My local Walgreens is the only one in the area where both my son and I can get our prescriptions filled. (We know because my husband called all of them to ask, and exactly one other one could fill my son’s. None of them could fill mine. Love the way the worse your ADHD is, the harder you it’ll be to get your meds.)
The pharmacists there are kind and helpful, but I’ve learned I absolutely cannot call them unless I do it during a shift change, and on Tuesday and Thursday there’s no point in going at all, since only the manager is willing to handle controlled substances.
I’ve felt for a long time that they deserved a lot better than they were getting, so I’m dipping into my carefully hoarded stash to make sure our refills happen after the strike ends.
The Walgreens nearest to me is chronically understaffed. I live in a big city, so it's not like it's the only one for a town or anything. I feel so bad for the pharmacists who work so hard but there simply aren't enough of them to manage the workload. I doubt any of them even get a chance to sit down or catch their breath on a shift. Between filling prescriptions, dispensing them to customers, providing vaccines, and dealing with insurance/doctors' offices, it is a grueling job. That's even before you get to the also insane understaffing of the rest of the store (which is why so much is locked up).
I fully support their walkout and I think that legislation mandating minimum staffing levels for pharmacies as a key part of public health would go a long way.
I don’t see why, logistically, in a world where they are not understaffed and overworked, a pharmacist shouldn’t be able to just renew prescriptions for those who have been taking the same prescriptions at the same doses for years.
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Because your body changes, that's why they shouldn't. I mean, I'm not saying you should have to go to your doctor every time you get a prescription renewed, but you shouldn't be getting refills "for years" without at least a yearly visit to make sure it's working as intended, and that you don't need to change your dosage or medication. My pharmacy (CVS) does in fact just call the doctor's office (it's actually done electronically, when it works, which is not often) and gets a renewal, but I do have to have an exam every year before they'll keep renewing.
I went in for mine at CVS. The pharmacist and single tech had already been working 12 hours that day, were 24 hours behind on scripts, and the line was batshit. And then for some unguessable reason my insurance decided to deny my vaccine. The pharmacist was apologizing to me for trying twice, unsuccessfully, to get my insurance to approve my vax. I told her this was not her problem, I would deal with the insurance company, and I could easily reschedule. She nearly cried, because every other person in line was miserable and angry that they could not get their medications, and were consequently yell-y. They’ve been understaffed for more than a year, and they are constantly having to run the front registers as well.
I swear the pharmacy execs are trying to jack up the economy now. And - I still haven’t gotten my new vax. Argh.
I feel like that is a generally overlooked part of working in a pharmacy — you also have to spend a bunch of time on the phone with insurance companies who will use any trick in the book not to cover something and make them jump through pre-authorization hoops. Good on you for taking that on, we frankly ask too much of our pharmacists in our fucked up healthcare system.
Oh, I didn't see this until late, had to pick up an Rx for an elder this AM at a Walgreens. Well, will stay away for the next few days. The staff at the location I deal with are terrific and I hope they get all they deserve.
They still don't get it. Keeping staff happy and well paid is not hard. I do business with a bank that has employees who have been there for years. Promoted from within with no regard to anything other than competence. The other large, local bank has a fairly high turnover and is owned and run by the good ole boys, white and male with a nepotism problem. I now need merchant services for a business and guess who I called?
The understaffing in stores also has to be costing the companies money. Where I live, the Walgreens (and other stores) are so understaffed that half of the inventory is locked up. It is seemingly random what is and isn't locked up. When there are so few employees it takes 10 minutes just to get someone to open the case, I'm much more likely to just take my business elsewhere. It's like they're saving pennies to avoid a dollar.
I appreciate anybody who did try to support the staff by not showing up, but I can tell you from personal experience you’re in a very tiny minority. And as badly as we’re drowning, we’re still the most capable pharmacy within a 15 mile radius; we hear multiple times an hour that they were referred to us by another store. It’s not gonna get better anytime soon, but either we suffer or the customers don’t get their meds anywhere, so we’re really in a crap position.
I don’t shop at Walgreens ever, since they were playing politics and refusing to sell legal abortion drugs a few weeks back. Sorry the pharmacists are striking, but the company issues go well beyond the wages they pay.
I think they are right to strike for increased staffing. I can't tell you how many times I've seen situations in that chain where an already complicated situation was made worse by lack of an adequate number of pharmacists. Going to any pharmacy these days provides us a lesson in just how convoluted our healthcare insurance "system" still is: an unholy percentage of customers end up being told their medications aren't covered due to some process-related quirk, some delay in approval, ad nauseam. I think most customers recognize that this stuff is mostly on the insurers for making things infuriatingly complicated and on the chain's refusal to hire enough pharmacists, but that recognition doesn't fix the problem.
I don't have a walgreens around here, but I would NEVER use them after some asshat from Jamaica wanted me to send him a walgreen's gift card to get my $10,000 "prize"!Q!!!!!11!!!
Walgreens offshored their headquarters (a corporate 'inversion' the news called it) to avoid paying taxes. I avoid Walgreens when at all possible.
My local Walgreens is the only one in the area where both my son and I can get our prescriptions filled. (We know because my husband called all of them to ask, and exactly one other one could fill my son’s. None of them could fill mine. Love the way the worse your ADHD is, the harder you it’ll be to get your meds.)
The pharmacists there are kind and helpful, but I’ve learned I absolutely cannot call them unless I do it during a shift change, and on Tuesday and Thursday there’s no point in going at all, since only the manager is willing to handle controlled substances.
I’ve felt for a long time that they deserved a lot better than they were getting, so I’m dipping into my carefully hoarded stash to make sure our refills happen after the strike ends.
The Walgreens nearest to me is chronically understaffed. I live in a big city, so it's not like it's the only one for a town or anything. I feel so bad for the pharmacists who work so hard but there simply aren't enough of them to manage the workload. I doubt any of them even get a chance to sit down or catch their breath on a shift. Between filling prescriptions, dispensing them to customers, providing vaccines, and dealing with insurance/doctors' offices, it is a grueling job. That's even before you get to the also insane understaffing of the rest of the store (which is why so much is locked up).
I fully support their walkout and I think that legislation mandating minimum staffing levels for pharmacies as a key part of public health would go a long way.
Fraser Engerman. Are you sure this isn’t The Onion?
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I don’t see why, logistically, in a world where they are not understaffed and overworked, a pharmacist shouldn’t be able to just renew prescriptions for those who have been taking the same prescriptions at the same doses for years.
/Quote
Because your body changes, that's why they shouldn't. I mean, I'm not saying you should have to go to your doctor every time you get a prescription renewed, but you shouldn't be getting refills "for years" without at least a yearly visit to make sure it's working as intended, and that you don't need to change your dosage or medication. My pharmacy (CVS) does in fact just call the doctor's office (it's actually done electronically, when it works, which is not often) and gets a renewal, but I do have to have an exam every year before they'll keep renewing.
Pharmacists are indeed totally overworked. I guess I might have to reschedule that COVID booster. *cries in school teacher*
I went in for mine at CVS. The pharmacist and single tech had already been working 12 hours that day, were 24 hours behind on scripts, and the line was batshit. And then for some unguessable reason my insurance decided to deny my vaccine. The pharmacist was apologizing to me for trying twice, unsuccessfully, to get my insurance to approve my vax. I told her this was not her problem, I would deal with the insurance company, and I could easily reschedule. She nearly cried, because every other person in line was miserable and angry that they could not get their medications, and were consequently yell-y. They’ve been understaffed for more than a year, and they are constantly having to run the front registers as well.
I swear the pharmacy execs are trying to jack up the economy now. And - I still haven’t gotten my new vax. Argh.
I feel like that is a generally overlooked part of working in a pharmacy — you also have to spend a bunch of time on the phone with insurance companies who will use any trick in the book not to cover something and make them jump through pre-authorization hoops. Good on you for taking that on, we frankly ask too much of our pharmacists in our fucked up healthcare system.
I loved my original Walgreen's pharmacists, but then they rearranged everybody.
Oh, I didn't see this until late, had to pick up an Rx for an elder this AM at a Walgreens. Well, will stay away for the next few days. The staff at the location I deal with are terrific and I hope they get all they deserve.
They still don't get it. Keeping staff happy and well paid is not hard. I do business with a bank that has employees who have been there for years. Promoted from within with no regard to anything other than competence. The other large, local bank has a fairly high turnover and is owned and run by the good ole boys, white and male with a nepotism problem. I now need merchant services for a business and guess who I called?
The understaffing in stores also has to be costing the companies money. Where I live, the Walgreens (and other stores) are so understaffed that half of the inventory is locked up. It is seemingly random what is and isn't locked up. When there are so few employees it takes 10 minutes just to get someone to open the case, I'm much more likely to just take my business elsewhere. It's like they're saving pennies to avoid a dollar.
a credit union?
I have one of those too, but they are located an hour away. Also a good choice! ;-)
I appreciate anybody who did try to support the staff by not showing up, but I can tell you from personal experience you’re in a very tiny minority. And as badly as we’re drowning, we’re still the most capable pharmacy within a 15 mile radius; we hear multiple times an hour that they were referred to us by another store. It’s not gonna get better anytime soon, but either we suffer or the customers don’t get their meds anywhere, so we’re really in a crap position.
I don’t shop at Walgreens ever, since they were playing politics and refusing to sell legal abortion drugs a few weeks back. Sorry the pharmacists are striking, but the company issues go well beyond the wages they pay.
the only way to fix it is to unionize...
I think they are right to strike for increased staffing. I can't tell you how many times I've seen situations in that chain where an already complicated situation was made worse by lack of an adequate number of pharmacists. Going to any pharmacy these days provides us a lesson in just how convoluted our healthcare insurance "system" still is: an unholy percentage of customers end up being told their medications aren't covered due to some process-related quirk, some delay in approval, ad nauseam. I think most customers recognize that this stuff is mostly on the insurers for making things infuriatingly complicated and on the chain's refusal to hire enough pharmacists, but that recognition doesn't fix the problem.
I don't have a walgreens around here, but I would NEVER use them after some asshat from Jamaica wanted me to send him a walgreen's gift card to get my $10,000 "prize"!Q!!!!!11!!!
Plus, if Trump gets elected, who's going to shoot all the shoplifters?
I bet Donald never even thought of that brilliant concept in terms of staffing.
That won't be a problem because I have never shopped there.