Pharmaca Closing Its 22 Stores

storewanderer
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Re: Pharmaca Closing Its 22 Stores

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: February 17th, 2023, 4:47 pm Poorly handled pharmacy counter closure received some "ink" in the Portland, Ore. "newspaper."
Pharmaca acquired by Walgreens, prescriptions transferred
Once the pharmacy closes, Walgreens is responsible for everything that occurs. If a prescription is called in after the pharmacy closes and fell into a black hole, that is the fault of Walgreens. They should have ensured that there was either no way to "call in" prescriptions or that the closed pharmacy contact attempt was automatically routed to Walgreens.
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Re: Pharmaca Closing Its 22 Stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walgreens corporate has a habit of buying smaller chains and not bothering to transfer the actual prescriptions. When Walgreens bought the Save Mart Pharmacy prescriptions, Walgreens employees told customers the prescriptions were lost. The customers were told to ask their doctors to send new prescriptions to Walgreens.

The labor to transfer prescriptions would be too much for Walgreens to handle. Walgreens claims to have transferred the records, but in reality Walgreens is too lazy to have even attempted a transfer.

All Walgreens cares about is the medication inventory and the rights to the brand name.
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Re: Pharmaca Closing Its 22 Stores

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 18th, 2023, 1:48 pm Walgreens corporate has a habit of buying smaller chains and not bothering to transfer the actual prescriptions. When Walgreens bought the Save Mart Pharmacy prescriptions, Walgreens employees told customers the prescriptions were lost. The customers were told to ask their doctors to send new prescriptions to Walgreens.

The labor to transfer prescriptions would be too much for Walgreens to handle. Walgreens claims to have transferred the records, but in reality Walgreens is too lazy to have even attempted a transfer.

All Walgreens cares about is the medication inventory and the rights to the brand name.
It is my understanding the transferred prescriptions are buried somewhere in Walgreens system and the pharmacy staff does not always know where to go in the system to find the transferred prescription data. They have to basically go into the data file and pull the information, then manually create a new script in the Walgreens system. The process is somewhat cumbersome and takes a while.

So with this Pharmaca thing with a single low volume pharmacy in Portland, I can see how the 40 Walgreens Stores around Portland metro area may not even know they bought this Pharmaca out so there may be some confusion. This is where Walgreens may want to advise customers to go to the 3 Walgreens located "near" the Pharmaca they bought and, actually ensure those 3 Walgreens, know about the transaction and know where to find that script data.
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Re: Pharmaca Closing Its 22 Stores

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 18th, 2023, 1:48 pm Walgreens corporate has a habit of buying smaller chains and not bothering to transfer the actual prescriptions. When Walgreens bought the Save Mart Pharmacy prescriptions, Walgreens employees told customers the prescriptions were lost. The customers were told to ask their doctors to send new prescriptions to Walgreens.

The labor to transfer prescriptions would be too much for Walgreens to handle. Walgreens claims to have transferred the records, but in reality, Walgreens is too lazy to have even attempted a transfer.

All Walgreens cares about is the medication inventory and the rights to the brand name.
At which point you hand them the bottle from the other store (while taking a photo of doing so for proof), say I'll be back in xxx time and if my prescription is not fixed by then, my next call will be the police, as you are breaking laws and potentially even causing serious issues, up to and including possibility of death for some medicines.
Bet they'll figure out how to do it then...
It is NEVER the customer's job to get something that they already got once, it is the stores involved who have to be sure it is properly transferred, since it could be, at least in some cases, dangerous for the person to go without the medicine, and many doctors want days notice to send a new prescription, which the patient may not have in this case (since they had no way to know that it would be needed, if they still had refills).
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Re: Pharmaca Closing Its 22 Stores

Post by SamSpade »

storewanderer wrote: February 18th, 2023, 10:35 pm It is my understanding the transferred prescriptions are buried somewhere in Walgreens system and the pharmacy staff does not always know where to go in the system to find the transferred prescription data. They have to basically go into the data file and pull the information, then manually create a new script in the Walgreens system. The process is somewhat cumbersome and takes a while.

So with this Pharmaca thing with a single low volume pharmacy in Portland, I can see how the 40 Walgreens Stores around Portland metro area may not even know they bought this Pharmaca out so there may be some confusion. This is where Walgreens may want to advise customers to go to the 3 Walgreens located "near" the Pharmaca they bought and, actually ensure those 3 Walgreens, know about the transaction and know where to find that script data.
The article customer did exactly that, the Walgreens is two short walkable blocks down W. Burnside from the former Pharmaca. (offhand I cannot think of another nearby Walgreens as they do not operate in downtown Portland... maybe the location between NE Weidler and NE Broadway).
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Re: Pharmaca Closing Its 22 Stores

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: February 21st, 2023, 8:58 am

The article customer did exactly that, the Walgreens is two short walkable blocks down W. Burnside from the former Pharmaca. (offhand I cannot think of another nearby Walgreens as they do not operate in downtown Portland... maybe the location between NE Weidler and NE Broadway).
That is really pathetic. Not to make excuses but I can see it. The Walgreens pharmacist is dealing with hundreds of prescriptions a day and an understaffed pharmacy. Communication is not good because there is no time to communicate. The pharmacist may have just arrived for the day and not yet been informed about this Pharmaca thing. Probably because whenever the pharmacist just arrived the other pharmacist on duty needed a long overdue break so no time for communication. But again not making excuses. Disorganized operation, there is no question about it.
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