Our own bathroom nearby? I WISH!!! We have to walk half way across the store to use the public ones.... As redeye pointed out, it's RARELY if EVER slow in the pharmacy (at least mine, others around me, not so much), but if you could figure out a way for me to do a pull/reshop from BEHIND the counter, I'd be glad to help. Of course, chances are it probably wouldn't actually get done since we HAVE no "down time", but I'd be more than happy to try. Just like the front lanes/electronics, our guest survey scores depend on us being available to help guests. Of course, in addition to simply ringing up their purchases, we are also taking in new scripts (drop-offs, electronic, & faxed), processing them (including taking care of all insurance issues/overrides for various rejects), pulling the meds, filling the scripts, restocking the meds, answering phones, helping guests on the floor find HBA products (yes we DO help guests, we aren't allowed to call for someone else to do it, we have to go help them find something, regardless of how busy we are or where it is), ordering our own merchandise (which also includes checking it and putting it away daily), processing daily "return to stock" scripts, antibiotic call-backs, doing all our own cleaning/replenishing of supplies (bottles, labels, paper, etc.), pulling our own garbage, and filling an average of (at least in my store)around 100-125 autofills daily...we average 200-300 scripts/day. Some days, we are doing all of this with 2-3 techs and 1 pharmacist for about half of the day (2/1 all day on Sunday) because we are only allotted about 200 hours for the entire week. We are a 9-9/9-6 pharmacy, you can do the math. Dropped off scripts are "expected" to be processed/filled/checked within 20 minutes, as are all antiobiotics (regardless of how they're received). Oh, and if there is >1 guest waiting and the other register is "open" (we have 2), we're
expected to follow the "1+1" rule, regardless of how many people are working so if someone is on break and there are only 2 techs (or even worse, 1 tech) and the pharmacist, too bad....whatever is sitting on the counter/whoever is calling in has to wait. The longer the guests wait, the lower our GS scores go. Unfortunately, we used to have 3 pharmacists, but the "brilliant minds" at Corporate decided that pharmacies <X# of scripts/week only needed 1 and we missed the cut-off by a ridiculously low number of scripts so we are now down to 2 pharmacists....when we had 3, the "20-minute wait time" wasn't quite as hard to meet because we usually had 2 RPhs on duty, but now with only 1, our scores are starting to decline as our script count is now higher than the "cutoff". :angry: Our pharmacy does more in sales than ANY other department in the entire store (don't know if that's true of all stores or not) so yeah, it would be
nice to get some back-up once in a while. OOPS! Forgot to mention, we also regularly have students and interns from local colleges and pharmacy schools that we have to train and mentor so that takes another chunk of the day.
Sorry if I seem a little snippy about this, but my TL and I kind of got into it with one of the ETL's yesterday in the break room because someone asked if he could be "cross trained" so he could come back us up when necessary (since he works in pfresh and is usually close by) and she said "No, it wasn't necessary" (which my TL didn't like). The ETL said (and I quote) "but you guys don't help out in other departments or answer calls for service anywhere else when
those are sent". We both tried to explain to her that we are usually so busy ourselves that we don't have extra people TO send. When she said "Well, whenever I walk by, it usually looks like you guys are all just standing around looking at something on the counter or chit-chatting"....I felt like saying "well, DUH!!! Where do you think we COUNT the meds???" :facepalm: She's obviously never been IN the pharmacy while we've been working or she'd know this....
P.S. I also forgot to mention that some days, we are so busy, there are 2 of us that don't even take our "full" 15-minute breaks (we obviously take lunch because we HAVE to)....we might run to the bathroom or get something to drink, but that's it. Our ETL-Rx realizes this and tries to MAKE us take them, but we usually leave for a VERY short time and come right back because we're swamped and are both somewhat A-type personalities (at least I am when it comes to work~LOL!) and can't STAND being behind! Because of this, the ETL-Rx "rewards" us in other ways...she might slip us a coupon for a Starbucks with a "thanks for all your 'extra effort' lately" GTC or something. Of course, we keep this on the DL, but we know she appreciates our dedication in trying to keep our pharmacy #1
