But let's look a little deeper at the story, as well as similar stories that have surfaced over the years. What is the common thread to all of the stories?
Yep.
Pharmacist filling too many prescriptions with too little help. Hmmmm.... I believe that pharmacists have been complaining about not enough help for quite a while.
And who seems to be involved with all of the heavily publicized pharmacy errors?
Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Wal-Mart....
The big boys who have turned pharmacy into fast food.
I don't recall seeing any stories that involve smaller pharmacy operations having these types of errors. I'm sure these errors happen, but maybe the lawsuits don't get filed because the pharmacists and patients know each other. How can you know your patients when you are checking 40, 50, 60 scripts per hour?
I once worked at that pace. I can tell you that I did know what medications my patients were taking if you mentioned their name, but to look over to our waiting area... I had no idea who was out there waiting. Now that I work at a slower pace, I know my patients on a personal level. Work is much more rewarding now.
* * * * *
Now to tie this in a little with yesterday's post. If the larger chains would set their U & C prices at a reasonable amount AND stop accepting reimbursements that are so low, maybe the pharmacists wouldn't have to fill so many prescriptions per hour to make a profit. If nobody accepts the low reimbursement rates from the insurance companies, they will have to either increase their reimbursement rates or lose the contracts because there are no providers.
But what do I know, I'm just Pharmacy God.
Now to tie this in a little with yesterday's post. If the larger chains would set their U & C prices at a reasonable amount AND stop accepting reimbursements that are so low, maybe the pharmacists wouldn't have to fill so many prescriptions per hour to make a profit. If nobody accepts the low reimbursement rates from the insurance companies, they will have to either increase their reimbursement rates or lose the contracts because there are no providers.
But what do I know, I'm just Pharmacy God.
8 comments:
I'm not sure I'd be too happy about my child taking propranolol for hyperactivity...then again it's probably preferable to Methylphenidate.
Weird mistake to happen. Are they in similar packaging or was teh pharmacist just having a really bad day? I had a period of time when I kept mixing up Paroxetine 20mg and Fluoxetine 20mg (same strength, similar indication).Fortunately no erros left the pharmacy.
Poor kid. After taking a testosterone analogue his father should send him out cycling with Floyd Landis... :)
Obviously, this doesn't apply to the pharmacy chains, but I know Target (and most likely Wal-Mart) doesn't care if they lose / make little money on pharmacy claims. The whole point is to drive business for the retail segment. At Target, it was common knowledge that shoppers that filled prescriptions at the pharmacy shopped twice as often at Target, and spent more money per visit.
Dustin,
You've made my point. By working for employers who don't care about the profit margin for the pharmacy, pharmacists are cheapening the profession. The low prices that are submitted to the third-parties lead to low reimbursements, which means higher prescription volumes are needed to turn a profit.
We are pharmacists. We are medical professionals. We are not pharmacy whores.
PG
Pharmacy God,
haha, I think you beat me to it. I wrote a post about this article today, too. I think that these pharmacy mega-chains and Target/Walmart are destroying the PROFESSION of pharmacy. How can we expect to be treated like professionals by the public when the companies we work for treat us like slaves?
I threw my own comments on my blog today, seems this is THE topic to write about pharmacy God and Pharmacy Girl. I miss my independent days. I miss my 600 per week. I miss my sanity...
ps thanks for adding me to your blogroll
You know, the class we are in right now in school is "Pharmacy Administration"... it made your last post make a lot sense to me. We talk about pricing, profits, reimbursement, law, etc.
We were playing a "game" that is a simulated pharmacy business, and we make business decisions. To win, and make a profit, you have to squeeze everything out of people... make the manage work 70 hours? Sure, they can't quit! Only 1.5 pharmacists in a week? Yep, bare minimum. Pay them enough and they won't leave. We were the big "superstore"... so cut prices? Yea, that little neighborhood pharmacy is beating us on profit!
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that ... it frightened me to look at it from that point of view. Because to succeed in business, we completely were able to separate those hours we needed to cover from the real people. It was so easy to forget that technically, those decisions were made about real people.
I guess the difference in "the game" was that the Pharmacist was limited to a volume of 10 Rx/hr.
We also someone from OPA come in to talk to us about the legislation and encourage us to be pro-active when we hit the work force.
I hope it'll sink in with some of my classmates... because the more I read on all these blogs, the more uneasy I get about the career I picked...
Katie,
The profession is fine. You selected a great career. It's the jobs that suck.
For too long, pharmacists have sat back and accepted the crap that's been handed to them. Organizations like the APhA and state pharmacy associations seem to be more concerned about things like MTMs, immunizations, and expanding the clinical role of pharmacists.
While these issues do have a bearing on the practice of pharmacy, these organizations have forgotten about the individual pharmacists out there on the front lines. There hasn't been an organization to speak for the individual pharmacist.
Until now. I encourage you to check out The Pharmacy Alliance. There is a link on my blogroll. It's still in its formative stages, but The Pharmacy Alliance is going to address the workplace issues that have made the JOB so bad.
Just remember these two things. The PROFESSION is fine, it's just the jobs that suck and you are a medical PROFESSIONAL, demand to be treated as such.
Pharmacy God
PS- It looks like you are going to my alma mater. The course and game sound really familiar. Shoot me an email (pharmacygod@hotmail.com) and let me know where you are. I may be able to embarass your professor.
I have been a pharmacist for 31 years, the last 12 for large chains. I have been on Paxil for uncontrolled anxiety for 11 of those years and this year feel I need a leave of absence. I would quit working, but still have a child in college. I feel like a robot. People are rude and obnoxious and out-front management which knows next to nothing about pharmacy are always trying to reprimand us for something. I hate it--I would never advise anyone to go to pharmcy school, no matter what the salary is. It's not worth your health. Believe me, I know.
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