The Corporate State of America.
Wells Fargo made phony bank accounts and credit cards for millions of customers. As you can imagine many of the customers have their lives made difficult as a result, even years after Wells was caught.
The Wells story is so much harder to believe than the Walgreens story. The bank's been fined but no one is to be jailed in our corporate state.
Feel helpless? Feel enraged?
4
Nice to see that the WAG and CVS respond is so constructive. Deny, stonewall and misdirect. Perfect recipe for more of the same. Nothing will change until someone famous or important will get hurt and bring the much needed attention to this issue. Politicians have bigger fish to fry that run and help a bunch of pharmacists until they can score some points on the campaign.
5
When I was a floater pharmacist at Walgreens, taking a break was unthinkable because everything happened at breakneck pace and workload never stopped. One day I was at a busy 24-hour store. Toward the end of my shift I was so overwhelmed that I decided to take a 15-minute break in the corner while the pharmacy remained open. Perhaps the act of a pharmacist taking a break was so shocking that someone reported me, because a couple days later my district manager visited me at work and coached me. She did not use taking a break as the reason for coaching because in California employees are entitled to their breaks. She simply said that my shift almost ended that I should not have taken my break so late. Since then I never dared to take another break while working for Walgreens, no matter how tired I was or how poorly I could concentrate on verifying prescriptions.
11
WAG and CVS removed all pharmacist management staff in "field leadership". WAG has only 1 "health care supervisor" per ~75 pharmacies and that role isn't involved in daily operations.
There is no professional development for pharmacists. No CQI committees. No knowledge sharing between pharmacies. What each person learns on the job lives only within that employee and their direct contacts.
As middle mgmt and pharmacist leadership has been hollowed out within the chains, any divergence from the corporate directive is viewed as "negative" or "poor engagement". Even positive suggestions are viewed with suspicion if they aren't germane to achieving one of the pre-determined metrics.
The metrics are poorly understood and measured, but policed fanatically by members of mgmt who have no patient care experience. Retail managers have replaced all healthcare managers and so metrics that are easy to understand and measure are focused on religiously. Phone hold and verified by promised time (speed) become the most important metrics. Talk of quality and errors hardly exists.
I am a pharmacist who always tries to make the decision that is in the best interest of the patient, employee, company, and shareholder. Its not difficult. Be good to each other. Be helpful. Offer worthwhile service. But around the time our chain went global, all considerations became 2nd to shareholder value. 130/9/8.
14
All this while many medications are unaffordable for people needing them. There is big, big money being made on marketing medications. We need some effective regs to use the big, big money to make this abuse unacceptable. Not only are drugs overpriced (see other countries), their administration is neglected after the big, big money gets to home base.
2
This is why I chose Joe’s Pharmacy on Geary here in San Francisco. The owner is always there to chat with me about my meds, and I deeply appreciate the personal relationship with one of the few remaining small businesses in the city.
2
My husband works for one of the 2 big chains (15yrs) as a pharmacist, they claim their pt safety is "outstanding" which is false. If they really believe that, have them release the error reporting record of every location. I remember him saying that it is mandatory to report any and all errors electronically. So they definitely have insight on how many errors occur DAILY. This is a major problem and I hope this coming out will improve not only pt safety but Pharmacists sanity!!
13
I stopped using CVS about 12 years ago, and have not gone back. They gave me a prescription fill of something that did not work, and the refused to do anything about it. How the continue to operate can only be a matter of how much they pay the politicians.
2
I have worked for Walgreens for 15 years. They have knowingly worked under staffed for over the last 8 years. The District manager’s have even more stringent goals than the corporate office. I worked at a heavy volume store that had a high turn over rate. They do not pay enough and expect too much. They constantly input ridiculous expectations. I have recently quit because I could no longer tolerate there district managers treatment of pharmacy personnel. There is constant mistakes being made because of high volume and no help. It is a very dangerous environment to work in and I am relieved I am out of it. Only thing I miss are some of my customers.
15
All you have to do is go to a CVS ir Walgreen's pharmacy to see how understaffed they are- regardless of what the chain executives and consultants say.
11
This is all totally true. I live in Az, and at a local CVS pharmacy, the employees are always stressed out and look swamped. I went in to get a booster vaccination recently, and the technician almost gave me the WRONG vaccine - good thing I was paying attention and stopped her in time. They clearly have too much on their plate. They perform a really important role in our society, and should be staffed appropriately.
10
only a pharmacist can give a vaccine
5
This article could not be more accurate. Go visit the Duane Reade/Walgreens on the corner of 14th and 7th in Manhattan. The pharmacy is drowning in filled and infilled prescriptions. There are bags and bags of prescriptions piled up on the floor, hundreds of incomings calls, dozens of people waiting in line for their drugs. They can’t keep up, but can’t work any faster. It’s despicable and so unfair to their employees and patients.
15
and I thought the pharmacy I work in had bags everywhere.
I've worked with a number of other CVS pharmacists who don't even know how to use the dispensing error incident report. Said they didn't have time to report errors...
10
there are so many errors, who has time to make a report.
1
Perhaps it’s also time to raise another issue with Walgreens, that of its intermittent unwillingness to bill out-of-pocket expenses (e.g., copays) to a secondary insurer such as Medicaid, thus sticking patients, many whom are disabled, most with very limited means, the responsibility of avoidable out-of-pocket expenses. Been happening in Illinois for quite some time according to families of children and adults with disabilities. What makes matters worse is that all too often, Walgreens is the preferred pharmacy within a community.
5
No one but no one should trust Walgreen’s - which once was worthy of trust. Their willingness to put customers at risk through their partnership with the fraudulent Theranos is but one symptom. I recently moved to CA and tried to use the local Walgreen’s. After botched prescriptions, broken promises and jaw-dropping rudeness, I took my business elsewhere and will never be back to any Walgreen’s until their is solid evidence the company has reformed and is worthy of business.
6
The impact of insufficient staffing and supervision on the day-to-day customers of the retail pharmacy giants can’t be overstated. Websites are poorly implemented (particularly that of CVS), requiring more telephone interaction than should be necessary. Telephone waits are too long and, particularly in the case of CVS, unpleasant because of constant advertising to captive listeners, as well as awful music on hold. Then, presumably because of overworked staff and insufficient support systems for the staff, the purpose of the communication fails, causing more work for the staff and wasting more time of the customer. Say what you like about Amazon, I can’t wait for them to get into the retail pharmacy business with their customer-centric orientation and responsive web technology. The retail pharmacy giants are offering Amazon a very ripe plum and will have nothing to blame for their decimation but their own mismanagement.
11
The headline is very misleading. While I don’t agree with managements decision to ignore or omit the finding that the consultant group found in situations within the workplace and how conditions can lead to mistakes the headline makes it sound like an Exxon situation and them shredding evidence of errors made that went out to patients which is not what this article is about.
1
@Nick Maybe not but I would not be surprised if they were shredding or otherwise hiding true error reports.
1
Please stop expecting the pharmacy to stand still while the rest of the world advanced ahead. Please, stop calling us and expecting us to answer by the third ring. Use the app to refill your prescriptions. Touch tone them in. Sign up for a text message to notify you when your Rx is ready. Please, for all of our safety and sanity, limit the number of times you call.
While we are working, I can promise that we are working for whoever is standing in our waiting room. We are more concerned that you are promptly assisted and taken care of than we are our metrics. If you want us to fill the Rx at dangerous lightening speed, then by all means, stare us down while you stand and wait, tapping your foot, and ask us what is taking so long! That contributes to errors far more than any metric that I see tomorrow.
16
@Mary, Pharm. D. Not what I have witnessed. No one is blaming the pharmacists themselves but rather the corporations imposing impossible work conditions.
2
CVS and Walgreens (walmart headed this way too from what ive heard from colleagues) have treated pharmacists so badly that a significant number of us would like to see the company that employees us fail. Crazy world.
12
This problem had been going on for years. My mother-in-law almost died in 2007 from the wrong dosage given. Now that the baby boomers are all getting old we will continue to have a problem with the medical industry. Thank the insurance companies for controlling everything
6
And to make it even more fun, CVS now uses 'common brands" on everything instead of putting the name of the manufacturer so that one might check to see if they even got the right medication. They change manufacturers, it seems monthly, obviously because the regional distribution center is putting out monthly bids to the manufacturers and taking lowest bidder. Obviously the pharmacy employees cannot keep familiar with ever changing manufacturers so they could double check if a prescription looks right.
At my CVS the pharmacist does all the cash register work and an assistant fills the prescriptions, handles all the phone and all the drop offs. Two employees, never more. Why they pay a pharmacist to ring people up all day is a total head scratcher -- kind of expensive for a cashier. . . . .
Disgusting when you think of the profits mad selling drugs!
4
@ck It has gotten the point where hiring a cashier at near-minimum wage burns too much of a hole in the wallets of shareholders and upper management. The addition of just one person would make a big difference in patient safety and they refuse to do so.
1
I have used the local CVS pharmacy only sparingly since the day ten years ago when they mixed up two prescriptions, using the quantity, dosage and frequency of one for the other and vice versa. Instead, the mail order pharmacy operated by my insurance company is my source. I had taken both medications for years and immediately saw the error, but it bothered me that they had screwed it up. If I hadn't realized the error, the results would have been bad.
2
Why do rx managers put up with terrorism...have to pay their bills
https://www.reddit.com/r/WalgreensStores/comments/ev6zjw/cant_be_true_can_it/
Same at CVS Oakbrook Square palm beach gardens. Wrong medicine, wrong dosage, wrong amount. Everything must be checked. Manager says I dont control the pharmacy! Dangerous. Sally Bott
1
I'm just a layman user of CVS pharmacy, and in recent years even I can see that the pharmacy is too busy, high staff turnover, more techs and fewer actual pharmacists. The people serving me at the drive-through window often seem distracted, under-skilled (sorry!)...and I fear prone to mistakes. I'm healthy, but I fear for elderly or disabled patients who may not be able to discern mistakes.
6
I have a different -problem. The Pharmacists are afraid to dispense Opioids.
The prescriptions are dated in such a way that you will not run out of medication. Opioids are dispensed in 30 day increments. That means you get 360 pills in a year. But there are 365 or 366 days in a year. so you do without. They aren't allowed to dispense partial prescriptions of opioids according to company policy. I've argued with them until I am blue in the face, they won't dispense according to the NC Pharmacy Board rules. Fear of the DEA.
My dogs' veterinarian used be a Pharmacist. This kind stuff written here today is why he went back to school.
I had an issue with my local CVS. They changed almost all my prescriptions to 90 day prescriptions. Sometimes I would throw out 60 days worth of drugs as my medication was changed. But the worse SIN was thet filled my 4 bottles of insulin without me knowing. I looked and at 1 time I had 12 bottles of insulin in my ice box. I took a photo and sent it to Humana Pharmacy and to HHS Office of Inspector General. They were both very interested. The district CVS Pharmacy manager never returned my call. I transfered all my prescrioptions to a local pharmacy that has been active in the community for years. Incidentally I am a nurse and I do not recommend any chain pharmacy now and I recommned everyone look up on the internet exactly what the drug they were prescribed looks like. I have been the wrong drug also.
2
I've had a problem with Walgreens for several months now, starting in November. My insurance directs me to use Walgreens for pharmacy but I noticed in November that my record is mingled (mangled?) with another customer who lives in another state, several states away. When I log in with my credentials I see the other person's address, phone # e-mail. I also see my drugs for blood pressure and cholesterol along with hers of opioids. I can see my drugs purchased at local Walgreen pharmacies, 2 of them but see hers purchased in her state. Since November I've been calling trying to correct the records & had once seen it corrected but a short time later the information changed again to the other person's information with her drug purchases mixed with mine. The "customer service" person keeps saying it is my local pharmacy that keeps changing the information to the other states person's information but that seems highly unlikely since the local pharmacy knows me & that I do not live in that other state & knows the prescriptions I get filled, none of which are opioids. Do they think I am that credulous?
I am at my wits' end. How does one report this to an agency who will hold Walgreens responsible & most importantly correct the information? How incompetent does a company have to be before something is done?
5
@Donna This is a HIPPA breach and that is how you would report this error. You can call 1-800-368-1019.
5
This, along with Ms. Gabler's previous article, was very provocative in the industry and (I hope) in government.
States have the authority to regulate the corporate practice of pharmacy in the interest of protecting the health and welfare of their citizens. This was squarely addressed in the case "North Dakota Board of Pharmacy v. Snyder's Drug Stores" by the SCOTUS in 1973. Perhaps it is time to consider reasonable safety-related regulation in this area. This might be costly for the large chains at first, but will systematically improve process in the long run.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
1
Staff at my CVS have made repeated errors in filling and labeling my prescriptions. To the point I wrote a complaint and filed it with CVS, got an automated reply only despite requesting that I be contacted. I now see i need to send a written complaint to the State regulator since CVS just ignores complaints. Their staff has the phone ringing every minute when I am there and there is a long line of sick people waiting in the pharmacy most of the time when I have to go in. CVS staff said they called my doctor's nurse to get the prescription right and said my doctor sent the prescription over with errors multiple times. Really? My doctor's nurse said she was never called despite the CVS staff saying they called.
@Federalist
So you believed the nurse not the pharmacy staff right ? What if the pharmacy staff was right?
I have definitely noticed a marked increase, even a remarkable increase in stress, scrambling, among the pharmacists at my local Walgreens.
The normal wait time has been stretched to 90 minutes, and even the the prescription has not been filled, and then the staff scrambles to finish it.
2
I was a pharmacist for Walgreens in the Midwest. With just one pharmacist on duty during most shifts and minimal technician staffing, non-stop lines in the store and at the drive-thru window, and phones ringing off the hook, each day felt like a marathon. I was expected to be doing everything all at once and regarded as some kind of massive robot by my management! Compromising patient safety and medication errors are their idea of customer service. Too bad most customers seem to feel the same way. Fortunately, I got out of there. Thank you to the New York Times for bringing attention to this issue.
23
@I Tried From a customer perspective, I see how hard you (e.g., over-taxed and unnecessarily overworked) pharmacists at Walgreens work. Thank you for everything that you do under the pressure of a seemingly broken system.
10
Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciated customers like you, who understood what a racket is going on.
4
At CSV I was given a prescription which would have resulted in death or serious injury if taken as directed. I only escaped injury because I am a nurse.
For their good and our lives pharmacists need a union. This is the only way for them to take control of their profession from corporations who consider injury to the patient to be a cost of doing business.
11
The worst part of it all is that State Boards of Pharmacy and state pharmacy associations are all part of the machine in many states. Retail chains regularly place individuals from their state corporate headquarters in positions of power within organizations meant to protect the public. State Boards in my state regularly inspect independent pharmacies (hardly a year will go by without an inspection) but many chains rarely get inspected or fined. Pharmacists have nowhere to go when they experience issues and are afraid to speak up with the job market shrinking. The PBM's are now all tied to these large chains. Aetna with CVS-Caremark makes for a large controlling segment of the healthcare market with little incentive to change the status quo.
15
As a pharmacy student, I cannot agree more with these recent NYT articles. Medications can alter your life, and it is critical that you have someone that is not overburdened evaluate your prescription and talk to you if necessary. The fact that these huge corporations have been limiting the effectiveness of my profession's skillset is incredibly frustrating. I work at an independent pharmacy and I can absolutely say we provide safer, faster, and friendlier care than any chain. If your insurance allows it, I urge you to try out a local independent.
7
@Colin C
After living away for a couple of decades, I started using Target's pharmacy when I moved back in the 1990s. When Target switched to using CVS a few years ago, I had a couple of minor problems with them and decided to go back to the independent pharmacy my family used in the 1940s and which was still at the same corner and had the same name. I'm on Medicare, and I don't think I pay any more than I did at the chain pharmacies. The service is great, and the owner/head pharmacist is a nephew of one of my childhood friends. Several other of my childhood friends have never stopped using that pharmacy since the 1940s.
3
It has been my experience with consultants, that they interview who hired them. Find out what they want, then gather the data to support it. Even, executive compensation.
3
At the customer's end, Walgreen's is effectively no different from Bank of America, Verizon, Fastrak, Apple, Google, and pretty much any other large company. In my own experience the only chains that treat customers well have been Trader Joe's, Costco, Papa Murphy's, and Walmart.
3
@Steve Fankuchen
Please note that my comment referring to customer treatment only refers to that, not to employee treatment, community responsibility, or anything else.
3
Unregulated capitalism IS a killer. Sorry, this economic paradigm is horrible and dangerous; the bean counters and their sacrosanct shareholders may adore huge profits, but at what cost? Increasing the danger to patients/consumers and stressing out Pharmacists, etc in order to meet the bottom line is reckless and deeply immoral. THIS MUST STOP!
11
@Sage the entire health care system in this country has turned into an extraction industry in which the hospitals and doctors, pharmacies and insurance companies seek to maximize profits at whatever cost to the well being of their customers. They don't care if their drive for profits kills. It's just that simple.
7
There is a HUGE crisis in Pharmaceutical world.
Numerous botched prescription fills, lack of knowledge of workers, racist and homophobic comments from pharm techs. I have made several inquiries and comments to the state boards, nothing.
Walgreens particularity treats everyone poorly.
But I hear the liquor sales are doing great!!!
Rock on America.
We are broken.
Good reporting NYT
10
From personal observation I know that staff is stretched to insane limits while trying their utmost to be of (pleasant) service.
Since I work in the healthcare industry it has become very clear that management doesn't have a clue and management doesn't give a flying fig.
12
.....essentially everything is corrupt
3
In Illinois, a new law has imposed a mandatory closure of pharmacies from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. to allow the staff some rest time. In reading this article, I now know why.
4
I applaud the closing of the pharmacy for a 1/2 hour lunch break. However, staffing remains the overriding issue. The work never stops, the metrics don’t go away, and the phones start ringing again at 2:31 PM.
11
Not surprised at anything this article says.
4
Our Walgreens staff appears continually stressed. Yesterday, I encountered a staff member who told me directly they are understaffed, and she was sent from another location. My prescription was not ready even though it was promised 24 hours earlier.
We find ourselves checking and re-checking any prescription filled for accuracy.
And forget about having the pharmacy contact the Doctor's office to order a refill. It has never worked on the first try...just goes into some black hole.
Our prior insurance had us affiliated with a local CVS and never had these problelms.
5
@J.M. Oddly enough, plenty of CVSs are struggling with the same issue. It’s not a Walgreens thing, it’s an industry thing.
8
@J.M. The pharmacy is not responsible for obtaining refills from the physician. That is a courtesy. It has unfortunately become so common that the population expects it and many physicians require the request to come from the pharmacy. Many require it to come from the patient.
If I were you, I would never ask the pharmacist to accomplish this for you. This is part of what has made the pharmacy overburdened. The expectation needs to be on 100 % accuracy all the time. This is not a Walgreens issue. This is industry wide.
11
Megacorps like walgreens are working hard to ensure that not even Bernie can save our pathetic healthcare racket, no doubt to leave him to take the blame for "bad socialist healthcare" when he wins.
2
I frequented the CVS in Hampstead, Maryland for years and routinely eye witnessed overworked and under staffed pharmacists. I called, emailed and complained to CVS incessantly to no avail. Ultimately, I changed pharmacies to a less convenient one. This is a disgrace.
7
Never in my nearly 40 years as a pharmacist, not once, has any patient/customer said, “Joe, take your time, make sure you get it right.”
12
@Joe. When patients used to ask if I could get it done faster, or why does it take longer than 15 minutes? I would tell them, we need to make sure it’s done correctly, and sometimes that took time. I usually got a scoff. It’s not fast food!!
2
Sounds like the chain pharmacies have as much concern for the safety of their customers as Boeing does. And for the same reason: $$$$.
11
CVS and Walgreen's - a Boeing mentality.
IE, the owners believe they have a right to get rich and that they aren't rich enough. It's an illness.
4
I spoke to a pharmacist who used to work at CVS. S/he assured me that the Times story was dead on.
S/he now works at a company that has a very different attitude towards the job.
6
@Eugene I’m a pharmacist who has worked for both Walgreens and Rite Aid. I can also assure you that the article from the New York Times is accurate.
In addition, when I refused to work according to the metrics, I was fired by the one particular store manager (who was the community lead) and pharmacy district manager at Walgeens after about 14 years of dedicated service for suddenly being inefficient in their eyes. But I was not the only one being targeted though. The PDM made you feel inadequate if you could not perform up to HER standards. In fact, she demanded 100% perfection. Once she reamed me out for not being able to access the system to complete an inventory project though it was not my fault. I was blamed for not being proactive in getting my own password before coming in to work at that store. But why wasn’t the store proactive in setting me up with access to the program is my question? Those two rose up in the ranks quickly because their numbers were unnaturally exceptional. This is the culture of harassment they fostered when they took over.
6
Corporate greed--always with us.
4
Life in deregulated America. This is what people are voting for when they want to free businesses from stifling rules. Business lawlessness is on the rise because they know they can get away with it under Trump.
14
This is why changing healthcare is the determining factor for my vote this go around
3
Two very insightful articles. As a proudly EX Walgreen employee now for 8 days....these are very true reflections of the mood in most stores. There may be some pockets of stores or districts where old managers and pharmacists have survived. Not in my district. Over the years as more pharmacists were rooted out of manager positions, of course to save money, the replacements of yes men and know nothings has prevailed. As a pharmacist with 40 years experience, it is nothing like we prepared for in college. The changes in drugs, vaccines, medication therapy management are no problem. It's the stupid stuff and holding your job over your head to punish you to do those lists for management with no staff support. I don't know how many times a customer has asked me "Where is your help?"
15
Happened to my elderly mother at CVS twice last week. They called her for a script from a Dr she doesn't have for a medication she didn't need...she left and took nothing. 2 days later CVS called and said there was a script waiting for pickup....same thing..she took nothing. I called the pharmacy after checking on the script info...and explained the situation. She said my mother had said she would check into it. I told her that was her job!! In under a minute she found a computer error. The script was for someone else in town with a similar name and close birth date. She should have checked into it the first time when my mother said she didn't recognize the Dr or med. Someone could kill themselves over these errors in judgment! To make the same error twice in one week?? DUMB !!
5
@Dave Not to minimize the situation but did we read the same article? They’re so overworked and understaffed that they don’t pee or eat for their whole 14 hour shifts. They’re racing a clock that’s holding their livelihood on the line with an over saturated job market and six figure loan debt. I know pharmacists who wear Depends to get through shifts. Or don’t drink. At all. And have chronic UTIs. They probably wanted to call but couldn’t. And yet you continue to blame the store staff. They’re already squeezing blood out of a turnip. Blame corporate.
8
Full circle - Walgreens is now the Wells Fargo of healthcare. Corporate america stopped delivering for anybody but itself years ago. It a time for change.
8
I stopped using CVS more than 25 years ago. The technicians were fresh out of school, didn't know how to manage their time or communicate with customers. They need time to think and to get to know their customers. The entire system has been hijacked by "insurers" and our health is at risk. Where is HHS? You'll find me at an independent pharmacy.
3
I've worked as a manager for Walgreens for over a decade and it's really gone downhill for the employees. I keep a job req open for pharmacy techs all year round because they don't make it long. You walk in, there's 100 scripts waiting to be filled, you need to do your 90 day conversion phone calls, do your return to stock scripts, daily smartcounts, pull outdated medicines, work up the daily ABC drug deliveries that can be around 20 totes just packed with loose bottles of pills, record your temperature logs, check your time card and sign off weekly, catch up on your overdue training modules, push text messages and emails and charities and verify addresses, insurance info, home info, while ringing up the drive thru lanes, answering the phones by the third ring because they track that, fill those scripts, help people find things over the counter, sign people up for immunizations, participate in daily meetings, participate in your Pulse meetings, do your ABCD form, try to talk people into waiting, look up goodrx insurance for people, partial fill the buphornorphrine naloxone scripts for the daily buyer's, explain what a deductible is to every patient, clean up and sweep, order out of stocks, etc. And that's just the first person in the door. It's crazy. Walgreens strategy- send in dms and higher weekly to threaten you and track your progress and point out what you're failing at. Also, send the manager back there daily and any front end people who can brave it.
28
@Walgreens Manager This is all so true
4
@Walgreens Manager This and so much more!!! We NEED to acknowledge the amount of manufacturer changing too. It’s a huge part of why mistakes are made, and insanely time consuming for pharmacists and techs.
3
So about a year ago I'm walking out of my CVS with a sealed bag supposedly containing 90 very expensive book pressure meds, they usually come in bottles of 30. I felt only 2 in the bag and returned to the counter. After a long wait, I opened it in front of the pharmacist: only 60 pills. He very dismissively said" No problem!", walked away, and I had to wait another half hour for my 3 vials while he did other stuff. I asked as politely as I could how was this "not a problem" if you short changed me hundreds of dollars worth of medication, and BTW isn't someone supposed to double check all outgoing orders? What if I had left and found this out hours or days later? Pharmacist just turned on his heels and walked off, no response whatsoever. I made a written complaint, followed up, and was told that employee would no longer be with the company. My guess is that this was not the first time something similar happened with him. Moral of the story: when incompetence actually affects needed medical services (not your convenience) complain.
3
Walgreen’s pharmacy is bad. They never have any Rx filled n a reasonable amount of time.
@profinity did you not read the article?
Come on guys! Stop complaining. Our father knows best government has said that there are way too many regulatory agencies already. Pharmacy management will take care of all these problems for us. Vote republican and help get rid of these anti corporate profit blockers - excuse me, I meant regulators.
4
Bottom line: After all these reports, all these horror stories, is there any evidence at all that the big chains will change their ways? Not that I've seen. They exist to make money, as much as they can, and devil take the hindmost. There is a solution for this, it's called Medicare for All.
4
@Bunk McNulty Unfortunately when they realize they can’t pay for it all, reimbursement rates will become so low that it will be impossible to get qualified people even for the tech jobs let alone pharmacists. That will be the true race to the bottom
2
@Bunk McNulty unfortunately Medicare for “some” is one of the reasons we are in this mess. They do not adequately reimburse for the product, let alone services they require. Medicare for all will mean “healthcare for few” as there will be so few providers willing to accept pennies on the dollar for their services.
@Mary, Pharm. D. , as long as pharmacy benefit managers and large insurers (vertical integration) continues to flourish in this country, the problems will never go away regardless what kind of medication delivery system we have. Our FTC has failed miserably by not stopping the giant behemoths from becoming larger and controlling the prescription drug delivery system completely. When the top five PBMs control 85% of the drug market today, we are beyond an oligopoly - this IS a monopoly. This after 50 years in the business, and the past 35 working with independent pharmacies with their third party contracts. Solution: walk away from the CVS and Walgreens of the world. Find a local independent who cares!
3
I used to use my nearest CVS for 24 hour convenience and the "bonus" of getting discount coupons for every 10 prescriptions filled for my husband and me - woohoo! I was prescribed oral prednisone (the first time it wasn't in a prepackaged taper down from the manufacturer) and it was the wrong count for what was prescribed. We now use our Costco, which is a calm oasis of service (because our Part D won't allow me to use the mom and pop that had bailed me out when my CVS was out of what I needed as of January).
1
Well, I know what I’m doing: switching from CVS to a local pharmacy.
4
The other day when I went to pick up a prescription at my local CVS for my husband, the technician told me that the store manager told her to wear Depends instead of going to the bathroom. I hate CVS. Besides, their drugs and merchandise are extremely overpriced.
3
Please publish this: it may make the difference between needed drugs and no drugs for some readers. About a year ago I had a discussion with a young pharmacist at my Manhattan CVS. He was looking for another job. In his words, not mine, "CVS is evil". I needed a generic blood pressure drug. CVS charged me $165. for a month's worth. On line, I saw the price, including delivery, as low as $20. I came in, assuming it was it was a mistake. It wasn't, that was the price. Came back when the supervisor was there, same result. Ended up buying it for $14 at the pharmacy of the large membership card retail store on E 116th St (no membership needed for pharmacy, BTW). The young man said that employees were prohibited from telling patients that the same product was available nearby for less than 10% of their price. There ought to be a law.... In the meantime, call around for pricing, so you don't have to choose between rent and drugs.
7
Blame this on your insurance company, not CVS. And look up your scripts on GoodRX.com (or a similar platform) before buying.
@steven I instruct people to go elsewhere everyday. I’ve yet to meet a tech that won’t try to make things cheaper for patients, if possible, in any way, including telling them to transfer out.
1
I expect there are both criminal code violations and professional society regulation violations. Without a conspiracy prosecution and real jail time for those making illegal decisions, those consciously engaged in implementing those decisions, and those engaged in the cover-up, any fine or regulatory "directive" is simply another cost of doing business, no different from the toilet paper in the C.E.O.'s bathroom.
Of course workers' pension funds and retirees invested in Walgreen's and CVS stock will suffer. Meanwhile, the perps walk. Essentially no different from Wells Fargo and other crooks.
7
The CEO of CVS, Larry Merlo, is a pharmacy school graduate. I assume that he is a registered pharmacist. Let's have him work for a week as a pharmacist in any CVS pharmacy. Perhaps he will then be a bit more sympathetic to the myriad staffing issues at any CVS store.
16
These large chain operations need to make the investment in dispensing machines which count the doses, puts them in a container and attaches the label. There will be less errors and take the pressure off the pharmacists. Technicians can operate these machines leaving the pharmacist to professional tasks. This will mean a major investment and the MBA's will have to figure out how to do this.
@Marine Dad We already have automation. My technicians don’t last more than a few months because the pay is terrible and the stress is too high. Machines still make counting errors. I’m the only one who knows how to fix it because of tech turnover so it’s always my job. And every insurance issue and override and register void and phone call...
11
I am in healthcare. One of my patients was given a blood thinner instead of her cholesterol medicine at a Walgreens. Luckily we caught it in time.
All patients should open their prescription bottles and look at every pill and make sure they are all the same, not just in color or size, but that the numbers and letters are all the same on each pill. Then, google the medicine with the dose and click on images to make sure the pill is what it is suppose to be. Sources of images from the Physicians Desk Reference should help.
When corporate America puts profit over quality people will pay the penalty. Stick with your local small pharmacy. It’s worth the extra money and peace of mind is priceless.
7
I use CVS mostly because it is very close to my home. I have had repeated trouble with pharmacists ignoring my written request for non-safety caps. This makes opening vials painful for me, but at least it is not dangerous.
However, their computer system has more than once refilled prescriptions I no longer take. I am savvy enough to know this, but what about a less-educated customer who may end up taking duplicate medications once a medication is changed? It's a disaster in the making and an apology won't be enough. Any company that ignores reports of errors will end up being sued, or worse, killing a patient due to that error.
10
Oh yeah, I remember CVS. That's the pharmacy that bought my pharma insurance company, so that I had to drive extra miles to a CVS or pay higher prices. Perhaps worst of all, I had to leave my pharmacist, who many of us trust as much or even more than our doctors when it comes to medications.
Next year things changed, an my agent recommended a different pharma supplemental insurance, and I was back at my original Walgreens or would have to pay higher prices.
I know a number of pharmacists. They spend part of their days calling customers, asking if they want to refill their prescriptions: these calls aren't just helpful reminders. The pharmacist gets graded, not on the number of calls, but on the closed sales. It's kind of like drug-pushing.
I took almost no medications until I gave in to pressure from several doctors to take a statin drug. "Some people think statins should be in the water supply," one said. That safe, huh?
When seven months later I showed up at the pharmacy on crutches, my pharmacist totally knew what was going on. "We see all sorts of problems with statins, and you were on the worst one." Unfortunately, he wasn't around to warn me ahead of time, or to tell me that generics can't be sued for not being current on warning labels.
Since I know 3 other local folks (2 are MDs) who lost the ability to walk unassisted, and another local who died, severe problems with statins can't be that rare. We need our pharmacists!
StatinStories.com
8
@sing75 ...Little does my elderly mother's Dr know....most of her statins prescribed for 30 years have wound up at the police station for disposal. She's 83. I asked her ...do they know you don't take them every day? She said no...I only take them when I eat meat!! How precious. I asked her....you go for regular Dr visits and blood tests...have they ever told you your cholesterol is high..the meds aren't working. She said no. I said then... you don't need the meds !! Unbelievable...a Placebo would work as well !! She claims she doesn't want to argue with the Dr and she only pays a dollar for the script...insurance covers the rest....but still. What a 30year waste !!
2
While reading this article I keep asking myself if is it the pharmacists fault or is it the major chains fault. There should clearly be more than 1 pharmacist on since they have the greatest responsibility in the whole pharmacy which is filling the correct prescriptions for the right people. They also have to check a patient's medical history to make sure they won't have a reaction with the other medications they might be taking. Also the pharmacy techs should be double checking they are handing the right prescriptions to the right people. Big chains should know if they have more staff there will be less errors. These people are human and make mistakes like we all do. It should be common sense to lessen the burden of these people who have an incredibly important job then to put more stress on them just to save a couple bucks.
9
This corporate created only-in-the-US scheme for dispensing medicine doesn't exist in the outside world. So glad they're building that wall on the border. I hope it holds up. US participation in the TPP would have been a disaster for Australia's national phamaceutical costs. US corporate interests are constantly looking over the fence.
The way medicine is dispensed here is that I walk out my door to a choice of 5 small pharmacies within 3 town blocks. I am particularly fond of one pharmacist owned shop who has known me as a patient/customer for over 25 years. All of them are a friendly face behind the counter, someone to trust, a true medical professional, not a puppet manipulated by unseen corporate greed dancing as fast as they can. There are no rent seeking unseen pharmacetical benefits management companies here hovering between me and my pharmacist to add to the cost of delivery. Medicine is a whole lot cheaper here.
Except! As a US citizen who visits the US regularly, I now have to protect myself against the very real threat that I might hit a US pot hole and end up in the hospital needing outrageously overpriced hospital provided medicine.
So I pay the $80-ish/mo Protection Racket Money to Blue Shield for Medicare Part D. That is 4 times the cost of what I spend for my monthly script here in Australia.
5
ONE thing will be consistent in these comments.
ALL will be negative because the reality of the chain pharmacies is as the Times and those consultants report it
NOW -- you may not be reading about it yet but CVS and Walgreens want to become HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS. Yes -- diagnosing diseases and providing CARE. Not just fill the RX but have some nurse under the "supervision" of some junior doctor six states away, prescribes the drug.
If they cannot manage their CORE business -- drug dispensing -- how can they become a doctors office?
And their business goal, as stated publicly, is to use health care to drive traffic to cosmetics and all their other high mark up products
BEWARE
13
The pharmacy in Woodmere, NY is terribly understaffed. There are long lines to pick up medication and I have noticed a definite decrease in the number of employees. When I was at the Hewlett CVS, there was only a self-check and no employees around to help at the self-check. I just left the things I was going to buy and purchased them at a Dwayne Reid nearby.
1
I went to the local supermarket pharmacy, where I had been a customer for about 10 years, for my “senior” flu shot. I had specifically asked for the “senior” shot and wrote that on the required paperwork. As the young lady was about to inject, I asked if she was giving me the “senior” shot and as she injected me she said NO. They were out of “senior” vaccine. I was 73 at the time. She was willing to do what she did, and her supervisor, who was standing nearby, in all likelihood instructed her to administer that shot. Needless to say I have traded in that chain for another chain. There are no private, individual pharmacies nearby. I now get all inoculations at my doctor’s office where, hopefully, ethical practice would prevent a reoccurrence and record keeping and commercially driven practices would prevent mistakes. After getting my proper flu shot at my doctor’s office this year, the new pharmacy texted me to come in for my flu shot. How can the state allow them to hawk medical services when they don’t have access to my entire medical record?
7
@Peter I agree with you that was unethical at the very least. However, I experienced similar things in my doctor's office when I had to see her colleague. My chart had a big red warning notice on it not to give me a certain medication to which I react badly. Halfway through a treatment, I was having symptoms of a reaction. Sure enough, the colleague had given me that medication anyway. I chose not to see him again. BEWARE no matter where you get medication or injections or other treatment.
5
So true.
I live near a CVS, a Walgreens and a Rite-Aid. All are perpetually understaffed by often unpleasant employees. It’s impossible to get help on the floor or ask which aisle a product is in. The stock is often a mess and the shelves infrequently tidied.
I NEVER telephone. Standing on interminable lines to get my prescriptions reveals an unending litany of “pharmacy - line 2” PA announcements. I cringe at the discomfort of those waiting on hold.
Most of all — if you can’t fill my Rx in an hour (or whatever) tell me a more realistic promise time. It’s not a race. I’d rather wait an extra hour to be sure what I’m getting is correct.
All of this is exacerbated by my health insurer’s escalating pressure on me to move my pharmacy to a faceless online entity. I know why and it’s not for my benefit. It puts another penny in the insurer’s pocket at my local pharmacy’s expense and mine as well.
Finally, CVS can tell employees it disputes an earlier NY Times article but what’s really real is that customers are certain those assertions are real.
10
As a physician I can attest to the fact that the problem, while not at all new, is getting and can only get worse. Corporatism and sweeping errors under the rug is endemic. One pharmacist told me "I hate [company name from this article] because of the stress and the rush to meet artificial metrics. They're paid not to do a good job but to do a fast job and line the bosses' and shareholders' pockets. I've seen it in multiple states and there's no reason to believe it's confined to one or two local settings. Mail order pharmacy is a little bit better, perhaps, but retail is in deep kim chee.
5
@Cetona I don't trust having my rxs sent in the mail. If my Amazon package with bunion pads is taken from my mailbox, how can I be confident that my Brilinta or metoprolol will be waiting for me when I get home from work? Or will my package be left sitting in a puddle of water on the stoop?
I would ask the nyt to also look at the safety conditions of the pharmacies. There have been a significant amount of gun point robberies of pharmacies for drugs in my area recently. This comes with little to no action to protect employees who are just trying to work. I know people who are scared to go to work with the fear of the next robbery. No protective barriers have been put up or extra security added. A movie theater has more protection for their ticket agent than a pharmacy staff has! As this article points out, the large retailers are more focused on productivity and profits than the people who help drive their brands. All roads point to a sad ending without real change.
9
I was given medications meant for another patient at a CVS. His name was on the bottle and outside packaging, yet it was given to me. Thankfully, I read the labels and returned the package.
The pharmacy that day appeared to be understaffed and stressed out.
Love my small local pharmacy now.
7
Luckily I noticed that the pre-colonoscopy bowel preparation medications and instructions I was given by my local Walgreens didn't match what was on the instructions from my doctor. They had instructed me to take 2x the amount of bowel prep solution and had not included the prescribed antibiotics. When I went back to the pharmacy for the correct medication the Walgreens pharmacy person looked at me blankly and assured me they "hadn't charged me for the extra bowel prep". No apology and the manager was "too busy" to talk with me.
5
A little over a year ago, a Walgreens pharmacy sold me a heart medication outside of its usual sealed manufacture's bottle with the MANUFACTURER'S DATE. It sold the pills in a small brown pharmacy vial with the pharmacy's date of sale. Subsequently I ended up in an emergency room. I complained to the pharmacy's management, to the Walgreen's corporate office, and to state authorities. No acknowledgement of error was made. I remedied the situation by taking my business to another pharmacy.
3
@Roy Quick
Which state authorities? Who regulates them Do you have legal recourse, paid or via a consumer organization, or pro bono? These are straight, concerned questions. Also, how do you know the new pharmacy won't send you back to the ER?
It's important to document your complaints in writing by date made and results.
1
Yet another reason to not go to national chain pharmacies. Go to the locally-owned and operated pharmacist; they're honest, dependable, and depend on local good will to maintain their business without corporate concerns about increasing profits by starving themselves of staff.
8
@Stephen Beard . I would do exactly that if there were a locally owned pharmacy anywhere near. They have all been swallowed up or driven out of business by the chains. Curious if the mail order pharmacies do a better job but can only be used for long term meds that won’t be changing.
8
@nl I would only consider mail order for long term medications that do not change. (Spoken from inside the industry). Even if it’s a new medication that you’ve been told you will be on for life, get it locally filled a few times to ensure your able to tolerate it, afford it, and there are no drug interactions.)
1
I began working in the corner drugstore in 1956 when I was 15 years old in St. Paul, Minnesota. I was inspired by the 3 pharmacists that worked in the pharmacy.
The owner, his son and the employee pharmacist.
I decided that I wanted to be a pharmacist. I graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in 1965. I worked full and part time through most of my college career.
I retired in 2010 and joke that I spent most of my 45 years working without a lunch hour.
I experienced most of the negative things you talked about in the article and comments attached.
I experienced vise presidents tearing the phone off the wall, smashing wooden stools on the pharmacy counter.
I stuck with the job more from inertia overcoming ambition to change. I had a family to raise.
7
Thank you for your years of service. You undoubtedly served many patients and helped them to be healthier.
I am a pharmacist who once worked for a grocery store chain. The store manager came to me one time to explain that he had to cut 40 tech hours in the pharmacy because the store’s bakery was having a sale on doughnuts the next week and thus, they needed forty extra hours. Due to budgeted hours for the entire store, it had to come from pharmacy. All I could say was, “Heaven forbid somebody gets a wrong doughnut”.
21
I'm a nurse at an out-paient behavioral health agency. I often tell patients that pharmacists are the secret heros of healthcare. They have great knowledge and education, are free to consult and you don't need to make an appt. I also tell patients to avoid CVS if they can, but more and more they are required to use it by their insurance. I have heard complaints about Walgreens too, but not as many. In my experience the best pharmacies are small and independently owned, like Beacon and Genoa in CT. They are service-oriented and the patients respond with loyalty and praise.
14
@Michele When I lived in Cheshire, CVS was terrible, with surly pharmacists and no regard for patients. But I think the only privately-owned pharmacy there went out of business long ago. Am I mistaken?
1
It might help if these pharmacy's would eliminate the checking out of miscellaneous non-pharmacy stuff that people bring to the pharmacy window in huge shopping carts. I got behind a person last month with about 50 miscellaneous shopping items to be check out. She had one tiny prescription bag but lots of milk, beer, snacks, cosmetics, etc.
26
Nobody that has not worked behind the pharmacy counter for at least two weeks will even come close to imagine all the chaos and atrocities that happens over there.
27
Pharmacies generally occupy open windowed spaces, so if you just take a few minutes to watch you'll get a good feel for working conditions. What you'll see--every year fewer staff doing more work. The atmosphere of stress is palpable with employees trying to talk on the phone while serving customers at a window. Bags of medications pile up and then are frantically distributed. A few months ago, after working my way up a line to the pick-up window, I sympathized with the staff person over her working conditions. She looked at me with tears in her eyes.
30
As a retired RN, I encourage friends and family to be their own patient advocate in this healthcare environment. Of course, not everyone can know exactly what their medication is supposed to look like--but it may be a good idea to Google it if you don't have a PDR --Physician's Desk Reference--and how really does outside of the medical profession. The "look" of a medication can change and there should be a notice on your bottle if that happens.
I found med errors when I was in the hospital as a patient--after I brought it to their attention, the nurses poured the meds in front of me. I'd found I wasn't getting the med I needed to prevent low calcium from hypoparathyroidism--that causes heart irregularities and spasms. And that's why I was in the hospital.
Of course, not everyone is or has a retired RN in their family but it makes sense that someone assumes the responsibility, especially in this healthcare profit-margin environment.
I live in a rural area with one pharmacy--that can also be a problem.
13
This is what happens when healthcare is driven by profits. We need to completely rethink how we provide care.
34
Just like every other gigantic corporation in this second gilded, “too big to fail” age, a continual stream of dividends and profits for shareholders is always a much higher priority than the convenience, economy, or safety of the consumers.
21
This is the prevailing state of being where monopoly meets customer. Saw it clear as day on the faces of Wells Fargo clerks when they were being pressured to boost accounts. Now I see it on the frantic faces behind the CVS counter and from the high turnover. Never ever the same employees.
20
I have to say I have been very pleased with the service at my local Winchester Virginia Costco. They always seem to have plenty of support staff and there is a sign saying the pharmacy may be closed for lunch if there is only one pharmacist on duty (even when there are other staff present).
10
@Enlynn Rock I’m glad you see that service. Most pharmacy staff enjoy retail pharmacy and customer interaction. But unless you work BEHIND the counter, you’re not aware of the safety issues that go on. And the daily pressures that ensue. It’s very unhealthy and unsafe.
11
First CVS job as a pharmacist.
Arrive at 9 am, there were already 200 prescription refill labels qued, printed, and waiting to be filled. They arrive electronically during the overnight. Result? Behind before you've put on the corporate white jacket.
The computer screen: red, yellow, green lights at top-right corner. A metric "designed" to keep CVS pharmacists up to speed with "fill requests". A simple piece of paper over the lights meant one could actually attend to what was before you rather than what was coming in. A huge NO NO from the district manager and loss of a job.
The computer: any so-called downtime, computer systems direct scripts to your computer from busier pharmacies, called blind-fills. Blind fills for opiates? Really? Who's the doc? From where?
Drive-thru: Ridiculous to even think about...
Inventory budget ceilings. Corporations require monthy audits to keep at or below them, salary is dependent upon these audits. So, once monthly, Friday's were spent sending unopened bottles back to warehouses to be ordered again on Monday, to keep up with Monday fill requirements.
Pharmacy practice, middlemen for the insurance companies? Why do we spend a third of pharmacy staff time looking for insurance payment approval, then insurance overrides, and coupons for struggling seniors and new moms, instead of filling prescriptions and giving counsel for usage and side effects?
52
CVS accidentally deleted all of my mother's records, but ironically, my mother's health improved when she ditched all her meds. While a lot of us would rather use a neighborhood pharmacy, prescription programs insist that we use CVS, which is feeding into monopolies. I used to use Grove Pharmacy, which also delivers. Often, the medication you need isn't available at the CVS, and you have to wait; I go to Grove when I'm willing or able to pay full price.
9
I stopped going to Walgreens for any scrips years ago mainly due to the chaotic and rushed environment I observed behind the counter.
Sad to see our chain pharmacies are sweatshops: but this is sadly not surprising.
28
Here in France it's impossible for a pharmacist to make an error with a prescription because all pills are packaged in little boxes and in bubble packs - and of course they cost very little. A typical box of 30 or so prescription only pills costs an average of 2€.
13
@Marilyn Burbank the pharmacies in France are a wonder to me.
The first time I bought dandruff shampoo there, the pharmacist examined my scalp to be certain I had picked the right formula. And when I wanted to buy a knee brace, I was taken in the back room to be fitted. In the states you are lucky to get waited on.
And it’s not the pharmacists’ fault. They are tucked away filling bottles all day. It must be disappointing to study so hard and then enter a backroom assembly line.
30
@Jean Exactly! They measure for those support hose also. They explain side affects and much more.
3
This is a perfect example illustrating why "the market" is doing so well and "the real market" isn't. High shareholder value for the pharmacy giants has led to understaffing and de facto abuse of employees who have very crucial jobs. Fewer pharmacists and technicians in a pharmacy? Really? Ask yourself, is it more important that a company like CVS achieve high margins and pay their executives huge salaries and bonuses or is the health and safety of patients/customers more important?
50
@mrfreeze6 - unregulated capitalism has only one response to that question. The highest possible profit margins and multi hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries for their executives are the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS.
1
Go to Safeway pharmacy. I can’t say enough good things about the place. Today I went to pick up a prescription, and they offered (and efficiently gave) me a shingles vaccine, which my physician had recommended and which had slipped my mind. We have been using them for 14 years for our family and have been really pleased with the service.
4
@Sherrod Shiveley We're in the process of leaving a major Safeway pharmacy after nine years. It's so badly understaffed, they no longert even answer their phones.
2
We have used a CVS in a small town in Maine for many years. All the local pharmacies are closed up. Our CVS gave excellent service and advise. We only changed to a grocery chain pharmacy because they offered cheaper prices. Being retired and on a somewhat fixed income ever dollar counts. The grocery pharmacy is fairly competent but can be numb at times.Like anything else in life one has to be on the ball. If we had all local pharmacies things would not change too much. Owners of any company are driven by profit. If there were just local pharmacies they would still need pharmacists. People make mistakes whether they are pressured or not. I like doing business with local companies but find many are inept. If I take one of my power tools to be fixed by a local company with so called expertise, I expect the tool to be fixed without taking it back two or three times to get the job done right. I have dealt with many hardware stores and the help there many times does not have a clue. Next thing I know they are working in a big box store. I highly value competent people in any area I deal with. I strive to know the best I can when dealing with any business. Fortunate I have many friends and relatives to teach me whether it is plumbing, electrical, painting etc, or even medicine or drugs. I know I cannot know as much as I would like to, but to get by in this life you not only have to put in effort but also help to people that need it.
1
@dmcguire4321 as a cvs pharmacist in maine I can assure you that you are not aware of how unsafe the conditions are behind the filling of your prescriptions. It in no way can be equated to a mom and pop pharmacy wanting to make a profit. Most people in this country are getting nowhere near the quality of care they perceive they are getting. I am thrilled that you have experienced no medication errors to date however.
1
Get the metrics out of the pharmacy. Get PBM's like Express Scripts out of healthcare and actually start caring about your patients.
I've watched over the last few years as my CVS pharmacy unloaded pharmacy tech hours and stressed my wonderful and competent pharmacist to the breaking point. He can't take a lunch, or a bathroom break and even he's thinking of abandoning the sinking ship.
The only reason I stay at CVS is because of my pharmacist. They constantly try to get me to take prescriptions I didn't ask for or order. When I go online to reorder my prescriptions, frequently CVS rejects the order and only wants to fill prescriptions for items I don't need.
We have to stop the mergers of such large corporations that say the merger will benefit the patient/customer, but only turn out to benefit the corporation's bottom line. I'm sick of being bullied by CVS and Express Scripts.
Take your power back, people.
26
Is there even one ethical corporation in this world? That’s rhetorical, because the answer is No. the answer has always been No. This is why we MUST have strictly enforced regulations and fines. This is why we must break up the monopolies and near-monopolies. This is why Citizens United must end. This is why CEOs and top decision-makers must be held financially and criminally liable. This is why the nightmare of unchecked Capitalism must end.
31
It is always upper management. Always. And yet they never, ever take responsibility. It comes from the top.
47
I know CVS is horrible. Their web site often does not let you order refills when you should be able to, but a bigger issue with my local CVS has no clue about the medications and will claim to "not be able to access" the information, or they flat out lie or make up answers.
I found a local "preferred pharmacy" that is excellent, just about everything is done electronically, but if you need to speak to someone, they are polite, helpful and responsive.
5
I wonder if the situation is any better at Walmart pharmacies? They also tend to be very busy.
2
My Part D prescription plan is “Humana Walmart.” Mail order works fine, but occasionally we prefer to collect our prescriptions at the nearby Walmart. The service is always very good and seems professionally complete. I recommend Walmart Pharmacy from my limited experience (zip 45459). Note, like many locations, they shut down for a lunch period, typically at 1:30.
1
@JenD Walmart is only slightly better than the other two(cvs and Walgreens). Used to heads and shoulders above the competition but about 8 months ago started cutting hours (and eliminating pharmacist positions) and reducing pharmacists overlap to zero in many stores. So now, what used to be a company that was superior to the competition in terms of work environment became just like everyone else. And so now after 20+ years I am looking for my way out, possibly out of pharmacy altogether.
6
@JenD no. walmart is going down the cvs route as we speak
I have been in pain management for 18 years from a spinal injury. During that time I have gone to the same physical address to the Drug Store. It first was called Eckerd, the Pharmacist were Mike, Mimi, and a third one. The longest shift was 12 hrs but they had shorter shift. They always had 2-3 phamacy techs in the pharmacy.
Then Rite aide bought them out. They still had Mike, and Mimi, then came a younger pharmacist, Courtney. They still had 2-3 pharmacy techs the same ones from Eckerd. Then Rite Aide went to 16 hr days staying open until mid nite. Yes that is right the pharmacists worked 3- 16 hr shifts and 2 - 16 hr shifts the second week of a two week pay period. ( this is not very do able for Any one over 40, so it is age discrimination. Or folks with children. Mike who was the pharmacy manager left after he had a child and went to Walmart because of the hours).
Then we have Walgreens, first they forced Mimi who was in her mid 50’s to take early retirement, they insinuated they were only hiring pharmacists with doctored, it used to be you only need Bachlor or Masters, but how can someone with 30 years suddenly not be qualified. The replacements, are right out of pharmacy school, slow and befuddled, with no people skills, cortney is still there, but no one else lasts more than a few months. They cut down to one pharmacy tech at a time. Closed the window where you drop off prescriptions and get counseling, so now you do both at check out.
What has happened? Left
24
And - side note - local Walgreens Pharmacy here has a prominent end-of-aisle liquor display including TWELVE different marks of vodka.
DJT doesn't drink, Putin doesn't drink; who in Walgreens management authorizes this absolute contradiction of a health-services provider?
3
Yesterday as I awaited my Shingles vaccination from the pharmacist at Walgreens, bags of prescriptions sailed through the
air into a basket sitting in front of me on the counter; the guy couldn't fill them quickly enough! I have seen this frenzy too many times, and it can't continue. Additionally, I learned that the same medicine, but made by a different manufacturer, can have nasty side effects-it happened to me. More corporatism run amok-and it may kill us...
10
@Grungy Ol' Dave
I’m a pharmacist and lately things have gone ridiculously chaotic. Our prescription sales grew by 50%. Yet due to “not enough money”, techs hours were cut, bonuses eliminated, and more and higher volume of shores and metrics implemented. Nobody that has not worked behind the pharmacy counter for at least two weeks will even come close to all the chaos and atrocities that happens over there. At first, I would scold the techs for throwing prescription bags and bottles from one side of the counter to another. But soon enough I found myself doing the same thing. In fact the volume of prescription got so high that, I had no counter space left, and I literally end up throwing them in a box on a floor as if I was dumping an empty lunch bag. They just never end!!! If you find that shocking, you have not even seen the tip of the iceberg.
Now for your concern about different manufacturers. It is extremely rare that a change in manufacturer will result in a precarious situation for the patient. It does not mean they are imposible. Factors that may cause problems tend to be very individual. For instance, a patient maybe allergic to the powder or coloring of one tablet to the other. Or perhaps the body just do not absorb well enough or absorbs too much the different preparation methods. Different manufacturers use the same molecule, so the only difference sort to say is the “packaging”. But I have no problem giving the patient the med he or she wants.
3
Well, but they are a corporation. We must be subservient to the masters of our country.
9
Switched from the big name pharmacy to a local pharmacy that is not in a constant state of panic or confusion.
When I call I speak directly with the pharmacist, not a corporate phone bank.
Prescriptions are auto filled.
Notifications are sent via text
And the lines for pick up are virtually nonexistent.
Plus, and this is the best part, they get it right each and every time.
What a concept!
12
@Littlewolf
All of our local pharmacies have disappeared, sadly.
8
Great reporting, NYT! Thank you! I went to my CVS yesterday evening on the way home from work to pick up some prescriptions. The pharmacy tech handed me the bags containing my prescriptions and then took one away and said, "oh, this isn't your prescription!" Good grief! This particular CVS is constantly short-handed and when you call the pharmacy, the phone just rings and rings. According to this news story, it seems like my CVS isn't the only one that is constantly short-handed with phones going unanswered. My Medicare Part D plan has CVS as the 'preferred pharmacy." If I want to pay more, I could go to a non-preferred pharmacy (which would be Rite Aid or Walgreens!).
8
A year ago I was given the wrong medication. I grow cerebral aneurysms. Blood pressure med is vital as I've already had two brain surgeries. I take a blood pressure med every morning.
In the summer of 2018, in lieu of my regular night time asthma-control pill, I was given what I assumed was a generic of that asthma control pill. No. It was not a generic asthma med, Walgreens had accidentally given me a months supply of another, different, blood pressure medication.
At a time I was grieving the recent passing of my mother I was taking a blood pressure pill in the morning and a blood pressure pill at night. At first I thought I was simply ill with grief but it got worse, much worse. Soon I felt like I was dying. I didn't go out. I was lethargic. The pain when I ate or expelled was excruciating. They thought I had pancreatic cancer. It was miserable, it was very expensive.
Last week I got a letter from my insurance saying I had to return to Walgreens as they were preferred carrier. How can I help stop them before they kill someone? Please, don't make me go back to them.
14
As a pharmacist practicing for over 15 years in various settings, all retail pharmacy chains value metrics and speed over safety. Having two pharmacists working is unheard of. And many times pharmacists fill, check and dispense their own prescriptions. Common safety sense dictates that if you fill your own script then you shouldn’t check it. Additionally, pharmacists checking one prescription every two minutes means no time is allocated for counseling. Therefore patients aren’t counseled on their prescriptions. Bonuses related to volume are a product of an outdated incentive system that focuses away from quality. Hence, many pharmacists look at script dosing as “will this kill the patient?” yes or no. “No” then press onward to the next thousand tasks. Pharmacy chains typically are filled with executives from the same company. This reinforces a stagnant culture due to lack of competency. Pharmacy executives may have a high business acumen, but they have become so far removed from the practice of pharmacy and quality their sensitivity to the small problems and their insensitivity to morale issues becomes the culture. Hilariously, pharmacy managers don’t manage, district manager’s don’t manage and leaders can’t lead because authorization is only at the corporate level (centralized control, decentralized execution?). Overall, the nature of retail pharmacy practice has been perverted away from the professions’ ideals to one focused on volume, money and averting lawsuits.
52
Thank you for this article. I will inspect the pills in my refill bottles very carefully to verify what I am getting. I advise that everyone do this. All pills have identifiers stamped into them.
One question is that I wonder how much Medicare drug plans contribute to the chaos. I take the same Rx for months on end. No matter what my doctor writes, the insurance plan will not authorize more than a 30 day supply. God forbid - I might not pay the next premium, although I have been paying up for 10 years without a miss. This ridiculousness causes unnecessary cost for patients as well as work for pharmacists, although I suspect that pharmacy profits benefit by refilling prescriptions monthly rather than every couple of months. Is it really worth it?
6
I expect there are both criminal code violations and professional society regulation violations. Without a conspiracy prosecution and real jail time for those making illegal decisions, those consciously engaged in implementing those decisions, and those engaged in the cover-up, any fine or regulatory "directive" is simply another cost of doing business, no different from the toilet paper in the C.E.O.'s bathroom.
The pension funds and retirees invested in Walgreen's and CVS stock might suffer. Meanwhile, the perps walk.
9
Kudos to Ellen Gabler for her fine and accurate reporting. My wife was a pharmacist at CVS for 13 years. She loved her work at the start, but over time the working conditions became so unbearable that she quit at the age of 35. CVS and Walgreens have destroyed a serious profession, one that requires difficult study and was once a useful resource to patients. Corporate execs have deliberately understaffed their pharmacies to boost profits, drastically cutting assistant pharmacists and techs. My wife regularly worked 13 hours straight with no break because corporate would not staff a technician. Since she couldn’t stop to use the bathroom, my wife avoided drinking liquids during her shift. Pharmacists in her store regularly worked past their shifts for no pay to make sure the next pharmacist would not start their shift already behind. Accurately reporting extra time worked was grounds for censure by the regional manager. My wife vacuumed and cleaned her store because CVS didn’t staff cleaning. Our home was infected by bed bugs brought from her pharmacy. CVS wouldn’t close the pharmacy to address the problem correctly. All for what end? So the CVS CEO Larry Merlo can make his USD 25-40m annual salary? The weak board is captive to the CEO and does nothing. While the shareholders, increasingly large passive ETFs, fail to exercise their fiduciary duties. Management enrich themselves grossly, public health is jeopardized and employees are terrorized.
74
@Stephen K Thank you for your comment. I used to work as a CVS pharmacist up until last fall when I finally threw in the towel and quit. The main reason being that I was told by my pharmacy manager that I would have zero tech help during my weekend shifts because corporate cut tech hours and they had to be used mainly during the week. I remember avoid drinking water during my shifts. There was one time when, after my shift and closing the gate to the pharmacy, I chugged down water so fast because I was so thirsty, I had a vasovagal response which led me to faint in the pharmacy... With no one around me.
32
@Stephen K I hope she found another career that she loves.
1
If I treated patients like these chain drugstores do my medical license would be revoked. The pharmacy boards are busy bodies poking around looking at doctors offices now, overreaching their historical responsibilities but not looking at their primary charge of pharmacies. Bureaucratic power plays are harming patients. The Times should look into that angle.
10
After the Theranos disaster, I don't know why anyone would trust Walgreens (or any other store pharmacy) with their health needs. They put unlicensed and unapproved machines in their stores and pretended they were vetted and accurate.
A store that sells you drain cleaner and mouse traps is not the place you should entrust with any major healthcare need. Hospital pharmacies are where everyone with a lick of sense should be getting their prescription medicine.
4
@Viv Hospital and retail are different classes of pharmacy with different regulations. Hospital pharmacies cannot dispense to the public unless they hold community licensure as well.
6
@Jen
Exactly. They have more stringent regulations to prevent these kinds of things from happening.
1
I was a pharmacist at CVS and left for these very reasons. It’s unsafe for patients with all the cuts in technician hours and pharmacist overlap being eliminated. Does corporate not understand that they could be more successful (have higher volume) if their pharmacists and patients are happy and taken care of properly? When we graduated, we swore an oath to take care of our patients, but it is impossible in those conditions. I pray for the higher ups at the chain retail pharmacies to start to hear what’s reality and work to fix it. It clearly exists and is a problem.
45
@Ashley I went to local CVS for 20 years. Purely out of habit. Finally after last 5 years of pulling my hair out with their awful service I realized I have options. Switched to a grocery store that bought the local pharmacy and it’s been wonderful. It’s no longer a dreadful chore lol.
9
First, applause for Ellen Gabler for fantastic reporting, the ability to acquire these anonymous leads in a short time takes skill - this is why we all subscribe. Second, thank you to the courageous employees of Walgreens or Tata who have a moral compass and agreed to talk to the Times.
The Walgreens leadership that required the removal of the Tata sourced facts around overworked pharmacists prone to errors should be held accountable. They are more worried about their own personal finances than the lives of their patients. Walgreens stock is down 27% in the last year. Public fact that employees for the first time in many years did not earn a bonus last year - the senior leadership in that room earned $0 on a 40% of base pay bonus. Bad news on dangerous decision making will hasten the company's downward spiral - the cowardly leaders voted for their pocketbook, not human life.
Government regulation is needed. Airline pilots can only work so many hours a week - more than that limit and it's deemed they risk losing attention and putting lives in danger. Pharmacists need the same protections.
A prosecutor should open an impactful far-reaching case against these pharmacy company leaders. Doing so will save countless lives.
39
@Ben W I am entering my 4th decade of healthcare IT. And it does not surprise me Tata removed the language as directed. They are an IT consultancy firm. They were hired to assess their Computer issues. Management wanted them to stay within their expertise and boundaries. Did the Tata consultants have expertise to know what Pharmacist stress can cause or how it manifests? Unlikely. When I have been pulled into such “forensics” on medical errors, I stick to what I know and it’s up to experts in medicine and healthcare to determine the rest. Leadership is most certainly at fault, but Tata was just doing what it was hired to do. There are tight legal documents that shield them from medical errors, they have zero responsibility.
6
Thank you for publishing these articles. I have been a pharmacist for 11 years and I am so grateful I do not have to work for one of these chains. I feel for my fellow pharmacists who are held to impossible metrics and cannot safely perform their jobs. These pharmacists want to do the right thing for their patients. They want to make sure your medications are safe, correct and appropriate. They want to make sure you understand how and why you are taking them. They want to collaborate with your provider to make sure the best options are chosen. None of this matters to the chains. The only thing that matters is profit. Don't let these chains then blame PBM's. CVS and Walgreens also own some of the largest PBM's in the country. They are robbing patient safety and pharmacist and technician sanity to maximize profit.
36
I know that pharmacies are the subject of this article, but reading it reminded me of my years as a lowly schoolteacher back in the days of "No Child Left Behind." Remember the highly-touted plan for education during the 2000's that was going to solve every problem in education? Bear with me--there are similarities.
According to this article, pharmacies have been struggling to provide more and more services, but with fewer and fewer employees, all in the name of saving money.
In sort of the same way, during the heyday of No Child Left Behind, schoolteachers were told to teach their classes while administering appreciably more and more tests. The subject matter was not decreased in order to make up for the extra time given to testing. Instead, teachers were also expected to keep complex records of student scores and teaching methods. Workshop days were devoted to learning how to keep these records, and days were spent studying said records. Teaching careers were on the line.
It seems as if the pharmacies in this article were run like assembly line manufacturing companies. Efficiency became the be-all and end-all, and many mistakes were made by overworked employees. In the same way, we schoolteachers often felt as if we had tumbled off conveyor belts at the end of long days of intensive testing.
What has happened to common sense?
16
I’ve been been a pharmacist for 11years. I was newly licensed when we started giving flu shots. The tasks haven simply multiplied 100x over. Our healthcare system is broken! Now is the time. You have the raw data, and support of the Pharmacist Moms. Take this on air, Good Morning America air. All Americans need to see this. Retail pharmacy as we know it needs to CHANGE!
31
It's also the idea that we need to solve every problem with a prescription. My mother had a heart attack and suddenly she was put on meds she didn't need, she never had high blood pressure, but the doctors insisted that she needed high blood pressure pills, you name it. I think all these drugs gave her dementia, and her health actually improved when she tossed them all. Too bad she didn't do this sooner.
2
Whatever happened to ETHICS ! Another depiction of the McDonaldization of medicine. Where CVS, Walgreens and such popular pharmacy stores care is about making money , overworking and underpaying their staff to the expense of patients' lives that rely on every dosage and pill.
15
The WG where we get our prescriptions is *moderately* free of errors, but only b/c we are very knowledgeable about the system after 45 years of filling prescriptions for our kids and ourselves. We know as much about the medications as the pharmacists do (almost), and we watch everything very carefully. Anyone who doesn't or can't do the same thing is in jeopardy.
11
Less than 10 years ago, you would be able to see a pharmacist without much of wait. Now? The bean counters, the efficiency advocates have decided that pharmacists had it too easy. Even as you are waiting to see a pharmacist, you see them on phones, on computers, and their staff scurrying around. Everyone is very busy. Why? because there was waste when you didn't have to wait too long, there waste when everyone wasn't busy every minute. Waste for whom? Not the people getting prescriptions. Waste for the people who paid the pharmacists and their staff. Profit is king. Eliminating waste is more important than any other measure, because their only measure is return on investment. Everyone must bend to ROI, because that is king.
25
A big problem is when nursing homes use CVS to refill all of the endless drugs we force on the elderly. You go into a nursing home, and everyone is drugged up. You go into CVS on nursing home day, and they are filling dozens of prescriptions. We have to realize that we are overmedicating the elderly - overmedicating everyone with an illness, really.
The first lesson when I went to a project management class was that what gets measured controls what happens.
The teacher related the story of a person hired as a hospital orderly. Told that "cleanliness was next to godliness" in a hospital, the ER was spotless. One day, a patient was brought in with blood spurting from a variety of wounds. Of course the orderly kept the patient out of the ER since cleanliness is next to godliness.
You get what you measure.
19
"Pharmacists at his store worked about 20 to 30 hours per week unpaid so their colleagues were “not left in an impossible situation.”" These people should be respected for their hard work and consideration of their colleagues and patients. If your people are telling you that something isn't working, believe them! These performance metrics are better suited for robots, which is probably what they really want anyway.
38
@Jmart Thank you for pointing out this quote! They are working themselves to the bone just to try to keep the minimum expectations met. We also need to acknowledge the work and stress our technician partners are experiencing.
11
First I want to thank The NY Times for covering this topic. I have been a pharmacist for over 16 years and worked for several chains, the government, and as a clinical pharmacist but I currently work for Walgreens. Believe the pharmacists when they tell you the environment is unsafe, short staffed, over tasked, over whelmed, and afraid for their jobs if they speak up. It feels like our complaints fall on def ears and the only time people listen is after a mistake has been made and someone is hurt. This scenario is a pharmacist worst night mare. We got into this profession to help people, and any pharmacist who has ever made a mistake has to live with that for the rest of their life. I can only hope this is the first step of many the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy will make to help make the working conditions of retail pharmacies safer for patients and working conditions better for pharmacist and technicians.
82
This is a real problem. I was at my local CVS last week for a vaccination. The pharmacist was literally running from her computer to the medicine shelves and filling prescriptions. There were cars backed up in the drive-through lane. There were 2 calls on hold on the pharmacy phone line (audible message repeating i the store). There was one pharmacist and one assistant trying to juggle the load. There were hundreds of prescriptions waiting to be picked up. Is it possible to provide error-free service under these conditions? I think not.
69
@Ken L
I have had the same experience at my local CVS. The service used to be good. Now, the waits are long, a phone call is placed on hold for 10 minutes, and the prescriptions are not filled timely. The employees look like they are trying hard but they cannot keep up. Of course, they always ask if they can automate refills even though I don't need automated refills or call and tell me to refill a prescription that I don't take anymore. More corporate metrics, I am sure. I had to call corporate to get off the robo call lists.
14
@Ken L
Sorry for your experience. This is a lot worse than my Walgrens. For the life of me, I cannot understand why pharmacists are given flu vaccines - who approved that one?? Used to be that you went to your doctor or to the Public Health Clinic --oops I forgot - we did away with Public Heath!
I’ve been a pharmacist for 33 years. I’ve worked for a big chain (cvs) as well as independents. Everything in this is on point regarding unattainable metrics, intentional short staffing and no overlap, and the constant fear that if you don’t perform up to these expectations you’ll lose your job. Please, if you have an independent or even a small grocery store pharmacy, patronize them instead. You’ll be happier and probably safer . And try to opt out of mandatory use of a certain chain.
50
I have been a CVS customer for over 15 years and am basically satisfied. I have a concern with the practice of automatic prescription renewals. When a prescription that is not needed is renewed, the result is that: 1. Unnecessary time is expended by the pharmacist who fills it and the unneeded medication is ultimately returned to stock. 2. A clerk calls to ask why I haven't claimed the medication, notwithstanding that I had attempted to contact the store to cancel the prescription and waited on hold for more than 20 minutes before giving up. To further complicate matters, a request to take the prescription off of auto-renewal was acknowledged but obviously disregarded.
What all this boils down to is the fact that automatic renewals, although touted as a service to the customer is actually a huge waste of time and and an added stressor for pharmacy staff. It may help CVS sell more drugs but it may also contribute to pharmacy errors.
31
@Judy
The automated automatic renewals and reminders and the virtual impossibility of refusing them or getting them to stop is one of many reasons I stopped filling my prescriptions at CVS, despite their being my insurance company's preferred provider.
1
I am a pharmacist with 29 years of experience. Everything in this article appears accurate to me. While no pharmacists go through their careers without ever making mistakes, stressful working conditions and working shortstaffed certainly do contribute to an environment which favors errors.
I left chain pharmacy behind me long ago and have worked most of my career in a health system outpatient clinic pharmacy which was much more focused on patient care as opposed to profitability. However I recently left this practice setting as the larger health systems are facing the same pressures as the pharmacy chains. Pressures from third party payers and pressures to meet budget goals end up outweighing patient care. Because really, and sadly, the voice of the patient carries little weight compared to the voice of their insurance carrier and the voice of the company’s board.
I now work for a smaller clinic who caters to a private population. At this practice my patients have a voice and my work is structured around their needs. But this type of practice setting is rare and I feel for my fellow pharmacists out in “the trenches”.
Don’t let the chains say this is bad reporting! Ask the pharmacist behind the counter for his/her opinion!
80
Need big changes in healthcare - I can tell you my pharmacy is not a safe place to have medications filled
19
One of the results of too many independent pharmacies being driven out of business by the behemoths.
42
After an altercation with a CVS pharmacist in Montclair, NJ, last year, where she yelled that “I am the pharmacist, I am the AUTHORITY” because I had the “temerity” to question the directions on a prescription I had already considered dubious, I then wrote, called and had several conversations with corporate managers at CVS, who assured me that they were documenting the incident and reprimanding the pharmacist in person. However, there was never a follow up with me, the 67-year-old patient who was reprimanded as if I were a truculent 4-yr old, during an incident that drew everyone’s attention in the store, witnessing the pharmacist growing increasingly belligerent as I remained (and grew) even calmer. I went back to my M.D., learned the scrip was not my only option, and she recommended an OTC migraine remedy - which I order from “Dr. Bezos” along with all the other items I used to buy at CVS or Walgreen’s. I have not bought so much as a pack of mints at any CVS in the country ever since.
30
Go to Grove Pharmacy in Montclair, they even deliver. I can tell you that everyone at CVS is overworked and stressed out, no wonder she snapped. It wasn't you.
1
It seems that every large corporation and many smaller ones have embraced management by metrics. It's a lazy, soulless way to manage. Executives get rewarded for annually "raising the bar" on things that can be quantified, like response times and sales numbers. Things that can't be reduced to numbers, like quality, get ignored. Soon enough, employees feel pressured to falsify their data and even defraud their customers, as happened at Wells Fargo. Unless and until a company gets destroyed by its willful abuse of its staff and customers, it's profitable and so it persists. I wish I could think of a remedy.
36
Staffing is a huge problem at the Liberty, Texas CVS. Although, I understand, the pharmacy has requested more staff...repeatedly..nothing has happened.
22
This newspaper deserves great credit for this coverage that
reflects, yet again, the unbounded arrogance of top level management of corporations, be it a Boeing, General Motors, or chain pharmacies. Exploiting labor for the sake of corporate profits is as old as capitalism and will never go away without effective labor pushback.
Here this ought to be unionization or a threat
of pharmacists to conduct public teach ins that will justifiably embarrass and shame their upper level directors. It would also help a lot if state boards of pharmacists and doctors
put in their two cents by pointing out their relevance in
this matter. That is, they are bound to insure patient safety
and what they are witnessing is corporate dictates that
risk this. So they too have a role to play in shaming
chain pharmacists over this metric obsessed measuring
of employee effectiveness.
27
Enough is enough. When will this all stop? I used to work for CVS. Another pharmacist I worked with was so overworked, she accidentally filled warfarin (blood thinner) instead of a standard blood pressure med. The patient ended up almost an entire week in the hospital. Seriously, corporate needs to wake up. You are doing your patients more harm than good.
60
@Anna
Corporate will ONLY wake up when we make a big enough fuss that it gets the attention of Congress. The House needs to hold hearings and bring the CEOs of Walgreens, CVS, etc to be cross-examined. ONLY way to change this very dangerous paradigm.
8
Young people are going to dread being born in America because the medical system has gone down the drain. Even 3rd world countries are better equipped and have better people skills in their medical world.
23
Always check everything when you get a prescription filled.
Make sure it says the rite medicine and dose on it.
Know what the pill looks like. If the logo changes make sure it is legit and not a mistake.
Murphy's law is in play here.
21
I have used Walgreens for my prescriptions for years but that ends today. I will support my local drug store instead.
19
That’s the spirit! But will your insurance company “allow” you this freedom or is your locally operated pharmacy non-preferred? If you can, it’s great to support an independent pharmacy!
I also encourage you to develop a relationship with your pharmacist. Ask questions and be involved in your care. This interaction will go a long way toward keeping you safe from mistakes. It gives your pharmacist a reason to look more closely at your medications, think longer on your case, and it gets you into the role of being an active participant in your own health outcomes.
3
Is there any business left in the US that is not robbing Americans blind without a care for their safety or health?
40
@Jacquie
The current economic paradigm, which is cut costs and increase shareholder value, is endangering Americans. It must be changed; if it continues, expect more tragedy and more deaths.
2
And the scariest place to be when you're sick is in a hospital.
Why would anyone choose to use a Walgreens or CVS after reading these articles? Why? Time we all start voting with our wallets since we know our politicians are all owned by corporate America and will do nothing.
20
@Anita
I have switched to a cvs only because my insurance company has stopped paying the small, non-chain pharmacy I used to go to.
8
Aranea...in Freeport...I feel your pain. My store lost 3 of 4 multiyear technicians in January 2019. We have been short staffed and under staffed every since. I was PIP'ed (Performance Managed on Feb 4th). I have been pharmacy manager for 8.5 years. My wife and I decided after reading my copy of the PIP, it was no longer worth the stress, as the writing was on the wall. I stepped down as pharmacy manager on Feb 10th. I continued working while the higher ups processed this step down notice. I was informed on the 14th I could either remain pharmacy manager and complete the pip, or I could be a 32 hour floater. I asked what the pay rate would be if I floated (since that is a whole other topic see reddit). The DM said through the store manager he would have to get back with me so I resigned on the spot. Today is my one week anniversary of quitting, so I was very pleased as a long time NYTimes subscriber to read the article and the comments. For journalists every where, you can find these conditions at each and every Walgreens...if anyone wants to interview me just let me know....
65
A great case study on why workers need to unite and form labor unions. Yes, pharmacists too!
24
I once found that I had an under count of my Rx pills from CVS when I opened them , I noticed this at home.
I returned to the pharmacist ,who w/o looking "I know you stole a few and want extra" I was appalled and no they were not narcotics! I made a fuss on the phone with CVS and was sent back to my local NYC CVS and given the "lost"pills right away.
Are we at a point where we have to open our Med's right in front of a pharmacy employee and count them out to make sure of what we received?
15
@Carlyle T.
Yes, I think that might be so.
I do the same as you do & also write the date I start taking pills out of that bottle, so whenever it is empty, I can refer back to the "begin date" to know that I didn't miscount.
2
@Carlyle T.
The pharmacy staff at one of my local CVS stores frequently treats customers as criminals. It’s horrible- it’s happened to me, to friends, to other people I’ve seen while there. I don’t know what they expect to gain by ranting at customers, by chastising customers. It got so bad in the last year I changed pharmacies... it was clear that to them, the customers in the store are not important at all ... they have some other masters they are serving, some goals or Spifs or rules that encourage alienating customers, leaving them waiting and demeaning them.
2
@Janet
Thanks for the advice Janet,
I have my own health care needs , also my wife with late stage Parkinson's needs 275 pills a week!
Many of these critical care drugs are made in China....also worrisome.
2
Why do so many of us delude ourselves into thinking these corporations care about peoples lives when all they really care is about their quarterly profits and "PR".
The US government has been captured and is run by former corporate heads that work against the American peoples health and well-being so they can pump profits.
For profit healthcare kills 67,000 people a year who cannot afford to get the care to save their lives. Imagine a war that would take 67,000 US citizens. That is 26 Sept 11th events a year. And some how we have politicians (and the corporations that own them) telling the American people this is the best system in the world.
For profit healthcare is the best system in the world only if you are either a politician (who gets free medicare for life anyway) who is funded/owned by corporations or you are a part of the for profit healthcare corp system and profiting from killing people who can't afford your "plan".
15
After Walgreens naively partnered with Theranos—even though checking the technology would not exactly have been rocket science—why would I ever trust Walgreens with anything beyond makeup?
16
It's a little off topic, but what about these large pharmacy chains sourcing generic prescription drugs from Chinese companies because they are the cheapest and then they find carcinogens in the drugs? Most of our generic prescription drugs are made in China or India. The situation is ripe for disaster.
16
@David Stone
And there seems to be little effort to ensure various generics work property, that their filler ingredients don’t interfere with the therapeutic effect or are even safe.
8
@David Stone
I had a very bad reaction to the generic of zithromax which had not been made in the U.S. Fortunately, my doctor switched me to a branded z-pack and I was better. It scared the living daylights out of me.
And of course prescription plans will only cover generics.
1
In the NYT today there are dozens of examples of profit and power always being much more important than people in America. We have collectively allowed that to happen by voting for people with those values. Things will only get worse until we demand a wholesale change.
Stop voting for people who stole and cheated their way to power and money, and who sneer at honest, working people. Stop voting for people who think it's fine for big chains to monopolize pharmacy services and fine to abuse pharmacists and staff because they can just be replaced. Those people will never feel our pain. Notice whose policies are harmful, and lend your support to those who value people, our potential and our dignity, rather than see us as consumers who are disposable once we've been bled dry.
23
I know we each have a story.
Mine is from some years ago, when I received a 90-day supply of a maintenance medication via mail order prescription. When I opened the package the first thing I noticed was the insert that included the name, home address, and medication information for someone else. (Our names and addresses were not remotely the same; we didn't even live in the same state.) Also on the mailer insert was the patient's doctor's name. So now I had significant PHI (Protected Health Information) for a total stranger--a clear HIPPA violation.
I called the mail order company and asked to speak to their HIPPA compliance officer. Upon speaking with him, he was completely unfazed by my concern, including my concern that if I received someone else's 90-day supply of medication (along with their PHI) it was reasonable to assume some stranger received mine.
The bottom line: as long as the revenue continues to roll in the door, Big Pharma and their related subsidiaries don't give a rat's patoot about your complaint or mine.
25
Yeah, they companies don't really care if they kill you or not as long as the check doesn't bounce.
As far as independent pharmacies go, I haven't seen one in years. CVS and Walgreens bankrupted all of them in my town over ten years ago.
18
For the millionth time, already, FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE IS AN OXYMORON. Why are we the only so-called "advanced" country on the planet incapable of understanding that?
21
We are not an advanced country, we are a third world plutocracy.
First Walgreens gets in bed with Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, and now this. If I were a Walgreens customer, I think I’d look for another pharmacy.
5
What a surprise-yet another coverup!
6
Classic corporate ineptitude and greed-driven stupidity. Rather than accept the true findings of the report and saying "wow, maybe there are some problems we should look into, customer safety might be compromised" they brushed it under the rug. It's typical of many things in America (and the world) these days, they can't accept the truth and the facts. The people who run these companies are spineless, selfish, and immoral money grabbers protected by overpaid lawyers who put their own personal wealth and advancement above serving customers. I wonder if we'll ever see the day again when someone with guts and leadership stands up and says "whoa, I think we have a problem here and we should understand it, and make changes".
8
It seems to me that it depends on the store. Where we used to live, in Southwest Houston, I used to dread going to the nearby Walgreen’s. It took forever; often my prescriptions weren’t ready, and more than once they gave me someone else’s medicine!!
.
We moved to the suburbs - Fort Bend County - about five years ago - and I haven’t had any such problems at either of the two Walgreen’s I go to now. In fact, I really appreciated last year when the pharmacist was able to give me a deal on medicine my doctor has prescribed and my insurance had decided not to cover!
.
To whoever manages that store, in Sugar Land TX: keep it up!
.
To the executives at Walgreen’s and CVS: did you guys seriously not hear about the debacle at Wells Fargo? Executives there set unrealistic corporate goals - like you guys do. The result: low level employees were opening fake accounts to meet those goals! That should have been a lesson to C Suites everywhere! Alas it doesn’t seem it was.
16
@ZAW no learning occurs without real direct consequences like prison time. Heck, I'd settle for time in public stocks, rotten eggs and tomatoes at hand.
13
Some of the commenters correctly point out that this is the result of consumers/patients wanting the lowest cost meds putting local PhR owned drugstores out of business.
These are also the same consumers/patients who buy into the myth that the government can't possibly run healthcare nearly as efficiently as private corporations, when the evidence of what results when MBA's run healthcare frustrates them personally and quite often. Bless your hearts.
8
@eubanks
I'm not sure that customers are looking for "the lowest" prices .. more likely we're looking for a "fair" price (which we have no way of knowing what that may be).
But, thank the gods, because GoodRx.com has come to the rescue. You can go to their website, key in your drug, the dosage & the # of pills you're wanting .. & the prices of ALL pharmacies in your area pop up onto your screen. You can print a coupon that you would present to whichever pharmacy you choose to use in order to get that lower price.
This is a cash/charge deal .. no insurance involved. You use the coupon, rather than your insurance card.
It may or may not be a "fair" price, but at least we know that it is the "lowest" price in our area.
2
@Janet And GoodRx gives negative reimbursements to most pharmacies, which means that the pharmacy ends up paying GoodRx for the privilege. The profit loss puts mom and pop pharmacies out of business and causes chains to further slash hours. And they sell your information to the highest bidder. Shady shady entity.
8
I have to live on half my income, which is taxed or "deducted" for something involuntary, including the nation's highest property taxes. Rents are just as high. So there isn't much money left for anything, I'm wearing my late mother's old clothes and wearing my old coat to rags. My prescription plan only covers generics and won't let me use the better pharmacy, unless I want to pay full price. Luckily most of my health problems are undiagnosed and untreated, so I only have 1 Rx.
2
I wonder how many people commenting here own shares of WAG in their portfolios/401k’s?
PBMs are drastically reducing reimbursement rates. Walgreens and CVS are trying to keep shareholders happy by cutting where they can to make up for the loss. The other option would be closed stores, or no access to meds, and these same pharmacists would be without jobs in an already saturated job market.
There is also no mention of the systems in place to prevent errors, and how many potentially dangerous situations are avoided and caught by pharmacists every day.
4
Actually, people are losing hours, benefits, and jobs. The stores are shortening their hours or closing. Turnover is great, and experienced help can never be replaced by "systems".
The workload grows as the staffing shrinks. It's been that way for quite a while. It's impossible to relate how desperate things have become to someone who does not work in that environment. It's truely unbelievable.
The denial by the company is pathological and will eventually lead to its decline as the many issues continue to go on unaddressed. The morale is tissue thin, if there at all, and the culture is toxic.
6
@Kmac
So we should just accept that unsafe, unreliable, inhumane, unprofessional pharmacy operations are the best we deserve or can expect?
2
As a customer I feel terrible that there is nothing I can do to counter the absurd corporate metrics. When I fill out an online refill request I always put a time late the next day for pick up, but the prescription is always filled the same day, even when I've said I won't be there to pick it up yet. If I'm in the store I let them know I'm going shopping and not to rush, but I can't stop corporate from forcing pharmacists and techs to rush. I would rather wait than be harmed by an error.
12
All the retail establishments are feeling the same pressure as CVS AND Walgreens. GIANTS PHARMACY in MARYLAND, DC, and VA is one of many. Pharmacists are held accountable for anything from flu shots to wait times to how many text messages are sent out to how many RXS are sold to how many vaccines to how many patients they counsel. Daily tasks for pharmacists are impossible. Pharmacists at Giant are REQUIRED to go out and set up their OWN outside flu clinics, NOT the company! Immunizations, budgets, inventories, emails, conference calls, metrics. Filling prescriptions is the LEAST important thing in these chains. They are also hounded and abused by upper management by constant text messages, emails, and threats even off the clock. Have to constantly sell services and immunizations, sometimes unnecessarily just to make a number. If pharmacist do not meet their metrics they are targeted. Don’t know 1 pharmacist working for busy chains that are happy with their job!
26
This article describes our local Walgreens and CVS stores. I’ve lived here for 40 years and know many of the local pharmacists from getting my prescriptions filled hundreds of times.
They are grossly overworked and always harried and rushed. You can feel the stress and tension just by being in the vicinity.
I felt guilty asking for my shingles shot because it stopped the pharmacist from dispensing. Tony, my long-term pharmacist, has to answer the phone, handle the drive thru, put pills in bottles, and handle the cash register.
Walgreens and CVS need to open their pocketbooks and increase staff in their pharmacies. If the stores won’t increase the personnel necessary to doing the job properly, when they are sued for causing injury or death due to pharmacist errors the punitive damages awarded should be large enough to motivate them to do the right thing.
36
I have been to CVS and Walgreen's pharmacies in my area, and they are all understaffed. The phones are ringing off the hook, and people are sitting in the drive-through, waiting and waiting for someone to free up and help them. Staffing levels in the off-season are even worse. The pharmacists don't just fill prescriptions -- they also administer flu shots, shingles vaccines, pneumonia vaccines and who knows what else, each with its own accompanying voluminous paperwork. In the meantime, other staffers are patiently explaining to senior citizens for the seventeenth time that their prescription isn't due for a refill until next week.
It seems to me that the companies determine the staffing level required to handle the expected volume of customers, then staff at about 75% of that level.
35
@Andrew Smith
I do have an odd feeling as CVS stopped selling tobacco products (NYC) a big money maker for the them that they cut back on service and increased prices.
8
Duane Reade Walgreens recently made mistakes in refilling two of my medications. Instead of 30 mg they gave me 60 mg. of one drug. I take 3 capsules a day. Had I taken the prescribed dose, I don't know what would have happened to me. I did report this to the store manager and called the Duane Reade Walgreens headquarters in NYC.
13
Some noted below about passing up the local pharmacy to save a buck. I don't guess you've looked at the price of prescriptions lately. My health care dropped my anti seizure medicine from a Tier I to a Tier II, without warning. That means my co-pay went from $15 one month to $50 the next. I had to stop using my prescription benefits under my health plan altogether and start Using Good Rx. Although I wonder what their angle is; they're significantly lower so I wonder if the incentive is to get us to switch and then they'll jack up prices.
My doctor prescribed a med that cost $1k a month. Altho the pharma company will subsidize it for a year, they say, what happens after. I decided not to take it. When did we get to meds being so expensive we have to think about the cost, not the benefit before taking them.
The pharmacist is just caught in the middle. Rushed and harried. I feel for them. I pass CVS and their minute clinic. So the pharmacists are now going to play doctor as well?
The last time I was in Walgreens the store was empty. But the pharmacy line was long. They need to rethink their business strategy.
17
@Ann I think the angle for GoodRx is that they are gathering information when you use their discounts to fill a prescription. That data is valuable, but if you can't afford a prescription otherwise most people will trade their privacy for a necessary medication.
If you have to take a name-brand drug that doesn't have a generic available always ask the doctor's office about discounts and programs to lower the price. Pharmacy reps frequently give coupons to offices they visit and the office may be able to help you with paperwork for other programs to lower the price. It's worth checking the brand website too, as they may have discount coupons available, and programs you can use to reduce the price if you are below a certain income threshold as well.
4
@Ann I think the angle for GoodRx is that they are gathering information when you use their discounts to fill a prescription. That data is valuable, but if you can't afford a prescription otherwise most people will trade their privacy for a necessary medication.
If you have to take a name-brand drug that doesn't have a generic available always ask the doctor's office about discounts and programs to lower the price. Pharmacy reps frequently give coupons to offices they visit and the office may be able to help you with paperwork for other programs to lower the price. It's worth checking the brand website too, as they may have discount coupons available, and programs you can use to reduce the price if you are below a certain income threshold as well.
* I forgot to add, if you use GoodRx instead of your insurance, it isn't going towards your out of pocket deductible, so it's important to look at how close you are to meeting your out of pocket maximum.
@Annabel Tippens the discounts and coupons are a way to not lower prices. If you have to take a maintenance med that has shot up in price, don't count on doctors handing out samples forever or your being "poor enough" to get discounts. It's the pharma industry's beard.
2
These types of safety lapses should attract the attention of each state's Board of Pharmacy to investigate these allegations and to provide appropriate remedies and/or punishments. Boards of Pharmacy license pharmacists and pharmacy assistants. If either or both are proven to have made dispensing errors, they could be subject to probation, corrective actions (training, working under supervision of senior pharmacists, etc.) and/or loss of their state license. It will be interesting to see if these boards' focus is to protect public safety or to protect their pharmacists.
5
@M.A. Heinzmann I think you missed the point, it is not the Pharmacists fault. I'm guessing you don't know what it is like to have to work in these conditions. Welcome to the wonderful world of Healthcare! Keep fighting the good fight PhRs.
11
@M.A. Heinzmann
State Boards of Pharmacy exist to protect the public not the individual pharmacist or pharmacy technician. Unfortunately the corporate chains have connections and are involved with the boards in many states.
6
A family member took home the wrong meds as well. The bottle had the correct script on it, but the meds inside were for something else. She did not notice for several weeks as she got sicker and sicker. You have to open it in the store to see if it is correct. That means you have to know the correct marking numbers on the pills before you go home. Once home they will not take it back. Tragic they are more interested in profits then paying for more employees.
27
@JeanS
Oh, if it's the wrong med, they WILL take it back, as fast as possible.
Walgreens sent the wrong meds via mail to my mom who did not drive. I started having the meds mailed because I lived 75 miles away and have a full time job. I went to see her virtually every weekend but at times I had problems getting there at the correct times to get the meds--e.g., the weekend before my husband was to have open heart surgery, I went to get her meds and they would not give them to me because the doctor had failed to call them in. They wouldn't give me any to tide her over. Fortunately, the drug was a similar BP medication to hers and she only took one. I complained and they gave me a gift card to spend there at the store. I picked them up from then on.
7
As corporations take over the pharmaceutical business, their only priority is their profit margins. As a pharmacist or tech, you are merely a cog in a very large machine. The only way you will be able to get the attention of these corporations is to organize a union. That takes time and energy, and it will be hard to do, but unless, as a group, you are willing to walk off the job and shut their pharmacies down, you really don't have any recourse. The corporations will run you into the ground and then fire you if you question their tactics. The same is true for doctors, as well. In the medical system I use, there are metrics for the docs including a constantly updating board in the waiting area that tells you how late your doctor is running. Most of the good docs are running late....
29
Nine months ago I was given the wrong medicine. My doctor said he'd phone in a prescription for me, but did not tell me what the medicine was. When I picked it up from the Walgreen's pharmacy, they gave me someone else's medicine. I took two of the pills and got dizzy before looking at the bottle and noted it was not my doctor. I called the pharmacy and they asked that I return it. When I did, I asked why they didn't check my Drivers License like they used to. "We try and do that as much as we can." To which I replied, "Not only did you not check and gave me the wrong medicine; you just did it again. You did not check again" The druggist said nothing. Apparently they save time by NOT checking. I suggest they take the time to be safe - check the Drivers License!
11
@Jerry Sturdivant I guess you did not read the entire story which would partly explain the reason for your misfilled medication. The pharmacist is being pulled in several directions and is rushing through a very important step it insuring medications are filled correctly as well as the distractions from customers. I am a pharmacist a verifying a prescription for accuracy is like taking an exam x 150-200 times a day with insurmountable distractions, no lunch break during your 10 hour shift, hold your urine in order to fill meds within 15 mins, etc.
12
@Lola:
Yet it was the Pharmacist Assistant at the cash register that did not check my Drivers License against the name on the pill bottle, like they used to do.
1
I’m a pharmacist at Walgreens. My technician labor budget is down between 15-20% from this time in 2019 and pharmacists are down by about 10%. I asked corporate to review this since we’re desperately trying to keep up with the workload. I was told that since my business was down by 3% compared to last year, the budget allocation was “adequate.” I have never been this stressed out at work before and my district manager is hounding me about why our customer satisfaction scores are so low, as if it wasn’t obvious - we can’t meet our promise times with our current staffing levels. I feel like I’m going to be “performance managed” out of my job because I’m not pharmacy Jesus and I can’t work miracles.
170
@Aranea
Time to quit. I did. Didn't even have a job to go to. I had enough. The big chains are not safe places to work. Thought about quitting pharmacy entirely but a local, tiny independent came up for sale and I went for it. Best decision ever. Although I still would never let my children grow up to be pharmacists.
34
@Gar . I have great empathy for the over burdened pharmacists. Corporate pharmacies are abusing them for maximum profit.
Sadly, as a veterinarian, I would never want my children to go into my profession, either.
11
@Aranea Volume up and they still cut our hours and slashed our Verified By Promise Time goal by 30% on a typical day. Setting us up for failure.
9
I do NOT trust any chain pharmacies any more. I ALWAYS stand at the counter and pull out what's been dispensed to me, to be sure it's the right drug and quantity. I don't care how many people are on line behind me, b/c THEY should be doing the same thing when it's their turn.
It is outrageous, and ought to be condemned, that so much pressure is put on pharmacists by their overly-paid corporate overlords - that's what's leading to these errors.
But in 2020 in the USA, money talks, so everyone who's not at the top of the food chain (MONEY chain) is getting pushed, pushed, and pushed some more, to the detriment of worker and customer alike.
The well-being of pharmacy employees, and the safety of consumers are now the 2 things that are given the lowest importance, and that is just WRONG.
61
I’m currently a CVS pharmacy customer who was looking to change to Walgreens but this article has squelched that desire. The local CVS is actually situated inside a Target store, which means I have to drive to the local retailplex (Home Depot, Kohl’s, Target and a McDonalds all share the same parking lot), then park 100yards from the door just to go in a pick up a $5 refill. There’s a Kinney pharmacy located about a mile away, with its own parking lot so maybe I’ll give that a try. It’s a local chain here in upstate NY so maybe it has better service and less of a mania for metrics.
19
@David DiRoma independent pharmacies and local chains have higher employee satisfaction rates and most of the time your copay is the same there. If not that is due to PBM discrimination but i find it’s a small price to pay for better service and safer pharmacy
3
My local Rite Aid pharmacy has announced years ago, literally that is, it’s been over 2 years, that it was becoming a Walgreens.
It’s still becoming a Walgreens but hasn’t yet happened although only very recently, that is, in the last few weeks, it appears that the Rite Aid branded items are being sold off at a discount and it’s been announced that the store will remain open during remodeling, but no mention of a Walgreens.
Something, to say the least, is amiss.
@Richard B It took quite awhile for the new sign to go up here, at least a year. Same store, new name.
@Richard B Look at a sales receipt: The "Rite Aid" just above Dupont Circle has receipts saying "Walgreens trading as Rite Aid" or something to that effect.
As a former pharmacy technician, I can attest that corporate does not care at all about the staffing, the mistakes or the customer's complaints.
Pharmacy staffs are regarded as disposable and interchangeable-and all that is important are the metrics and the amount of money that isn't spent improving patient care. They're demanding too much to be done with too few people for a level of care that can't be ever reached. The downfall was when they invented drive thru pharmacies so that patients now regard professionals trained to do their jobs as only fast food workers at best.
No wonder so many pharmacists and techs are quitting in droves. Between demanding patients and overbearing corporate overlords demanding faster, better for less money and time, it's a disaster waiting to happen.
56
@Mary Hilton Mary, it sounds as if that disaster is no longer waiting.
6
Economy of scale may exist at the purchasing level, however at the point of delivery a single pharmacist has only two hands. Chain pharmacies are awarded big contracts with big payors (insurance companies & PBMs) without adding additional staff while adding additional revenue streams for non-pharmaceutical services. My relationship with my pharmacist is gone.
Sadly, George Bailey isn’t there to stop Mr. Gower from accidentally poisoning a child. Ultimately, no one is accountable and we all pay for the privilege.
19
Another reason to overhaul healthcare - the entire system - in the U.S..
I wonder if the data shows similar issues in countries with socialized (or similar) medicine, particularly with respect to the number of errors?
26
@Alltheones That would be like changing the political system. The commenters here pushing for unions as well as accountability in all areas must be already on the wrong meds. Obviously many have never dealt with the dark side of unions. No matter which party has been in power things have not really changed. Though it is not said openly in these comments people think that all these problems only came about when Trump was elected. Trump may be a buffone, but our whole country is inhabited by many buffones on both the liberal and conservative sides.Why don't we just nationalize every business and let the government run things. After all they have done great things with the military, the VA, the Post Office, the legal and penal system and transportation in this country to name a few. If you cannot change the way people think and do things you are never going to change anything. Good luck with that.
After Walgreens bought Rite Aid and my prescriptions were transferred I have had problems every single month. Often there is at least one prescription "out of stock" even though mine are common medications. Apparently the store has a very poor, or no, inventory system to know how many of each med is sold each month. So, they partially fill and I must make a second trip to the store. I have asked every month that my prescriptions be available all on one day to make just one drugstore trip. That has never happened. I also have received a wrong medication. Every month there is a long wait while the clerk inputs and verifies I have a manufacturer coupon with a significant price reduction. Why can't that info be stored in their computer? The pharmacy has a high turnover and it seems every month there is someone very new to their job, needing help from others and working slowly. The CVS across the street actually has higher prices! Shelf items in Walgreens are priced VERY high and I refused to buy one item.
26
This article reminds me of the masses that complain they have no more local bookstores, when it was they who flocked to Amazon to save a dollar. CVS, Walgreens, and chain pharmacies got huge because they offered an efficiency and price and consumers bailed on their local pharmacies. Now they’re stuck with what the chains give them. Dr. Seuss wrote about this The Lorax and other stories. I guess we never really pay attention to the simple lessons, favoring our own personal gain. I knew someone decades ago who worked in the Textile industry who bought all of their clothes from Walmart, and then sat dumbfounded when their mill closed down.
43
Our local pharmacy closed last week due to predatory practices by prescription management bureaus. Hard to stay in business when the independent pharmacy pays more for the same prescription as CVS. Google Lang’s Pharmacy for the story.
24
I personally use a local pharmacy that requires me to actually drive by BOTH a CVS and a Walgreens. My co-pays are more. it isn’t about competing on price. I pay for what I value.
25
When people ask “What happened to the corner drugstore?”, I as a pharmacist, simply answer “I don’t know, what happened to the corner drugstore customer?”
1
Reading through these letters, I don't see a single one supporting CVS. I agree with all of them.
The staff at our local CVS in Woodbury, Minnesota are obviously caring and intelligent, but they are stressed-out and horribly overworked. Phones are always ringing, and there are usually multiple calls on hold (loudly announced every few seconds). I see lots of staff turnover and rarely enough people to handle the volume of work. I had to block the CVS phone number because they kept calling me to refill prescriptions that I didn't need. My wife has several months of expensive, unneeded medications now because they kept auto-refilling ahead of schedule - and then her doctor said she didn't need it anymore.
We're switching to the Costco pharmacy. They're much, much better.
51
@Eric,
My husband refused a prescription, when he told the doctor he wouldn’t be taking a recommended med, but the doctor prescribed it anyway, and CVS filled it. And my husband didn’t pick it up or pay for it.
But I agree about blocking the phone from CVS: he gets constant robo calls from them. If only these calls were from the children!
14
The original article had over 1000 comments from Pharmacists technicians, and patients. Many told stories of the long hours without any break ( In some cases 12 hr shifts without a break.) Now despite the comments, these companies deny that mistakes are happening because of the policies they have instituted. I am retired but I can tell you that every comment I read I can vouch for as I saw them happen on a daily basis.
96
Please, don’t blame the Pharmacists. Blame their Corporate Overlords, this is ENTIRELY their fault. Profits over Patients. If you can, get your Prescriptions from locally owned Stores. If you have problems with Chain Stores, call your State Board Of Pharmacy, or file a complaint online. Also, notify Your Healthcare Insurance Company. They WILL be very interested, as they will probably be paying for most of your Prescriptions. I have been very satisfied with the results after I reported my
( former ) chain Store to them. I received a Cash Bonus .
Seriously.
71
@Phyliss Dalmatian. Things must be better in Kansas, Phyliss. In IL, the State Board accepted my complaint about deteriorated meds from CVS/Caremark, but never provided a reply. My cong.rep's staff took my complaint, received an oral answer, which she accepted & reported, despite its being entirely inaccurate, so no recourse there, either.
8
@Phyliss Dalmatian I appreciate that you made the effort and I truly hope your healthcare company did care and made positive changes. Unfortunately about 90% of prescriptions flow through Pharmacy Benefit Managers which are the SAME company as the chain pharmacy. So the insurance company is also making money on the cutting of corners. However, if your employer pays for your health care (i.e., self funded) your employer may care.
1
@Phyliss Dalmatian "If you can, get your Prescriptions from locally owned Stores." That is impossible where I live. The big box pharmacies put every independent, Mom & Pop pharmacy out of business. Every single one of them, one by one. Now all we are left with is CVS, Walgreens and some RiteAids.
I have serious concerns with chain pharmacy operations which started even before these articles in the NYT. However, I do take exception to part of this story. Tata Consultancy is an IT body shop, out in Walgreen stores to examine software systems. Findings about “errors resulting from stress” have no place in an assessment of software systems. Not only does Tata Consultancy lack even the remotest qualifications to assess pharmacy operations, the report they were creating would not have been done with the requisite control and rigor to be able support this type of statement. Although it almost pains me to say this, it was likely correct for Walgreens to have removed this information from this assessment.
However, these pharmacy issues should have been identified by both internal and external audit and compliance, and be top of the risk register at both CVS and Walgreens. If the audit committee and board are not addressing these as consumer safety and reputations risks, than it is possible that CVS and Walgreens pharmacy operations are seriously deficient.
Additionally, why has Walgreens hired an Indian IT firm to manage pharmacy systems? Shouldn’t our medical data be stored and protected in the US? Is Walgreens not profitable enough that they need to save a few bucks by offshoring their IT and our data?
62
If Tara (TCS) was going an analysis of how applications are working, then the error rate, problems with fulfilling prescriptions in a timely fashion and so on are germane and relevant issues. I agree that a company's own quality department, compliance and audit department should be on top of this, but the IT provider should discover this too.
2
@Ebrofin Most of our medications themselves come from India and China, what's a computer system on top
5
TCS is not even remotely qualified to provide assessments of pharmacy operations. Skilled consultants can assess the usability of systems, typically under controlled test conditions. I can’t fault Walgreens for removing a comment like “We were told that pill bottles had been found to contain more than one medication.” This is only reportable if the consultant actually observed or found more than one medication is the bottle. I’m a certified auditor, and I wouldn’t allow a statement like this in a document without evidence. An experienced, qualified system analyst, business process analyst, or usability expert can do these systems assessments. There is no way or reason someone from an IT off-shore company should be behind a pharmacy counter where controlled substances and our HIPPA data is.
I don’t doubt that the situations at the Walgreens and CVS pharmacies are horrific. We all see it when we are in the store, and from these articles. But, I don’t think it was necessarily wrong for Walgreens to remove subjective, out of scope comments from the report. However, I think it’s appalling, greedy, and short-sided that Walgreens has off-shored their pharmacy systems. If we think it’s bad now, just wait — the worse is yet to come.
8
It's US business run amok. Every dime, every second, every sliver of useful resource needs to be accounted for, to everyone's detriment, except C suite denizens and corporate shareholders.
Edwards Deming laudably started the ball rolling w/better operating efficiency through less downtime, etc, but now Amazon's warehouse operations and scores of similar articles about other companies in the last decade show that we've lost our way. Quarterly profits are our new god.
22
Walgreen's fills my prescriptions. There hasn't been a time when I've gone to pick-up my order when the pharmacy wasn't understaffed. It's always one pharmacist and one tech working: The phone is ringing, the drive-up window is busy, and there are people waiting at the pick-up counter. I wouldn't even think to ask for a flu shot because it's so chaotic.
Two weeks ago, I picked-up an order and when I got home there were TWO containers for the SAME prescription in the bag. I only ordered ONE.
While I wasn't charged for two, reading this article made me realize this wasn't an isolated incident and my safety is being risked for profit.
42
@jmilovich It was two manufacturers in two separate bottles. Do you prefer they just mix them together?
2
I had similar experience at the chain pharmacies. So now, I get my maintenance prescriptions filled through the mail order company that is associated with my insurance. For one-time-only prescriptions, I use my local pharmacy that is not a chain. They are very efficient, they know me and they offer free delivery.
I really empathize with those chain store pharmacists. In addition to filling prescriptions, and taking phone calls, during the flu season, they are forced to administer vaccinations. My internist doesn't even provide the flu vaccination anymore. He said its not profitable for him to administer it....so I am forced to go to Rite Aid. When I went there in October for my annual flu shot, they were woefully understaffed at the Pharmacy. There was almost a physical altercation between a patient and a pharmacist.
As more Americans are getting their healthcare from chain pharmacies, these overworked pharmacists are going to make more errors. Chain store owners need to wake up: HIRE MORE PHARMACISTS NOW.
37
@Robertino ,
How do you know that the professional staff at the mail order company is also not overworked and understaffed? There’s no way we would know. Except for errors.
Buyer Beware!
8
Of course, who wants to admit a med-error in this environment. You all in charge, better remedy this, bc a lot can happen if mistakes are not learning events.
7
It's actually a lot worse than described. Surprised TCS stepped up. Good for them. Pessina is running the company into the ground to feed his ego.
9
It seems that things might be getting worse at the Walgreen where I get my meds. I have to dial the telephone numbers several time and get cut off. Now they want an email address and cell phone and not my land line. Walgreens apparently want to fire some employees that answer the phone and take the orders for refills.
What Walgreens is good at is charging more than most pharmacies. I had a terrible experience when I ran out of medications and a refill was not due for at least three weeks. It was a medication I paid about $7.00 for 90 tablets. What Walgreens charged me was $40.00 for seven tablets which I reluctantly paid. They are good at charging excessive prices unlike most other pharmacies.
17
Why did you not press Amy Bixler as to why she had the slide pulled from the presentation?
24
See Boeing....
9
It's so sad that "proper staffing levels for consumer demand" become "pharmacist overlap" in the increasingly hectic world of our capitalistic society. Everything is cut down to bare bones until it no longer functions
25
I’ve used Walgreens since I first encountered their pharmacies in Chicago in the ‘70s. I was later appalled by my experience with their shop in a large city in NY — long lines, medication errors (blown off when I reported them), not enough staff. This wasn’t the case when I moved to a different city where a new branch was opened about 10 years ago, so I decided to use that Walgreens. Fast forward to the past year or two, especially since they’ve acquired Rite Aid. It’s become a 3-ring circus, with ‘interns’ dispensing meds about which they’re unable to answer questions. Generic forms of meds change repeatedly according to the cheapest priced versions; I’m already paying an astronomical amount for one original brand, since the effectiveness of the generics declined. Their website is recurrently unavailable for pharmacy functions.
When I began looking for a different pharmacy in the area recently, I realized that Walgreens is a virtual monopoly now since acquiring Rite Aid. There are several CVS locations in our area, but they’re outnumbered, and not appreciably better. Finding an independent pharmacy with good ratings that’s within a reasonable drive — say, 30 minutes — is almost impossible.
These conglomerates are no better than Big Pharma that has killed and continues to kill individuals via addiction and uncontrolled, exorbitant prices for life-sustaining medications.
34
Chain Pharmacies and State Boards of Pharmacy - the very definition of 'moral hazard'.
9
I wish the consultants had stood their ground when asked by management to delete factual negative information. However, since management (not overworked line pharmacists) hire and pay the consultants, I guess it’s an example of “dance with the one who brung you”.
12
I switched from Wallgreens to RiteAid. Very competent and professional.
My pharmacy, RiteAide at Connecticut and Florida NW, in Washington DC, recently became a Walgreen's. The pharmacists are all smiley-smiley about the change so I don't know what has happened there. They have been terrific for 33 years. Should I worry now? Who is looking into this?
1
As a CVS customer in the Houston area, I can honestly say the pharmacists are overworked at my store. The chaos is palpable, the two or three running around, answering 5 questions at once (to each other, walk ins, drive thru, phone), trying not to let the stress and panic show, filling bottles, giving vaccines, counseling individuals, taking money for meds and anything else in the store, and I could say more. Regardless, these folks are cross eyed and must make mistakes! I take lots of meds, but eye each one before I take it. I also travel a lot, filling my meds in various cities and have always seen the same chaos, so it isn’t just my store.
So, CVS Corporate isn’t stupid, those gutless managers know exactly what is going on. Greed hinders public and employee care.
45
I have had problems with my local CVS. I called to talk to the pharmacist and was put on hold. While on hold and unable to NOT listen I was subjected to repeated ads that included an ad for a social cause. That ad stated that using digital techniques to beautify and remove flaws in women in movies was bad and should be outlawed. It was immediately followed by an ad for COSMETICS. After sitting through several loops of these hypocritical self contradicting ads I was abruptly disconnected. Things are bad unless you can make money off of them.
11
CVS relentlessly pushes us to take unneeded refills and to sign up for auto-refills. We have told them "no" so many times yet they are tone deaf, ordering refills we don't want and, every single visit, again asking us to sign up.
I don't know whether schoolyard 'drug pushers' ever really existed, but CVS' behavior embodies the concept.
30
@CantDecide I have also experienced this. I even told them I was no longer taking the medication and they continued to refill it and send me phone calls to pick it up. This is how they make as much money as possible.
8
@CantDecide ,
I really like your comment about “school yard drug pushers.” And I agree with you about CVS.
We refer to CVS as our local drug dealer, and note that there is one on practically every corner.
I think it’s a shame that we all take so many drugs. We try to take as few as possible by improved lifestyle: healthier diet (in our cases, whole plant food eating, which means avoiding processed foods and animal products), exercising, not smoking, not drinking, and maintaining a healthy weight. No worries about drug errors, no adverse effects, only benefits.
And whereas it is great that CVS no longer sells tobacco products, a poor diet has now surpassed tobacco products as causing and contributing to poor health and shorter lifespans. And CVS still sells a LOT of junk food: soda, chips, candies, cookies, etc.
7
The medical industrial complex is rotten to the core. Is it not laughable that people in management are the ones we need to believe? Money guides immorality, and this is true in every enterprise.
One solution to this mess, as reluctant as I am to say, is to unionize. Pharmacists and doctors need to use their spines.
19
This is what happens when you let PBMs steal from independent pharmacies with laughable reimbursements, patient steering, and massive hidden fees.
Get the middlemen out of healthcare and you will see thriving pharmacies, lower drug prices, and better healthcare
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@Jeremy What is a PBM?
2
@susie richey Pharmacy Benefits Manager—the corporations your insurance contracts their pharmacy business out through. Like, your insurance card says Anthem Blue Cross, but Anthem doesn’t deal with your pharmacy stuff—Express Scripts does. PBMs have lowered reimbursement rates on prescriptions so much that there are prescriptions where the pharmacy isn’t making a single penny on filling it—and sometimes they’re losing tens of dollars to fill it. They reimburse lower than the cost of the drug, label, vial, and the pharmacist and tech’s time. The pharmacy might as well be lighting dollar bills on fire to fill them. Big chains can afford to take these losses, but mom and pop stores can’t and close up shop or have to turn people away if the loss is too big. But make no mistake, the big chains use the decrease in profits to slash staffing.
6
@susie richey a Pharmacy Benefit Manager. The big three are CVS/Caremark, ExpressScripts, and Optum. We pharmacists have documented evidence of the PBMs commiting fraud on every level of the drug supply/pricing chain and taking advantage of seniors. Read up on them here www.truthrx.org
4
That fine is ludicrously small.
Fine them 50 million and they might pay attention
And close their stores.
33
The United States Attorneys Offices need to begin investigations into these matters. We are talking about peoples' lives here and corporate executives are putting profits over them. Just another example of corporate greed and arrogance that needs a correction.
15
@Howard Herman The real problem is the insurance companies. Most brand name drugs, especially 90 day supplies are being filled at a NEGATIVE profit. The pharmacies are forced to accept these contracts. Pharmacies are also reimbursed and penalized for patients taking and not taking their medications. This is why there is constant automatic fills and robo calls. Pharmacies have MAJOR problems, but US attorney's office also needs to investigate the insurance companies practices towards the pharmacies along with investigating the pharmacy companies executives. Unfortunately, Corporate greed usually means the best lobbyist.
10
@Ed this is why ALL lobbyists, no matter the cause, need to be removed from the equation and the practice needs to be made illegal.
2
How about taking a look at Stop & Shop pharmacies? A batch of my bp med was recalled because of “impurities”. I guess ALL our medicines are now made in China like this one of mine: that’s ANOTHER story...). I discovered this recall only when sent a letter by my prescrip INSURANCE provider! When I confronted the manager my Stop & Shop pharmacy as to why THEY didn’t notify me, he denied that my medication was recalled, tho the batch number was clearly on the label (I have since confirmed the recall thru another source.) THEN, the mgr. tried to get me to give him the bottle with the recalled batch number. He became quite angry. These meds come to them from some distribution center, so who knows who’s to blame for those tainted meds getting to me. I’m guessing that EVERYONE down the supply line is too stressed to take the time to check these things- let alone notify customers.
I’m still having my prescriptions filled there, because there is no other pharmacy in my town, but I don’t really trust them. Thought about having prescriptions by mail...but I can imagine what the error rate for THAT is!!
What a mess!
10
A SMALL ASIDE . ONE CAN NOT get needed drugs. Nothing is done to rectify this PROBLEM. Doctors could care less and are at least as worthless and responsible as CVS etc
.
I picked up a prescription late last week at CVS (after waiting on line for 20 minutes). The staff were asking every customer to please check the package to make sure it was the medication that they ordered. Seemed to me that it was a response/reaction to the NYT article from a couple weeks ago.
22
New York Times, thank you for covering this issue. I see the same thing at my local CVS. The pharmacists and the staff a great and are truly trying in an impossible situation. Anyone with eyes can see that they are understaffed. The phones are ringing non stop, there are cars waiting in the drive thru, lines to drop off meds, lined to pick up and pay and one pharmicist and a tech trying to keep up. It is only a matter of time before someone dies from mix ups. The pharmistic will be blamed and corporate will get off the hook. I think this is why unions were invented. This is a situation where a union could save lives and careers.
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I have confidence in neither chain. They’re basically overpriced convenience stores with a pharmacy.
Customer service is tertiary at best.
13
i've been a Walgreens customer for many years in several states. The last year has been one of serious service decline. One of my meds was filled at double the prescribed strength causing toxic blood levels. The people there are nice but wildly overworked. The automated refill system doesnot work. Poor poor management.
23
The pharmacies have unrealistic metrics and a convenient scapegoat when an error is caught. It's the best of both worlds for them. All hail the almighty dollar.
13
Because I had to change my insurance, I have to get my medication at Walgreens. And I'm not at all happy. Previously I would go to my local grocery store " Tops " pharmacy, where the pharmacists and techs are very helpful and knowledgeable. For example they would direct me to a low cost generic than the brand drug, doctor would prescribe. In my local Walgreens, I find that the pharmacist is very busy and the techs have very little knowledge. Rather than direct me to an Insulin which had no co pay and was in my Insurance providers formulary, they filled my prescription as is, and it cost me nearly $500 in deductible!
11
@Syed Abdulhaq deductibles are a part of any insurance plan. When you meet it, your cost comes down. As for techs having “very little knowledge,” by law, they are not allowed to counsel on alternative meds or answer questions related to meds even if they know the answers. Period.
3
@Syed Abdulhaq
New York is definitely one of the states that Requires all drugs be filled generically unless the doctor insists otherwise. Tops should have done this automatically.
4
@Sherry: I talked to my Insurance, United Health. And they said that if instead of " Lantus " the pharmacy had directed me to " Levemer "( another branded insulin), I'd have to pay no deductible. On top of that the pharmacy refused to fill a three months prescription on another Insulin ( Humalog ), because, as I said, the tech's at Walgreens were clueless!
I worked for one of these stores for 90 days. One day the area manager came in as said she had a complaint against me and wanted to speak with me alone. She took me to the security office where the loss prevention guy was busy looking at monitors and through the one-way glass for shoplifters. I thought she was about to accuse me of stealing. She said that she heard that I was closing down the store for 30 minutes in order to go eat. I told her that she had no techs on our shifts and that I needed to use the restroom and eat. She suggested I have the person from the film department watch the counter while I ate standing up. I told her that it was against the state board rules to have anyone other than pharmacy personnel behind the counter but that I had a much better solution. I quit.
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As a consumer who uses several of these pharmacies frequently, it is OBVIOUS that they are understaffed and the stress level is way too high for the professionals. No fancy consultants necessary.
Even the quality of techs has decreased which can only affect the pharmacists job as well. The bottom line is the company thinks their product is the same as McBurger, and the delivery line can be run the same way.
29
I had my Synthroid script filled by CVS because my company’s prescription plan requires me to use them. Now my TSH level is way off. And the only variable that’s changed is the pharmacy where I get my meds.
11
@Annette H it's probably not the pharmacy. It's the medication. For a scary read read
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom
Book by Katherine Eban
Indian and other generic drug makers fudge numbers and quality control of their meds is non existent, and FDA is so underfunded they can't do anything about it.
24
This is very familiar to me. Just replace "pharmacy" with "hospital" and "pharmacists" with "nurses and doctors". We are all being asked to do too much in situations where safety matters the most.
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I am a pharmacist and worked for one of the big chains and now work for a grocery store. Walgreen’s changed a lot in the last 15 years and became more of a company that was concerned with metrics and keeping up record sales and profits. Their corporate ideals changed and became more about do more with less. Let’s have pharmacists do immunizations, time they how fast prescriptions are done, do MTMs, along with filling prescriptions, taking phone calls, and numerous other tasks. Most days you barely have time to eat or go to the bathroom. We don’t get lunches or breaks. It’s not just Walgreen’s and CVS doing this though. It’s all the retail chains. Most pharmacists are afraid to say anything for fear of retaliation. They have student loans and families and cannot afford to be out of a job. It’s not uncommon to work under threats of being fired for minute things or to be told to sacrifice your life or go somewhere else. Most pharmacists want to do a good job and help their patients but want to be able to do it safely and with the proper help to do it safely. Patient safety should not be a commodity to be sacrificed for corporate profit.
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As a current chain pharmacist, I agree with everything you've stated, especially trading patient safety for profits. I was actually disciplined because I closed our drive through one Saturday night (24 hour store) because I was short-handed and extremely busy. The number of rx's to enter/fill/check/sell, phones to answer, consults to provide, etc was more than what 2 people (1 Rph and 1 technician) could safely do so I made a decision to change something so that we could. I fought against the discipline but was told by both the HR department for the company and a regional manager that operations comes before my concerns about patient safety and that I cannot disrupt operations, period.
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I did that once under the same conditions and was written up and told I would be fired if I did it again. @Bob
3
My Walgreens has deteriorated within the last 6 months for sure. Their automatic renewal of prescriptions is no longer reliable. When renewals are requested, they never appear in their computer system. I now check all medications. My last renewal was replaced by a different manufacturer but was never notified of same. I returned to the pharmacy to ensure it was the correct medication. The pharmacists are definitely not given the support needed to do their work.
27
I called the CVS 1-800 number very recently to complain about a policy that lets cashiers who clearly have colds or flu deal with customers at the pharmacy counters. Many customers approaching that counter are already sick and now are getting exposed to contagion.
The customer service person on the 1-800 line did not brush me off and did seem to be writing my complaint down.
Although my complaint focuses on pharmacy counters, any store dealing with customers should make it a policy to tell their sales people not to come in when sick. As this article suggests, co-workers don't like to let co-workers down by not showing up in high-pressure environments.
The pharmacies need a cultural change that I'm afraid only the customers (and shareholders) can provoke by complaining and by serious articles such as this one.
15
@Maura3 I know- and unfortunately the same can be said for many medical environments. Health workers and food service workers shouldn't be working sick but they have to come in because of unpaid sick days, penalties for sick days and understaffing
15
@Maura3 With this minima of staffing there are no people to call. Anyone calls out and it’s a bigger disaster than even in the article. And pharmacists calling off sick? Yeah right. I had issues getting a day off after I called management because the doctor diagnosed me with pneumonia. The line I was given : “we are really short-handed”. How is that my problem? I’m not the one who eliminated every “extra” person they thought unnecessary. I did get off but it was ridiculous. And the stress on me because of that was palpable while I was at the doctor because doc threatened to put me in the hospital if I tried to work. She wasn’t playing.
Techs are horribly underpaid for the job they do. The ones that hang in barely get hours to cover expenses and can’t afford a day off. OR if they go under a set number of hours by calling out and mess up their average too much they could completely lose their benefits- if they still had them.
1
My mother's Walgreen's Vicodin prescription was short 35 pills and they told her next time she came in they would give them to her. I was with her so I know she wasn't having a senior moment.
She never got the pills. Walgreens said the prescription was completed at pickup even though their record showed it was 35 pills short.
I told her to complain to the state pharmacy board, but at 90 years of age she couldn't figure it out.
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I’d be concerned that someone behind the counter pocketed those 35 Vicodin pills and sold or used them.
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@Mike Those pills were sold on the black market.
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@Annette H Exactly. We had a similar situation here about 10 years ago. Turned out a pharmacy tech was working for a drug distribution ring. The DEA raided the pharmacy.
3
I stopped using both CVS and Walgreens whenever feasible due to errors that were reported including the wrong controlled substance filled for ADD for my daughter. If I have to fill at one of these chains I don’t leave the counter until I’ve checked the medication they dispensed. Little did I know that they were doing nothing about the reported errors. When I’ve been waiting to pick up prescriptions I have often noticed the staff seemed overwhelmed with work particularly if there is a drive up window. Too many distractions and not enough focus. There focus is at corporate is profit of course.
20
CVS is wrong on so many levels. I use to take their surveys , hoping they would make changes. Alas, it’s worse. The receipts alone are reason enough to make a caring consumer leave . Seriously, sometimes three feet long . However, the saddest is the staff. Pharmacy employees look as if they are in a war zone.
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I have fired three pharmacies in the pat 20 years. After years of standing in line with a book waiting for my prescriptions at CVS, the final straw was getting the wrong medicine (twice). Giant pharmacy began having a shortage of a well-known and widely used medication. for a sustained period of time. So I went to Rite-Aid for a few years. Until Walgreens bought them out. Two days ago, I walked into Walgreens with a prescription in one hand and a post surgical splint and bulky wrap on the other. After taking 40 minutes to fill the script
(twice what the assistant promised). When I finally made it home, I discovered that Walgreens had given the lady with a huge splint and bandage and her arm elevated in the air a childproof cap. I smashed the bottle open with my foot. Walgreens was totally uninterested in hearing about it. BTW, my file in that pharmacy has strict instructions from my physician never to give me a childproof cap.
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@A Good Lawyer
My experience is similar, has been for years. Must be that fabulous private sector efficiency that Republicans extoll.
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@A Good Lawyer Go to an independent. Service is far superior
8
@A Good Lawyer , Sorry for all the typos. I only have one hand available this week.
9
At a CVS in Boston I went to pick up eye drop medicine and saw the attendant take the medicine from a refrigerator . I had never seen that before, and I asked if the medicine was supposed to be refrigerated. The man said yes, definitely. I protested that since I use the eye drops just before I bed at night, as I have been instructed, it would be inconvenient to get up, walk to the kitchen to put it in the refrigerator. As the discussion continued my daughter read the instructions for the medicine, which said that it did not have to be refrigerated after the medicine bottle was opened. The pharmacist did not know that.
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@Galen Many medications need to be refrigerated for long term storage, that is why it was in the fridge at the pharmacy. Had you never picked those eye drops up, which happens frequently, that drug would have needed to be tossed out if the pharmacy had stored it on the shelf.
6
Yeah, but that’s an error of inconvenience at best. As a pharmacist myself—that’s one I can live with.
3
When I refill my meds on my phone, they ask me if I want it tomorrow or sooner. I have been asking for it sooner. From now on I'm asking for tomorrow. I hope that will cause less stress for the employees.
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@Patricia People are so geared to instant everything and demand prescriptions the same way. In the vast majority of cases, prescriptions are not a medical emergency. Patients should give the pharmacy a decent interval to fill or refill prescriptions, rather than wait until the last minute to get prescriptions.
6
@TimG I tend to forget. I'm working on a novel. I promise to do things when I finish a chapter, but then the next chapter takes over my brain.
@Patricia Thank you.
1
Pharmacies and pharmacists should be subject to regulations similar to those designed for airlines and airline pilots, since mistakes affect public safety.
Pilots on certain capacity aircraft never work the cockpit alone. There are limits to the number of consecutive hours they can work, and requirements for the duration of rest time between flights. They can't drink alcohol before a flight.
There's absolutely no reason the federal government can't tailor similar regulations to pharmacies and their staffs based on this existing model. Of course the devil would be in the details, but isn't most of this just common sense?
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It’s not “common sense” - that’s a very unhelpful term. Understanding these problems requires a sustained interest in actually understanding the way rhe pharmacy actually functions at the individual location level. But that means treating each store like something more than a number on a sheet, and actually paying attention to how patients and customers feel. As long as you keep paying, that’s the only outcome they care about.
15
Excellent idea!D Price
8
@D Price the major roadblock to legislating the common sense restrictions at the federal level as you mention is that mega retail pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens are in the back pockets of the state boards of pharmacy. In the US, Pharmacy is regulated to an extent at the federal level, however, each state has a board of pharmacy and each state has different regulations. The state boards claim to protect the public in the provision of pharmacy by disciplining individual pharmacists’ licenses while they fail to discipline the mega retail chains licensed.
The individual pharmacist is made the scapegoat rather than the board truly protecting the public by addressing the root causes in the pharmacy.
Oh, and the individual pharmacist has no independent judge or jury of his peers to hear his case, the pharmacy board is the judge, jury, and executioner. As for mega retail chains, if their licenses are in question, they hire expensive lawyers and buy their way out of the discipline. Just look at the opioid “crisis”.
This issue has gone beyond the state boards of pharmacy. It is past time for the Attorney General overseeing each state board of pharmacy to investigate the state boards of pharmacy for misaligned financial incentives. The financial incentives are disguised as sponsorship funding for state and national boards of pharmacy conferences where the board members are wined and dined. Or as “grant” money designated to research how to decrease the opioid “crisis”.
20
I have had to wait in line at Walgreens for 30 minutes, and they are clearly understaffed. My local CVS in a target store is fantastic. The pharmacy staff are efficient and smart. Maybe it’s just luck, but having worked in health care where patients are simply numbers, the trend is to have fewer people doing more and more. It is dangerous.
34
@Anne Bergman: It may be luck, b/c the CVS I'm forced to use is disorganized beyond belief.
3
I quit using Walgreens when the lines were always so long and the pharmacy staffed was rushed, stressed, and tired looking. I don’t know why people put up with that.
18
We are lucky that we have a small pharmacy that opened 500 feet away from a CVS and started going there from the day they opened. It’s like the pharmacy I grew up with. Personal attention and care of their customers. Remember that?
69
@Donna Mac But what do you do, if your drug plan has a "preferred pharmacy" due to a deal they'd made? If I get my medicine from CVS, it's covered, in full. If I get it from another pharmacy, I have to pay, in full. That's on top of the premiums which are, already, about 3 times what my medication costs.
29
@vabelle
That right there is the problem. The whole underlying reason for all of his mayhem. Insurance companies and PBMs have full control. They reimburse the pharmacy less and charge the patient more which means the pharmacy cuts employee hours to make up for the loss and gives more work to those that are working in order to recoup more money on the back end. It’s a terrible system. Especially for the little guys - the independent pharmacies who can’t fill your prescription because you are being send to the big chains. The catch is most of those insurances are owned by the big chains - CVS , Walgreens, Walmart. So basically they are just keeping their own money... and still cutting hours. It’s a terrible time to be in the pharmacy business. Which is so unfortunate since our real goal was simple to HELP people - and we can’t.
30
@Donna Mac Oh how I miss my local pharmacy. They delivered, they knew what they were talking about, they knew me! They couldn't stay in business against CVS and Walgreen's due to drug prices. Now I have to count my medication, call the pharmacy to make sure my prescription is actually filled - even though the text message says it's ready. The good old days. However, now I feel sorry for the CVS & Walgreen pharmacists. I'll never forget the look on a CVS pharmacist's face when people started complaining. She looked like she was ready to cry.
20
I got a call from CVS recently saying "Did we accidentally give you a 2-month's supply instead of 1-month's supply and if so could you bring that back to us?" Counting to 30 is hard apparently.
28
@Kohl It can be when you have the phone ringing off the hook, are trying to attend to the drive thru and the needs of the other customers that are needing attention and all the other things they are required to do. They are human, mistakes will happen and I think the point here is to try and help reduce the “noise” going on around these employees, especially pharmacists, when they are checking and preparing your prescriptions to help reduce the risk of things like this happening. It seems like pharmacy is treated like a “fast food” service these days as people want their medications quickly and do not realize that there are other customers before them that also require attention, not to mention all the other factors like making sure the medication is safe and the dosing is right! I believe we as the general public need to refocus and redefine how we deal with pharmacies. Be more understanding about longer wait times and don’t expect things to be done immediately (unless it’s an emergency script).
26
@M
If the prescription is for regular refills there should be no problem with the time. The pharmacy knows months in advance when the refill is due and they have all that time to deal with it.
Some of the problem might be with the insurance companies which have tight refill windows. I know that I have had to wait until I'm almost out of the medication because it can be refilled. Is the assumption that everyone can make it to the pharmacy within a little 4 day (# varies?) window. At the least, the window should include a weekend and several weekdays.
And when you get a new script, why should you have to wait. Are they not generally prescribed so you can start taking it asap, as in today or tomorrow, not next week?
3
@Kohl The pharmacy CANNOT reuse medication that has been returned. CVS was just trying to figure out why their numbers were off regarding that particular medication. I hope you told them no.
6
I stopped using CVS whenever possible a decade ago when they filled my husband's zoloft (an antidepressant) prescription with viagra. My husband commented that the pill size and shape had changed, and I recognized it as viagra.
I called both the store and the corporate office to complain. Both places dismissed my concerns about quality control issues and told me to pick up the correct drug and just to throw the viagra out.
Then there was the time 3 years ago when I had surgery and went to pick up my liquid percocet before the procedure. They handed me a literal cardboard box of single dose liquid medications. I took it, puzzled, and then realized they had dispensed TEN TIMES the amount prescribed. Again, zero concern about quality control practices when I complained.
Now I look pills up online before I take them.
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@Prudence: You are VERY wise to look pills up online before taking them.
I do it, too, with brand name AND generic drugs.
10
@Prudence I also do a pill identifier check before I take a new medication, and when the pharmacy dispenses a different generic brand than I usually get.
7
@Prudence -- Your stories sound a little too pat. For starters, how did you know what Viagra looked like?
1
I worked for CVS when I first finished Pharmacy School. The pace was breakneck and there were no breaks. I lost a lot of weight and developed GERD in my early 20s. I liked to help people so I didnt mind at first. Each year the metrics became more demanding while reducing staff to support it.
Oftentimes it is important to remember who their "customer" is. The customer is not the patient-- it is the insurance company. This is extremely problematic as the patient experience and safety is an afterthought.
What makes it the worst is when you realize CVS's biggest customer is itself --Caremark. This means they can force patients to their stores who despite their horrible service. Its extremely non-competitive.
166
@David
The "customer" is actually management and the shareholders. The fewer the staff, the more money they rake in.
9
I work as a pharmacist for one of the big two pharmacy chains, and a family member works as a pharmacist for the other. I thank the Times for beginning these investigative reports, but keep digging deeper.
Pharmacists and technicians will only speak anonymously for the most part because of the threat of reprisal via scrutiny of their individual job performance. We have to cut so many corners to keep up with the work pace, if we were closely monitored for a shift, we would easily be fired fr breaking rules and protocols.
There is now an over supply of pharmacists and the threat of being easily replaced is very real. Upper management no longer has many actual pharmacists, and these business people view pharmacists as interchangeable cogs in the money machine.
I truly am not a malcontent. I seriously do not mind working 12 hour shifts with no breaks. I just want the human resources and time to do my job correctly and safely.
I changed my name and zip code for this post.
237
They need to dig deeper. The pharmacists that are working unpaid, are doing it because there is a constant threat that tomorrow they'll be replaced with the other 20,000 graduates waiting for a job. The chains and Boards and schools created this scenario for each other. The pharmacists work under this constant sword of error and harm, because it is better than not working at all. The Pharmacy Board's usual response is, "If you think it is unsafe", then don't work there, as though there are thousands of places to work, and like they had no control of any of this for years. The Boards should have been digging for this 10 or 15 years ago, but never did, and allowed this to happen. There are too many pharmacy schools. They never needed this many pharmacists, and now they're trying to get students from other countries. They need to fix this and close schools, mandate proper work conditions, and staffing before the fiasco becomes like other disasters tied to agencies, like a few recent ones last year. If they can't just go out of business, and let the government do it.
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@Samwhys There is a shortage of pharmacists in my state and many of them are older people. Maybe the young people graduating are going to work for the pharmaceutical companies, not in pharmacies.
7
The huge increase in the number of private, for-profit, substandard pharmacy schools has undoubtedly been promoted by the chain pharmacy corporations in order to provide them a cheap labor supply by decreasing pharmacists’ salaries while lowering the quality of education at these schools.
3
That's great. The Medicare advantage plan I have just shifted to "CVS" for RX service. I have never liked them, in any city I lived. I have never had a good exerience with them. Also, the first time I saw how Walgreens exploited people was for the price of brand name drugs versus generic versions. This applies to both prescription (RX) and in house generic versions. For example, a brand name prescription cost $37.00; their Walgreen's generic version? $36.00. The same is true of their over the counter (OTC) medications. They are all out to make buck; right at the limit.
27
I recently received a prescription medication that had been produced by a company in Canada which Has had recalls and safety concerns on its facilities. When I asked for the US product I was told that the Canadian product was the only one they had. The pharmacist had no clue and was clearly at a loss as to what to do for me. I refused the medication. That Walmart is bringing in medications from canada which are cheaper and made by compound companies to increase shareholder profit is beyond egregious. They bought out Duane Reade in NY. It’s been a mess since then with long lines and no one picking up the phone. This is all so very wrong
31
Agreed. Duane Reade was ubiquitous and a very old chain (obviously). Still, they used to behave like a local "mom and pop" type store. Now, they have been gobbled up into a monstrous corporation that stands for all the bad things about drugstores.
6
@Duffie
Damn, if this comment wasn't an eyeopener! "Chutzpah" doesn't even begin to describe the ethics and possible criminality of Walgreen's.
2
I don’t need a report. I just go down to my local Walgreens and observe the frenzied, skeleton staff running between the shelves, the drive-up window, the two customer counters, the refrigerator, the completed prescriptions and the small room where shots are given.
The (not so) funny thing is that Walgreens charges more than our local neighborhood pharmacy, where there are just as many people on duty simply to fill the prescriptions, staff one of two registers and nothing more. We will switch to the local pharmacy as soon as our drug plan permits.
119
@LIChef who is the drug plan, they will likely not permit because they are owned by CVS or Walgreens or another large corporation who has horizontially or vertically integrated
6
@LIChef I commend you for making the switch and hope you can, as "when the drug plan permits" is another major problem in the overall system. Maybe not for you personally (and I hope it is not) but certainly for many.
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I notice at our local CVS that the folks behind the counter are often trying to do two tasks at once. It's easy to see how they can make a mistake. It's clear that they are overworked and understaffed.
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Thank you. The patient voice is critical if we are to make change.
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I see it all the time understaffed 1 pharmist over worked staff phones ringing long line. the staff is constantly changing if they dedicated one tech to the phone what would it cost them on the big picture
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Mr. Merlo's comments are laughable, this man sold out his profession for greener pastures. As a pharmacist that worked in one of these stores, it was all about metrics. This is only getting worse as in the past decade, pharmacists have faced increasing pressures both inwardly, to do more (vaccinations, therapy management sessions, etc) and externally from PBM's pushing down reimbursement's. This external pressure has lead to reduced staffing and further pressure to get the same things done with significantly less manpower.
Ms. Bixler as director of pharmacy operations has a moral obligation to fairly report the status of operations within the pharmacies at Walgreen's and appears to be whitewashing this data, furthering evidence that 2 of the largest companies in this industry are morally bankrupt.
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Sorry, you lost Ms. Bixler when you mentioned 'moral obligation'.
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After reading this article, my best estimate is that Walgreen's civil liability has just increased by a factor of ten!
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At least; and earlier someone was saying "I don't really mind working a 12 hours shift with no break" in one of these responses; like that is why things are the way they are. To the corporation, that means they can get away with only one pharmacist, not get 2 pharmacists who don't "mind". Its not just a break, you need breaks, a lunch, time to sit down, maybe do some paperwork, all part of a real job along with additional staff, rather than just being a plow horse. If all this isn't possible, then close up shop and go out of business. Ever see a restaurant, that does business this way? Ever try to find it again in 2 months?
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Another excellent article on the state of chain pharmacies. When i worked at Walgreens in 2006 my district manager told me not to worry about metrics, just take care of the patient to the best of your ability. If we do that, the metrics will look great, and if they don't, well, they weren't worth worrying about in the first place. He was a pharmacist and he's long since been fired to put an MBA in his place that wants numbers, numbers! NUMBERS!! They basically get paid and promoted on how well they can juke the stats. Concerns about patient and employee welfare are given lip service, and sometimes not even that.
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@Jay same experience for me, at CVS and Walgreens in Michigan around the same period. The pharmacists really cared, but we're overworked with odd-hours shifts and always under the thumb of a manager believing quality could be seen in numbers.
I never quite reconciled my worries that the only barrier between the patient and the correct medication was an overworked pharmacist and a tech like me who more often than not wouldn't know to think twice ringing up a patient for Warfarin when they have grapefruit juice in their basket. Not to mention the addicts, diverters, and drinkers. So many problems.
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@Jay
I have friends in healthcare - not pharmacies but hospitals. What you say holds true for all in that industry: too many "managers" and "administrators", many of whom are fighting for the brass ring of jobs that pay much more than the doctors make.
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