Help me help your customers

I must admit that I became very frustrated today at work. An elderly gentleman came into the pharmacy to pick up his prescription and I noticed his insurance card was not billed. The man was shaking and having a really hard time communicating to me. I glanced down at the medication to realize that he was a Parkinson’s patient and his movement was uncontrollable. I was actually impressed at how well he was able to get around. I asked for his insurance card and attempted to rebill his medications. The man was not able to communicate to me his insurance situation except that he had been an employee of General Electric.

My frustration began shortly after I made my first phone call to the Medco “Help Desk” for pharmacy billing. After getting through the maze of automated options I finally reached a human representative, only to discover that I had been connected to one of the biggest jerks in their department. To make a long story short, after 3 separate phone calls to Medco and to the customer service center on the card the patient handed me, I had to explain to the patient that I could not bill his prescription medications. The worse part of the whole experience was that I could see the man out of the corner of my eye the entire time I was on the phone with his insurance and I could see him struggle to contain his sudden jerks and involuntary movements. I wanted to help him so bad but I was powerless.

The entire time I spent trying to help this Parkinson’s patient I couldn’t understand why I have had negative encounters with private third party insurance companies. I am a pharmacist trying to HELP your customer. Maybe that is the key. Some companies view people as “patients” and some companies view them as “customers.” As a pharmacist, I can’t help but view the elderly man across the counter as my patient that I swore by an oath to help. The medication I have prepared for him may improve his condition and help improve his quality of life. I understand that healthcare is not cheap and that tough decisions need to be made. All I ask right now, is that third party insurance companies work harder to assist their customers and the providers (ie: pharmacists and physicians) that are trying to help.

I’m sorry if I rambled a little more than usual in this post. This situation hit me a little harder than most.

My first board inspection

I arrived at work early today considering it is the first day of the month and a Monday. I was wrapping up my order for Tuesday when I looked up to see a gentleman with a briefcase approach the pharmacy. To my surprise this man was the Board of Pharmacy Inspector for the Louisville area.

This was my first official BoP inspection ever, so needless to say I was pretty nervous. While the inspector was thorough, he was laid back and helped explain things for me. He was very helpful and provided several suggestions and tips since he had been a retail pharmacy manager himself for several years. Fortunately for me, aside from a few small things that I was already aware of, my pharmacy passed the inspection.

Why can't I get someone to work in this bad economy?

One of the struggles I am currently facing as pharmacy manager is finding a couple additional part time technicians to work in my pharmacy. All I hear on the news is how bad the job market is and how unemployment is so high. Unfortunately for me, people in my area would rather be unemployed than have a part time job in a pharmacy to help bring home some extra cash. If you know anyone in the Louisville area who is interested in a part time job as a pharmacy technician, please contact me!

MTM...Sort of

Last week I had my first chance to do some Medication Therapy Management for an elderly lady who was on nearly 20 medications. Her daughter was her caregiver and very confused about everything she was taking, and her physicians kept adding medications without taking away. She was covered under Medicare Part D, but the monthly expenses were taking her to the "Donut Hole" very quickly.

I agreed to sit down with her son and daughter to go over her medications and help them get organized. I thought it would be best to do this sometime when the pharmacy was slow...boy that was a mistake. When the daughter dumped a plastic bag of medication bottles on my counseling desk I knew I was in trouble. I did my best to type up an accurate list of all the medications she was taking, how she was taking them, and which physician prescribed them. While putting all this together I kept getting interrupted to handle another problem in the pharmacy or check a waiting prescription. By the time I was finished with my pseudo-MTM session I found myself way behind with my normal work.

I was happy to help the patient and felt somewhat rewarded by making this connection with their family. Finally I got a chance to think like a pharmacist and focus on the patient. However, the experience let me realize that MTM is impossible to incorporate into the normal workflow of a pharmacy. MTM must be kept separate and organized outside filling prescriptions.

It is almost official

I had to go down to our divisional office today to have my photo taken so Kroger can display an 8x10 headshot of me posted at my store. Soon my employees will be able to direct angry customers to my picture on the wall and say "He is the manager so talk to him." So pretty soon I will be a marked man. All jokes aside, I am excited to get this done.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

I'm not the cleanest person on the planet (that title belongs to my former roommate, Scottie Stovall). I clean around my room and my apartment once or twice a week as needed. My office area stays more cluttered than I would like it. While I could improve my own personal cleaning habits at home, I am an absolute neat freak at work.

When I first took over my store this month the first thing that I noticed was dust on the shelves. Nothing bothers me more than running my finger along a pharmacy shelf or counter and picking up dust. The first goal I set for all of my staff was a total makeover for the pharmacy in terms of cleaning and organization. I wanted every single employee to know that I wanted my pharmacy to be clean and neat. What kind of message does it send to patients when the pharmacy looks like a train wreck?

Now that two weeks have passed I can finally start to see some of the fruits of my labor. Finally, all of my shelves and refrigerators are clean and straight. Floors have been vacuumed and mopped. The storage closet has been organized and I have even busted out the label maker for all kinds of things. The OCD in me is really starting to show.

My Inventory Nightmare

I felt sick to my stomach yesterday when I read over the expected shipment of medications I was supposed to receive. At first glance I noticed the bill for nearly $30,000 and thought, "Uh oh, this can't be good." As I went line by line I discovered that our system had automatically ordered 500ct and 1,000ct bottles of 6 different brand name medications. One bottle was going to cost my pharmacy $5,000 by itself. The other pharmacist at my store was supposed to check our order on Monday during the window when we are allowed to make adjustments. By letting the order go as is we ended up with way more than we ever needed.

I have a feeling that I will be faced with problems like this for a while. The pharmacy staff still doesn't quite understand why the pharmacy can't just stock 1,000 pills of every single medication. No one in my pharmacy understands what an "inventory turn" means and I don't expect them to, but what I do expect them to understand is that medications are expensive and if we don't sell them in a timely manner we lose money.