Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
CVS or Walgreens.
Cvs
walgreens.
View Results
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Snow Cone Capone
Jul 31, 2003


Richard M Nixon posted:

Clearly I don't know much about pharmacies, but are they actually doing stuff more complex than counting out 30 of whatever pill and putting them in a container? Short of compounded medication, I assumed that the actual doctor figured out dosage and all the biochem stuff and the cvs tech was just handling packaging and reading the warnings off the label to me.

I think they have to be familiar with the drugs and their side effects/interactions, etc. Plus just being allowed to handle controlled substances freely like that. I dunno what the dividing line is, but I'm pretty sure getting a pharmacy degree requires a couple of years of post-grad study.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!

Richard M Nixon posted:

Clearly I don't know much about pharmacies, but are they actually doing stuff more complex than counting out 30 of whatever pill and putting them in a container? Short of compounded medication, I assumed that the actual doctor figured out dosage and all the biochem stuff and the cvs tech was just handling packaging and reading the warnings off the label to me.

a pharmacist's fundamental job is to basically be the cat who looks at a patient's FULL list of medications and say "woah, this one and this one together is definitely going to kill you".

individual doctors can't be expected to do that because many patients are going to be seeing multiple doctors. they themselves encourage this when they refer out to specialists for anything out of their portfolio. obviously, being familiar with all of these chemical interactions is a lot of loving learning and a lot of work. when you combine that complicated job with the on-the-ground realities that complicate this job, like needing to be able to deal with insurance companies that want to substitute med for med because it's totally the same thing (which it is most of the time, but you really want a skilled chemist around for the couple times it actually isn't) and dealing with doses that fluctuate to subjective needs (such as 'for pain')...yes, a pharmacy is a pretty complicated place.

Stevie Lee
Oct 8, 2007

Obsidianheart posted:

She works overnights, a week of 12 hour shifts, then a week off. She says it's like being on vacation every other week.
I dunno, man.

I guess that's why Walgreens always looks better

CVS sure as poo poo doesn't have people working overnights. they're always blocking up half the aisles stocking shelves whenever I go in there.

I will say that cvs brand snacks are way better than that great value-tier garbage that walgreens calls Nice!. plus their sales are usually better

Cosmik Slop
Oct 9, 2007

What's a hole doing in my TARDIS?


Stevie Lee posted:

I guess that's why Walgreens always looks better

CVS sure as poo poo doesn't have people working overnights. they're always blocking up half the aisles stocking shelves whenever I go in there.

I will say that cvs brand snacks are way better than that great value-tier garbage that walgreens calls Nice!. plus their sales are usually better

I bought Nice! brand coffee once. It tasted exactly like you would imagine drinking an ashtray to taste.

Dr. Red Ranger
Nov 9, 2011

Nap Ghost
If you want to know whether your regional grocer pharmacy is a flaming fuckzone or merely an ok place to work, watch the staffing. Do they operate with one pharmacist per business day? Do the pharmacists get lunchbreaks? Does the pharmacist have two techs to manage general tasks and a cashier, or do the techs have to spend their entire shift running between drive through and front end while the pharmacist does every last thing on their own? Currently, Pharmacy Benefits Managers (insurance companies for insurance companies) are killing reimbursements on important medications through clawbacks, so revenue is down. While inventory is the largest cost associated with running a pharmacy by orders of magnitude, pharmacist salaries are relatively large and much easier to cut since pharmacy schools can't slow down graduating people without collapsing and we all know it. So the lovely companies cut pharmacist hours, removed overlapping shifts for support during busy hours, cut support staffing, "encourage" unpaid overtime and so on to keep profits up. The big boxes were already lovely to work for because they would commonly have you monitoring the filling of potentially dangerous medications for 12-14 hours a day without a lunch or piss break or even goddamn chairs. Now you're doing the same thing but with less help, more responsibilities than ever and new grads are getting paid ~$15 an hour less than starting salaries just three years ago. It's bad.

CVS has always been the worst, Walgreens a close second, and Walmart used to be surprisingly decent due to competitive wages, sufficient staffing and an hour long lunch break if you worked at least 10 hour shifts. They recently moved to single-pharmacist business days with half hour lunches. At least we can still stop for half an hour on a 13 hour day, but since pharmacies can't operate without a PharmD/RPh pharmacist on staff and close for lunch, customers rush the counter at 1:30 hoping you'll skip it or delay it for them, and there's always a line at 2:00 ready to scream at you for daring to put your basic biological needs before filling their maintenance meds.


If you're curious about the work breakdown, the general rule is (supposed to be) "cashiers and techs do what they CAN do, so the pharmacist is free to do what ONLY THEY can do".

Cashiers run registers and are the first face that catches upset patients. They can't legally do much else but their presence is still important to keep things going. A tech that has to stop their work to run a register is a pharmacist who has to stop their patient safety and efficacy job to do clerical work to keep up. These guys DO have to run all Sudafed requests through our state registry though, which pisses some people off.

Techs: These are the guys with colored shirts or vests running in circles around the place. They work intake for new prescriptions, input data for them to send to the pharmacist for verification, count and fill those prescriptions and then bag them together for you. They also field calls for us, cold call patients on refill adherence to get our STAR rating up for Medicare reimbursement, are first responders to insurance complications, sort our paper records for filing since that has to be kept for (x) years depending on state, ask our patients relevant questions regarding opioid prescriptions by corporate policy and get yelled at for it, handle routine drug ordering, filing and shelving the order when it shows up, call for simple prescription questions (with our supervision) when we don't have the time to do it ourselves, hand out paperwork for vaccinations, help put together weekend health-fair booths, work the thrice-damned motherfucking drive through, and at least a dozen other responsibilities I can't recall.

Pharmacists: We're the information heart of the operation. The basic concept is that we verify that all information concerning a prescription the techs have is correct, for the correct patient, and to evaluate risks for allergies, drug interactions, dose issues, and other general medication use questions. As you can probably imagine, there is by far too much for anyone to recall off their top of their head regarding the ridiculously vast world of medication chemistry and the resulting issues. We use our experience and what we know with pharmaceutical reference materials and custom programs that check your profile for known interactions of various severity and statistical reliability to make sure what you're taking makes sense for what's wrong with you, your age and sex, past medical history, known allergies and sensitivies, etc. However, the nature of chemical therapy is that realistically, most drugs have a big list of known side effects and interactions, but they just don't happen for everyone the same way, if at all. So we have to foresee potential problems with your therapy using your history and (potentially) conversations with your doctor if something is questionable. We also use the PMP to check people and prescriptions to make sure the new patient that brought in an RX for #180 Percocet 10mg 5 minutes before closing from a dentist 3 hours away isn't doctor/pharmacy shopping or spreading their opioids over several pharmacies to elude tracking. Opioid policing is another entire Pandora's Fuckpile of Problems but trust me when I say it isn't fun for anyone.

Of course, like I said before, understaffing is an issue so you can reasonably assume that the Pharmacist job description will include the Tech and Cashier description at any point for any length of time and not be wrong. If that period of time is 13 hours in a row because admin looked at your numbers and you don't need techs on these days and you don't have a relief pharmacist coming problems happen. You were checking an anticonvulsant because the doctor who wrote an antibiotic without knowing the patient's allergies is out at lunch and isn't available, phone line 1 is someone upset that prices are different between pharmacies and wants to sue you, line two is someone upset that their RX with 0 refills says "it's good until 2020!", line 3 is someone who wants to bring back their one week eye drop RX because the drops expire in 2022, line 4 is screaming that they don't know where their doctor called in their prescription; 3 people want flu shots and the fourth doesn't want to fill out paperwork and you're just exhausted because it's 6pm and you've been there since 7:30am without a piss break. Meanwhile there's a fight at the drive through, drop off, counseling and pickup have 8 people in line each because you don't have a cashier today and your tech is pinballing between each, fill is at 100 with 55 at input because there's no one to work the prescriptions, all of your racks are full because you don't have extra pairs of hands to bag, some rear end in a top hat just complained that you're lazy, all you do is count pills and OH gently caress THAT ANTICONVULSANT WASN'T FOR LITHIUM poo poo WHERE IS IT!?!

Dr. Red Ranger fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Nov 1, 2019

epsilon
Oct 31, 2001


Walgreens for the Marvel Legends exclusives and Juul pods.

sticksy
May 26, 2004
Nap Ghost

Dr. Red Ranger posted:

If you want to know whether your regional grocer pharmacy is a flaming fuckzone or merely an ok place to work, watch the staffing. Do they operate with one pharmacist per business day? Do the pharmacists get lunchbreaks? Does the pharmacist have two techs to manage general tasks and a cashier, or do the techs have to spend their entire shift running between drive through and front end while the pharmacist does every last thing on their own? Currently, Pharmacy Benefits Managers (insurance companies for insurance companies) are killing reimbursements on important medications through clawbacks, so revenue is down. While inventory is the largest cost associated with running a pharmacy by orders of magnitude, pharmacist salaries are relatively large and much easier to cut since pharmacy schools can't slow down graduating people without collapsing and we all know it. So the lovely companies cut pharmacist hours, removed overlapping shifts for support during busy hours, cut support staffing, "encourage" unpaid overtime and so on to keep profits up. The big boxes were already lovely to work for because they would commonly have you monitoring the filling of potentially dangerous medications for 12-14 hours a day without a lunch or piss break or even goddamn chairs. Now you're doing the same thing but with less help, more responsibilities than ever and new grads are getting paid ~$15 an hour less than starting salaries just three years ago. It's bad.

CVS has always been the worst, Walgreens a close second, and Walmart used to be surprisingly decent due to competitive wages, sufficient staffing and an hour long lunch break if you worked at least 10 hour shifts. They recently moved to single-pharmacist business days with half hour lunches. At least we can still stop for half an hour on a 13 hour day, but since pharmacies can't operate without a PharmD/RPh pharmacist on staff and close for lunch, customers rush the counter at 1:30 hoping you'll skip it or delay it for them, and there's always a line at 2:00 ready to scream at you for daring to put your basic biological needs before filling their maintenance meds.


If you're curious about the work breakdown, the general rule is (supposed to be) "cashiers and techs do what they CAN do, so the pharmacist is free to do what ONLY THEY can do".

Cashiers run registers and are the first face that catches upset patients. They can't legally do much else but their presence is still important to keep things going. A tech that has to stop their work to run a register is a pharmacist who has to stop their patient safety and efficacy job to do clerical work to keep up. These guys DO have to run all Sudafed requests through our state registry though, which pisses some people off.

Techs: These are the guys with colored shirts or vests running in circles around the place. They work intake for new prescriptions, input data for them to send to the pharmacist for verification, count and fill those prescriptions and then bag them together for you. They also field calls for us, cold call patients on refill adherence to get our STAR rating up for Medicare reimbursement, are first responders to insurance complications, sort our paper records for filing since that has to be kept for (x) years depending on state, ask our patients relevant questions regarding opioid prescriptions by corporate policy and get yelled at for it, handle routine drug ordering, filing and shelving the order when it shows up, call for simple prescription questions (with our supervision) when we don't have the time to do it ourselves, hand out paperwork for vaccinations, help put together weekend health-fair booths, work the thrice-damned motherfucking drive through, and at least a dozen other responsibilities I can't recall.

Pharmacists: We're the information heart of the operation. The basic concept is that we verify that all information concerning a prescription the techs have is correct, for the correct patient, and to evaluate risks for allergies, drug interactions, dose issues, and other general medication use questions. As you can probably imagine, there is by far too much for anyone to recall off their top of their head regarding the ridiculously vast world of medication chemistry and the resulting issues. We use our experience and what we know with pharmaceutical reference materials and custom programs that check your profile for known interactions of various severity and statistical reliability to make sure what you're taking makes sense for what's wrong with you, your age and sex, past medical history, known allergies and sensitivies, etc. However, the nature of chemical therapy is that realistically, most drugs have a big list of known side effects and interactions, but they just don't happen for everyone the same way, if at all. So we have to foresee potential problems with your therapy using your history and (potentially) conversations with your doctor if something is questionable. We also use the PMP to check people and prescriptions to make sure the new patient that brought in an RX for #180 Percocet 10mg 5 minutes before closing from a dentist 3 hours away isn't doctor/pharmacy shopping or spreading their opioids over several pharmacies to elude tracking. Opioid policing is another entire Pandora's Fuckpile of Problems but trust me when I say it isn't fun for anyone.

Of course, like I said before, understaffing is an issue so you can reasonably assume that the Pharmacist job description will include the Tech and Cashier description at any point for any length of time and not be wrong. If that period of time is 13 hours in a row because admin looked at your numbers and you don't need techs on these days and you don't have a relief pharmacist coming problems happen. You were checking an anticonvulsant because the doctor who wrote an antibiotic without knowing the patient's allergies is out at lunch and isn't available, phone line 1 is someone upset that prices are different between pharmacies and wants to sue you, line two is someone upset that their RX with 0 refills says "it's good until 2020!", line 3 is someone who wants to bring back their one week eye drop RX because the drops expire in 2022, line 4 is screaming that they don't know where their doctor called in their prescription; 3 people want flu shots and the fourth doesn't want to fill out paperwork and you're just exhausted because it's 6pm and you've been there since 7:30am without a piss break. Meanwhile there's a fight at the drive through, drop off, counseling and pickup have 8 people in line each because you don't have a cashier today and your tech is pinballing between each, fill is at 100 with 55 at input because there's no one to work the prescriptions, all of your racks are full because you don't have extra pairs of hands to bag, some rear end in a top hat just complained that you're lazy, all you do is count pills and OH gently caress THAT ANTICONVULSANT WASN'T FOR LITHIUM poo poo WHERE IS IT!?!

I'm sorry sir, this is the CVS drive through

Dr. Red Ranger
Nov 9, 2011

Nap Ghost

sticksy posted:

I'm sorry sir, this is the CVS drive through

I laughed, thanks.

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.

Dr. Red Ranger posted:

I laughed, thanks.

So where should I be buying my prescription medicines?

Dr. Red Ranger
Nov 9, 2011

Nap Ghost

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

So where should I be buying my prescription medicines?

Local independent pharmacies, if you can find them. They usually have the time and ability to be more personally involved in your care and are hurting for money more than the national chains are.

Smythe
Oct 12, 2003
There's a super walgreens near me which has sushi chef's with the little hats and all sorts of wild poo poo in there.

Smythe
Oct 12, 2003
I get my drugs at the ralphs btw

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.

Dr. Red Ranger posted:

Local independent pharmacies, if you can find them. They usually have the time and ability to be more personally involved in your care and are hurting for money more than the national chains are.

The only reason I'd go to a CVS for drugs is if I was in need of urgent care. If I had a real bad cold or something and didn't want to schedule an appointment with my primary care doctor for next week. It's really convenient to see a nurse practitioner right away, have them prescribe you some meds, and get the meds in the same building immediately. And also possibly pick up a tall can of Arizona mucho mango to sip on during the drive home.

Panaflex
Sep 28, 2001

Fartington Butts posted:

Every time I've been to a CVS there appears to be one employee manning the whole store (aside from pharmacy) and it takes 10 minutes for them to check out the one person in line in front of me.

And then they give me a four foot long receipt.

I've experienced the same thing at every CVS I have been to. For a long time I was getting my prescriptions at Walgreens which had outstanding customer service. Then I moved to a different town about 10 years ago and the closest Walgreens is the next town over 10 miles away. I have been using Rite Aid for these past 10 years. Can't really find anything to complain about. Unfortunately our insurance plan is partnering with CVS for next year's prescription coverage and I might have to switch which I am not looking forward to.

Edit: if you dont participate in CVS's customer loyalty thingy and don't enter your phone number at checkout you will be presented with a normal length reciept.

Panaflex fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Nov 2, 2019

Dr. Red Ranger
Nov 9, 2011

Nap Ghost

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

The only reason I'd go to a CVS for drugs is if I was in need of urgent care. If I had a real bad cold or something and didn't want to schedule an appointment with my primary care doctor for next week. It's really convenient to see a nurse practitioner right away, have them prescribe you some meds, and get the meds in the same building immediately. And also possibly pick up a tall can of Arizona mucho mango to sip on during the drive home.

Hey man, do what works for you. I tell people all the time that my feelings are hurt zero percent if they can get a better deal somewhere else and still have their needs met. Medicine is hard enough on everyone that you shouldn't have to feel bad for trying to save money.

To that end, there's a legislative drive to get Pharmacists prescribing rights for the very reasons you described; it's simpler and easier on the patient, especially if you can skip a $100 doctor visit to get told you have the flu. But we all know on the pharmacist end it's just going to be another unpaid extra responsibility that'll wreck up our work flow because they won't assign another PharmD to do it.

TenementFunster
Feb 20, 2003

The Cooler King
thrifty ice cream is the poo poo, and like $1.20 for two scoops

Burt Sexual
Jan 26, 2006

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Switchblade Switcharoo

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

The only reason I'd go to a CVS for drugs is if I was in need of urgent care. If I had a real bad cold or something and didn't want to schedule an appointment with my primary care doctor for next week. It's really convenient to see a nurse practitioner right away, have them prescribe you some meds, and get the meds in the same building immediately. And also possibly pick up a tall can of Arizona mucho mango to sip on during the drive home.

I have a friend that’s a practioner and she says it’s the wave of the future. She’s very smart and caring so I believe her.

sb hermit
Dec 13, 2016





TenementFunster posted:

thrifty ice cream is the poo poo, and like $1.20 for two scoops

Michael Transactions
Nov 11, 2013

This icon is really good

Michael Transactions
Nov 11, 2013

Whoa. In the Walgreens logo? You can see a guy enter the store, get his meds from the pharmacy, buy a KitKat bar for 4 dollars and then leave the store. All in one logo :stare:

PHIZ KALIFA
Dec 21, 2011

#mood

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

The only reason I'd go to a CVS for drugs is if I was in need of urgent care. If I had a real bad cold or something and didn't want to schedule an appointment with my primary care doctor for next week. It's really convenient to see a nurse practitioner right away, have them prescribe you some meds, and get the meds in the same building immediately. And also possibly pick up a tall can of Arizona mucho mango to sip on during the drive home.

if they're selling them for more than a buck a can it's a loving SCAM and you should burn the store to the ground, salt the earth and curse even the memory of the place.

drilldo squirt
Aug 18, 2006

a beautiful, soft meat sack
Clapping Larry
The pharmacist tech at cvs was very rude to me a lot and now I go to Walgreens.

drilldo squirt
Aug 18, 2006

a beautiful, soft meat sack
Clapping Larry
Also Walgreens sells gummi bears and cvs doesn't for some reason.

Cough Drop The Beat
Jan 22, 2012

by Lowtax
They both suck hard on the whole and are stupidly expensive for most stuff like toothpaste or tissues compared to other retail. Their customer service is painfully bad too. I've always had a much better experience getting prescriptions at Meijer, Target, etc pharmacies. Though the Walgreens near my place has a very good urgent care clinic and I go there when I'm occasionally sick or need testing done.

Cough Drop The Beat fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Nov 13, 2019

i vomit kittens
Apr 25, 2019


Richard M Nixon posted:

Clearly I don't know much about pharmacies, but are they actually doing stuff more complex than counting out 30 of whatever pill and putting them in a container? Short of compounded medication, I assumed that the actual doctor figured out dosage and all the biochem stuff and the cvs tech was just handling packaging and reading the warnings off the label to me.

I'm still in pharmacy school but from my time on rotation (i.e. basically working as a tech), the process is:

1. A tech enters the prescription into the system (whether brought in/faxed/e-prescribed). Some basic knowledge of the medications such as what strengths they're available in is valuable here because they can call the prescriber if it's just straight up not possible to fill the prescription. If it's a controlled substance, they can/should also review the state's database and alert the pharmacist if the patient is sketchy or at risk of an overdose.

2. The pharmacist reviews both the prescription itself and what the tech entered to make sure that everything matches up, that the dosage is sane, and that there isn't some other reason it could kill the patient.

3. A tech fills the prescription.

4. The pharmacist checks the medication itself and its quantity while also doing a final look over of the prescription.

If a medication is rejected by insurance for certain reasons they can attempt to correct this. Certain types of rejections (such as drug allergies or conflicting medications) have to be handled by the pharmacist. The techs also usually handle all of the stocking/ordering of new medications.

Pontificating Ass
Aug 2, 2002

What Doth Life?

Richard M Nixon posted:

Clearly I don't know much about pharmacies, but are they actually doing stuff more complex than counting out 30 of whatever pill and putting them in a container? Short of compounded medication, I assumed that the actual doctor figured out dosage and all the biochem stuff and the cvs tech was just handling packaging and reading the warnings off the label to me.

I was surprised the techs go through basically no training at all, but you end up learning about the medications inevitably. They initially enter the prescriptions and can handle talking to insurance companies, doctors' offices for refills or problems, and customers of course. It's a lot about learning good ways to deal with customers who always quickly get upset when there is a problem, but can be reassured if you say the right things. All the responsibility for verifying the proper medication and drug interaction falls on the pharmacist. You're pretty much right.

Private Cumshoe
Feb 15, 2019

AAAAAAAGAGHAAHGGAH

drilldo squirt posted:

The pharmacist tech at cvs was very rude to me a lot and now I go to Walgreens.

Heh, you want drugs? What a little baby waby boo hoo to your momma little drug bitch baby

Seriously though rude doctors and pharmacists are the worst :thermidor:

bradzilla
Oct 15, 2004

Drug stores are literally convenience stores that don't sell gas and happen to have a pharmacy attached. I don't know how you guys can be so surprised that everything is overpriced.

wilderthanmild
Jun 21, 2010

Posting shit




Grimey Drawer
I'm in Northeast Ohio so the real answer is Discount Drug Mart. It's got a larger selection and cheaper everything.

It also looks like they were all never updated or cleaned after the 1980's, but hey, you can't have it all.

Also the one by me is the "nicest" one I've ever been to, but it's still by the town's skeeviest motel so you get some really interesting people in it.

Preechr
May 19, 2009

Proud member of the Pony-Brony Alliance for Obama as President
Being a tech in a big box is agony. Constant understaffing and the flogging of meaningless metrics take their toll on you. Plus, you get ridiculously underpaid. Going from retail pharmacy to hospital pharmacy was a 33% pay increase for me.

As far as Walgreens/CVS, I have probably spent more than a year of my life listening to CVS’ awful loving re-recorded square-waved hold music, and simply hearing the opening notes makes me want to die. I used to give CVS poo poo for taking 20 minutes to answer the phone so we could do a transfer, but by the end we were so understaffed that we were taking half an hour or more. Surprise, you can’t answer 4 different phone lines in a timely fashion when you’ve got a line 6 deep and every one of them needs you to call an insurance, and by the way corporate needs you to cold call this list of people and see if they want any of their medications refilled, oh wait the cars in the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned drive through are honking, gently caress why do we only have two techs and they’re both stuck on a register...

Walgreens hired the same consultants that drove Target pharmacy into the loving ground and buzzwords suddenly became more important than serving the patient overnight.

JK Fresco
Jul 5, 2019
Metrics are the loving scourge of modern retail employees

Eventually everyone just fskes them anyway since they're so much additional work to do

JK Fresco
Jul 5, 2019
We need to identify the kind of shithouse MBA thinking that is destroying life

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Preechr
May 19, 2009

Proud member of the Pony-Brony Alliance for Obama as President


one tech, one trainee, one pharmacist floater

Preechr fucked around with this message at 07:25 on Nov 14, 2019

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply