If so, what’s the protocol? I’m certain your SM would say If a patient is contagious just put them in the immunization room. Then, a dedicated technician will disinfect the room. PPE is limited so what are you going to do?
I am returning after 8 years of other jobs to be a pharmacy manager!
I am also here for the good, the bad, and the ugly. I know half of the people in this sub will balk, but I spent 3 years doing non-retail pharmacist jobs and it just did not work out. I won't comment on specifics, but a big part of me is happy to be returning to the job I once thought I would have 40+ years doing (first stint was 9+ years doing every job from cashier to pharmacy intern)
Any advice for my return? (besides the toxic negativity, i can always go to other posts for that LOL) edit- i did not take a sign on bonus
I started on 1st and was told I’d get paid on the 20th .-.
Is there a standard rate increase to go from senior tech to RxOM? I had thought it was 8% (like it it was from tech to senior tech), but apparently that isn't the case because I was just offered barely ONE HALF of 1%, a 13 cent pay raise to go from senior tech to RxOM.
I'm REALLY hoping that was a mistake because frankly 13 cents is insulting. I've been a senior tech for four years and was trained by our previous RxOM with the expectation I'd be taking over when she left, so it's not as though I don't know what I'm doing. If I had the access and was allowed to do it, she had me doing it.
When is the controlled substance inventory this year? Seems like the date changes every year. And somehow my RXM always tries to get me to do it all myself.
How long does it take to put your order away? If youre a tier 5 store and have no phlex or call center help ... how long to complete oos?
I’m only asking because our previous SM didn’t know much about pharmacy, but every single day, they came back for about an hour to do all portal calls. Our new store manager does not step foot into the pharmacy unless they’re coming to complain about metrics. We are visibly drowning with the workload and trying to manage with 140 budget hours. Should SM be helping in pharmacy or no?
RXM here at a VERY busy store. Dealing with the basic issues of being understaffed and overworked. But I have to say there are still things that brighten my day and I want my fellow pharmacists to remember why we're here. I have had multiple saves; the doctor sends in a RX for something someone is severely allergic too, pt recommended an OTC by a provider but it interacts with their prescriptions, finding a solution so someone can get their heart meds after waiting days without it.
We help people and we save lives.
I can always tell when someone is truly grateful for us helping them even though there are definitely bad apples out there. And we do all this with corporate breathing down our necks and phones ringing. While some days are not very glamorous, we are the reason why someone didn't get the wrong med, why a child's antibiotic is dosed just right, and why someone out there is feeling better.
Again, I know it could always be better. But it is definitely not all bad.
Edit: Damn everyone thinks I'm an op lol. The earth is literally burning and everyone can just combust any second so I'm just trying to find some joy wherever I can. When I was in undergrad I fell into a crazy depression (womp womp I know) so I'm also just proud of myself to have made it out on the other side years later. Believe me I can't stand what corporate is asking of us without giving us the proper tools to accomplish it. But I refuse to be miserable the entire time.
Pt got 1 mo supply of GLP-1 but wanted to get 3mo supply.
After the item being sold, the pt demanded to return and reprocess it as 3 mo supply. I confirmed the plan covers 3mo supply and turned out to be cheaper than 1 mo supply.
I need to “delete to store” and reprocess it as a 3 mo supply but does the GCO website let me change it from 1 mo to 3 mo supply if I go back to the website? I’ve never seen the option to modify once processed as a month supply….Please help!
New RxOM sets her self to be in drive through for one hour in the morning and then sets her other 7 hours in the fill zone 🤣 she’s also a horrible micro manager. Thoughts/opinions?
I found these in my garage. They haven't gone to far in 20 or so years.
My RXM told me that pharmacists can also get the 15 minute break every 4 hours but they would have to take it inside the pharmacy. Does that align with the law? And would i get backlash from higher management for taking those breaks?
Edit: I am located in NY
TIA
Get certified, get out. It took me about 6 months to get my certification and then another month to get an interview, but I guarantee you could do it in under 6 months.
i’ve resisted from posting on here prior to this moment because i didn’t want there to be any possible way for me to get reprimanded or fired if my store manager found out it was me. but now? i’m freeeeeee, SO free!! i worked at WAGS for about 2 years previously as a pharmacy technician. Admittedly, my attendance was not great… but geez who can blame me when the store management sucked ass and constantly got onto specifically me for every. single. little. thing?! things that, mind you, everyone else was doing and never got a single talking to about it.
it was a very personal vendetta against me, so after 2 years and me moving an hour and a half away, i quit.
wellllll i moved back. and i somehow convinced myself that working at walgreens wasn’t as bad as maybe i had made it out to be previously. boy oh boy was i wrong. i should’ve watched my snapchat memories ranting videos for a bit longer. i got rehired by the same store manager that HATED me and i couldn’t understand why she would allow me back considering how much she couldn’t stand my guts. but i am a very hard worker, and enjoyed doing all the tasks that nobody else wanted to do. i consistently scored great on my reviews and all of the customers loved me, so did the rest of my coworkers.
upon working there again for about a month, i realized the reason why she hired me back was to make me even more miserable than the first time. i told myself i would be more reliable and consistent with good attendance this time around and i genuinely gave my best effort despite my quickly declining mental health. but when my physical health started taking a toll, everything went down hill. i worked there for about 6 months and thats when i started getting dizzy periodically (only at work) and profusely sweating even when everyone else was shivering cold. my RXOM told me to go check my blood pressure after she noticed how hot i was and it was SKYROCKET high. she got me to sit for a while and take a 15. we rechecked it and to our surprise there was no change. mind you, when i’m not at work i have NO issues with BP. whatsoever.
she told me to go to the ER. i did. the following days i tried going back to work but with no medication being prescribed to me until a PCP appointment, i was running into the same problem of feeling faint and nauseous. During this time, our new DM visited our store. i’m assuming my store manager told him nasty things about me because he targeted me with a billion questions and stood over my shoulder as i made PCP calls. mind you, all of my coworkers including my RXOM knew that the store manager hated me and nobody really knew why, including myself. the day after our DM visit, our SM came up to me and in a very snarky tone started talking to me about asking for surveys from our customers. i finally lost my shit. as pharmacy technicians, we have SO MANY other things to worry about and complete in such a short amount of time and with NO staff, that surveys are the last thing i was worried about.
i decided to finally speak my mind and have a convo with my SM. we went to the back and i called her out for her personal issues against me. she’s a miserable bitch who enjoys making everyone else miserable (misery loves company) and i told her that i wanted to resolve the issue professionally so that we could coexist even if she still didn’t like me. she laughed in my face (very professional of her) and insisted there was no issue… again, EVERYONE could tell she obviously had one with me. she gaslit me and instead of fixing anything told me that if she had any issues with me going forward she would go through my RXOM. i said that sounded like a fantastic idea.
the next day i had 2 days off. not a single time did i have to take blood pressure medication or even monitor it. no issues whatsoever with my health. and that’s when i finally decided to prioritize myself and my health especially after the convo with her bc i came to the conclusion that the job and management were going to end up killing me if i didn’t kill myself first. on my 2nd day off, i quit. i texted my RXOM and explained. she said she understood completely and that im a great tech that will go far in life.
i say all this to say, there are so many of you out there working for WAGS that KNOWWWW how toxic of an environment it can be. you know the toll its taking on your health. you know how mentally exhausting it is. take the leap and LEAVE. i promise you it is worth it. and maybe one day they’ll recognize the shitty people they have in charge are only hurting the company, not helping. but by then, you’ll be doing way better off working somewhere that actually values you as an employee but also a human being.
does anyone know if there will be time & a half given on the worked holiday?
As the title states as of today we can't use discount cards on OTC products, but this also seems to apply to magnesium oxide, iron, and other OTC stuff that we have specifically in the pharmacy. Anyone found a way to help customers? I'm charging 32.00 now for mag ox. I guess our script sales are going to drop and we just grab over the counter equivalents for all the OTC products right? If anyone has an idea please share! Thanks for reading.
Edit: max ox rugby costs 1.72 acq, awp 7.15 used to charge around 14.00 now 31.99 after this change for reference.
Maybe I missed something - it’s not like anyone tells me anything at this job. What qualifies you for PTO?
I started with WAG officially last year, when my HCS helped me sign up for the PEAP program ($20k towards your student loans if you work for WAG for one year). I believe my date for this is considered either late August/early September, depending on what the internal system counts as your start date.
I also was promoted from floater to interim PiC and later RXM in February, and was given a three year retention bonus at that time. I agreed to it at the time as I was in the middle of multiple financial changes such as buying a house and the bonus was immensely helpful.
In the few months I've been here, I've completely cleaned up the pharmacy (even before CNO was implemented) including mylars/dusting/sorting documents, I've worked with my team to bump up almost every single metric (myWag, texting, etc) to expected numbers/ranges, we've increased survey numbers from pharmacy, I've gotten my store to #1 in the district for routing to cenfill, my name is regularly at the top of the MTM earnings leaderboard, and we hit vax goal for April at over 130%. All of this was thanks to the efforts of both me and my awesome team of techs. And yet, no matter what I do, the DMs are constantly picking on our store.
The final straw was today when the DPS emailed us to say we are at the bottom of the district for vaccines for May, since we vaccinated most of our regulars in April and we live in an area that's very anti-vax so new patients are rarely interested. I tried to gently point out to the DPS that this is because of this and because we're a Tier 2 with just less customers/vaccine opportunities, and she referred us to another Tier 2 that is meeting goal (even though that Tier 2 is located in an affluent, educated, predominantly white area and mine is an area that is 50/50 white conservatives and ESL immigrants).
At this point, I need advice on what to do next - I don't feel like the insane effort I put into making the store run smoothly and meet metrics/compliance is recognized, and I can't be this level of stressed over whether I will get demoted/my store will get shut down because it's not profitable enough. However, I also don't know where else I can look for/find work that would be willing to pay off one or both retention bonuses - I could probably suck it up until September which would alleviate the PEAP one, but the RXM bonus is another story.
Does anyone know what places are covering retention bonuses when poaching pharmacists? Ideally somewhere without metrics to hold over our heads? Or am I better off just sucking it up for the three years? Also, how likely are we to get closed down/me to get demoted over this? Should I even be concerned over that? Also, does anyone have any suggestions for how to manage the stress of all this?
TL;DR - I have two retention bonuses, a one-year one expiring in September and a three-year one expiring in February 2029. Should I suck it up or should I seek out an employer who will cover the bonuses somehow?
This stupid ass thing where you change the insurance a script is billed to and if it tprs it just changes it back to how it was billed before! Then you have to cash it out and rerun to get it to actually bill the other plan and/or show the tpr. Like what the fuck?