I am no longer skeptical …

I have read from post after post about how techs are now encouraged to be stool pigeons…

I got a request to work in one of the big box stores – not the biggest one – .. and while I had ample tech help.. I kept getting this “bad vibe” from a 50 +/- y/o tech..  I got the impression that she was not happy to not have a Pharmacist present that did not know how to operate the computer system nor the cash register. I was suppose to work Tues and Wed… when we broke for lunch at 13:30… I get a phone call from the temp service.. they had cancelled the Wed shift…

When I got home last night I find a email from a RPH at the temp service .. it would seem that this tech has sent corporate a email at some point during the AM.. and here is the excerpt from the email that was forwarded to me…

… he is asking the techs to override everything in the computer. He’s not checking conflicting medications before allowing prescriptions to be in the hands of the guests & not pleasant to work with… 

I am being critiqued by a F’ing technician how I practice pharmacy.. I am not some freshly minted RPH.. only 46 yrs experience in working behind the counter.

I fired off a long letter to the RPH and my contact person with the temp service and only got a “PC response” from the RPH..  I told them straight out.. since the tech did not say anything to me… would suggest – at least to me – that she is a TROUBLE MAKER … and… “The day that I have to live up to the critique of a technician of how I practice pharmacy after 43 years… I will take down my shingle… and fold my tent…”

When we are dealing at this level, “professional”.. is there a line at which liable/slander is crossed by such remarks or statements?

Now I have first hand experience in being in the cross fire of irate pts and “back-stabbing” technicians. No wonder the number of RPHs that are taking SSRI’s & Benzo’s is increasing…

2 Responses

  1. When I was a pharmacy clerk at Rite Aid, I was often the only “help” they would allow the Sunday Floater. The regular RPH and Techs had the weekends off. It was good times. The floater would invariably state they could not operate the RX system and refused to run the register. They would teach me everything I asked (I am a demanding student) and I didn’t have to leave the Pharmacy to scoop icecream. I learned so much and made good friends with these floater RPHs. I’m sorry people experience such nasty Techs. It was fun to go over CE together in quiet moments. Quiz me relentlessly (because I asked them to) on brand/generic names. Teach me how to do medi-cal TARS. One even sought me out after he opened his own pharmacy. I still work for him.

  2. How can an RPH temp be reasonably expected to know the ins and outs of said systems if they haven’t been FillInTheBlank Pharmacy recently or only sporadically. IMO, that letter was inappropriate and uncalled for.

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