High volume pharmacies-how do you operate?

[Curiousone1111]

Hi! I’ve worked in low volume but always wondered, how do you manage high volume pharmacies? Do you just prioritize which issues to call on and which to just counsel on, or how can 1 pharmacist do the job properly? Even if you have multiple techs to fill and help in that aspect, they can’t call on DDIs or other therapeutic issues. If you’re going through 600-700 rxs how can you call on issues without falling behind?

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[meltyblend]

I can only speak on my experience working high volume at CVS:

Usually higher volume stores have more hours to play with which translates to more tech and pharmacist hours. More often than not, there's at least 2 pharmacist working each day (except for weekends unless it's really high volume: 800+). When I worked in a 600+/day store, I had overlap at least 6-8 hours a day (13 hours days) and sometimes double overlap with a 3rd pharmacist for at least 2-4 hours. There's at least 2-3 techs to start and end the day and 4-6 techs during peak hours. My store took the work station assignment board religiously (no one wanted to be stuck at pick up) so I had to write the darn thing every morning and try to make it as fair as possible. To give an idea of how many people is running around: there's people assigned to pick up 2 and drop off 2. Sometimes even a pick up 3 if I can't find a place to stick them.

Ideally, this allows each person to concentrate on one specific task. So one pharmacist only focusing on QV1 and one pharmacist on QV2. The flex pharmacist can be helping out in QT/production or making doctor calls. Techs would also have their own responsibilities and are expected to know to call for back up. All in all, it's dependent on staffing and the competency of said staff. Even with more people working the ship can still sink if someone isn't holding their own weight.

My experience is pre-virtual verification so who know how much more of a train-wreck it is now.

 

[Curiousone1111]

I can only speak on my experience working high volume at CVS:

Usually higher volume stores have more hours to play with which translates to more tech and pharmacist hours. More often than not, there's at least 2 pharmacist working each day (except for weekends unless it's really high volume: 800+). When I worked in a 600+/day store, I had overlap at least 6-8 hours a day (13 hours days) and sometimes double overlap with a 3rd pharmacist for at least 2-4 hours. There's at least 2-3 techs to start and end the day and 4-6 techs during peak hours. My store took the work station assignment board religiously (no one wanted to be stuck at pick up) so I had to write the darn thing every morning and try to make it as fair as possible. To give an idea of how many people is running around: there's people assigned to pick up 2 and drop off 2. Sometimes even a pick up 3 if I can't find a place to stick them.

Ideally, this allows each person to concentrate on one specific task. So one pharmacist only focusing on QV1 and one pharmacist on QV2. The flex pharmacist can be helping out in QT/production or making doctor calls. Techs would also have their own responsibilities and are expected to know to call for back up. All in all, it's dependent on staffing and the competency of said staff. Even with more people working the ship can still sink if someone isn't holding their own weight.

My experience is pre-virtual verification so who know how much more of a train-wreck it is now.

So one pharmacist is responsible for typing/DDI issue resolvement etc and the second has to make sure the pills in the bottle match the rx? Sorry I’m not familiar with cvs lingo but thanks for the thorough response!!