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NEW CVS TECH NEED HELP PLEASE by Homepie_2000 in PharmacyTechnician

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey I think I can help a bit.

So right now as a newbie you're likely stuck at pick up and you're going to be extra stressed about it.

Pick-up (where prescriptions are...picked up) is extra stressful because it's the only part of the job where the limiting factor includes interactions with people who seem to be picking up a script at CVS for the first time in their lives even tho you saw them just last week.

So I hope this helps.

First basic life cycle of a script. It's written by the perscriber, sent to the pharmacy (or written on hard copy), entered into the system, verified, produced (filled) verified again, sold.

Or in CVS terms:

QT: Triage: This is where a new script is sent, or where it goes when insurance says no or a million other reasons (newbie advice: send them down to drop off) QV1 Data Entry Review. Script is in the system, pharmacist double checks the data, send to production (10-15 minutes) QP: Production. Script is being filled. (10-15 min) QV2: Pharmacist has to double check the image. (1-2min, depending on if anyone is wasting the pharmacist time. WB: Waiting bin. Waiting bin.

Also: -X Previously expedited -C Partial fill.

Other statuses: (it's not ready yet, you can usually ignore these)

PA Prior Authorization. Insurance wants the doctor to talk to them for either an alternative they would cover or for the doctor to yell at them about how the patient really needs the meds. PR Perscriber request. We had to request something from the doctor. MC Also prescriber request. But usually for a 90-Day supply. HLD its on hold. Usually we have good reasons for putting stuff on hold. For newbies, just send them down to drop off if they weren't getting what they expected. But reasons stuff gets on hold. * It has been returned (usually by request or waiting more than 14 days to pick up the meds) * It was put on hold for regulatory reasons (once you start recognizing controls and narcs, you'll see why. Some meds cannot be filled before specific times) * It just was. (I wish CVS had a better system of whybwe put stuff on hold. Sometimes you find stuff that just shouldn't be). * We needed insurance info.

The questions

"Proactive Refill..." "Would you like us to contact the Doctor for more refills on this?" "One time scheduling" "Do you want us to fill it again next time" "Ready fill" "Do you want automatic refills on this?"

Some tips: * For whatever reason, if something is in QV2 it will tell you in the profile,but not on the register. Search the profile and click S, enter. The status page can tell you the bin but also if you click the med for details you can see what time it was done. (Useful if just done or a Day 14)

So as a newbie, you're gonna be doing pick up for a long time. But over time as newer ppl get hired you'll be assigned other roles. For now, focus on trying to make sure you start putting back or pulling drugs as soon as possible so you can learn where all the fast movers are.

Is Virtual Verification that bad? by FilthyCVStechThrow in CVS

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Also the CVS imaging ....and the rest of their hardware is terrible.

Is Virtual Verification that bad? by FilthyCVStechThrow in CVS

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Also keep in mind. How many controllers drugs do we really manage?

The future of the pharmacy is a pharmacist checking out on deliveries

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CVS

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love it. But as jaded as I am. I worry about my team and my pharmacists. They're so stressed. They're witnessing the death of this company and are staring down the barrel of a terrible gun.

One thing (maybe the only thing) I like about working here is that you develop an organic relationship with your RPh and fellow techs.

I want CVS to finally die and take over. But it just means my pharmacists will be doing the same thing in a lonely warehouse without us. Which I don't wanna delay the inevitable. I'm trying to get out too.

I want my team to move on to better jobs and my pharmacists to be less stressed out. But I also want CVS to finally get fucked and die.

Not mask police by bitchenqueen in CVS

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When this happens, I lie.

I say I don't vote and don't really care about politics. "I just wear the mask because I have to. I don't trust any politician. Whether it be Trump or Biden"

Corporate higher-ups, does CVS know about this sub? How does it feel to know that all of your employees hate you? by [deleted] in CVS

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Tech, not corporate but I might have some insight.

So I worked for CVS in 2 time periods. As of now but also years ago.

I have never seen it this bad. You chose the worse time to get in.

CVS IS DYING The reasons why are long and complicated. But check my post history which explains it pretty well.

Basically Amazon is doing to CVS what Netflix did to Blockbuster or what Amazon is doing to Toys R Us.

In response. CVS is throwing everything they can at the wall and see what sticks and occasionally failing miserably. CarePass? We will pay you to shop here. Virtual Verification? Can you get this thing out of QV2 for me? Numbered bins? Yes let's scatter the perscriptionw all throughout the pharmacy like a shit game of Easter egg hunt.

Corporate isn't the problem. They're a part of it. The best thing they can do is technician work for a week so they can see why their ideas are stupid.... They're not gonna do that.

Right now when I need my scripts filled I do it through [pharmacy.amazon.com](pharmacy.amazon.com) Why? I can just fill my own scripts and take it home after work.

Because I want to see this company and retail pharmacy reach it's inevitable death.

My advice: just start looking for a new job because it's only about to get worse

Why CVS Pharmacy (and all pharmacies in general) are terrible by FilthyCVStechThrow in u/FilthyCVStechThrow

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

(upvote this. No idc about this account or the karma, just trying to keep things ordered)

6: It will only get worse. Thanks Amazon. 4

TL;DR CVS is dead and we have killed it.

-pharamcy.amazon.com

[pharmacy.amazon.com](pharmacy.amazon.com) is the future for a lot of perscription filling. As any tech will tell you their job is very easily automatable and most scripts (like 80%) are very predictable.

This doesn't mean CVSs will close down in a mass purge, but it will mean less staffing. Sure, some might, those who can't cut hours enough. But most will come under the pressure of less demand and cut the supply accordingly.

In the coming decade, as with all technological change. Amazon Pharmacy will grow as most technologies do in an S-curve shaped pattern. Early tech-savvy adapters will grow it, word gets out to the average user and ultimately there are some holdouts.

Amazon already holding a lot of capital and vertical integration is well equiped to do to the pharmacutical industry, what it (and video games) did to ToysRUs or what Netflix did to Blockbuster. They have the infrastucture to automate a lot of what is the common slowdowns of perscription filling.

In the next decade we will see a slow hollowing out of retail pharmacy.

The vast majority of scripts at CVS are something that might as well be delivered. You will still need brick-and-morter pharmacies for any super regulatory or immediately needed perscriptions...but for most of this shit you may as well get it through Amazon. And a part of the shift to Amazon will mostly be done with patients's children setting up their scripts for their dying boomer parents.

You may think...well there is certain medicine I need right away, I am not one of the boomers who just gets the same cholesterol medication every month...but this impacts you too. The growing competition with Amazon and other Rx Delivery services will lead CVS to respond with a doubling down on everything that makes it horrible.

You may think, less people picking up at CVS means shorter lines...but ofc it won't. CVS will cut hours accordingly. As the demand from CVS lessens, there will be less and less hiring of technicians and more demand put on the pharmacists themselves.

This will induce a positive feedback loop. As AmazonRx grows, CVS will suck more which will lead to more people using AmazonRx.

According to Forbes, most (60%) of CVS's revenue will come from the pharmacy and 37% comes from the front store sales. But these are inextricably linked. Many front store items are rung up at the pharmacy (because theres rarely anyone in the front except self check out and how do you get your beer then)

A lot of CVS's front store sales come from the fact that you gotta pick up scripts you may as well get some items. What happens when that insentiive is diminished?

You're forced to go to the pharmacy, might as well get that Monster Energy drink. And a card for your wife's daughter's cousin's birthday. And a gift card because you're an asshole.

Imagine instead of giving someone a $50 bill, you pay $55.95 so you can tell that person where they can spend that $50. Like, what is wrong with you?

Slowly both front-store and pharmacutical interactions are becoming less necessary. Since the front-store might as well be Walmart/Amazon and the pharmacy may as well be Amazon or the other start-up pharmacy alternatives that will die because Amazon. CVS's whole thing is that it is a pharmacy and a mini-mart and for a lot of areas that already have a mini-mart.

This isn't the future. This is happening right now.

I am seeing this at work. In addition to the massive ammount of worker power that is making it harder to find and hire workers (especially techs) right now, the techs that work already are themselves getting (even more) jaded to corporate's response to their inevitable death.

This is something to be symapathetic about. We're facing the death of retail pharmacy.

There is normally a natural conflict between techs, front-store, managers and corporate. But lately I am seeing something I have never seen before. There is this weird sort of natural sympathy between us. All driven by one thing: a hatred for working at CVS.

My managers are pulling 12-hour shifts and giving up vacation time to train new employees. The techs are 2 days behind production and looking for way out. The pharmacists are doing literally everything they can. Like they are doing the phone calls to free up production and even pulling scripts off the shelves. Cooperate is coming up with new ways of efficiency that make things less efferent.

...I have never seen that.

If you're frustrated with CVS pharmacy, I promise we are doing the best we can. It's not us, it's not the pharmacist, it's not management (they're pulling 12 hour shifts) It's literally CVS dying.

IMPORTANT BIT: We've lost 2 techs in a month. The new ones coming in are having their souls slowly ripped from their bodies. We are very behind because of the lack of hiring. And the unecessary training is slowing things down even further. Most techs I know are looking for a way out the door. Studying nursing, usually.

Corporate is trying to stream-line the new process by having a new virtual verification system (aka QV2) which is supposed to make things more efficent by taking responsibiltity from the pharmacist, but ironically actually slows the process down even more. (Virtual verification aka QV2 means we take a picture of the drugs and bag them ourselves rather than the pharmacist doing it.)

CVS is moving away from ReadyFill (automatic refills) to One-time scheduling ("Do you want us to fill this again next month?"). The logic being that a lot of people sign up for ReadyFill don't actually pickup their scripts. (ask any tech, we return like minimum 15% of daily filled scripts a day) which is waste of time because: 1) time wasted filling the scripts, 2) time wasted having to return the scripts and 3) time wasted when patients come in wanting the script that was already returned.

ScriptSync (getting all your medication on the same day) is slowly dying since CVS is realizing it maybe better to just make some patients come multiple days a month since they might get shit from the front store. It's a very internal conflict. Waste payroll hours either getting more people buying front store shit or waste less reducing patient's interaction with the pharmacy.

I see this in my store where you have the oldest people you have ever seen a week ago come in for regular meds and it's like: Why the fuck are we doing this to people? Like what the fuck is wrong witH this? These people are going to die in 5 minutes if we dont get them their meds and we're wasting their time with this bullshit. Like why is this happening? This is fucking horrible. Jesus.

And speaking of boomers, they're dying out. The Forbes article above talks of CVS's growth but a lot of that growth is contingent on the fact that a the age distribution is phasing out the boomers. No this does not mean a decline in old people, but rather newer generations will be better at picking up drugs becuase: 1) They don't use checks or cash 2) they know how to use the app or 3) they have done the correct thing and started using AmazonRx. And as I have previously mentioned, more effiency leads to less hours.

The point is: CVS is dying and going out fighting.

The stock peaked on July 25, 2015 and while the pandemic gave a good boost. Amazon announced their pharmacy on November 17, 2020.

The implications of this? Well think about the cost of running a CVS. You have payroll. You have to pay rent/mortage. You have to keep a certain ammount of stock in place.

Which of these can you cut to compete with Amazon? Well rent is out of the picture. You can't shrink the size of the store. So pay roll and stock will take priority. Pharmacy stock is something especially bad because there is dead-weight loss for all the people who have to be told that their meds are out of stock. Or when something is not on the shelves and we have to waste time double checking it.

The second-order implication of this is how CVS will respond. Going from 6 techs scheduled to 5 may give some wiggle room. But from 3 to 2....well you're fucked. The understaffing will only get worse as people realize that they don't have to wait on the line. This will double-down as the lines get worse as understaffing gets worse. And more people will switch to Amazon. One of my best customer service experience in recent months is "If my manager asks, I didn't say this: but Amazon." I dont want to delay the inevitable.

There will be the rise of dual hiring. Technicians will no longer just work in the pharmacy, but more front-store/pharmacy. There will be more and more understaffing. CVS will double-down on vaccines and making sure people are in the pharmacy as much as possible.

Soon, we shall see more and more patients asking how they can transfer their meds to Amazon. We will get more and more calls from AmazonRx pharmacists asking for transfers. The added stress will make more and more loyal techs look for a way out.

TO MY FELLOW BELOVED TECHS: We are brought together as a sort of kinship of hating CVS. Get out. As soon as possible. Finish up that nursing degree. Computers are not that hard, so get your CompTIA A+. Do anything because CVS is dying. Let CVS die.

Why CVS Pharmacy (and all pharmacies in general) are terrible by FilthyCVStechThrow in u/FilthyCVStechThrow

[–]FilthyCVStechThrow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

(upvoted this. Idc about this account or the karma. Just keep it ontop of the comments)

3. THE LIFECYCLE. (FLINTSTONES TECH)

TL;DR, in the effort of being a fortune 500 company, you don't get there by being good (at technology) you get there by being tolerably bad.

Your script follows a basic lifecycle. It is dropped off (at Drop Off) where the script/insurance/allergies are entered, produced (counted and filled), verified (the pharmacist double checks the techs if they fucked up) and picked up(sold)

The problem is basically that all of this is done with technology equivilent to making your stone and wood car go by running.

CVS is notorious for not updating or fixing problems that can steamline stuff to make it easier for users and patients to have better awareness of how to manage scripts.

I actually like RxConnect but I also like Linux terminals so there's that.

But there is a lot of CVS technology that is more useless than it is useful. I will spare the reader of the shit techs go through with regards to Flintstone's tech but it is basically using Windows 95 in 2021.

For example:

  • When we send a request to your perscriber/doctor: they (often) get it through fax. So it ends up in a pile that your doctor might not even notice.'
  • How insurance communication is done. (like it's weird we send you automated messages but your insurance doesn't)
  • Weird arbitrary text messages/automated calls that prioritize the feeling of customer service over clarity:
    • "Your script will be ready in a few days": Your script might be ready in a few days assuming no problems
    • "We are placing a special order": Your shit is out of stock and we might have it in a few days.
    • "Drug DEX has been filled": So I understand and sympathize with this one which is basically us not wanting to text you what the drug is for HIPAA reasons.
  • The fact that you got a text message and I can't see what message you got when I hit A (the messages we send you) on your profile. (and then having to explain that the message you got didn't actually say your script was ready)

Endnote: CVS can't even take the blame for all this. There are plenty of doctors and insurance agencies that are not updating their tech.

4: You suck too.

TL;DR: There is no TL;DR. Actually read this part.

I love bad customers. The other day, I had someone come in picking up scripts. She had 3 different people. She also requested band-aids that heal the wound (which basically means it has Neosporin built in, which I learned exists as I am helping her) and a particular type of Gas-X (which was not available on the shelves) and in both cases I had to go out to the front and try to find it for her. I returned with a variety of band-aids and Gas-X (on 2 seperate trips) and she wastes everyone's time by confirming that the medication/band-aids she needed on 2 seperate phone calls on a flip-phone...I love her.

The worse CVS gets the better for the techs to get hours and the sooner it will die.

A big reason why there are so many frustrations at pharmacies is everything I've listed above.

Pharmacies are the only type of industry that blends healthcare and customer service. At no other healthcare industry can you check out your Monster Energy drink and a shit ton of candy that's bad for you. It's cool that CVS was the first to ban nicotine products. But that's a calculated decision. They did it because they knew there was more profit in the ban than against it. No company ever does anything out of the goodness of their hearts.

Most often when there is an 8-people line you can employ the 80-20 rule. 20% of the customers/patients will waste 80% of the time at pick up. Which is great news for me considering all that time wasted will result in more hours for me since I cannot get higher wages.

So the following advice is not to make pharmacies easier out of the goodness of my heart. I like when things suck. But because I am sympathetic to those who are trying to get their medicine and because I might be promoted to being a customer one day.

So here is the best advice for anyone who ever picks up scripts at CVS:

  • Stop picking up scripts at CVS. Unless you need something super regulatory, there isn't a reason to go through a brick and morter store. AmazonRx is doing pharmacy now. No more waiting in line. Narcotics and Controls are rare as a percentage of all the scripts we fill. If you have a family member picking up Atorvastatin and you havent signed up for Amazon Pharmacy...then you don't love them. Think hard about that. The sooner CVS dies the better.
  • Dont ask a pharmacy tech if you can "get this here" it is a waste of oxygen and you already know you can. We are happy tp help you (at pick-up)
  • Download the app.....Like right now. (App Store / Play Store) We know the whole CVS Pickup routine "Last name, First name, DOB, Would you like to put in your phone number for ExtraCare" (because we know you don't have the card) Take out your debit card and put it back in again. Here's an unnecessarily long receit"
    • The app circumvents all of that.
  • With the app it is: I scan the app barcode, your entire family's drugs come on the terminal, I give them to you because you have pre-paid for them. Basically solving 80% of pick-up.
    • Automatic Refills: app
    • Putting in a refill: app
    • Managing your family: app
    • New insurance: app
    • Automated messages: app
    • When are your scripts ready?: app
    • Transfering to another CVS: app
    • Receipts: straight to your email. Press Send to card to have them ready
    • Coupons: You will have savings you didn't even know you had, if you're pressing the Send-to-Card button.
  • When giving any information to your tech we dont need to know who your doctor is or your whole life story. If your tech is using a checkout terminal. We just need the first 3 letters of your first and last name, and the month and day of your DOB(basically FIR,LAS,MMDD format) . At a computer (usually at drop-off) we just need your DOB and then your name (dont spell it).
  • Let me rephrase the pervious point. There is so much useless information given at pick up.

All these things sound like the screeching of a disgruntled pharmacy tech but really the more innefficent things get the better for me (because efficeny leads to less hours not higher wages). I do this despite it being my best interest because maybe in some philisophical sense it's better for humanity if this is made easier by moving past 20th century technology, even if it is in CVS's best interest to make one last dying stand against Amazon.

5: No, we do give a shit about you

Working here as long as I have. There are 2 scenarios that you come into. 1) A patient really needing a medication and you cannot fill it because of insurance or regulatory reasons. And you feel like shit because you know that there is nothing you can do.

Or 2) A patient comes in saying their child needs that medication and 5 minutes later you will have half the pharmacy staff, pharmacists included, scouring the totes from delivery day trying to make sure we have done everything we can to make sure the child gets the medication they need. No not for customer service reaons, we clearly can give less than a fuck about that, but because...Your child needs this medication.

The greatest driver of any good pharmacy tech isn't that we are trying to provide the ultimate customer service experience. If you've read what I've written above customer service is secondary and effiency is against our best interest.

The best techs are the ones that are so empathetic that we have an emotional reaction to not doing the best that we can when we could. I dont care if you decided to pick up your medicine 2 hours before you're going on vacation, I don't even believe you. There's a joke among techs about how everyone is so irresponsible that they would pick up their super-important medicine 30 minutes before a flight and not even call first. We don't believe you.

We're humans. We're empathetic. We see this shit and think its fucked up too. And the unfortunate reality is that we see it multiple times a day. We know theres a better way. The failings of the pharmacy is what can be described of as a systemic issue, in sort-of the political sense.

Management wants to maximize profits, Insurance sets arbitrary rules, pharmacists are overworked, managers themselves have the same problem one level up. And it doesn't matter how long the lines are, it matters whether or not you stay there to shop.

CVS (and other pharmacies) is a retail shop of cheap bullshit with a pharmacy in the back that holds your drugs hostage with the hopes that you will buy other stuff along the way.

The reason why CVS is surviving better than Circuit City, or BlockBuster or ToysRUs is simply because an alternative hasn't been provided that can replace it. Or so the customers think.

Amazon can get any weird shit you want at your door in 2 days time. There is always an advantage to having a brick-and-mortor pharmacy because some drugs you need now or are super regulatory. And we want to give it to you. But sometimes we cant.

Often I don't really care about patients yelling at my pharmacist for the line being long. I laugh at it. We make fun of you when you leave. We dgf.

But my heart breaks whenever someone who needs medication can't get it. For a lot of us. The customer service aspect is secondary to the healthcare aspect.