Current Events > Retail pharmacy is the worst example of healthcare as a business

(+) Yeah! (+)

Patient care literally does not matter. It's all about gaming the metrics and appearing to make the most profit. Terrible stores that everyone hates are praised by corporate as examples of doing everything right. Just lie and sign everyone up for shit and you can fuck up all day long.

---

Insulin.

---

don't forget that it also awful to work in as well

Reiss posted...

don't forget that it also awful to work in as well

Yes this is why

---

I work in a retail pharmacy and 100% agree. My entire job is trying to sell people on shit and it feels so scummy.

also youre completely right about store quality. Just have a bunch of people getting 90-day supplies, signed up for med sync, getting immunizations, etc and corporate will praise the fuck out of you while patients have a miserable experience. Also the fact that we cant recommend prescription discount cards that will literally make peoples medicine cheaper because it loses the pharmacy money is the most anti-consumer thing ever and exactly why we need to get the profit motive out of healthcare ASAP.

---

Profits are way up! Also we're cutting your hours!

---

Retail pharmacy never really appealed to me. Hospital practice all day long right here.

---

Hospitals create dumb bs jobs for people so they can charge patients more. My wife is having a kid and at the first appointment they passed us around to 6 different people. Sure, one was a nurse, and one was the ultra sound tech, but there was also a financial person who basically just printed off our bill, and one was an "educator" which means she basically handed us pamphlets on pregnancy. Totally meaningless positions but sure enough they're fine was tracked onto the invoice for the visit.
---

Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Retail pharmacy never really appealed to me. Hospital practice all day long right here.

You have it so good. I never see you complain about your job.

---

I'm a lead tech at a very busy retail pharmacy and I can tell you that if you get prescriptions from companies like mine you're dumb as fuck. We're so understaffed and distracted by bullshit designed to pump up profit at the expense of everything else that we have no chance to fill prescriptions without errors, no matter how competent people are. Pharmacists are so tied up with stupid bullshit like mandatory phone calls badgering people to pick up prescriptions they often don't want and didn't ask for, mandatory immunizations, and now mandatory timewasting garbage dealing with coronavirus tests (that aren't accurate, fast enough to be useful, or safe!) that they will not catch those errors. Every prescription you pick up is a spin of the chamber in Russian Roulette, and it's exactly what corporate wants because they can blame those errors on their pharmacists and continue raking in ridiculous cash and pile on unethical practices designed to rake in more because the American government is a fucking worthless corporate whore.

---

Can confirm on 3 recent attempts to pick up prescriptions while out of town. Barbaric treatment,

Gakk86 posted...

I'm a lead tech at a very busy retail pharmacy and I can tell you that if you get prescriptions from companies like mine you're dumb as fuck. We're so understaffed and distracted by bullshit designed to pump up profit at the expense of everything else that we have no chance to fill prescriptions without errors, no matter how competent people are. Pharmacists are so tied up with stupid bullshit like mandatory phone calls badgering people to pick up prescriptions they often don't want and didn't ask for, mandatory immunizations, and now mandatory timewasting garbage dealing with coronavirus tests (that aren't accurate, fast enough to be useful, or safe!) that they will not catch those errors. Every prescription you pick up is a spin of the chamber in Russian Roulette, and it's exactly what corporate wants because they can blame those errors on their pharmacists and continue raking in ridiculous cash and pile on unethical practices designed to rake in more because the American government is a fucking worthless corporate whore.

Yeah I had a rash on my shin a while back, so my doctor writes a script for some cream or whatever. It had 3 refills on it, rash was gone before I even finished the tube. To this day they still leave me voicemails and send me emails begging me to pick up the refills even though I've told like 4 people I don't need them.

Luckily it expires next month but goddamn leave me the fuck alone.

---

Any of you guys wanna sign up for our Prescription Savings Club? Help a guy out.

---

I used to work in Walgreens and always thought it was so weird that a pharmacy sells so much fucking candy and it was ALWAYS on sale

---

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

I used to work in Walgreens and always thought it was so weird that a pharmacy sells so much fucking candy and it was ALWAYS on sale

LOL we have so much Halloween candy that the manager has taken to "accidentally" damaging it and putting it in the break room. Not that my chubby ass in complaining. We literally got Christmas stuff on the last truck, too.

---

Patient care is for the doctors and nurses, pharmacy is just where you pick up the medicine you are prescribed.

Doctors, you mean the people who are in massive short supply in American because very few people smart enough to go through 10 years of school are dumb enough to do so and get treated like shit for the profit of a handful of fat old white men?

---

SocksForWokMAX2 posted...

Patient care is for the doctors and nurses, pharmacy is just where you pick up the medicine you are prescribed.

Doctors mess up prescriptions all the time. Pharmacies are an integral part of the healthcare process.

And greedy executives are fucking it up by overworking pharmacists and their techs while also demanding them to meet a bunch of meaningless metrics. It's literally killing people and only getting worse.

Every sensible, ethical thing you'd expect is actively discouraged.

---

Yet another reason Hawaii is best state :3

Never had any problems with retail. I do my refills online in literally less than a minute, they get mailed to my door, and both my medications cost like $15 or $30 a month combined. Nor have I had people push me to buy prescriptions lol. I've gotten things that make sense like pain killers after surgery, but I generally didn't need to pick them up.

Great health care and hot Asian chicks FTW :D

---

It's a good thing I don't care about ethics otherwise I wouldn't be able to do my job. I do unethical shit dozens if not hundreds of times a day. Ask a doctor for refills for a medication some confused old person is not longer on and fill it when we get those refills? Need to do it or I'll get bitched at for metrics. Sign people up for programs they wouldn't be interested in and cost them money without asking? You fucking bet, otherwise I'll get bitched at because of metrics. Fill prescriptions people haven't asked for and misrepresent why they were filled so they pay for them? Damn straight, need them metrics!

---

Gakk86 posted...

It's a good thing I don't care about ethics otherwise I wouldn't be able to do my job. I do unethical shit dozens if not hundreds of times a day. Ask a doctor for refills for a medication some confused old person is not longer on and fill it when we get those refills? Need to do it or I'll get bitched at for metrics. Sign people up for programs they wouldn't be interested in and cost them money without asking? You fucking bet, otherwise I'll get bitched at because of metrics. Fill prescriptions people haven't asked for and misrepresent why they were filled so they pay for them? Damn straight, need them metrics!

This is on your boss. My brother's wife is a pharmacist and she likes her job. Probably because her boss isn't a psycho like that.

---

SocksForWokMAX2 posted...

Patient care is for the doctors and nurses, pharmacy is just where you pick up the medicine you are prescribed.

Funny cause I hear patients telling me the opposite, doctors just tap your knee with a little hammer and write you a prescription, pharmacies are the ones actually filling it and handling problems with insurance and giving consultations.

Had to call a doctor once and he asked "I'm sorry, are you the one writing prescriptions now?" And the pharmacist replied "No, I'm just making sure you're not stupid."

---

tote_all posted...

You should be arrested.

Yeah, the problem is totally me, it's not like I'm doing exactly what my company demands or anything. Hell, my performance has me transitioning into training other people to do what I do (and get paid a lot more, thankfully).

---

tote_all posted...

You should be arrested.

And yeah. This. On the off chance that he's not being hyperbolic, that's illegal and you need some legal consequences.

---

ssk9716757 posted...

also youre completely right about store quality. Just have a bunch of people getting 90-day supplies, signed up for med sync, getting immunizations, etc and corporate will praise the fuck out of you while patients have a miserable experience. Also the fact that we cant recommend prescription discount cards that will literally make peoples medicine cheaper because it loses the pharmacy money is the most anti-consumer thing ever and exactly why we need to get the profit motive out of healthcare ASAP.

We literally clean up messes for the "Best store in the district" every day. It's bullshit and everyone hates them. But at least they press the right buttons and suck up to the suits! Who cares if patients transfer to other locations all the time? That probably saves money!

Our store literally gets shit on because we care too much about the patients. It's disgusting and I don't think I can handle it much longer. In the meantime, I'll keep fighting the system in little ways by being a decent human being.

---

Gakk86 posted...

Yeah, the problem is totally me, it's not like I'm doing exactly what my company demands or anything.

You do realize that you don't need to do illegal shit, right? Even at McDonald's they tell you to do what you're told, even if you don't like it, and complain later. UNLESS, of course, it's illegal.

---

YugiNoob posted...

And yeah. This. On the off chance that he's not being hyperbolic, that's illegal and you need some legal consequences.

I totally agree that what I do should be 1000% illegal and every executive who mandates that such things be done should get arrested. You can fuck off for blaming me for doing my job, though.

---

tote_all posted...

You should be arrested.

He's just doing his job.

---

YugiNoob posted...

You do realize that you don't need to do illegal shit, right? Even at McDonald's they tell you to do what you're told, even if you don't like it, and complain later. UNLESS, of course, it's illegal.

LOL, do you really think what I'm doing is illegal? In America? My company and others like it have members on every board of pharmacy and have made what I'm doing legal as can be. Our CEO gave a speech with the president a few months back!

---

Gakk86 posted...

LOL, do you really think what I'm doing is illegal? In America? My company and others like it have members on every board of pharmacy and have made what I'm doing legal as can be. Our CEO gave a speech with the president a few months back!

You honestly think that you can charge people for things without asking? And I'd bet my bottom dollar that some of those other "dozens, if not hundreds" of other immoral things would be illegal. Unless, as mentioned, you're being hyperbolic.

I would love to hear some of those things though. Maybe just 12? Not even 24, so it doesn't have to be "dozens".

---

Oh you sweet summer child.

---

---

Ed Hochuli blowing a call? Well I never.

I don't see how exactly it's a personal attack calling out your ignorance in thinking that something that makes companies money at the expense of people would be illegal. Are you European or something?

---

hockeybub89 posted...

Patient care literally does not matter. It's all about gaming the metrics and appearing to make the most profit. Terrible stores that everyone hates are praised by corporate as examples of doing everything right. Just lie and sign everyone up for shit and you can fuck up all day long.

hahahahaha

you're only scratching the surface

try being a doctor

---

tote_all posted...

What do you mean by this?

I don't think I could explain it

It's like explaining colors to blind people

---

tote_all posted...

What do you mean by this?

It means that insurance companies are pissed that doctors make decent money so do everything they can to fuck them out of it.

---

tote_all posted...

You are freely agreeing to do it. You cannot shift blame into your company if you do it freely, and your company does not determine ethics or morality. You're not better than them, you're the same, just earning less money for it.

Yeah, totally, I should just go for all the other wonderful career opportunities in America, like...um...

---

NightingaleMD posted...

hahahahaha

you're only scratching the surface

try being a doctor

Oh I know this rot is everywhere. Pharmacy is just the angle that I experience it from.

---

tote_all posted...

You are freely agreeing to do it. You cannot shift blame into your company if you do it freely, and your company does not determine ethics or morality. You're not better than them, you're the same, just earning less money for it.

Take this energy and spend it punching up.

---

Gakk86 posted...

Ed Hochuli blowing a call? Well I never.

I don't see how exactly it's a personal attack calling out your ignorance in thinking that something that makes companies money at the expense of people would be illegal. Are you European or something?

I'm not saying that companies making money unethically would be illegal. I said that you did illegal things, and the fact that your supervisors told you to made them no less illegal.

And as stated tons of times on this board, including this topic, I live in Hawaii.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

And also this. People always bitch about cops, saying that they do bad things and chose their terrible profession? Well, you're in the same shoes buddy. You and cops are doing bad things, and nothing is forcing you to remain in your line of work. I don't mean that literally as of this moment, obviously, since the pandemic is fucking killing employment, but you're free to report the bad people in your profession and/or leave when the opportunity presents itself.


---

ssk9716757 posted...

I work in a retail pharmacy and 100% agree. My entire job is trying to sell people on shit and it feels so scummy

What do you mean? I've never been sold anything that wasn't my prescription at a pharmacy

---

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

What do you mean? I've never been sold anything that wasn't my prescription at a pharmacy

It's not always things that literally cost the patient money, but basically every prescription possible is expected to be a 90 day supply on automatic refill that is proactively requested from the doctor every single time refills run out. And if you can't convince a patient to do that, then you are clearly not saying the right combination of words and there is no other explanation. I've seen my pharmacist catch shit because not enough patients picked up the phone during our weekly patient calls. How do you make someone answer the phone?

You are a salesman first and anything else a distant second. That person would have said yes to that anal cream for their hemorrhoids that cleared up 4 months ago if you sold it better, without sounding like you're selling anything.

---

YugiNoob posted...

I'm not saying that companies making money unethically would be illegal. I said that you did illegal things, and the fact that your supervisors told you to made them no less illegal.

And as stated tons of times on this board, including this topic, I live in Hawaii.

And also this. People always bitch about cops, saying that they do bad things and chose their terrible profession? Well, you're in the same shoes buddy. You and cops are doing bad things, and nothing is forcing you to remain in your line of work. I don't mean that literally as of this moment, obviously, since the pandemic is fucking killing employment, but you're free to report the bad people in your profession and/or leave when the opportunity presents itself.

I was unaware cops had a 'people murdered' metric. But hey, keep being a dumbfuck defending the people who created this situation and blaming the bottom rung of people getting shit on by them.

---

Keep being obtuse and ignoring my point there bro. Or would you like to point out where I'm defending your higher ups? I'm blaming all you guys who are doing illegal shit. If people up top aren't going to stop breaking the law, and you know what's happening but still don't say shit and just follow orders like an obedient little puppet...

BTW, still waiting for some of those other unethical things you're forced to do, or else the boss will yell and hurt your fee fees.

But you know what, I'm guessing you'll ignore that. So let me try to make it simple for you:

tl;dr
You don't need to do illegal things your boss tells you, but you do it anyway. You also have the power to report them, but you don't.

---