Leaving Retail: Part Three
As stated in my previous post, I have found the light at the end of the tunnel and am currently transitioning out of retail and into hospital pharmacy. In many cases that I’ve witnessed, I listen to retail pharmacy technicians say that they don’t want to do retail anymore, and are going to leave… 98% of them are still there in the same pharmacy, 10 to 20 years later (which I can understand; if you’ve already invested that much time, you may feel like you should just stick it out). I was beginning to be one of those people, but there was a great opportunity that I just knew was for me, and I couldn’t handle the thought of someone else having what I wanted. So I shot my shot, and it was so worth it. Shooters shoot. I’ve received a couple of questions asking about what really made me want to move on, where did I go, so on and so forth. Since I’m on staycation for a while (using up time before I go on to my new job), I figured I’d go ahead and answer those questions now.
What Made Me Leave: Business/Operational Reasoning
Being a lead technician really opened my eye and made me see that 1) the job title itself is not worth it, and 2) we are doing a little too much to just be a retail pharmacy.
I would not recommend becoming a lead technician in retail (chain, specifically) unless you are planning on being with your company long term, have already put in a lot of time with your company, or just really, REALLY love retail pharmacy. When I took the position, I had intentions on staying with the company I work for, but after four months of having the job I thought, “This is for the birds.”
I feel that retail technicians, in general, do not get paid enough for what the job entails, but lead technicians are no where near compensated enough. If the job ONLY consisted of writing schedules and doing initial new-hire training, then I’d say yes, it’s acceptable. But I, personally, deal with a little too much: manage inventory (especially when you come to a store that’s -$50k and you’ve spent the last year finding it all), write schedule, find coverage when you’re short or when someone calls off, train new hires on their jobs, train techs that have been there for 15 years on how to do their jobs correctly, put up with attitudes from techs when something doesn’t go their way, do all the drug orders every day, do supply orders, be a disciplinarian, DEA inventories at 4 AM, take all customer complaints, borderline force your staff to persuade people to get flu and non-flu vaccines, force your staff to raise money for health organizations (at least it’s for a good cause but sometimes it just doesn’t feel genuine), bill as many MTM/Mirixa claims as robotically possible, and work through reports (TIP report, overstock report, contact manager report, etc.) all while still doing your regular technician duties (customer service, data entry, product dispensing), having a manager that is a jerk (I’m trying to use nice words here) towards you but avoids confrontation like the plague and won’t back you up on major issues, and having a corporate office tell you every week that your pharmacy isn’t doing enough and that you need to do MORE, MORE, MORE with less tech hours.
As a retail pharmacy, we’re doing too much, in the sense that it feels more like a clinic than a pharmacy. We’re doing our regular pharmacy duties, but let’s tack on billing an astronomical dollar amount of OutcomesMTM (by harassing patients to get more prescriptions from their prescribers, do medication reviews, and hold their hands to make sure they take their medication every day... we’ll call it “adherence”) and Mirixa claims, Everyday Vaccines, and Flu Vaccines without casually walking by people and sticking them with needles. Running flu shot clinics, healthcare screenings... I could go on and on, but it’s just “extra”. Techs should be getting paid more just for dealing with all of that. I’m not saying that I don’t care about patients’ health by any means, but we’re just doing the most.
With all of this being put on the staff, the patient-provider interaction doesn’t feel as honest and intimate as it used to. In one transaction, this is how interaction with patients goes (this is during the busiest time of the year):
“Do you have any questions for the pharmacist?”
“Are you up to date on your TDAP and pneumonia vaccines?”
“So, you’re at the age of 50 (or older). Have you had your Zostavax vaccine?”
“Have you had your flu shot this year?”
“Since we’re at it, would you like to donate to the _____ Association?”
“You haven't been getting your atorvastatin filled regularly, your insurance wants to know why?”
“Do you have time to talk with the pharmacist and go over all your medications?”
tl;dr: There’s just way too much going on to function efficiently and to better serve our patients. There’s too much put on the staff with not enough help to do it all. There’s certainly too much put on lead technicians with not enough pay (granted, there are some techs that I have worked/do work with that get paid way too much to basically just show up, but they’ve been with the company for years). It doesn’t feel like pharmacy. The relationships I have with my patients doesn’t feel whole, and I don’t feel totally great about being stripped of being forthcoming and open with my patients.
This, in combination with the last two posts, made me realize that this is not where I want to spend the rest of my working life. I feel no regrets about throwing in the towel.
romaincrisis
janainaart
origamiaround
gummygunk
areudirty
baratheonpilled
prguitarman
jbbartram-illu
andulkaphoto