Current Events > Pharmacists say industry in crisis puts patient safety at risk

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/overworked-understaffed-pharmacists-say-industry-crisis-puts-patient-safety-risk-n1261151

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-missouri-investigating-pharmacy-working-conditions-20210702-6swdxjgoyrh5zkg7lyspfentby-story.html

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgz8e/covid-19-vaccinations-are-pushing-pharmacists-to-a-breaking-point

---

Personal related: Our district manager informed us that he doesn't believe that more hours or more bodies would fix the problem and has threatened to write up the entire store if we continue to go over budget.

He also thinks lying to every store that "You're the only store struggling" will motivated them to do more with less.

---

I'm skimming the article but I have a few things I've noticed:

1) They talk about Pharmacists giving immunizations. I'm pretty sure it was the Pharmacies that started doing that themselves and then said "hey we should be able to bill insurance for this". So they did it to make more money I think.

2) They say this: A pharmacist's job is far more than putting pills in bottles.

Then also they say this: The person who actually hands you your filled prescription at the counter may be a technician, not a pharmacist. Technicians are support staffers who run the cash register; fill, count and bag prescriptions; and unload inventory.

I know pharmacists have to know a lot of drug interactions and stuff, but why are we paying them insane amounts of money if we are just turning around and having a cashier fill the actual bottles.

That struck me as odd.

As a side note: I'm not saying your job is tough or not or underpaid or anything.... just some interesting things I found in the article.

---

Pharmacists verify all prescriptions for issues, take verbal orders from doctors, provide consultation and advice to patients, fill all prescriptions for CII substances, do most immunizations, and manage the overall operation of the pharmacy.

One big thing the first article mentions is quotas. They are the bane of everyone's existence at a pharmacy. The companies base everything (hours, raises, budget, etc) off hitting these numbers, many of which rely on annoying the hell out of patients with phone calls.

At CVS, they've rolled out a new verification system specifically because they want the technicians to focus solely on counting prescriptions, so the pharmacist can do literally everything else at once and only look at pictures of what the technicians did. The stress is crushing pharmacists and technicians alike, and increasing both wait times and mistakes. The system is planned down to the second and a single hiccup of any sort will throw everything into disarray, possibly for days.

This is the pressure the people handling your drugs are under

---

hockeybub89 posted...

Pharmacists verify all prescriptions for issues, take verbal orders from doctors, provide consultation and advice to patients, fill all prescriptions for CII substances, do most immunizations, and manage the overall operation of the pharmacy.

One big thing the first article mentions is quotas. They are the bane of everyone's existence at a pharmacy. The companies base everything (hours, raises, budget, etc) off hitting these numbers, many of which rely on annoying the hell out of patients with phone calls.

At CVS, they've rolled out a new verification system specifically because they want the technicians to focus solely on counting prescriptions, so the pharmacist can do literally everything else at once and only look at pictures of what the technicians did. The stress is crushing pharmacists and technicians alike, and increasing both wait times and mistakes. The system is planned down to the second and a single hiccup of any sort will throw everything into disarray, possibly for days.

This is the pressure the people handling your drugs are under

damn thats evil Corp shit

Stuff like this is why people become socialist and communist

Im very thankful for where I work.

Future_Trunks posted...

you a pharmacist?

Tech, looking to move on sooner than later. Just got promoted recently, so I'm padding my resume.

---

Isnt the real issue that Americans are on too many prescriptions?

Get the people healthier and the problem goes away.
---

im not sure i really buy into the idea that pharmacists are necessary to cross-check drug interactions and make sure there's nothing bad going on. can't a computer do that with significantly more accuracy and much faster turnaround time?

pardon my ignorance on what pharmacists actually do.

---

I always tell my doctors that I dont want to take a my pills unless its completely necessary. Luckily Im only on one prescription atm.

---

Cuticrusader09 posted...

Isnt the real issue that Americans are on too many prescriptions?

Get the people healthier and the problem goes away.

Most of those meds aren't Lipitor or things like that, they're antidepressents and opiates, blame the psychiatrists for the former and the latter needs to go, it's causing the opioid crisis.
---

hockeybub89 posted...

Tech, looking to move on sooner than later. Just got promoted recently, so I'm padding my resume.

Move on to what?

Giant_Aspirin posted...

im not sure i really buy into the idea that pharmacists are necessary to cross-check drug interactions and make sure there's nothing bad going on. can't a computer do that with significantly more accuracy and much faster turnaround time?

pardon my ignorance on what pharmacists actually do.

A computer can spit out all the interaction in the world no problem. Thats not useful. Actually taking that information and applying it in a real life setting is more pertinent and a computer cannot do that.

One of my friends in high school went to college to be a pharmacist. He quit within a year.

---

So what do I do as a consumer?

---

Jabodie posted...

So what do I do as a consumer?

The biggest thing you can do is plan ahead if you regularly fill meds. If you wait until youre on your last pill and and an issue arises, thats when things get messy.

hockeybub89 posted...

Pharmacists verify all prescriptions for issues, take verbal orders from doctors, provide consultation and advice to patients, fill all prescriptions for CII substances, do most immunizations, and manage the overall operation of the pharmacy.

One big thing the first article mentions is quotas. They are the bane of everyone's existence at a pharmacy. The companies base everything (hours, raises, budget, etc) off hitting these numbers, many of which rely on annoying the hell out of patients with phone calls.

At CVS, they've rolled out a new verification system specifically because they want the technicians to focus solely on counting prescriptions, so the pharmacist can do literally everything else at once and only look at pictures of what the technicians did. The stress is crushing pharmacists and technicians alike, and increasing both wait times and mistakes. The system is planned down to the second and a single hiccup of any sort will throw everything into disarray, possibly for days.

This is the pressure the people handling your drugs are under

CVS is literally hell.


---

BroodRyu posted...

A computer can spit out all the interaction in the world no problem. Thats not useful. Actually taking that information and applying it in a real life setting is more pertinent and a computer cannot do that.

They sure as hell are working on AI that can do that though.
---

Cuticrusader09 posted...

They sure as hell are working on AI that can do that though.

Im skeptical of that.

pikachupwnage posted...

CVS is literally hell.

Itd be nice if they were appropriately staffed. The CVSes up in this area only staff one pharmacist over the weekend. What a joke.

BroodRyu posted...

A computer can spit out all the interaction in the world no problem. Thats not useful. Actually taking that information and applying it in a real life setting is more pertinent and a computer cannot do that.

what are some examples where a simple check beyond "drug X has negative interaction with drug Y" needs to occur? what additional factors come into play there that couldn't just be formed into a gigantic formula / calculation for a computer to do?

again, i am pretty ignorant about what pharmacists actually do so my apologies if this is a dumb question.

---

Giant_Aspirin posted...

im not sure i really buy into the idea that pharmacists are necessary to cross-check drug interactions and make sure there's nothing bad going on. can't a computer do that with significantly more accuracy and much faster turnaround time?

pardon my ignorance on what pharmacists actually do.

You're forgiven. Most folks don't really know what it is we do.

---