Thursday, March 17, 2011

Rite Aid 15 minute prescription guarantee

Rite Aid has a new 15 minute prescription guarantee program.  You get your prescription* within 15 minutes or you get a $5 gift card.

What's the * for?  The exclusions, of course!  This guarantee doesn't include situations where the pharmacist might have to contact someone else to fill the prescription (such as if you transferred and they need to call the other pharmacy, your doctor, etc.), the prescriptions have to be dropped off in person or via a drive thru window (no filling it online), 3 prescriptions max, and it isn't valid right before the pharmacist's lunch break.  For more details, please visit Rite Aid.

What this could mean for little old me?  Well, my Rite Aid is notoriously unable to fill a prescription within that time frame, so maybe they'll step up to the plate and fill faster.  My family has been sick and I've had to go back hours later to pick up a prescription because they just couldn't fill it any faster than that.  So either I'm going to get rich in $5 increments or I'll be finally able to get a prescription within a reasonable time frame.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally it's a terrible idea. Rite Aid is essentially putting a $5 price tag on patients health. I'd be afraid to get prescriptions filled by a pharmacist working on a timer. What's next? Surgeons working on timers?

Anonymous said...

It's a great idea. The other poster is under the impression that the drug est makes up the pills and capsules on the spot. 99.999 percent of the time all they are doing is counting out pills that are already made off site. Know one in the store actually makes the medicine. So you don't have to worry about doctors doing it too. How ever that would not be a bad idea either. Better than sitting in their waiting room for up to 4 hrs for something you had to make an appointment for

NY Rite Aid Pharmacy Tech said...

I work at a Rite Aid Pharmacy in NY (THANK GOD this 15 minute prescription is no longer valid in NY. It violates NYS law) and I can tell you its a HORRIBLE idea! We are not McDonalds... if you try to speed up the pharmacist and the techs there is a possibility of miscounted pills, different medicine (there are a lot of look alike/sound alike drugs that if one does not take their time to double check can easily be overlooked). Patients use to get upset at a 30 minute wait, a good typical time for an accurate prescription to be processed, now they get upset at 15 minutes! We are not fast food. You can either get your medicine done right, or risk the chance of not getting it done correctly because it was done fast.

It's not even a logical idea. The pharmacy can get really busy during the work week, with every customer coming in and demanding this 15 minute prescriptions there would be too many mistakes! Rite Aid prides themselves on their Quality Assurance program where we double check everything. However, that program gets completely overlooked when the 15 minute prescription is in place.

Second of all, there are more exclusions! If you leave the store when you say your waiting for the 15 minute prescription--then your 15 minute guarantee is voided, if your insurance isn't working-- it's voided, if you bring in 3 or more CII prescriptions you can bet your ass its gonna be more than 15 minutes.

Overall, this is corporates idea at trying to get more Rite Aid customers. While its a nice idea, it is not logical in any sense. And leave it to the guys sitting in their big comfy chairs to demand this program while the workers have to deal with all the crap and stress that we get because of this program.

Pinching Abe said...

Maybe the Rite Aid head honcho should go on Undercover Boss to get a feel for life in the trenches? Personally, unless I'm really sick, I leave mine and go back for them later. I also am anal about checking that I got what I was supposed to. Sometimes it takes a bit of leafing through since doctors write trade name, not generic (though I think they should write that right on there to make it easier to figure out you got what you were supposed to), but while I trust a pharmacist, I like to double check. I hope Rite Aid stumbles upon this post and sees the comments.

Anonymous said...

Do you really want them to fill faster? Basically putting yours and your loved ones' lives at risk. Great idea. Save money anyway you can friend.

Unknown said...
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