a warning before it happened? I left cvs years ago bc I was always understaffed n overworked. The PIC is still there.

Anonymous said...

ThatDeborahGirl

There is no way your mother is picking her script up from the same pharmacy every month and they are still making her jump through hoops. Every pharmacy has its regular pain customers that they fill for every 30 days and don't jerk around. I'm beginning to think you are switching doctors a lot, or are going to a new pharmacy every time to get this medication.

PS. Bringing race into the argument makes you look like a tool and shows how ignorant you are.

prickly pharmacist said...

To ThatDeborahGirl:

I am very sorry for your difficulties. I retired last month and one of the reasons was our new treatment of chronic pain patients. I had to tell people that I had been filling for 20+ years that I could no longer do so because they were seeing an out of town doctor. My own husband had his morphine rx turned down by the same pharmacy he has been filling at for years because the ER was left off. Some pharmacists are just on power trips and you need to find a good one. Older pharmacists are usually more caring.

Anonymous said...

Ive been a pharmacy employee with cvs for many of years sad but true every thing your saying is 100% correct.People would not believe what goes on behind the counter.Not only a employees treated like crap employess covered under cvs insurance are forced to have there script filled at a cvs pharmacy total violation of privacy laws.

ThatDeborahGirl said...

ThatDeborahGirl

There is no way your mother is picking her script up from the same pharmacy every month and they are still making her jump through hoops. Every pharmacy has its regular pain customers that they fill for every 30 days and don't jerk around. I'm beginning to think you are switching doctors a lot, or are going to a new pharmacy every time to get this medication.

PS. Bringing race into the argument makes you look like a tool and shows how ignorant you are.



First of all, your objection to my bringing race into this shows your privilege and ignorance.

It's not like there's never been a case of a black woman dying or anything because of lack of care or someone accusing her of being an addict: http://sandrarose.com/2012/03/did-profiling-lead-to-the-death-of-a-black-woman-who-was-arrested-for-demanding-treatment/

Second of all, my mother goes to one store to get everything. She has MS you blithering idiot. She has a hoveround. She doesn't have time or the energy to go gallivanting on a pill hunt. She pics up her medications, all prescribed from the same doctor, at the same store. Every time.

Before her current store, she had been a Walgreens customer for well over 40 years. It's only because of recent changes her insurance company made that she switched at all.

You assume a lot. You assume I'm lying. You assume that no one would ever look at a black person buying oxycontin as anything other than a patient, not a pill seeker.

You assume that she deals with the same people everytime she goes to the pharmacy and that they would never "jerk her around". Mostly they don't. They simply treat her with the appalling nonchalance that makes it seem plausible to them that my 60+ mom with MS is a pill addict.

So sorry to have a different point of view from you, especiadlly as you can't seem to handle that

Mrs J said...

Hearing about how bad CVS treats their employees doesn't shock me, especially since they suck in how they treat their customers. I live in socal and the cvs here invariably has 4 or 5 staff members working and on a slow day, busy day, and in between, it takes them at least 2 hours to fill a script. I usually go to rite aid where it takes 15 min to an hour on a very very busy day but if they are out of my med i go to cvs if i can't wait for my script to be filled. I am thinking of switching and never using cvs again after hearing how they treat their pharmacists and staff. Discusting!!

Anonymous said...

as employees, we can always tell when shit has hit the fan. we receive new training material every time there is a lawsuit/settlement/news story. after the waste management issue, we had hazmat training and they instituted a new "Strong pak" program to dispose of certain things. they also took our regular trash can away. no ideas on where to put drink containers, empty cartons from birth control, cotton, or other packing material. it now accumulates on the counter until it drives someone sufficiently crazy to collects it all and throw out in the back.

after the pill mill incident, there were memos sent out. our ability to order narcotics for our patients was severely restricted.

after the privacy leak with caremark we received more emails about ensuring patients' privacy.

after an eeoc claim was filed, new training on the ada regulations was required.

pse violation? technicians are no longer able to ring up pse sales. only a pharmacist can do that. we can't sell boxes with more than 32 doses in it regardless of how much is contained per package.

we get the memo about communicating with the press so frequently, we just have it posted on the cork board permanently. now every time i'm told to do a new training course, i google the subject matter to see what fresh hell we've gotten ourselves into.

corporate has come out with a new pay scale chart. basically the longer you have been with the company, the smaller your raises will get until you can't get one at all. luckily they pay us well below industry standard so likely no one will ever reach their $35,000 per year glass ceiling. even then, you'd be at retirement age (not that you could afford to retire)

i feel like i work at innotech (from office space). in cvs land sss, kpm, and sos are my tps reports. we get infuriated when someone moves our "good" stapler. the computer randomly spits out a "throwable exception" error that causes the claim you were just working on to disappear. talk about having 8 bosses to answer to.

i just keep filling out those applications and sending them into the great beyond.

never forget though, they don't have more money to give the employees without which their business would crumble. they do, however, have a whole team that is tasked solely with trolling the internet to monitor what we say. if they're able to ascertain your identity, they'll fire you. in fact, most of their correspondence with us concludes "up to and including termination"

Anonymous said...

Its not just retail either, CVS's mail-order division is a cesspool of idiocy as well. I worked there as a technician for 3mos. before getting the hell out. Employees and customers alike are treated like mindless cattle and kicked like a dead horse. Try calling the patient for a simple question (ex. your doctor that you've seen for 10yrs wrote and Rx for a drug you've been on for 5yrs but listed your DOB as 8-30-56 but our system says 8-30-57) and can't get a hold of them after three tries? Nope, you don't get your meds! And I don't just mean narcs either, I've seen things like insulin and CellCept go ignored because the prescription "didn't meet protocol." But no matter how faked a prescription looks, as long as it has that standard name, address, DOB, and signature on there, you know that one goes straight out the door so they can get their money! I don't think there is a single plus to working for any division of CVS!

Anonymous said...

Lucky for you! Some of us work in saturated areas where pharmacists are eagerly waiting in line for our job. So we're told someone else will do what management wants if we won't and we're unemployed! The board of pharmacy does not support pharmacists the way it should. That's the problem, not us!

Anonymous said...

"who gives a shit if some addict gets some extra pills and pays for them? I honestly don't - not when it makes life the least iota bit harder for my mom than it already is."

Because when that addict overdoses and dies it's our license on the line not yours.

Anonymous said...

I wish i could get my legit...legal...script filled anyware!!!!

Anonymous said...

I really think they should put the CEOs of CVS on the Undercover Bosses show. That's probably the only thing that will make them understand why the number system doesn't make any practical sense...maybe.

Anonymous said...

To: ThatDeborahGirl - not buying the crap you're trying to sell here - whine about your momma somewhere else - she's got an expensive tax-payer provided electric scooter and should be picking up her own meds and having more pill-count sessions with the doc.

****************************************

CVS pharmacists: keep copies of every mgmt fax, e-mail, sign, or anything else you can get your hands on to nail them to the wall. Follow the regs/laws/rules in very, very strict conformity and let the patients/mgmt complain until the cows come home - screw 'em. The pharmacist on shift makes the final decision on EVERYTHING including whether a script gets filled or not - tell the DM and/or anyone else who tries to push you around to go to hell.

Anonymous said...

A Doctor in the great state of PA was arrested for trading narcs for sex. before he had his licence suspended the Rx and Lead Tech refused to accept a script from him. Dist Mgr said fill it, they needed the numbers.

Anonymous said...

I challenge all of you to look for someone previously employed by this corporation who regrets leaving/quitting.
I gave them 15 years of my service before I couldnt stand hearing "this is for your patient's best interest" any more. I would like the CEO to call someone's home and ask if an elderly person wants a nasal spray they havent filled in 6 months that DOESNT HAVE REFILLS, if they would like us to call their doctor for them so they can fill it automatically every month? Oh wait, they're dead? Thats not awkward at all. Luckily I'm sure the people in the store waiting for their rx can understand that we were too busy calling to heckle an elderly person because someone forgot to inactivate ALL the pt's RXs the LAST TIME we found out they were dead because we get yelled at for not making that special targeted % of calls made each week. Sign people up for readyfill, if they want it or not, get that % up. Hit that target. After you hit that target, you can find the 3 new targets you have to hit. Stop what you're doing, it's time for the heckle calls! "Hey this is that really tired looking guy down at the drug store, I know we called you automatically the day the rx was filled, and on day 3, and on day 7, and on day 10, but you STILL havent got it, and even though you told me all those times you dont get paid until next friday, I'm going to get yelled at if I dont document calling you on day 14. So....got any money for this nasal spray you dont need but we called your doctor and got refills because it came up on a randomly populated list of things for us to call and get rxs for or we get yelled at for not hitting our %?" What's that? You want your # taken off our list, can't do it, we get tracked by the % of completed calls we make or we'll get yelled at. Best thing ever is I would call our corporate to forcefully remove pt's #s out of the system, and I would be told it can take up to 7-10 days to take effect, and then have the patients complain to me for months later saying they still get calls. Sorry, "it's in your best interest."

I plead up the ladder. I basically get the ol' "We get calls all the time for people looking for jobs, if you think you can do better, happy trails"

With all these new pharmacy schools crapping out 200 new pharmacists into the market whether they can pass the boards on the first or 8th try, it's only a matter of time until money hungry chains change their story from "if you think you can do better..." to "we can bring in a newgrad thats $150,000 in debt that will do your job for 30,000 a year and not complain, dont let the door hit you on the way out"

My story has to hit home out there. Call it stockholm syndrome but I felt bad for leaving. I felt bad for my patients and for my staff. Now I think about how much better my life is on my lunch break, or when I'm having dinner with my family, and how less likely I am of making a major medication error because I've had to piss for the last 7 hours but cant because the people in my store dont know why it's taking me so long to get their flu shot ready. (Not to mention I am "wasting the gas" of someone at my 2nd drive thru lane for not knowing their insurance changed their group number on the card they probably threw out in the trash)

Anonymous said...

(I typed too long and had to cut my post in half)

Lastly, with regards to the little ol lady having problems with their pharmacy keeping Oxys in stock, I assure you race does not enter into the equation. Difficulty ordering, quantity limitations, keeping inventory down to avoid looking like a major payday for a robbery/burglary, and state or federal regulations on controlled substances probably factor in to your troubles. The Walgreens contract thing screwed up a lot of things, not just your mom's meds. Walgreens was trying to stand up to big cat insurance companies who continue to cut our reimbursement rates (which makes the bottom line lower, which causes payroll cuts, which make it more difficult to staff the pharmacy, which causes more problems, etc), and instead of the other chains rallying behind them, they said "hey we'll just take all WGs customers for boosting OUR bottom line!" It could even be that some other little old lady got her pain meds the day before with no problems and the pharmacy didnt have time to restock their safe. Establishing pain meds at a new pharmacy is difficult due to all the bad apples we have to wade through. See if that pharmacy can place your mom's meds onto replenishment or ask for special consideration. Trust me, people that come in when they're due and treat us with any kind of courtesy at all (extending past how you treat the person frying your eggs at Waffle House) aren't hassled at all deliberately. We want you to be happy, because we secretly wish all our patients were like you. Whether you are red green purple or polkadotted.

Moral of the story: If you tell your staff to be honest on your CVS engagement survey and not give your store 90-100%s, instead of your opinion mattering, you get yelled at by mgmt and have to come up with an action plan to "fix the problem". Hilarious

Please be nice to your local CVS pharmacist, because they're more than likely teetering on the verge of a major breakdown.
I loved your book by the way, looking forward to the next one :)

Anonymous said...

I worked for Walgreens from Sept 2010 to May 2012 as a senior certified pharm tech. When I started with the company I was a 24 hour store doing 1200+ scripts a day. When I was hired my store was supposed to hire two full time techs, and I was the only tech hired. Soon after I was hired FL pill mills where shut down. So what do the pill mills do? They move. I was in TN. Soon after the flood of pill mill scripts Oxycontin's generic form was reformulated, so we now have a huge demand and no drugs, many pissed off people, many complaints, and a horrible flu shot goal of 6500 for the season and we were no where near meeting. So in the middle of flu season and pissed off customers 40 hours of overtime where cut from my store. So now we have 5 full time techs working 37 hours and complaints rolling in and daily reminders to ask every customer to get a flu shot. In 4 weeks an additional 20 hours where cut, but shot goals and rx goals where increased. Every month until flu season was over my store was cut an additional 20 hours. So now my pharmacy is at a 2 hour wait and I have one tech besides my self and a pharmacist livid beacause he has to type, fill and check every presciption due to management and district informing us that a tech is supposed to be at drive through and front window at ALL TIMES, the pharmacists now have to do their jobs and the techs and still make sure all prescriptions are legit, and filled and entered correctly. Now imagine you are a tech telling customers who has the flu or their kid is puking hey we are going to be two hours, the regular customers understand only because the are use to it at this time. Then you have waves of pill mill pts that we have to pull their controlled substance log only to tell them no we cant fill your rx because we cant valiadate pt and md relationship, then I am screamed at until they finally decide to go some where else and waste some one elses time. My next pt is a mother who dropped her son's tamiflu rx off two hours ago and it still isnt filled because Ive been aruging with customers back to back, I now feel bad run and fill her script and go on to the next. Wainting sucks I get it but when your company only cares about their budget to make sure they get their raises every year and not these ridiculous shot and rx goals coming to work is a damn headache. Your job everyday is impossible to do and it looks like a hurricaine attacked your store

Anonymous said...

(Sorry got cut off from last comment)
and what do you get? Phones ringing that DO NOT GET ANSWERED, customers yelling at you, and managers not understanding the 40+ complaints regaurding pill mills, no oxycontin generics and crazy wait time.
Every SINGLE TIME a complaint happened the pic and myself had to spend 20 minutes we didnt have explaining, we do not have staffing, we dont have the drug, or hey this md is writing people three months of C2's at insane doses even
though they live and Flordia so they can get 250 dollars an apt. All customers need to try to be patient and understand that corporate compainies have insane goals and it sucks that you have to pay the price but maybe when you complain you could say, I am dissatisfied with your company because Gregg Wasson should take his crazy yearly raise and put it back in your stores A. Because their is no staff, and the staff that is their is overworked and obviously underappreciated. They call IC3's to get a manager to come pack 45min later to explain ad tags where holding him or her up. Pharmacy is a hard field to work in and to be a consumer. The whole field changes everyday, example tamiflu is on a shortage we now have to compound it and call every insurance company since none of them can reconize the difference. Nycynta is on a reformulation and is no longer avaliable and we dont have a release date. Sorry I can't answer my phone I do have 25 people infront of me. And my truck that came in on monday is still sitting on the ground and its now friday. If patients could have one ouce of empanthy and really be honest on their surveys we might be somewhere.
In may of 2011 I left my 24 hour store and transfered to a much slower store who was in great
need of a Senior tech, because evey they had prior left b/c the pharm manageger was and idiot. That store did 300 rx's on a busy day, but the sad thing is that store had the same budget of a store that did 1200+ and was much crazier.
After ESI walgreens ran this is ad to get people to stay we had to push our WCARD a walgreens discont card
that made certain rx's 12$ for a 90 day supply, normally it cost 20$ we dropped it to 5$ I believe our store signed about 250 patients up. Well Walgreens didnt think that was good enough. Shortly after this special we were now
supposed to increase our shots I believe our goal was as followed, Zostavax 15 per week
Pnuemavax 12 per week
Flu 12 per week
Tdap 25 per week. Now at my 24 hours store I could acheive that no problem at a slow store with the
same customers every day it was nearly imposible also flu season was way over with. Then walgreens did the most shadiest thing ever that great Wcard we signed so many people up one changed their prices to Tier 1,2,3 drugs meaning
now that same med you recieved for 12 dollars if its our tier 3 now its 30 dollars. Soon after all thease shot budgets and stupid Wcard changes I gave up and left. Ive learned many things that corprate no matter the name of the
company is greedy and doesn;t give a shit about you or the job you do. I helped many patients and have been told by many how dissapointed they were with Walgreens and I fully understood. Any big company goes through some of the same
motions as others. We all have goals riduclous or not, we have rude customers, we have good customers. We do have to turn people down for Sudaphed or their rx. If you as a customer doesnt understand why, ask we will give you an
answer. If you DONT LIKE it well dont lie on the surveys and say it was great or I love that pharmacist
or tech, really say I had this issue ect.
Customer's be nice to your pharmacy staff, it will get you much further.

Kat said...

@ThatDeborahGirl

"And don't get me wrong, but I can't help but wonder how many of you get people of color and think "they can't be in this much pain" or "there's no way a doctor wrote this" only to be wrong."

You outright accused us of profiling due to race. You're the one making assumptions. No one said a thing about it. The majority of pharmacy employees I've worked with do not discriminate because of race/appearance/age etc... If you must know, I've never had a single black person in my store get Oxycontin. They've all been Caucasian, and all have a poor, woe is me story. I have, however, had the misfortune of catering to many, many narcotic seekers requesting early refills because their "bottle went through the wash." We have to be skeptical, the pharmacist's license is on the line. Or are you like every other narcotic addict who doesn't give a shit about the guy behind the counter as long as you get your drugs? We have regular patients who take Oxycontin and we never turn them away, and if we do have it, we'll dispense it. Maybe if you and your mother were a little more sympathetic, somewhat decent, you wouldn't have a problem filling your scripts.

Cares2much said...

I was a pharmacist with CVS for 5 years. Then one day after skipping my lunch but making sure everything was done, including all the prescriptions filled in the queue, I left the pharmacy premises for 15 minutes and was fired for it. I had up until always came into work an hour early everyday without pay so I could finish the workload, CSI, and start on the 4 pages of auto fills before we even opened, so I'm not stressing about the person in my drive thru who wants their prescription filled now and it's barely 8:01 am. I worked my butt off for this company and at first I felt betrayed because how could a company treat their employee like this, yes I had broken policy, but I was so loyal. And I did feel sad that I left my technicians, and my patients, but I dont miss much else. But now, even with 5 years of retail experience, I am considered inexperienced for a hospital position, and I have applied for so many positions and I still haven't heard back. Part of me thinks this is why pharmacists do all these things from non-pharmacist MBA's because otherwise we have no other options available. The other part of me thinks if I had not been let go, I would have continued to be on this never ending cycle of giving too much and CVS taking it, but never really acknowledging how they are treating their employees who are working to serve the people's health

Kat said...

"There has to be a better way. It seems to me if you all fought for patients rights to not be treated like they stole something, then your workload would be easier."

We can't even fight for out own rights, let alone our patients. We always put patients first, the majority of pharmacy associates do. We've been trying to argue for out patients. For example, they hate courtesy refill, and every time we taken them off, corporate pitches a fit and we have to make certain percentages. Believe me, our jobs would be much easier if we weren't bitched at by both patient and corporate ends. nNo one deliberately wants to make their patients unhappy.Seriously, get off your high horse and try to actually understand where we're coming from. Like I said earlier, if you were more sympathetic you might have an easier time getting your drugs.

The Phrustrated Pharmacist said...

TO THOSE WHO SAY YOU ARE STUCK WITH IT:

GET A CLUE!! YOU ARE ONLY STUCK WITH IT IF YOU WANT TO BE STUCK WITH IT.

I'm sorry, but I don't buy that at all. Lemmings, anyone?

Document, document, document. Make your intentions to follow the law to the letter clear. Document every single conversation and when possible, get instructions in writing.

Our profession cratering into chaos is due to this mindset! "Oh, we're stuck with it!"

No, we are not. Grow some balls, grow a backbone, stand with the law book in your hand, and triple-dog-dare them to do something about it.

If they do fire you, you have recourse, but only if you have been following the law first, then their corporate policies. When they conflict, document it, and show them the law book.

It is our own fault that WE have allowed OUR profession to get to this point. WE will have to fix it, no one else will.

I have yet to see someone who comes in and takes a stand from the first day, and documents their experience, get fired and NOT end up owning a large sum of said company.

Bullies only pick on the weak. Occasionally they will try to pick on someone strong to prove a point, but if you have done no wrong and have the proof to back you up, there's not much they can do.

I have worked for the Big 3 chains, and this has ALWAYS been my MO. I still have the Big 3 offering me jobs at least once a year. In doing the right thing, I have also been able to increase a store's profitability by at least 10% within the first six months of management.

But the rat race is more than I can handle anymore. I don't want to fill 400 scripts on my shift with two techs and me. So guess what - I'm not doing it.

I know I'll probably get slammed for this post, but I'm sick of pharmacists hiding their heads in the sand and not standing up to the chains and doing what is right and lawful.

Big 3 wanted me to call patients and do surveys at one point. The questions were personal and invasive. I refused. I told them, nicely, what I thought of their survey. I rightly predicted the results of the survey.

I stand up for my techs. I do not allow customers or upper management to abuse them or myself.

The last time I worked for a Big 3I was told I could no longer call 911 in an emergency situation, but to call the front manager and let them decide. This happened after I was centimeters away from being punched in the face by a psychotic patient who had been off his meds for a week. I of course immediately called 911, and the manager was miffed because she wasn't expecting the cops, although I had been paging their "code red" several minutes while the situation was escalating. I told them I was going to call 911 whenever I felt the need, and they could sit and spin. Quoted verbatim.

Did they fire me? No. Did they institute a new no-911 policy? No.

I eventually moved away, and have yet to work for a chain again. If you're not willing to work in a rural area, then you are making a lifestyle choice, not a job choice. The next choice you make is how much you will allow someone to bully you. If you are good at what you do, you will have nothing to worry about.

The REALLY Phrustrated Pharmacist
tphrph.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

The Phrustrated Pharmacist said "Document, document, document. Make your intentions to follow the law to the letter clear. Document every single conversation and when possible, get instructions in writing. Grow some balls, grow a backbone, stand with the law book in your hand, and triple-dog-dare them to do something about it. If they do fire you, you have recourse, but only if you have been following the law first, then their corporate policies. When they conflict, document it, and show them the law book."

I agree 100% with The Phrustrated Pharmacist. In my first job after completing my Ph.D., I was hired for a tenure-track assistant professor position at a major land grant university.

While serving on a dissertation defense committee during my first year, I asked several questions about the student's research that they had difficulty answering. The Chair of the committee began answering my questions. I very politely told the Chair (who was tenured) that I wanted to hear the answers from the student, not from him. After the defense was over, the Chair came to my office and threated me. I immediately documented the threats and had the dept. secretary, without reading the document, sign and date the bottom with a statement. I did that, so, I could prove that the notes were written on the day of the threat and not fabricated at some later date (I thought that is what they would claim without the statement at the bottom).

My contract was renewed after the first year, but not renewed after the second. After reviewing the reasons they gave for letting me go, I realized that they were, for the most part, outright lies. Things that did not happen--most given by the professor that threated me.

I went through the appeal process at the department- and college-levels. I understood that both my department chair and the Dean of the college knew the truth but supported the tenured professor.

I called a labor attorney and paid him to write a letter which basically said, "Dr. John Doe has retained me regarding the nonrenewal of his contract....Please furnish me with the name of the state's assistant attorney general that will be representing the university in this matter."

I guessed that a letter on the attorney's stationary would be enough to scare them into a settlement, given the misconduct on their part. I was right. The Dean, apparently, just about peed his pants, upon receipt of my letter.

The biggest concern on their part was to sweep it under the rug and keep it quiet. In return for a full year of salary ($60 thousand), I promised not to sue and not to discuss the matter in any way that might identify the university.

By paying me an additional year of salary, the university kept this incident under deep cover. I don't think they told the state or the university trustees--keeping me on the books for another year made it look like I resigned after my third year instead of being let go after my second year.

They played an incredibly dirty form of hardball, but by my documenting events as they happened, they got burned.

As the Phrustrated Pharmacist said, "Document, document, document....Grow some balls, grow a backbone..." Stand up for yourself. It may not work in your favor everytime, but I've found that bullies mistreat those that they can mistreat.

Anonymous said...

Im working my two week notice now and couldnt be more excited to get away. I have been an employee for two years as a pharm tech. I have had problems from the very start. I was lied to about my pay. And even now as i am leaving i am still underpaid. My district manager is a sad excuse.for a man. Just worried abput numbers and his own pay check. Couldnt hamdle his own in a pharmacy setting if he tried. My pic is bipolar if u ask me. And she claims that her only duties are to che m scripts. That she doesmt have to help us at all. If u want to know the truth excwpt for knowing the combimation to the safe amd coumting narcotics, she dont do nothin but have conversations with customers and on the phone and arrange her baskets on time order. If u work hard she stays on your back and wants more. Meanwhile making excuses.for the ones that have children and basically letting them get away with murder as they piss around the pharmacy. This includes the lead technician. Im am so very excited to leave and go somewhere where i qill be paid and appreciated. Im leaving cvs full time. Im losing my benefits to work at a part time job for the same houra and better pay. I think its crazy. If u ask me cvs will defeat itself in the next few years. They dont care about helping people. If they did they wouldmt throw away perfectly good food and clothing items in a dumpster and threaten to fire you if you tale them to the aalvation army. I have been waiting for about three months to hear back from a dm abput a problem i had. We also won tje als and cystic fivrosis reaearch amd have yet to get our prize.from months ago. And why does it take a year for a raise to go into effect? I always felt like i was in a cult and we were just trying to stay busy until they handed out the kool aid lol. I find it funnu that when you google cvs nothing good comes up. I could talk smack about this company all day. I have been for the past two years. Thank God im leaving before they get ywt another new system. Idiots. It will suck just as much as the othwr two i have worked with at cvs. Ahould have given momey to your techs.

Anonymous said...

20 year CVS pharmacist. Sadly, I feel the career has really nose dived in the last 2. Generally, pharmacists are caregivers not fighters. I float in almost 70 stores and work with good caring people who are pushed beyond human limits to meet meaningless numbers. For one year I have looked for other employment. What is available is 2nd shift/weekends or specialized pharmacy. No pharm D or IV experience don't bother sending in a resume. Currently studying to be a personal trainer/ nutritionalist so I can focus on patient care and really make a difference. I will easily be replaced by someone willing to sell their values for $. We used to be the most trusted profession.

Anonymous said...

This is exactly why I have been thinking about not going to pharmacies in general ever again. I've heard there's a good apothecary in Phoenix that I'll possibly start going to. Great post by the way.

Anonymous said...

So true. The pharmacist at my store asks the patients for their phone when a survey comes across on their receipt. He then takes the survey for them and gives them their phone back. No reason to report it because as long as our numbers are good no one cares and it is less grief for us.

Anonymous said...

Agreed!

Anonymous said...

Then find a pharmacy that cares. Obviously you are going to one that doesn't. Be an intelligent patient/consumer.

ThePatientWithPatience said...

Wow. I'm very glad I took the time to read this post and every comment following. I was simply searching for refill regulations at cvs because I cannot figure out if my pharmacist was having a bad day, if I was being judged, or if I had done something wrong. I really respect my pharmacy and its pharmacists. My close friend of over 20 years is a head pharmacist at one of our most reputable hospitals in my state. Utmost respect for all of you. It's terrible this goes on in your workplace. Without you, many of us would not be able to function properly.

I normally do not have problems at my cvs. I did extensive calling around before I decided to switch to this store when I moved into this new area. I'm literally 2 tiny buildings away from walgreens (a 2 minute walk) yet I drive a mile to cvs. I have terrible adhd and fibro, which requires meds my state has an issue keeping in stock or doesn't stock at all. My pain mngmt for my fibro is pretty unconventional- no longer requires morphine/vicodin type drugs anymore (thank goodness) and I pay hundreds of dollars monthly (out of pocket) to cvs for it. I need reliability and a structured medicine routine. I also am a very very young looking 30+ white female in an upper class neighborhood with large visible tattoos. I was raised to respect and treat everyone with exceptional manners. I am constantly judged by many people and have been denied so much service from the medical field its disgusting. Long gone are the days of crazy colored hair and ridiculous clothes. I simply don't have the energy for all the hassle anymore. I'm not asking for a pity party. I never ask for anything except for the same service anyone else would get.

I have been going to the same 24 hour cvs for over 3 years now. I ask questions, I call ahead, I wait patiently, I know the rules when it comes to my scheduled II medicine. I do not want to screw things up. I get my medicine refilled when I'm told I can. I pay attention, know my dates, keep track of my medication, and follow protocol. I respect the system. Sorry for the rambling. I'm detail oriented and have the time to pay attention to this stuff. My health is my only job.
(1/2)

ThePatientWithPatience said...

(2/2)
Anyway! I went to drop off my slip for my medication the other night and was suddenly denied. I asked why and asked when could I refill it? Unfortunately this pharmacist has a very heavy accent and I could not understand most of what he said. I calmly explained I was told I could refill it on this day. I did not get a future refill date from him or an explanation that made sense to me. His tone of voice made me feel like a punk ass kid who was trying to scam my pharmacy.

I understand its 100% up to the pharmacist and I am grateful there are so many of you that are able to weed out those that are scamming the pill industry and thier doctors. It disgusts me when I hear of people selling thier meds to addicts because it really messes things up for the honest patients. This is a huge thank you to all of the hard working pharmacists out there. I'm sure you don't hear it enough.

However I am now very confused. Do I go through the major hassle to change my pharmacy, do I file a complaint against this guy for the rude treatment, do I bother saying anything? With the strict guidelines for medicine I could be risking my own prescription record and that is the last thing I want to do. With my luck, when I wait till the very last minute to refill- the medicine is not in stock, still packed up, or I'm too sick to get there and I'm missing my dosages. This was never a problem until the other night. I also just learned from my doctor office that I was given wrong information by this pharmacist regarding an extremely important medication. I thought my doctor was at fault, and there was no reason for the delay. Really.

I don't know if this the right place for this comment, and I apologize if its not. If there is anything that someone with some time can do to try and help your work situation I'm all ears. I will now be filling out the survey you have all mentioned...at least. I hope the conditions at cvs get better. Us regular customers are unaware of this stuff and would really hate to see the familiar faces behind that counter leave. I know most of my pharmacists names, they know mine and I like it that way. I would regret taking my business elsewhere because of one angry worker.

Anonymous said...

DO NOT SHOP AT CVS-------THIS IS THE SECOND TIME IN A MATTER OF TWO WEEKS WHERE CVS PHARMACY HAS CAUSED ME PROBLEMS. SINCE THE LAST MIX UP A COUPLE WEEKS AGO WHERE MY CHILD'S PROFILE DISAPPEARED FROM YOUR SYSTEM ALONG WITH HIS PRESCRIPTIONS I TRANSFERRED MY PRESCRIPTIONS TO WALGREENS. TODAY MY PHYSICIAN MISTAKENLY SENT A NEW PRESCRIPTION TO CVS AND ULTIMATELY ENDING UP RESENDING IT TO WALGREENS PER MY REQUEST. UNFORTUNATELY CVS DECIDED TO FILL THE RX AND SUBMIT A CLAIM TO MY INSURANCE ALTHOUGH I DID NOT COME IN AND PICK UP THE RX. AMAZING HOW CVS MANAGES TO FRAUDULANTLY SUBMIT A CLAIM TO MY INSURANCE FOR A RX I DIDN'T PICK UP. SO HERE I AM FORCED TO GO INTO CVS TO GET THE RX OR WAIT FOR THEM TO REVERSE THE CLAIM SO THAT I CAN GET THE RX FILLED AT WALGREENS. UNFORTUNATELY I CAN NOT TAKE A CHANCE THAT CVS WILL MANAGE TO GET THAT RIGHT.

Anonymous said...

EVERY pharmacy bills your insurance as soon as a prescription is filled. If your physician sent it to the wrong pharmacy, perhaps you should be upset with him/her. It takes less than a minute to reverse a claim. If you hate CVS that much, you should have waited at Walgreens.

Anonymous said...

I worked for CVS for 7 years back in the 90s...I started out as a p/t stock boy & by the time I had left, I had been the store manager for 3 years. They paid me for 45 hours a week, yet I regularly worked 65-70 to make up for the lack of quality hourly help I was able to hire in my area and the workload I was given. I was given a fucking pen at my 5th year anniversary with them...woo hoo! And when I hurt my back and asked for other options for my career with CVS, perhaps at corporate, something less stressful on my back, they gave me shrugged shoulders and said maybe I should look for another line of work. I was a solid worker all those years. Never written up for anything that I can recall. My store had excellent customer service ratings. My Regional Monkey, er manager came around to the stores less than 2 weeks before Xmas day and at this point in time, I REFUSED to be that manager scrambling to make my store look pretty for these assholes. It's right before Xmas, the store gets trashed and I'm busy filling merchandise, and keeping the lines going...I honestly at that point could give a crap. And when he showed up with his posse of DM & RPH kissing his ass during the walk through and I had every register open and lines, he has to bitch that I had more than 20 outs in my 48' shampoo section?!?!?! I've been working in a small private pharmacy for the last 10 years, and while the $$$$ & benefits are nowhere near as good as CVS, my health and family life is a millions times better. Priorities folks. FUCK CVS!

Anonymous said...

I hope you and your Mom find a caring and uderstanding healthcare professional. Pharmacists should no longer exist. The occupation is antiquated, put the meds at the Doctors office. Let these twerps try and
find other proffesions that let them flex some other useless muscle over the public.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps none of the other retail pharmacies hate their jobs as much as CVS pharmacists is because CVS tends to take all the responsibility away from the patients! They aren't required to call their own doctors or even call their own refills in anymore! They aren't even required to remember when their refills are due! Therefore when refills are out and the doctors don't respond we get flack for it because they automatically assume we arent doing our Job! But on the flip side I know for a fact that other retail pharmacies are stressed about the "numbers" as much as CVS employees! Never once was I ever told to "fill anything that walks through your doors". That is exactly what those pharmacists want you to believe so it looks like they aren't being lazy to avoid a confrontation". I find it very hard to believe that CVS would condone such behavio just to meet scripts in a select few stores. that is utterly ridiculous! I love working for CVS. sure there are things that annoy me. but there are things about other retail pharmacies that would annoy me just as much. they all have to put up with the same bullshit. At least CVS is choosing to offer all of their employees healthcare next ear. whereas walgreens and Walmart are only offering healthcare to management!

Anonymous said...

I can gaurentee you you would much rather fill at CVS then rite aid for several reasons I will not get into. however the wait time probably sucks because they have a poor staff that doeant give a shot about their job due to lack ofmotivation from upper management. it sounds to me like if that CVS had a decent pharmacist in charge an a whole new staff with probably the exception of a couple ppl it would rub 10 times more efficiently than u are stating. there could also be oher reasons such as staffing issues...employees not getting along...etc. which is no excuse for neglecting the patients AND telling them 2 Hr wait times. Sounds to me like nobody is going to bar for these poor people working at your CVS. or they simply just need to fire everyone and put pharmacists and techs in that store that give a damn

Anonymous said...

since when are we being for forced to fill our scripts at CVS? This is the first I have heard of his I have worked with CVS since 2006 and have never been forced to fill my prescription at CVS. you are obviously misinformed

Anonymous said...

Perhaps ifyou managed your readyfill appropriately u wouldny get yelled at by customers. don't put anyone on it that hasn't been asked. generate and link prescriptions so scripts aren't getting filled twice or too early. and unentoll patients who absolutely don't wantreadyfill so it takes them away from your total percentage. I gaurentee you if you start managing it properly you will get nothing but praise. I have at least 4 survey comme.ts a month from customers sayinghow much they love readyfill.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha put the meds at the doctors ooffice?? Your a moron! Then who will answer medication questions?? Because I can gaurentee you the precribers wont. the majority of docs don't know anything about a medications pharmacology. And if they do thy certainly don't want to be hassled with more work. if that happens they will just find another thing to charge the patients insurance for - medication counseling. that would be a disaster to healthcare.

Jason DeVillains said...

"With all these new pharmacy schools crapping out 200 new pharmacists into the market whether they can pass the boards on the first or 8th try, it's only a matter of time until money hungry chains change their story from "if you think you can do better..." to "we can bring in a newgrad thats $150,000 in debt that will do your job for 30,000 a year and not complain, dont let the door hit you on the way out""

LOL! I didn't realize there were that many angry pharmacists still putting up with all that crap.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

Hm......so after this post's been up almost a year, suddenly it attracts 4 pro-CVS comments in the space of almost half an hour. What are the chances? It's almost like there was some sort of....

.....coordinated plan. I'm thinking I should be flattered.

Anonymous said...

CVS knows that it's employees work at minimum wage. Yes they have a score-board.

That score-board is based on the amount of feedback they get from customers(surveys). This is so insane. The scores ALWAYS have to be 5. They cannot be below 5. A 4 is not good. It must be 5, all the time, across the board.

It's a scale from 1-5. The stores must have a scale of 5. It's insane. Either the entire store gets a 5 or employees don't get their pay (less hours). CVS is like another other cheap corporate retail store.

They work the employees to death and pay them minimum with very strenuous and tedious rules. It also doesn't help when the customers are dicks too.

I am not surprise some stores are cheating in order to get these scores. A 4 is not good. It must always be 5. Some management will take advantage of it because their the ones who instruct the employees what to do. Most times it's either "DO THIS OR YOUR GONNA GET FIRED" type blackmail stuff too.

Anonymous said...

CVS states that a Florida pharmacy license that covers immunization ISN'T REQUIRED to be a Florida CVS Pharmacist. But it is strongly hinted at that you really MUST have the license, you MUST pay the extra $55 start up cost out of YOUR POCKET. After you do your online work for the immunization license, you MUST show up at a live CVS class that covers Red Cross CPR and other immunization information. When you ask to PAID for the 8 hours live class room work. THAY SAY-WE ARE NOT PAYING YOU ANYTHING. THIS IS ALL VOLUNTARY. This is for CE credit. THIS GIMICK SAVES CVS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. So you spend your money and time to make CVS more money. The pharmacist gets nothing for his extra work.

Anonymous said...

CVS is based MORE on fulfilling quotas than anything else. Literally. Quotas. And as far as CVS not paying people for training, after all the hoops this chain-store makes people go through, is a load of bullcrap. It really is.

Employees are over-worked to death in the stores. The managers are constantly buzzing around because of that quota. Because of district. It can make working at CVS very stressful and strenuous. I have never in all my life worked at a little retail store that acts like it's the FBI too with these ridiculous bag-checks. And I've worked jobs in the past that never required bag-checks including non-retail jobs. Course CVS NEVER mentions they require any of their employees to get bag-checks until AFTER the fact their hired (pretty much they slipped this through the cracks!). Yet with my experience on other jobs I could simply leave with my personal items I came with.

Then the work load. Oh Boy. Even the managers are doing a bunch of stocking that would normally just be done by a stocking-department.

The work gets piled up on one or two people while staff is almost always under-cut. CVS makes 2 people do the amount of work it would take 5 people to do. Don't fulfill the quota get hours cut back! Get hours cut-back, get fired! Etc Etc.

It's no wonder why CVS has such a high-overturned. The pay is like paid slave-labor for the amount of work to do and the hassles involved. I've been having problems recently just trying to sleep at night because of the amount of stress this job is creating and there's a current cluster-hole at my place where there's workers running around like headless panicky chickens. I'm a newly hire though, so I'm not sure if some corporate games are being played around or not (but I wouldn't doubt it if they were! Sad facts of any job unfortunately).

And yes, CVS condemns ANYONE saying anything to media due to 'slip of tounge' status as mentioned by blogger. But corporate has no control over the internet or prevent its workers(or on-lookers) from speaking out from crappy practices on under anonymous.

CVS is also gross that they don't have something called a CLEANING CREW in their stores. They don't have it. This store-chain brand is making employees literally do everything that would have been reserved as other positions as other places.

When you work at CVS, expect doing the job of 4 people. Shame corporate reduced to this. I heard the old CVS was a lot better place to work at than this 'newer' version of cvs now. I've already seen a bunch of stuff I'm not too found of that corporate could have done quiet frankly, a lot better.

Anonymous said...

For this I have to say they didn't fraudulently submit a claim. If an rx is sent in it is filled. Period. If it's asked to be reversed it can easily be done. It takes less than a minute. Cvs may do a lot of questionable things but any pharmacy that gets an rx faxed will fill it and expect a pick up. That's how a pharmacy works.

Anonymous said...

I agree with this so much! Patients need to take responsibility! We have thousands of customers to take care of and we can do everything for ALL of them!

Anonymous said...

So lets do something to fight back.. all this complaining isn't gonna get us anywhere. Anybody with any ideas? Let's get together.. the power is in numbers. Please email me at andromeda6938@gmail.com.

Anonymous said...

I like the use in the letter of the term 'culture'. This is appropriate because CVS is using that in a current 'campaign' to improve service. It's called MyCustomer (Experience), and the propaganda has used the terms 'change the culture', somehow insinuating that any poor customer service is only rooted in the store level employees.
Here's a hint though: if you have 5 stations in the pharmacy (drop off, pick up, drive thru, production, verification, phones, etc.), if you want to ensure good customer/patient service you NEED to adequately staff.
A single pharmacist or even an RPh with one tech cannot be expected to be able to run around to all those stations simultaneously. In other words, invariably some people are going to have to wait -- and that's not conducive to 'laser focus' service.
It's simple physics: It's like have a trucking company with 3 trucks, with only having 2 drivers, BUT expecting those 2 drivers to run all 3 trucks at the same time.
Certainly there is always pressure to reduce labor costs. Fine. If that's absolutely necessary, then we can modify to adjust to it. BUT, expecting the exact same service or better, with a cut-down staff, who previously were already running around like chickens, barely able to cope, is a bit ridiculous.
They will tell you to 'work smarter', but this cannot overrule the laws of physics: 2 people cannot simultaneous run more than 2 stations at the very same time -- but that's what they seem to expect.
It's almost like the people in charge of budgeting hours have no connection to the running of the stores.
Sure, they can present to the board and stockholders , or whoever their superiors are, that they've 'saved' 10 hours average a store, and that's $375k a month or something, BUT it cannot be seen how detrimental that move is to customer service, and the related losses incurred by it.
The management can 'see' the numbers of cutting the hours, but seemingly cannot fathom how it might be adversely affecting their business in the long term.
Stupid.

It seems lately, in another move to control labor costs, newer pharmacists are being hired at a reduced rate. The workload is increasing too, no one can really argue against that.
Now, obviously, if a pharmd student goes in debt, some to like $200k!, they MUST work, and CVS (and the others) know this, so the move is to reduce pay.
They are trying to force out the older pharmacists -- (and by 'older' I mean ones that were hired 5 or 6 years ago!) because they 'feel' they are making too much money.
Companies like CVS actually 'like' that the economy is not too good in terms of the job market. This gives them the ability to low-ball everything. They don't need to do that, but they want to do it -- simply because they can.

I agree that some sort of guild is needed for pharmacists. I understand that many people (and of course the management) are seemingly against any sort of union. But I think as things get runaway with the abuses, it may have to be inevitable. Otherwise, you might expect to either or both: having to work for less money; having to work many more hours for the same money. Oh, as well as being under the constant stress and fear of instant termination.
This 'guild' would not be like other unions. It's main purpose would simply be to protect from the corporate shenanigans. Plus, those thinking 'but I'm for the free-market' should be aware that many functions of a union ARE free-market. It's a free market when 2 parties (the company and the employee) enter into agreement. Just because employees would be together does not change that fact.
The company does not want any union because simply they want to be able to 'divide and conquer'. If you've ever had a meeting with any management, you'll know what I'm talking about.

(continued)

Anonymous said...

(continuation)

My advice for new grads going into retail: DON'T spend your money on anything until you're in complete control of the money you owe. Otherwise you may be 'trapped'. Preferably you should pay off your student loans much faster, particularly if the interest rate is higher than what you might be paying on a mortgage.
The retail field is not really that reliable.
It's 'at will' employment, meaning you could be gone at any moment and for any reason.
If you have the ability, hold out for more, or for better conditions.
But, as is most often, the money and time investment in a pharmacy degree may mean having to 'suck it up' and work harder for less, and be stressed out and always worry if you'll have a job -- that's right where CVS wants you! They'll own you in that regard.

One of the only reasons CVS doesn't just simply get rid of the 'older' pharmacists is because they might then be locked into the added expense of paying unemployment for the laid-off pharmacist, and plus have to pay for the replacement pharmacist. They would LOVE having all the rules changed so that only technicians are required in the pharmacy. But not until that happens, or until the cost of a new pharmacist is low enough, will they simply let pharmacist go.
They will ALWAYS try to figure ways to trump up reasons to fire the employee for doing something wrong.

It's very true that the metrics are all being cooked by the stores -- especially the ones that are getting ridiculously high scores.
I see it all the time.
If you go into that store, you will generally notice nothing different in the service. That's because there's probably no difference. The differences are in the playing around with the metrics.
Metrics are of little or no value if the stores must play around with them. And if the corporate doesn't catch on, the 'cheater' stores drive up the standards to impossible levels (then ALL the stores have to cheat) But, yes, I think at some level the so-called pharmacy supervisors know that it's going on, and quietly ignore that thought -- until someone says something, and then it's all down to the supervisor playing damage control and CYA.
But these corporate climbers don't really care about the company; they care about themselves, their bonuses, and their company cars, and how much they can 'get out of' the company in the relatively short-term. Oh, they do also very much like the idea that they no longer have to be on the bench though. And I can't blame them.

Brittany said...

you people really dont know a thing about cvs haha its so funny. i bet alll of you are lowlife cashiers and have no clue whats going on do you? so shut up and get a life. cuz thats not cvs atall

NCRpH said...

@ ThePatientWithPatience: I would suggest speaking with the pharmacy manager to see if you could get a reason for why the pharmacist did not fill your medication. I personally do not care for CVS, but I would not suggest switching your pharmacy until you at least speak with the pharmacy manager.

Additionally, as a pharmacy tech./intern, I would like to thank you for keeping up with your dates of when you can get a medication filled. When you do not keep up with these dates, that is when a pharmacy staff begins to think you are a pill seeker.

I treat the majority of my CII patients the same. I am nice and polite, like I am with everyone. I ask all of the same question with a few additional questions that are required for CIIs at my store. I check to make sure we have the medication, give a promise time, apologize and explain the reason for the promise time. Then I wish you well and that you have a nice day, afternoon, and/or evening depending on the time of day....the exceptions are the people that complain about the wait to the point that they try to start arguments about it or would like to talk to the manager about it because that is going to change the fact that we have 40 people ahead of you; the people that do not want to present an ID; the people that are consistently too early; the I dropped my medicine down the sink and yeah I know it happened last month as well; My favorite: the lady that comes in to get her CII and she is walking perfectly fine...it isn't ready and she comes back in 30 minutes in a motorized wheelchair with the smell of liquor pouring off of her and she is complaining about how hard it is for her to walk around.

As long as you do not do any of these things, I wouldn't treat you any different than any other costumer. I wish you well with your prescription.

@Brittany: First off, cashiers are not lowlives. If they are a front store cashier, they my not know what is going on in the pharmacy but that does not make you automatically better than them.

Secondly, I worked for CVS for over a year as a PHARMACY TECHNICIAN, not as a "lowlife cashier," as you so nicely put it. Unless the company has changed, which I highly doubt it has, most of these people are pretty spot on about the company and how it operates. Triple S leads everything and at multiple stores they detach the number from the bottom of the receipt and have the employees take them home or give them out to people that will give them a good rating. The pay for a technician is horrible, which is why they generally do not stay with the company. They are generally highly understaffed. I could go on for days about the idiotic things that that company does, but that was not my main point. My main point is that a cashier is not a lowlife and you are not automatically better than someone because they are a cashier and you are not.

PS. A bit of advice, if you are trying to insult someone, it is generally taken more seriously if you use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Anonymous said...

Now... Cvs is holding cashiers responsible for collecting customers email address ..or be fired.

Anonymous said...

CVS seems to be having another serious problem -- errors made by a doctor on a prescription? Customer has been filling their prescriptions at CVS for YEARS and is in their system - easy to verify there was a mistake made by a doctor. Not the patient.

CVS calls the cops and has the customer ARRESTED and brought up on charges - resulting in a loss of income, emotional distress, being held in jail, having to hire an attorney ... and then having charges dropped because CVS could have called the doctor's office and clarified that THEY made a mistake, not the customer. Ooops.

So when did it become corporate policy for CVS pharmacists to call the police and have customers ARRESTED instead of calling a doctor to see if there is an error on the prescription?


Guess they're going to have another lawsuit coming their way. GOOD! CVS is awful and so are a lot of their staff!


And look for this story to start getting airplay very soon. Once the dust settles this is going to be another CVS screw up that the media is going to be hearing about.

Anonymous said...

The regular pharmacists and techs at our local CVS in downtown Springfield, MA are somehow absolutely amazing, despite the nonsense they're constantly confronted with. I have no idea how they manage to keep their collective cool while literally being abused on at least three fronts: corporate pharmacy tyrant-drones, screechy, maniacal pill-seekers and stressed out front-end managers who race around the store like zombies on crack, and wind up pacing incessantly back and forth by the pharmacy, where they compulsively arrange and rearrange the reading glasses before racing off to tackle yet another shoplifter. Sadly, I suspect only dogs can hear them.
Regardless, I'm sickened having now learned the true scope of hell these good people go through. As a grateful customer, what can I do to help--to really help?

Anonymous said...

Its simple why people grow to hate working at CVS. You are expected to the do the work of 3 people. Hours are constantly cut, the turn over is high. Unless you are on a high dose of anti-depressants OR are constantly kissing your DMs ass OR are butt buddies with upper management...it will destroy your soul.

The worst part is they terminate employees left and right for stupid reasons. Plus they WILL monitor employee social media. Note to present staff....LOCK all your accounts.

DrugFairy said...

I have been working at CVS part time as a technician for two years. They hired me as a Pharmacy Assistant (or something like that) so they could get away with paying me less. Yet from day one I have been trained and used as a technician. FYI pharmacy assistants aren't really supposed to do anything but ring people up. I think that might even be a legal thing. Haven't heard of this position? Me neither, yet somehow I was listed as one for over a year until I finally pitched a fit to my GM. Should've gotten a raise with the title change....didn't. the position does officially exist btw. Yet I have never met or even heard of someone actually serving this function. If im wrong however someone please inform me where I can find one. I might actually be able to do my job if i didn't have to deal with "lane one, lane two, 2 pharmacy calls, lane one, 3 pharmacy calls...." all day.

A year into my hell (while i still considered it purgatory) I was told by my PIC to get PTCB certified and I would get a rise. Got certified less then a month later and was informed that CVS no longer compensated for being CPhT. um what......? I still wish I had gotten that in writing. I also know that they lied to another tech about her starting base pay. I know of another technician who is working full time yet cant get benefits because we cant officially have another full time tech.

Everyone's numbers are a joke. My store never stole surveys (to my knowledge) but we would sure as hell beg our regulars to take them and give us 5's because we dont get any credit for 4's. our DM has taught us tricks to cheat the system. We dont like it. We dont want to do it. But the alternatives are budget cuts and people being let go.

We are instructed to lie if you call asking for ANY controls unless you give us your name and we can find you in the system AND verify that you have gotten it before. I understand the necessity for this but I believe lying is wrong and would rather just refuse to give out the information. But noooo....

I have been brought to tears on more then one occasion for someone yelling at me while I am desperately trying to help them. This has happened to several other techs too. Often it is the same few customers who management refuses to ban.

I saw our best technician fired over pending circumstantial drug charges for non-pharmaceutical substances found in a shared living area.

I am probably the 2nd best technician in our store (save for the lead techs, but im not counting the one who does heaven only knows what all day) yet I make $3 an hour less then my friend who works at a gas station as a clerk. Not that there is anything wrong with being a clerk, but you'd think a nationally certified medical professional would be able to, at the very least, match that. I have yet to meet one non-management personnel who likes their job after 3 months.

Its awesome that CVS offers insurance to all employees. Really it is. Now if they would only pay us enough to actually afford it I might be able to go to the Dr and get the anxiety meds i need for work. Note that I said "need" not "have". In order to get them I'd need to pay $70 to go to the dr. Not easy to come by when you make less then that in a day.

On the other hand if we had the hours to staff the store properly I might not need them. Funny how that works out....

Oh our computer systems are s*** our staplers are s***. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal but when you staple literally hundreds of things a day and you have to stop and dig out deformed staples on half of them it REALLY slows things down. Not to mention the computers randomly crash, scanners stop working, paper jams, and zebra printers dying daily its just throwing fuel onto the fire burning under our asses. Heaven forbid corporate actually supply us with working equipment to do our jobs.
(continued)

DrugFairy said...

Don't even get me started on PCQ. we cant decline anything anymore if pt says they don't want it. We now have to inactivate it and put it on hold. If your tech is busy(as is the norm) and forgets to hold it after its inactivated you're screwed. All because heaven forbid you dont use your 2 month supply of Flonase in 30 days.
I go to work knowing I’m going to have to do the work of 2 people plus the slack that anyone else in the store gives. It’s gotten to the point where I can talk to an insurance company, and input prescriptions at the same time, all while helping the mother with screaming children wandering around asking me where everything is. Its a very useful skill I will admit but I should NEVER have to be that good at my job. That's how mistakes happen.

Oh and we did "customer satisfaction surveys" when the whole express scripts thing happened. If you transferred to us you got a call asking how your experience was. Guess what?? We had no means of writing down your answers or recording them at all. It was simply a gimmick so we could tell you that we accept the WAGS coupons they were giving out to get their customers back. LOL and CVS claims they care about their customers. What a joke.

Oh and if you are on a budget CVS is the last place you EVER want to go. 1 pill of ibuprofen costs approx $0.01. Without insurance you pay $11.99.

Oh and last thing. To the asshole who said we don't care and we need to be fired and bring in people who do?! I work my A$$ off to help patients. If you can't afford your meds I will do whatever I can to help you find coupon cards or refer you to a pharm with a cheaper price. I will spend 30 minutes on the phone with your insurance company solving issues that are your responsibility to fix. I stay late and come in early whenever necessary so people dont have to wait ridiculously long wait times for their prescriptions. I will try to get something filled in 10 minutes for your sick kid when the wait is an hour. The minute you start yelling or cussing at me though that stops. I stop caring and you will get no favors. Most of the techs I know are the same way. Maybe If you tried smiling, or saying something polite, or hell just treating us like human beings you might find that the overly-exhausted under-paid tech who "doesn't care" has had to listen to people scream at them all day and would happily go well out of their way to help someone who is kind to them. Simply because you took the time to notice the fact that they arn't a f***ing robot there to do your bidding.

Wow.....that felt really good.

Anonymous said...

If it weren't for HIPPA issues, we might force them. The problem is that they are so narcisistic that we all know who they are. I just wish it were mandatory that all district field reps should work 1 day a year at each store (the day to be determined by the store). They should then have to have regional VP's actually have to review the results of the difficulties encountered at each store they worked in. Then the regional VP's should have to work at the most difficult store (as determined by the DM) & work a day to be determined by that store. And so it goes. The truth is take they are only expected to be "yes people"...they are not allowed to give an honest opinion of real issues.

Anonymous said...

Brittany...are you serious? I would love to see how it is going in your store or be able to wear your rose colored glasses. I go into work telling myself to stay positive and within 15 minutes or less of opening the pharmacy gates, I am frustrated...computers not on line, customers lined up at 8 am wanting the contol rx that we said couldn't be filled until that day ( even though we told them it wouldn't be ready until 9am)...making PCQ calls at 8am (which I think is just rude)...the list goes on and on and on...unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

It is ( or was) called a PSA, pharmacy sales associate. We were told the position is no longer available mainly because there has been such a cut back in hours that we aren't given the luxury of a cashier in the pharmacy. You must be a "technician in training" and pay the state board of pharmacy to get that title. We can not rely on any front store help with that either because it is apparently no longer allowed by law (not that we ever got any help anyway!)

Anonymous said...

Techs at CVS are literally paid at a poverty level. If your income is needed as a primary source of income you will never make it....BUT...you will make just enough to keep you from getting assistance. You are frankly better off on welfare!! That is so incredibly sad!!

Anonymous said...

I worked for CVS as a pharmacist for 10 years. Wih them its all about the $$. Once I was chewed out because I wouldn't fill a schedule 2 script that I knew was not legit. It was a big $ script. Never had enough staff help. We were encouraged to cheat on the triple s customer surveys to make the store look good. I had a serious surgery and eventually was let go for failure to return to my job even though I was unable to. They caused me to lose my health care. There are so many dosing errors, patients being given someone else's medicine due to lack of staffing. I could go on and on. I was so glad to get away from them and all the horrible treatment, being talked to like trash, etc,etc..

Former RPH

Anonymous said...

I was a shift supervisor, photo tech, and a pharmacy cashier (usually only did two at a time) for three years and now im glad that i'm not. The first two years were busy but great, I loved my job. then things changed. The overnight shift was eliminated, bad managers were put in place, cashiers' hours were cut or outright eliminated. the last manager was horrific. She laid off three cashiers (all of them second shift)and the photo supervisor and then expected one or two people to cover registers, a busy photo, supervisor jobs and to get min 2 pages (single spaced) done and I had the bonus chore of helping out a very busy and extremely overworked/understaffed pharmacy. The final straw was when the manager started to schedule us 6 days a week (2 four hour shifts 4 eight hour days). the crew handled this for a couple months with her giving plausible excuse after excuse. finally I told her that this experiment was not working.we had lost a supervisor and what was left of the crew was getting really burned out really quickly. she told me that the district manager was making her do this. A outright lie. I told her that was b.s.. I was a supervisor I went to the same scheduling classes she did. after that she looked for any excuse to get me fired. got my purse stolen with my store keys in it and she fired me for it. Oh well, I got my unemployment and grounds for unlawful termination lawsuit. so damn glad to be out of there.

Anonymous said...

CVS ruined my career. I had a manic episode in 2007 and was tasered five times. I couldn't see and did not know what was going on. Eventually I got back to work after eight months. But in 2011 after 16 years of loyalty they terminated me...for what an emergency supply ofa non control med I got because the meds were delayed on mail order. They placed me on a blacklist now I can't even be a cashier for seven years. A pharmacist on a theft database. I know a doctor that was writing her own morphine scripts..she can't write controls but still at same practice. I've lost 300k in income,stock options,vacation in two years. I sent a registered letter to Larry Merlos home. If you want his address email me. Someone in his office corresponds but has really done a lot of nothing. I didn't deserve this! I have been thru many deaths,my sister had a brain tumor removed,mom had a stroke. I have to help support them but Corporate Validated Slavery in Woonsocket doesn't give a damn! If it doesn't get resolved I'm going up there. I encourage you to send letters to Sir Larry he needs it!
Darron Barksdale Rph and
Microbiologist
DBarksd757@aol.com put CVS Sucks! In subject line.

Anonymous said...

100% accurate. I'm so happy to see I am not the only person that realizes all of these measures to make service better are in fact to make business better. I'm a lead tech at a pretty high volume store and have to cut my hours IN HALF according to our budget from last year when every year we fill more. The less people you have in the store, the longer people have to wait and you either lose money as a gift card (gag me) or from people transferring their prescriptions out because of all of the problems CVS causes that could be avoided by simply paying the pocket change to have an adequate amount of staff. Blows my mind how naive these people are.

Anonymous said...

Rob my cvs so I can take a day off

Anonymous said...

Yes, the management is horrible. Every one and every thing is a number.... you aren't special or important in any way, just a number.

Anonymous said...

We are also forced to push FLU SHOTS on our customers too. youll notice in flu season we answer every single call by asking if u want a flu shot, we get random calls from corporate and if you dont remember to ask theyll write ups, 3 write ups your fired, our D.M.s get huge bonus for cutting cost\hrs. So them needing to push us to our limits becomes personal. Thats money he gets if we push drugs. Technicians from cvs get fewer benefits and pay increases than any other retail chain, were skilled professionals pushed to work very hard behind those scenes.

This article is a very true to how most cvs pharmacy emplyees feel everyday.

Anonymous said...

To thatdeborahgirl,
I was a cvs pharmacy tech for a few months and I totally know she is not lying. We had a customer come in every month for her pre-chemo meds. Every month this poor woman was put through hell, her scripts were NEVER ready. She actually had to postpone her treatment due to cvs not having the meds that she needed, yet she received her autoated call telling her her prescriptions were ready for pickup. Who had to hear the brunt of this was me, because I worked the pickup window. This company has no regard for their customers, or employees. I worked 8-10 hour days with no break because they didn't have anyone to cover for me. The absolute worse place I have ever had the misfortine of working. I won't even shop there.

Anonymous said...

Yes your mom may be in pain ..... but imagine if a pharmacist loses their job and license from pills getting in the wrong hands...... than that pharmacist has no money to fed their family ..... rules are in place for a reason ( in this scenario ) and everyone should follow them.

Anonymous said...

Yes and it should be in January when all the new insurances take effect!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I am a pharmacy tech at a branch of CVS in FL and although I have found that CVS is very concerned with their ratings and they do make the individual stores work hard to make certain, sometimes unreasonable, quotas: the truth is that pharmacists have the right to refuse to fulfill any prescription that they feel was not prescribed for a legitimate medical purpose. I have personally seen both of the pharmacists at my branch exercise that right many many times and they have always encouraged my coworkers and myself to use our descrition when selling controlled over the counter products to customers. If it doesn't look right/feel right, etc. Refuse the sale. They also tell us this during our training.

At the end of the day it is THEIR license as a pharmacist and ours at pharmacy technicions which are on the line. I can say honestly that everyone at my branch takes that very seriously.

I think that as way any large corporation there are issues which they need to address. One I can think of right off hand is lack of manpower. This is the largest issue which has lead to delays in fulfilling prescriptions which in turn effects our customers. That said our branch fulfills most scripts in 20 minutes or less.

One thing that I want to say is this: If you find an issue with your workplace try to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Work together with your coworkers, with your pharmacist to provide the best care you can to your customers, your patients. Learn what the laws are concerning pharmacy sales and follow them completely. Follow the rules set down by your store. No legitimate company is going to encourage a worker to do something illegal. This includes CVS. If something illegal is going on in your store REPORT IT! That is what corporate wants you to do. What the your government wants you to do and more importantly what you SHOULD DO.

I'm sorry if I sound preachy but I hear alot of people complaining about their workplaces instead of trying to make things better for themselves, their coworkers, and their patients.

One positive action an start a chain reaction which will bring change to a store, to a district, and to a corporation. Be a positive change.

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope that I didn't step on too many toes with this note but I just wanted to put my 2 cents in there.

God Bless

Peter M said...

My question is, if CVS employees hate CVS so much, why do so many take it out on the customers? The coupon program is pushed on customers by Corporate, so customers shouldn't take advantage in order to convienience the lazy employees? Perfectly legitimate prescriptions are refused because some 20 year old smartass decides they don't want to? I realize store level employees couldn't care less about business lost to a competing chain because of rude treatment, but when it's made so obvious more or us will start to complain or take to social media. Fair warning, just saying....

Anonymous said...

I called corporate after being rejected by 11 CVS pharmacies to fill my script for Oxycodone. They told me according to federal law that the pharmacist can use his/her personal discretion---meaning they can discriminate patients. It's not just the scum bag pharmacists at CVS. It's all over. BUT! A lawyer told me under employment law it's illegal to discriminate while working in Florida. I've heard all the lies from these pharmacists. They are definitely in the wrong field.

Anonymous said...

I agree, I've never heard corporate bitch about number of readyfill scripts we gain/lose because we try to keep it well maintained.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Honestly.....simply telling them "Thank you" in the most sincerest of ways for all they do goes a long way. I've been with CVS for 5 years now and rarely get a "thank you" for anything =)

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to get out of there They are the worst company to work for! Sorry I waited so long!

Anthony Davis said...

This past 12 months there have been longer lines at the CVS pharmacy in Dallas TX, specifically Hampton&Illinois. Half the time you call to ask a pharmacy question you have to wait so long most the time that you give up and hang up.
There seem to be fewer people at the registers and the electronic telephone announcements are repetitive and constant. The people standing in line actually complain more frequently.
More times than not, the automated reminder calls if you have an answering machine, are cut off short before the nature of the CVS message is about.
There seems to be a look of malcontentedness in the facial expressions of most of the pharmacy staff no matter what day of the week with a few exceptions, that is, some of the young students who work in pharmacy express a friendliness but they too seem a bit stressed from the hectic nature of it all.

Basically a few years ago things seemed more positive, and the lines were not as long and the pharmacy usually answered your calls within a few minutes at most. There was this one clerk who looked at me like I was a bum because I purchased a 12 pack of coke with my five dollars worth of accumulated points for having filled around 10 prescriptions or more. He never said thanks or smiled, just gave me a blank stare It really pissed me off.

Anonymous said...

I currently work for cvs. They are monsters... 86 calls we have to make out to patients, start our day with mandatory ready fill with 45 scripts to fill, 8 phone lines, 14 minutes prescriptions coming through the computer every 2 mins, people dropping off(both inside and at the drive through) people picking up (both inside and at the drive through), prescriptions from doctors on the voice mail, doctor calls for refills of meds from patients (take an average of 10 mins a prescription), mixing antibiotics up, call insurance companies for patient information (average 13 mins), and you only have 2 technician and 1 pharmacist... IF ONLY CVS HAD MORE MONEY TO LET MORE PPL WORK AT A TIME!

Anonymous said...

Gotta love CA labor laws, that east coast shit dont fly here CVS your getting lawsuits up the ass. Anyway i have been with Longs Drugs since 2006 and it was great. Soon after CVS had bought ownership and it all went downhill. Of course your going to get certain patients due to cost of livings expenses. In other words if you work in the ghetto your going to be doing 2-3x as many controls as if you were working in a rich neighborhood. (customers are very entertaining i must say) It is the way the world works. Any big corporation is a douchebag company who has ladders of management and they have to answer to someone and demand results. Due to the fact that they use RX-Connect, a more less brainfree program that won't allow you to misfill on accident or violate hippa rules unintentionally they pay tech's like shit, but its due to the fact that they have to pay pharmacist 12 hour shifts here in CA hour wages, 4 hours OT. They get the money elsewhere. Also they have opened up 13 stores in SF, a Union only city... hmm how much $$ to be the only non-union in the city? they useto have the sf stores part of the peninsula area to get their scipt #'s up while they can only fill about 20 scripts a day. So, yes i still work for cvs as an on call CphT, the workload is dependent on the stores area and same pay. play it smart. I choose my hours, choose the stores i work, but there is just no growth in pharmacy only more regulations, your a pharmacist AIDE "helper" so your cap is shittier than in the 90's yup i said it. OMGWTFBBQeconomy. If your love pharmacy and dont mind the work choose mail order or hospitals over retail, even grocery store phartmacies over straight drug stores.. um, drug stores sell drugs? need the rx#'s. hands also they "lost" my annual review from march so i demanded backpay. i dont think they want anymore lawsuits, so they complied. still waiting though, lets see how it goes.

Anonymous said...

i quit cvs 2 weeks ago...i was the PIC for 1 year in a store filling over 2000 scripts. Had a total of 12 hours training on their system and was thrown to the wolves. That part doesn't bother me...but what does bother me is that when i asked for those alleged 40 training hours back later on...i was denied them. i was told to learn on my on watch. i was paid 43.5 hours weekly, but was told i needed to work 60. 14 hour shifts...1 hour commute...2 days back to back and then mandatory meeting 8am for 10 hours the 3rd day and no pay!!!! get a life cvs...more importantly...get a clue...if you don't train an associate from the beginning how can you expect me to build a team and make a pharmacy profitable..you cannot....how can i build a team if i cannot complete the tasks myself? after 8 months..i increased the scripts by 12%....customer service rose to highest in the district in 3 months...however those numbers meant nothing....kpm and meaningless calls meant more.lets just say i was happily forced out after 1 year...my current district of 21 stores in nj....currently has 7 PIC holes.....yes i said 7...NJBOP needs to start fining cvs so they get their act together...How can we just quit our jobs like that...something must be that bad!...cvs you are no more noble because you will no longer sell tobacco products.....your not curing the world of lung cancer...the consumer can just walk another 20 steps and get a pack somewhere else. your losing 2billion in sales....so where might you make that $$ up? more rx programs for the rph...most likely...good riddance cvs.... i will never ever step foot in one of those jails again.

Anonymous said...

as a current cvs pharmacy tech. I sick to say its all about "numbers" and what the share holders want. As cvs advertise its all about health. No its not cvs is all about selling scripts and scores by any means. Instead of me worrying about the patients needs, I am not, I am more worried about the scores being met or I will loose my job. Or even getting in trouble for a complaint from an ignorant customer that you try to explain what is going on and they still don't hear you and complain to corporate therefore corporate does not know the whole story just the customers that extremely change the story of fail to explain why.
Its all ignorance and that is why our society is jacked up. Dealing with all this for low pay.

Anonymous said...

I was working at Eckerds in the ghetto back in 96, (Dallas, Tx) and we had a high volume of shoplifting and, (medicaid fraud). Well, corporate sent in 2 security amazons that looked like they came out of ELLE m I told him I didn't have a reasonagazine as well as regional director(asshat prick), my shirt wasn't blue and the asswipe asked why I wasn't in proper attire. My reply was I can go home doesn't bother me, ( I was rather snarly as it was lunchtime and busy). You could have heard a pin drop, everybody was staring at me. I then turned to the RPh and said do you want me go home, cause I will. Of course he said no cause he knew I was done for the day. Well corporate prick to me to the side and said I had a bad attitude, end of story, got high 5's from all others at store.

Anna said...

I'm a former CVS technician and I worked with the company almost 3 years, switching between 5 stores where hours were available. I was a good employee who always got high scores with my evaluations and who knew how to do nearly everything but a couple reports. Knowing that, the company continued to underpay me. I had found out that a front store colleague with a less demanding job, who had just been hired was making over 50 cents an hour more than me after about 2 years of my working there. At my last store, my pharmacist pointed out that he doesn't even hire people below $8.75 an hour and coming to his store, I was at $8.24. Even as a good employee, CVS refused to allow him to raise my pay above his $8.75 minimum (which they were even hesitant about) when he said that I should be at $9.50 based on my performance. And don't get me started with the ridiculous number of "harrasing" calls I had to make to keep our numbers. The people I worked with are great! But the company itself is plain terrible!

Anonymous said...

Being a regular pain medication customer of CVS, I find it hilarious that not one single pharmacist will take ownership for their own fuck-ups. After getting rear ended at a stand still by a car traveling 60+ mph last year I was left with 8 bulging discs and an immense amount of pain that I will have to endure the rest of my life. My insurance won't work with Walgreen's so I got stuck with having to deal with CVS. I have a prescription for Tramadol and I don't know how many times I was supposed to have a script ready only to be told by my pharmacist that it can't be filled! You want to talk about a living hell? Try going through a Tramadol withdrawal on top of serious back pain! I am going through it again as we speak. I went back to my prescribing doctor and even pleaded to be put on anything else and he told me that there was nothing else that would help. He adjusted my prescription to where the frequency was 1 to 2 tablets every 4 hours as needed on a 120 count bottle. I have had one refill and one renewal since the adjustment and just had the online app tell me that my script was ready for a refill. I only had a few pills left so this seemed right. I put in the order online and was told it would be ready at 11:00 am. I show up at 1 pm and get told that they can't fill my script because it is too soon! They try to tell me that it was supposed to be a one month supply and I look at the label on my bottle and see "1 dose every 4 hours as needed". I talked to my prescribing doctor and he verified that he did not change the script. So some fuck head pharmacist filled out the script wrong the last time I renewed and I'm left to suffer until I can get this mess sorted out. Having just started a new job, this is the worst time to be going through this and I hope there is a special place in hell for all the fuckers at CVS who have repeatedly fucked me over. I am lodging a formal complaint with the pharmacist board. I have had enough. Meanwhile you fucktards whine about corporate pressure and how horrible it is. Then fucking quit! I can't quit my pain! Stop bitching and take ownership of your actions. Jesus Christ what a bunch of whiny fucking babies you all are . . .

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

Dear Whiny Douchebag:

Imagine you just got a letter from your insurance company about your tramadol coverage, and in it it said for you to get any more refills, you had to suck my dick. I bet you'd be all like "No way!! You guys can go to hell!" Right? Or at least something similar.

At least I hope so, 'cause I'm not getting any kind of hot chick vibe from your writing style.

Now, let's say I came to you and said for $15 a month, I'll tap you with a magic wand that will make sure your pain is under control and you will never have to go through tramadol withdrawal ever again. Assuming you're not a liar, (Many, many people with these type of stories are.) I bet you'd say something like "Wow! tramadol withdrawal sucks so bad, and I have this new job now with some dough coming in, and I work better when I'm not in pain, That's a bargain!! Sign me up!"

Well guess what Mr. Whineyfuck, this is your lucky day. because I am about to give you a clue as to how you should have been able to solve your problems all along.

I brought up my first point to show you that there is no law that says you have to do what your insurance company says. You wouldn't (I hope) suck my dick to get your tramadol, and you don't have to go to a pharmacy run by incompetent clowns. I'm not about to defend CVS here. The obsession with short staffing that permeates the chain drug world ensures that many people go through your type of experience.

Notice I said chain drug world, which means I wouldn't count on your Walgreen's being any better.

So what's a hurtin' tramdol dependent dude supposed to do? That's my second point. If you came into my place, I'd have you fixed up in about 5 minutes. Ten tops. And I'd charge you around $15 dollars a month without your insurance. If I happened to be in your fucky company's network, it'd be even less.

I'd also tell you the maximum dose of tramadol is 8 tablets a day, so your doctor kinda fucked you if he really did make out a prescription for 1 to 2 tablets every 4 hours. Do the math.

Which brings us to our conclusion. I'm not sure why I have to tell you this, but you don't have to be your insurance company's little bitch boy. Take some ownership of your own life, get your head out of your ass, and find yourself a real pharmacy. It'll cost you less than a Jackson. And if avoiding a life of pain and withdrawal isn't worth that much to you, then you'll get no sympathy from me.

You're welcome asswipe.

Anonymous said...

You are just a number of you work for any retail chain. I worked for Publix for 9 yrs and got let go for some BS, like my 9 year meant nothing to them. I am also disgruntled with the pharmacy profession as a whole. God for bidyou try and get into the hospital, they take one look at all of your retail experience and just trash your CV. Just discussted period!

Anonymous said...

I've worked for CVS for ten years now and it's literally getting worse every day. Corporate should be embarrassed but as long as those dollars are rolling in, it will continue to go on.

What gets me most is how much they care about the *~health~* of their customers but it when it comes to their employees they really could not care less. Our health insurance keeps getting more expensive with less coverage each year and it's severely frowned upon to call off sick.

I've never felt less important working for a company as I do working for CVS.

Anonymous said...

CVS will reopen as soon as possible. And probably not close the front store at all if rhey can get away with it. Probably wouldn't get the day off.

Anonymous said...

As a CVS pharmacy manager, I can attest to this post. This is 100% true with no exaggerations or untruths. I live in an area extremely saturated with pharmacists and pharmacy schools in every direction. I am thankful for my job, but it's hell. t's like working for an evil step mother. You can never win.
Corporate expects us to produce fine wine from raisins, in 15 minutes or less.

Anonymous said...

Me too. 4 weeks out of cvs a s a pharmacist floater. I will not be abused anymore. And my body is feeling better from not standing 12 to 14 hours a day without a break. CVS treats its employees like slave labor.

Anonymous said...

I totally AGREE!!

Anonymous said...

Seeing everyone hate on CVS worries me...

...but then again, maybe I'll never have to worry about this numbers game, because the head pharm told me flat out when she hired me that we move 4k+ 'script a week.

Anonymous said...

After having worked for this company for years, all I can say is this is by far the worse company to work for!! The culture at this corporate is a joke!! Their business strategy is no different than standard oil from back in the days!! They own Caremark which mandates it's subscribers to use their shitty unfriendly, non customer oriented pharmacies!! The district managers take pride in treating pharmacist that care for the patient like shit and value the pharmacists that provide shitty service at the expense of patient care and save them technician hours!! this company is a joke and needs to be dragged into court and sued for monopoly!! The company is fully aware of its giant hold of the market with it's Caremark division and knows whatever service they provide at their pharmacies patients that have Caremark will ultimately end up at cvs, if not this store then the other store but it will be CVS at the end of the day!! They don't care about their employees and treat everyone like shit equally, and they know that underpaying employees will cause them to be miserable and provide bad service but they don't care! their customers are locked in and at the end of the day they just want to keep increasing their profits!!!!!! everything else can go to hell!!

Anonymous said...

I saw the comment above re: Potters House Apothecary. They are great. No, I don't work for them. They compounded a med for someone I know and got it delivered same day. Of course the compounding wasn't covered by her insurance. It was a very reasonable $17. Staff was polite, called to discuss the charges, and agreed to send a bill in the mail to the patient, with whom they'd never worked before. That's service we're - SADLY - just not accustomed to. Oh and topical compounds carry no risk of addiction. Wonder why the insurance companies don't want to cover them? If I were cynical ... bah nevermind. I am.

Josh said...

I feel bad for the pharmacists I see. I'm sorry to most of you that have had horrible experiences in trying to be a good, caring pharmacist.

I'm a chronic pain patient. I go to the same place(CVS) with all my scripts.(And nothing with 90+ pills in the scripts. And I don't only rely on narcotics.)

I hate that so many drug addicts and shitty docs make life harder for the pharmacists...and their genuine customers.

I've been told a few times they were out of stock. Would never argue or start a fight with any pharmacist, ever! Just would go to wal greens across the street. Only happened twice this past year...So, I would hope they don't suspect me of mischief :) A couple there even know me by name.

I want you all to know...there are some customers/patients that do have sympathy for the shit you guys/gals deal with...I'm not a big fan of having the doc just send over my medical history. I'd prefer he do that and be allowed to sit down with the pharmacists. Would make me feel better about sharing my medical history...if that makes sense. I want to feel like a human being with a connection.

It sucks the world had turned into a cold, corporate world...but there are good people out there. And thankfully haven't had any issues with a pharmacist. And appreciate the work they do.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line - like EVERY other "business" $$$$

Anonymous said...

Working for CVS Pharmacy can ruin your day more often than not. We get some seriously screwed up customers that will harrass the life out of you. If they demand you to put their reciept in the bag and it hangs out a little they will call the police on you because you were being a dangerous jerk.. YES that has happened. Some people come in just to take their anger out on you NOT JUST TO COUGH IN YOUR FACE. They will cough directly into your face with no shame. There is always just hell going on. Customers are the worst part about it. Coupons are not your life line its not the end of the world if it is not vaild for your purchase. If they read the signs wrong its MY FAULT. I would rather go to highschool all over again.. Please and Thank you and excuse me need to become the customer lingo. If your not going to be polite then dont leave your house. Honestly..customers...worst thing ever.

Anonymous said...

this company needs to get closed down

Anonymous said...

I just started working at CVS (in the front) since January. I was so happy and first since this was my first job. Unfortunately though I realized that I was getting overworked, even though I'm also a college student. Manager has gotten extremely rude and wants me to do things that cant fit in a shift time. Even requested a day off for a personal manner and she said "It's hard because May is inventory month" Been working almost every weekend even though we're suppose to alternate. Never been stressed out like this, debating whether I should put in my two weeks or just get the hell out of there!

Anonymous said...

Put the meds in the Dr. Office? The doctors are the ones profiting from these narc scrips. At my location, we won't accept narcs unless they're from a pain management doctor. We don't agree because that give a very limited number of doctors a huge amount of costumers to prescribe narcs to. That's a monopoly. That's "oh a guy got injured at work and needs mild pain killers for a few weeks, lets put him on 60mg of OxyContin for 6 months and then randomly increase it." That's psychiatrists diagnosing a majority of patients with ADHD and prescribing them Amphetamine Salts and Methylphenidate. That's a tired pediatrician prescribing a toddler with an ear infection 875 mg tablets of amoxicillin instead of a suspension.

The amount of mistakes we catch from doctors are the only reason why some people are still alive.

Anonymous said...

When I heard cvs bought out target pharmacies I about cried. I was planning to jump ship only to find out I would have been jumping right back in. Crap crap crap....CVS is horrid, they cut hours but increase the work to be done, etc.... The store I worked for is a disaster waiting to happen. Oh those "protected" information ie old scanned prescriptions that are just boxed up and set in back room. There is a sign saying that it's for pharmacy only blah blah blah but the doors are almost always open meaning ANYONE could walk right back there and just grab a box (sometimes the door to outside is open too so can make a clean getaway). I protested and was told that it was store management discretion to comply (kind of under table). When I brought up with store manager was basically told to bug off. Frankly there is a lot of workers rights related issues, government law violations, and just down right harassing behavior calling like telmarketers that I am so suprised that they manage to stay in business.....must be the lawyers and the money they make behaving this way. Unfortunately I don't see them checking themselves and are continuing to expand in reach....mailorder, retail, insurance, specialty,.... Oh and for the customers posting on hear this how it works you drop off script we have to magically come up with some time to tell you that it will be ready ie 3pm and you dropped it off at 1pm but our system puts your script into that time slot meaning we don't actually touch it until near 3pm and that is assuming we are ACTUALLY on time typically we tend to be anywhere from 1hr to 4 hrs behind meaning your 3 pm script won't be done till 4pm or 7pm. Personally I tell patients to lie to me tell me earlier than you actually want it or I have my staff lie to you and say later than the actual time we put in hoping we just might get lucky and our times conside. Oh and leaving it till tomorrow may not help either cause again unless we are caught up or in this case a head we don't start your script till tomorrow (unless a good tech puts it in today perferably before order time cut off just in case).

Anonymous said...

Honestly if she's in that much pain it may be time to let her go. I know I wouldn't want to suffer through that pain.

Anonymous said...

I work in a cvs pharmacy and have for 3 years. I've worked in 3 different cvs pharmacies besides my home store just filling in. When it comes to the metrics and scores, yes the pharmacy PIC and employees as well as the front store managers are constantly hounded about their district and regional managers. If you don't meet your scores corporate takes hours for technicians away which compounds the problem by having fewer techs working.
However, in regards to the original email posted. I disagree with this person's statements when it comes to filling bogus controlled scripts and pharmacists not being backed up for not filling a script. Though it is a culture of numbers I've never seen or heard of a pharmacist or employee having an issue with not filling a controlled script. I've always seen the district manager's completely back the pharmacists. I've worked in high volume new england and Central us cvs stores. I've seen techs and pharmacists fired for cheating on their scores.
I feel like this employee has a very small picture about the pharmacy and hasn't worked in enough stores to realize that its mainly a problem for "burned out and i don't give a crap" techs and pharmacists. I've known one PIC that cheated on scores, committed insurance fraud, bad C-II scripts etc. I'm not a huge fan of CVS in fact I HATE the things corporate does. It just makes your life more and more difficult which may tempt or even force some stores to do these things. At the end of the day though it comes down to the employees themselves not giving a shit, having poor all around skills and district managers on power trips. It's not like this across the board.

Foxyhondagal said...

When trusted professionals, like these pharmacists, in FL.Knowingly fill bogus Schedule II, scripts, it causes problems for those of us who are ligitimate Chronic Intractable Pain patients, as is happening, throughout the U.S., now. We, as well as cancer patients, ate being denied the medications we need to control our pain and have some quality of life! We have reached a point where the almighty dollar means more than the welfare of the customer/patient.
Then there is a second issue, which shows the stupidity of CVS Corporate. This is with regard to filling prescriptions for pets. Walgreens, Costco, several other places where I've purchased my dog's cardiac meds, over the years, all the pet to be included in the discount plan, for those without insurance. I was willing to pay for a discount plan, to purchase my dog's enalapril at a lower cost. I've moved and CVS is closer than the store I usually get her meds at. They do not do this. If you want to increase the volume of meds sold, people have pets, love them, and spend megabucks on prescription meds, for their sick animals. Meds are almost always cheaper at a pharmacy, than from the vet. Over the years, I've had pets on cardiac and blood pressure meds, as well as insulin, prednisone, and Doxycycline.
This seems a little oxymoronic, from my point of view. Money is money, what does it matter if the script is for a dog?!












Anonymous said...

I worked for CVS and have to agree with pretty much everything I have read. I can't say enough about how badly they treat their employees. But what really infuriates me is that my friend was written up for not filling a Dilaudid script. It was early so she called the doctor to see if he wanted it filled and he said no. After that I was afraid to refuse a script (since I had already been written up for falling behind one day after returning from from 2 back to back medical leaves for back surgeries). BTW, they also are not fond of employees that take legitimate medical leaves whether work related or not, and they retaliate. Fortunately a pharmacist can't be demoted, but I know an assistant manager that was. The last pharmacy supervisor I had was the worst (actually all the others were quite nice, but that was many years ago). The nice ones step down because they can't be as rotten as corporate wants them to be. Anyway, on his watch 1 pharmacist told me she had to take Xanax because of him, another said he took Ativan occasionally but had to start taking it daily and another told me pharmacists in our district were taking anxiolytics and antidepressants because of him. I recently went into a 24 hour CVS and was making conversation with the overnight pharmacist (since I had worked overnights) and she told me they were getting a new supervisor and she needed to talk to him about the workload. When she told me who it was I warned her and told her good luck. The next time I saw her she told me how I was right and things were getting worse. She also told me how overwhelmed she was with all the people with narcs that had "fill after" dates that were coming in at midnight. The 24 hour Walgreens nearby will not dispense them until 7 am so she was getting more. For all the pharmacists that have not worked between the hours of 12 am and 3 am, if the insurance is billed to a different time zone the claim will not go through because the dates are different. She said that people were getting angry with her and she feared for her life. I left in 2010 and can't imagine how much worse it is to work there now. Not to mention my rxs occasionally end up on ready fill. But I just ask them to take them off because I don't want to get anyone in trouble by complaining. The insurance companies should really do something about them filling rxs without patient consent. And to all the people that think we just want to be mean by not filling their controls early, I really don't care. What I do care about is keeping my license, my home and my job so I can pay back my student loans and support my family. My job would be a lot easier if I could just fill every prescription that came through the door and not deal with insurance companies, angry people and the legal ramifications that come from irresponsibility filling prescriptions.