The company uses industry-leading standards: How our health system is making us sick

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by Steven R. Ariens, P.D. - December 12, 2011

Provided by HEALTHBLOG

http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_19500448

Redwood City woman sues over pharmacy’s prescription mix-up that left her gravely ill

The woman in the above story got the prescription bottle in her bag that was suppose to be for someone else and didn’t read the bottle label and took the meds, this happened at a CVS.

The CVS spokesperson stated that we use industry-leading standards… lets look at these standards…

First of all 100,000 people die annual from medical mistakes and 1.5 million are harmed by medication errors.

Generally the chains’ industry standards are:

* Pharmacists work 12-14 hrs a day – often a number of days in a row
* Pharmacist generally have no scheduled meal or restroom breaks
* Many pharmacies prohibit food/drink in the pharmacy area
* Many pharmacies prohibit any chair/stool in the pharmacy area
* Many pharmacies have “timer icons” on the computer screen and staff may be written up by the computer if too many icons “pile up”
* Certain chains have mandates on how quickly the phone/drive-thru/register has to be dealt with
* Many pharmacies coddle irate/hostile/rude/demanding patients and often encourage such behavior with gift cards
* Rx volume and staff levels seems to go in opposite directions
* Throw in flu shots – on demand
* Technicians whose qualifications range from “drug in off the street” to excellent and from a staffing level, the company doesn’t believe that there
is any difference.
At 100,000 deaths per year, that is like a commercial airliner falling out of the sky every day and killing all on board. How long do you think that the airline industry would continue to exist and function if they considered this an “acceptable industry standard”?

Steve has been a licensed Pharmacist for four decades and counting.

The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

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Comments Add Your Comments

former CVS Employee (Alabama)	on 13 Dec 2011 at 11:53 pm

First, I would like to say I was a Lead Technician and Inventory Specialist with CVS/Pharmacy for almost 10 years and every one of those points is unfortunately true. Pharmacists are truly overworked with an overwhelming amount of stress in the retail arena. It has turned from a patient focused business to a volume of prescription business leaving less consultation emphasis on the patient. CVS strides in their 15 minutes or less policy. This, unfortunately, places a great deal of pressure on the technician typing in the medication at drop-off, the production technician that is filling the medication, and the pharmacist who has to make sure to check the prescription to make sure everything is correct before verifying all within the 15 minute timeframe. People do not take into consideration that a prescription can contain up to 15 different prescriptions on one piece of paper and they still want it in 15 minutes. This creates a high stress level and even higher percentage for error and/or errors missed. I have seen this on too many occassions. At CVS pharmacist are made to work 14 hour shifts with little or no break. I worked with pharmacists that have not even had time to go an take a bathroom break. This is extremely unacceptable. Technicians are also unappreciatively underpaid for their knowledge, hardwork, and experience. Technicians can earn anywhere from minimum wage to $15/hour (and that\'s a rarity). Lunch breaks can also suffer. When you have 10 screens with 15 prescriptions or more per page to complete before a specified time, then it kind of puts a wrench in that plan. If you lose one team member for 30 minutes, when you return the 10 screens will turn morph into 15. Retail pharmacies are focused on getting the highest number of prescriptions possible to fill--Bottomline! When a pharmacist is working 14 hour shifts and has verified over 900 prescriptions, I guarantee you that a mistake will eventually be made. Everyone knows that looking at a computer screen all day can have some effects on the eyes, brain and percepton. I could go on and on but we are all in the pharmacy field and know what we have to go through, especially in the retail pharmacy arena