Pharmacies

dshobbies · #1 (**permalink**) 11-14-2009, 07:05 PM

I just need to vent here because no one else understands my anger.

Every month, I refill a myriad of prescriptions. No problem until Walgreens bought out our local pharmacy and our the the the 7 years they've been here, they got my monthly renewals correct a total of 5 times. Even as errors were brought to their attention, corrections were made only for the current month and had to be repeated and repeated and repeated. I finally gave up and decided to use their internet based service. Stupid me.

3 months ago I finally switched to CVS as there are no local pharmacies anywhere near here except in medical buildings -15-20 minutes away. First month, no problem - last month, they forgot to refill 2 scripts but did so quickly when I went to pick them up. This month - refilled the wrong ones, didn't order what they didn't have and want me to wait 1 1/2 weeks for my asthma inhaler to arrive with their 'regular shipment' after missing this weeks'.

I fax in my renewals and call them to make sure they recieved it. It's in black and white - what is wrong with these people? I just checked the internet and discovered no chain is considered good and all have dismal satisfaction ratings. I've looked into Costco (they also don't have a great satisfaction rating) but with insurance coverage, there's really no price difference and parking can be difficult. There are no local independents. I'm ready to scream - in fact, I have but it always lands on deaf ears.

These are professional health care workers. How difficult can it be to get it right?

Sorry, I'm just so frustrated. I don't feel I can do this month after month anymore but there seems to be no alternative.

...

sahuaro · #2 (**permalink**) 11-15-2009, 06:14 PM

Dale:
Do you have insurance that includes prescription meds and uses a mail order service? If so, you can get a 3-months' supply and they are very reliable and very fast. The main problem for mail-order, especially in Arizona, is having meds sit in a hot mailbox, so I have them sent to my office.

dshobbies · #3 (**permalink**) 11-15-2009, 07:15 PM

Thanks for the suggestion but I already checked that out. Only certain meds are given at 3 for 1, some at 2 for 1 and the rest, 1-1. Only 2 of my meds qualify for 3-1 and I already buy them in bulk. Added to that, they don't even fill 2 of my meds. Blue Cross, phoey!

jchebert1979 · #4 (**permalink**) 11-16-2009, 07:51 PM

I am totally with you. With the health care profession you would think that extra attention would be given to prevent errors but I have found this not to be the case at all. I catch an error with just about every test or appointment and it seems as though as soon as I bring it up a huge brick wall of ego comes with it.

jchebert1979 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-20-2009, 04:53 PM

I forgot to post this but it is sad that the independent pharmacy is a thing of the past. They just cannot compete. In college I was a pharmacy tech at Wal-Mart and our selling price of some medications was lower that the cost of the medications for a lot of independents in the area.

I think the consumer suffers as well because it was high volume, get them in, get them out, don't f*%*k up. The pharmacy managers would actually get penalized if we did not fill enough prescriptions a day. In my time there, actual errors were rare, but delays were all over the place. Everything is automated so if there was a problem with insurance or anything like that, the script would not be filled and no one would know about it until the patient came to pick it up.

Also with all the high volume, if the pharmacist had to stop and council a patient, we would get backed up. This naturally led the pharmacist to begin to resent talking to patients and they suffered for it through no fault of their own. Wal-Mart may be saving people money with $4 prescriptions, but the pharmacist-patient relationship which I think is just as important as a doctor is almost extinct. Doctors have little knowledge when prescribing medicine. They go by the information that they get from the pharm. sales people. They don't have time to research it themselves and so I think the pharmacist is just as critical as the doctor since western medicine focuses so much on medication. It really is a shame but it is a reflection of the greed of our country and another nail in the coffin of our broken health care system.

I am not a democrat but I fully support a complete government takeover of the health care system. You can debate all you want about the inefficiency of our government but look at the postal service. They may not be turning a profit, but nowhere else in the world can you send a letter for under .50. It is cheap, reliable, and despite the cliche, most of their workers are very happy with their jobs. I find it disgusting that so many people can profit so much from the sick. Of course doctors deserve to make more money than others, but not rock star salaries. Whoo, man, I'm going off on a tangent here. Let me stop myself.