Is there any truth to this rumor?

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as --Not Pharmacy--, Disgusting, Education, Government, Just a question, Laws, Lazy People, Me hating others, Politics, Stupid People, True Story, Welfare

The following piece of literary magic was forwarded to me from my conspiracy theorist friend. I get emails from him every week — I usually take the first sentence, google it with the word “snopes.com,” and send him back the link to the DEBUNKING of his trite. He never searches snopes first. He never sends my debunking back out to his email listserv….

I still enjoy out little chats — I’m always curious to see what will come out of his mouth next…:-)

Anyway — if you have any knowledge of these issues please post a comment. Debunk it. Post a supporting link if possible. I just cannot accept all of this as fact….

“I live and  work in a state overrun with illegals. They make more money  having kids than we earn working full-time. Today I had a 25-year old with 8 kids – that’s right 8; all illegal anchor babies and she had the nicest nails, cell phone, hand bag, clothing, etc.. She makes about $1,500 monthly for
each; you do the math. I used to say, “We are the dumbest nation on earth.” Now I must say and sadly admit: WE are the dumbest people on earth (that includes ME) for we elected the idiot idealogues who have passed the bills that allow this. Sorry, but we need a revolution.. Vote them all out in 2010.

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER 2010, WE HAVE A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO CLEAN OUT THE ENTIRE HOUSE AND ONE-THIRD OF THE SENATE!

This is an insult and a kick in the butt to all of us…

Get mad and pass it on, I don’t know how, but maybe some good will come
of this travesty.

If  the immigrant is over 65, they can apply for SSI and Medicaid and get more than a woman on Social Security, who worked from 1944 until 2004 .

She is only getting $791 per month because she was born in 1924 and there’s a ‘catch 22..’

It is interesting that the federal government provides a single refugee with a monthly allowance of $1,890. Each can also obtain an additional $580 in
social assistance, for a total of $2,470 a month.

This compares to  a single pensioner, who after contributing to the growth and  development of America for 40 to 50 years, can only receive a monthly maximum of $1,012 in old age pension
and Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Maybe our pensioners should apply as refugees!

Consider sending this to all your American friends, so we can all be ticked off and maybe get the refugees cut back to $1,012 and the pensioners up to $2,470. Then we can enjoy  some of the money we were forced to submit to the Government over the last 40 or 50 or 60 years.

Saturdays SUCK

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as APhA, Disgusting, Drug Topics, Errors, Lazy People, Me being a dick, Me hating others, Money, Patient Education, Politics, Stupid People, TPA, Technicians, True Story, Work Sucks

I’m lucky that I don’t have to work weekends on a consistent basis, but I do get the pleasure of working every 4th Saturday. What sucks about Saturdays? Nearly everything.

- I have to work 11 hours as the lone pharmacist.
- I get no lunch break. I sneak back to our little office and swallow a sandwich whole. I usually get interrupted 2-3 times to check in-store prescriptions or answer an old person’s call — they usually just have refill numbers of course!
- The technicians scheduled are all my part-time HS/College kids — meaning they know the most basic of tasks in the pharmacy and on the computer system. So, I type almost all prescriptions AS WELL AS check them. At least they count, right?
- We run two shifts of techs. They switch out at the lunch hour.
- We don’t do a ton of scripts. Maybe 200 total…250 is pushing it.

My last Saturday that I worked wasn’t super busy, but I was inundated with idiots and assholes — more so than on a regular day! At one point in the early afternoon, a short, fat man approached the counter right after my lunch time shift change.

“Yeah, I called and talked to the pharmacist, and he said you had Carter’s Liver Pills.”
“Well, I’m the pharmacist today — the only pharmacist working here all day. I didn’t take the call. I’m not sure who you talked to. Anyway, I’m not sure what ‘Carter’s Liver Pills’ are. What are they for?”
“They’re for the Liver.” [I guess I had that coming]
“Well, nowadays, there isn’t anything available over-the-counter for ‘the liver,’ and products couldn’t advertise themselves as such. Let me look it up on the internet.”
“Well, I don’t know why the pharmacist would say you had them if you don’t. He said they have them on the shelf!”
“Sir — I’m the only pharmacist on duty, and we did not speak today. Are you sure you called the Angriest Pharmacy?” [Well of course he did! He talked to the pharmacist!] “Well, give me just a second to go check some sources on the internet.”

So, I went to McKesson first to see if I could get it. I often use MCK to ascertain the existence of some of the shit people dream up that their friends, third cousins, and great grandmothers told them about years and years ago. When you search “Carter” on MCK, it returns one result — CARTER’S LITTLE PILLS. I immediately just thought the man was short, fat, and stupid…mistaking / misinterpreting the word LITTLE for LIVER.

I then moved to Google. I searched “Carter’s Liver Pills.” That took me to a OLD message board site that explained the name was “Carter’s Little Liver Pills,” and the word liver was dropped when government involvement required documented efficacy [DESI, anyone?].

Next stop was Wikipedia. This told me that it was heavily advertised BISACODYL even back then. Coincidentally, it is STILL bisacodyl, and it is available….available in MY STORE! Woo hoo! Surely, the short, fat, stupid man would be happy with my research and time invested and would buy the product and be pleased with his poopie pills. But then I woke up….
“Okay. Here’s what I found. Carter’s Liver Pills were renamed to Carter’s LITTLE Pills many years ago due to government or FDA regulations. We actually have those. They are down the stomach aisle as they are just a laxative called Dulcolax. The drug name is Bisacodyl.”
“No. That’s not it. They’re called Carter’s Liver Pills, and I drove all the way up here to get them cause the pharmacist told me you all had them. Apparently, you just don’t want to help me.”    [Why does this always happen to me?]
“I’m not saying you didn’t make a phone call and talk to a pharmacist. I’m simply telling you that you did not call THIS pharmacy nor did you talk to THIS pharmacist. As you can see, I’m working here with these younger technicians — none of them would have answered the question about “Carter’s Liver Pills” without asking me. Girls — did any of you talk to anyone about “Carter’s Liver Pills”? [Of course not] Okay. Anyway. We don’t have Liver Pills. No one has Liver Pills. What I’m telling you is that Carter’s Little Pill is what replace Carter’s Liver Pill.
“Well, you just try telling that to my wife. She’s expecting Liver Pills.”
“And I’ve told you…this is it.”
“Why can’t you just admit you made a mistake?”    [Wait...whaaa??]
“Mistake? Mistake? You’re joking right? What mistake was made here?”
“You don’t have Carter’s Liver Pills.”
“I guess if you want to split hairs, I do not have Liver Pills. I do have the new version called Little Pills. The LIVER pills are no longer made or sold anywhere.”
“Then why did the pharmacist tell me you did?”   [Wow, really?]
“I am the pharmacist. We have never spoken. We have never met….”
“Then where is the guy I talked to?”
“That is a mystery isn’t it. I don’t know if you noticed, but I am the only male employee here today. The rest of these high school girls certainly didn’t impersonate me and tell you that we had the Liver Pills. Did they?”
“Well, it’s all clear as day now. I can hear it LOUD. AND. CLEAR. You are perfect. You’re too god damn good to make a mistake…well, you’re not too good to make one, but you’re certainly too good to admit it! I can hear you LOUD AND CLEAR! I can’t believe I drove all the way into town and I’m going home with nothing! Who’s gonna pay for my gas money? I drove 8 miles!”
“I’m sorry that you are at a disadvantage here. If I had made a mistake, somehow,  I would have admitted it….but, I haven’t made one. You are just angry for some odd reason. If you’d like, I could call your wife and explain to her the product’s new name — and that it’s the same thing.  Or, if you’d like, I could take a sharpie and cross out the word LITTLE and replace it with LIVER!”
“This is exactly why I don’t get my prescriptions filled here. You all are the worst kind of people.”
“It’s probably best that you don’t fill them here. If you did, I’d refuse you service from this point forward.”

As he said, “LOUD AND CLEAR” — both times — he pointed to his left ear, where he had a HUGE hearing aid. So, the man was partially deaf. He must have MISHEARD the pharmacist he talked to on the phone! [Which wasn't me]  The last line, where I said I’d refuse him service, was said as he was walking away. It’s pretty unlikely that he heard me…so, while I’m a wussy for whispering, I meant it!

Anyway, that’s the story of my run in with the short, fat, stupid, and DEAF man dwarfish asshole.

PS — Kudos to the DrugMonkey for a KICKASS article on the suckiness of Pharmacy organizations. Wonderfully pithy, well-worded, and a resounding YES to the question of, “does drug topics have the guts to let its contributors / authors publish the cold, hard truth?”

http://tinyurl.com/DrugMonkey

My “Why APhA Sucks” article from Dec 2008 pales in comparison.

Another DrugMonkey jab at APhA

All things being equal

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as APhA, Disgusting, Drive-Thru, Drug Companies, Drug Topics, Errors, Management, Me being a dick, Me hating others, PHARMACY SECRETS!, Politics, Stupid People, Technicians, True Story, Work Sucks

Prereading for this post:   Walgreens has POWER (80 COMMENTS!)

I was going through some server logs and discovered something. This tid bit of information was shocking to me. The above post/link was and is being heavily monitored by Walgreens themselves. As you know, the bottom of each post I type has two links these days. One allows you to email a post to a friend using my server’s resources. The other link opens a printable copy of the post along with links and annotations.

The email function is heavily used across the entire site — very heavily used…and it is also logged for security purposes. Today is the first day I’ve looked at said log since implementing the function and verifying it worked eons ago. It’s been used by a plethora of people. From students spreading the funny advice, to bikers spreading stories about our little spat, to companies seeing what’s been said about their new policies and procedures.

Such as WAG… who used it to spread the post amongst their corporate headquarters and various offices. One employee sent it to a great number of other “@walgreens.com” email addresses some time ago stating, “it’s important we know this is circulating…” and “continued monitoring is necessary.” Several were sent as, “FYI per meeting agenda.”

I don’t have more information than that. Their hits from their walgreens IP address (which resolves to walgreens.com) number in the thousands to this site in the days to weeks following that post. I’m sure it’s blocked at store level — but they were watching.

So, my POWER Pawns — did anything change? In my area, I’ve noticed nothing of this program as I’m rural and not yet touched. As I said before, I’m excited. The Walgreens I compete with couldn’t possible provide worse customer service. We’ve actually stopped advertising in the local paper as they do it for us. POWER won’t do anything but make me money. Did we rattle their cage a little bit?

One of the pharmacists working at that store actually just quit a few days ago. Just walked out. Now he’s commuting over an hour to an independent pharmacy. He was filling more than 800 per day and never allowed more than 2 pharmacists, 5 techs and 1 dedicated cashier. They had a counting machine, he said, which accounted for about 25-50% of the volume, but it was constantly on the fritz. Remember what Drug Topics said a few months ago? It’s what I remind my coworkers of every time I catch a mistake — 4 errors per 250 scripts. That’s just not good enough for me.

Commentors will be kept anonymous on this post.

The Great Hate

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Courtesy, Disgusting, Drive-Thru, Drug Topics, Errors, Lazy People, Management, Me being a dick, Me hating others, Patient Education, Rude, TPA, Technicians, True Story, Update, Work Sucks

Two weeks ago I promised something big and failed to produce it. Sorry about that.

So, where the hell have I been the last two months? I’ve been just focusing on living my life. Everything’s fine with me. The stresses of my job are monumental, and it is getting the best of me. I cannot take it much longer. Retail pharmacy has defeated me. I’m throwing the towel in. I’m tapping out….

I’m not quitting my job just yet, but I am looking for something else. This is evident based on the post I made two months ago concerning clinical positions and residencies. I’d really like a clinical job coupled with a taste of academia. As has become evident, that is highly unlikely. I may find myself in a residency.

For now, I have requested a transfer out of my current location to a store that is less demanding….I’m not sure if that is going to be granted. I’m also concerned with the problems that is going to create with the current management.

What could possibly be so bad about retail / community pharmacy that would make me, the self-proclaimed King of Retail Pharmacy, reexamine the direction of his professional life? I’ll tell you at length:

My store is filling more than 800 prescriptions per day. We have 3.5 pharmacists. I work 40 hours per week. Jack works 30 hours one week and 40 hours the next week, and Jill works 28 hours per week (bare minimum for benefits). TheCrown works 40 too. I, of course, am a very efficient worker. I bust my ass day-in and day-out. I care about my job — my performance — customer satisfaction, safety, and outcomes.

Jack is the slowest pharmacist on the planet….he’s been outrun by molasses. He cares about the patient, but he’s in no hurry to do anything. He’s our stereotypical old-man pharmacist. He’s overly cautious and will take no chances or make no educated decisions based on past experiences. For instance, we have one doctor that continues to write PANNAZ over and over and over….even though Pannaz has been discontinued for a long ass time. He (and his office staff) has told us time and time again to change the prescription to Scopohist with the same directions. [Why he doesn't write that in the first fucking place is beyond me!] Is Jack okay with this? Absolutely not. He calls each time. He documents the date/time, who he talked to, the new drug, route, dose, and quantity. To the letter of the law, Jack is right. In a pharmacy cranking out 800+ prescriptions per day where two pharmacists are on duty at a time (except Mon and Tues) it is very very wrong. He wastes a lot of time on pointless shit like this. I’ve compiled the data on the last 30 days that he and I had worked together (alone), and I’ve typed and verified 83-85% of the scripts. There were days where he filled less than 100 scripts — that’s with a technician typing for him. He angers patients due to their long wait time, he can’t be left alone, and puts an unnecessary strain/load on me. The stats in DrugTopics said that a pharmacist makes FOUR errors in every 250 scripts. With me processing ~700 and him processing < 100, how is this safe for me or the patients *I* am caring for?

Jill, as I wrote above, works the bare minimum for benefits. She is much more efficient (when her mouth isn’t moving). Unfortunately, this soccer mom is exactly that — she’s a mom first and a pharmacist second. When the clock strikes noon, she leaves for lunch. When the clock strikes 5, she leaves for the day. Regardless of the load, or the day we’ve just had, she’s gone. She doesn’t recall the day before where I stayed after more than an hour to help her out.

TheCrown is the king. He’s very efficient, but he’s a huge asshole. He’s the manager at the store I’m at now. (I was the manager at my past location – more convenient location and I gladly gave up responsibility) I might have referenced David in the past — he was “the legend” I followed behind at the last location. TheCrown has me in the same boat. I cannot work with him. He’s the most passive aggressive cocksmoker I’ve ever worked with. If someone neglects to Dual-Bill someone’s Prevacid prescription to the coupon on file, he doesn’t say, “Hey, you forgot to Dual-Bill this. Be sure to check the notes in the comment field as you’re running through.” — He will look at the patient blankly when they ask about the copayment, say he didn’t fill it and knows nothing about it, then throw you under the bus once he sees you’re name attached to it. “Has anyone showed you how to dual bill these coupons?” I’ve been working with this company for a long as time…I’m well aware how to do that.

TheCrown doesn’t answer the phone when it’s really busy and ringing off the hook. He says aloud to the pharmacy staff, “What’s that ringing sound?”

When a patient comes to the counter and tells him they need to speak with him, he doesn’t walk up there and say hello. He tells them, “I can be with you in about 10 or 15 minutes. I got about 5 people I’m helping right now,” regardless of how busy he really is.

When pulling prescriptions out of the middle ’staging area’ to type, TheCrown never does big orders or transfers. I, Jack, or Jill get all the shitty shit.

For the volume we do, we are grossly understaffed. You know how we are staffed as far as pharmacists go. How many technicians does one need to fill 800 prescriptions. On a busy Monday, we have 2 dedicated cashiers and 4 technicians (one of them dedicated to our damn drive-thru). We have three computers that process prescriptions — and 3 printers. TheCrown’s printer works marvelously. The printer I am forced to use, however, is a piece of dilapidated shit. It needed replacing 6 months ago, but that’ll never happen because 1) it doesn’t inconvenience TheCrown and 2) It would come out of TheCrown’s bonus. He explains it away — telling me that I am not “fanning” out the pages as I load the printer. Ahh yes, that’s why this hunk of junk jams with every print. I’m not fanning the fucking pages. Give me a break. If it were his printer, there would be no issue. Why? Because he would either buy a new one or trade it out with the SECOND best printer in the building — which is how I ended up with what I have. Scenario: I HAVE a new printer. He HAS a problem. He HAS a new printer. I HAVE a problem. We traded verbs (and printers).

Our evening staff is exceedingly shitty. Why? Because he hires high school kids to work from when they get out of school until close at 8pm. You get what you pay for — and I get minimum wage intelligence with no customer service skills and no desire to learn any new tasks. (Why learn something new? You’ll just be expected to do that task in the future!) They are also complete smart asses, treat me with a huge amount of disdain, and leave as soon as the clock strikes 8. We usually get 3 or 4 HS students per night. They are fine for working a register, but they never know shit else. Why? Because TheCrown is so mean and hateful to them, they quit after a very short time. No one is around long enough to learn anything meaningful. Just when someone becomes somewhat valuable, he chases them away. I once had a girl with the makings of a KeyStone Tech. She was bright, pleasant, new how to speak to customers, how to diffuse situations, and she excelled at our someone difficult to master computer system. She got offered a new job at a competing pharmacy. She asked for 1 dollar more per hour — which would have taken her up to, MAYBE, ten dollars per hour. He said no…and away she went. I would have taken a TWO DOLLAR paycut to keep her — yet, he let her walk. Note: The Pharmacy that got her now has 4 or 5 of our employees. He waits until they’ve worked with us about 6 mos then propositions them with a similar job, less stress, nicer boss, and about a dollar more per hour…[He doesn't need any pharmacists :-( ]

The techs are just downright disrespectful to me. I’ve tried killing them with kindness. I’ve tried reprimanding inappropriate behavior. I’ve tried being a tattle tale. I’ve tried positive reinforcement (thanking them genuinely and buying lunch on my Saturday as I talked about in THE WORKER’S PLEA). I’ve tried giving them more tasks / responsibilities to keep them busy. They just don’t respond to anything. They treat him nicely enough to his face (and talk shit about him behind his back), but they treat me like shit to my face AND talk shit about me behind my back. They are insulting, rude, hateful little bitches and bastards. They challenge me for no reason. They question my decisions. They just don’t like me….and honestly, I don’t know why. One of these little assholes honestly had the nerve to tell me last week, when it was just the two of us standing on one side of the pharmacy processing prescriptions, “Ya know, Angriest, it’s kind of funny. I’m the only person in this pharmacy that can even stand being around you.” — I felt about 3 inches tall. I couldn’t believe it was said (to my face nonetheless)….what hurt me even more was that she honestly believed it to be true — regardless of whether or not it was. That was when I finally convinced myself it was time to go. It is time to move on. I’ve been called a lot of things. I’ve been talked to by customers like I was complete trash. Never before have I actually been hurt by it…never before have I actually believed it and been hurt by it….

Anyway….moving right along….

How many pharmacists in the world get their schedule for the next week on Wednesday or Thursday night? Is this not absolutely asinine? It’s ridiculous! I’ve complained a million times to him, the district manager, Jack and Jill, and no one cares. Jill is on a set schedule. She knows what she’s working — period. Jack is, obviously, an old man who lives and breathes pharmacy and doesn’t care. TheCrown doesn’t mind it because he WRITE THE FUCKER! If he has plans, he just schedules himself around it! Why would he care? The DM drew up a skeleton schedule for us to follow recently. I converted this text document into a nice orderly spreadsheet. I even went as far as scheduling hours to match Jill’s schedule and that it was fair for myself, Jack and TheCrown (open, close, and weekends etc). Was he pleased with that? Ohh hell no. That conflicts with the game he had running so long of getting whatever he wanted. Jack is such  a pussy, he’d never speak up — that’s why everyone walks all over him. How did TheCrown deal with this? He told me that he didn’t know what I did to the schedule the DM wrote, but I had it ALL messed up. So, he tore it up and continued with the game he played for so long. I printed another copy and told him to fix the errors — then I made him compare the two with me standing there — and of course there were none. He followed it for some time. Now, we’re back to whatever he wants and I get screwed over. Fortunately, since I’m hosed most of the time, he has the courtesy to give me either a 3 day weekend every weekend or succumb to my every wish in terms of switchs, swaps, or days off. The shred of humanity shines through!

I’m working 4 ten-hour days….which is physically killing me. What sucks about my tens is that they turn in to 12’s. I come in early to get a little ahead and stay late past my time to get off (even if I’m not closing) because Jack can’t keep the store afloat on his own. Sometimes he begs me to stay late knowing that he’d be boned without me doing all the work. Or, I come in on time on days that I close and stay 2 hours after close to do the simple tasks required of me that we’d NEVER have time to do during the business day. [Like checking email, dealing with store to store inventory transfers, returning drugs that aren't moving to our DC, and any other task that requires full attention at one time rather than 10 second spurts all day long]  —  I hate it and so does my family.

When I wake up in the morning, I ache…I hurt…my first steps of the day are excruciating. This is likely due to the fact that I stand all day on hard ass floors with poor “padding” that is falling apart — again, because TheCrown doesn’t want to spend any money replacing those spongy carpets….resulting in heel spurs or plantar fasciitis for me.

Much like Jim P said in Drug Topics a month ago, I’ve got HURRY SICKNESS. I’ve always got to have 10 things on my plate. I’m rude to my family and friends. I’m impatient. I’ve got more problems than some of my patients, and it’s because my job is breaking me — physically, emotionally, psychologically.

What other options do I have? This job is killing me from the inside out. It’s ruining every aspect of my life. I thought I loved retail…I thought the money would make it worth it. It’s not.