Retail Watchers

Very damning piece on CVS and how they blame everyone else for the problematic understaffing of their stores.

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/01/ ... -of-years/

What is Ohio's laws and administrative laws regarding pharmacy staffing?

States may allow a pharmacist to have up to a specific number of technicians and interns at the pharmacy location during pharmacy hours. For technicians, an increased number would require a minimum of state/national certified technicians.

Knight wrote: ↑January 16th, 2024, 3:43 pm What is Ohio's laws and administrative laws regarding pharmacy staffing?

States may allow a pharmacist to have up to a specific number of technicians and interns at the pharmacy location during pharmacy hours. For technicians, an increased number would require a minimum of state/national certified technicians.

Well, when you're 3 weeks behind on filling prescriptions and accidentally dispensing the wrong drugs... Then there's a problem. Sounds like one of those situations where the standard for a problem is "you know it when you see it."

I interned at CVS for a brief time in 2011. It was a CVS that used to be a Longs Drugs. The staffing back then was pretty bad. The employees were overwhelmed and I really felt like CVS is a company that I never want to work for.

I know that Walgreens is also understaffed. A friend of mine worked for Walgreens and left to work at a pharmacy in a prison. It was much easier handing out medications to prisoners than working at Walgreens.

The supermarket chains and other non-drugstore chains generally staff their pharmacies better. At those stores, the pharmacy is not the main focus. The pharmacy is a service that customers like and that draws in customer traffic to the store.

Pharmacy chains are focused on cutting staffing just to make more of a profit.

I work at a pharmacy at a non-drugstore. Our focus is delivering the best customer service. They want us to treat customers well and also be as safe as possible. The company emphasizes safety and accuracy. Every prescription is double checked and there are many layers of safety checks.

There is another pharmacy that I worked at that is also dangerously understaffed. Kaiser hospitals are dangerous. There are so many ways errors can happen. I am sure many people have received medication errors and some might have died. However trying to track medication errors is difficult in a hospital as they don't have video cameras watching your every move as in retail pharmacies.

Kaiser was an honor system. A pharmacist double checks the ingredients you use, but they ask you "Did you put in this amount of drug into the IV bag?" You say "Yes." They don't staff enough pharmacists to watch you inject medications into IV bags. There are no cameras to record your actions.

ClownLoach wrote: ↑January 16th, 2024, 5:00 pm Well, when you're 3 weeks behind on filling prescriptions and accidentally dispensing the wrong drugs... Then there's a problem. Sounds like one of those situations where the standard for a problem is "you know it when you see it."

Increasing the number of members on the pharmacy staff is an opportunity. Does CVS hire for pharmacy, or could it be desperate to increase the number of members on the store staff?

Knight wrote: ↑January 17th, 2024, 12:56 pm

ClownLoach wrote: ↑January 16th, 2024, 5:00 pm Well, when you're 3 weeks behind on filling prescriptions and accidentally dispensing the wrong drugs... Then there's a problem. Sounds like one of those situations where the standard for a problem is "you know it when you see it."

Increasing the number of members on the pharmacy staff is an opportunity. Does CVS hire for pharmacy, or could it be desperate to increase the number of members on the store staff?

With all of the Rite Aid closures, CVS should have many opportunities to pick up more employees. My guess is the displaced Rite Aid employees are considering ALL options. And the longer Rite Aid keeps closing stores, the more employees get displaced (back in September/October Rite Aid was relocating 95% of impacted employees from closing stores- that is obviously no longer the case). CVS may give the highest salary offer but sometimes it isn't about the money...