Friday, March 18, 2011

Wondering: Is Rite Aid's 15 minute guarantee a good idea?

I recently posted about Rite Aid's new 15 minute guarantee.  An anonymous poster left a comment that 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?"

This gave me pause.  I hadn't considered that medical errors might occur.  I know that many medications do come pre-counted and all they need to do is run the insurance, get approval, verify it is correct, and then slap a prescription label on the bottle or box.  A lot of doctors already *do* work on a timer... the rare ones don't rush you in and out or disappear after 5 minutes only to send a nurse back in with your prescriptions, which doesn't give you the opportunity to ask questions. 

But let me relay this story to you, because since I posted about the 15 minute guarantee at Rite Aid, I've actually needed to speak with a pharmacist who was likely "working on a timer."  I am not going to name the store or the pharmacist.

I popped into a Rite Aid today to get my child something for his cough.  I'd already tried something last night that didn't seem to work, so I wanted something to dry up his post nasal drip.  However, I wasn't entirely sure what to get him from the kids' medicine aisle, so I approached the counter and asked the counter person for some help in choosing a medicine.

The pharmacist came over and I explained my situation.  The pharmacist came out from behind the counter (though, I don't suspect willingly) and came over to the section to help me choose.  I felt like I was taking them away from something important since I noticed a bit of hesitation before coming out to assist me. After the selection was made, the pharmacist returned back behind the counter and went back to the work station, but called over the top that I could use both medicines at the same time.  (Definitely important information to know).

I couldn't help but wonder how much time I took off this pharmacist's timer with my needs.  After all, time spent counseling me meant that was time taken away from filling a prescription (and failure to do so would result in a $5 loss to Rite Aid).  Pharmacists do more than just count pills.  I, for one, rely on them for advice when I am not sure what to take for illnesses or whether I can take X with Y or if it will cause a reaction or overdose.  If I don't know, I ask.  That's what they are there for. 

What the 15 minute guarantee means is that pharmacy patients will get better service and those of us trolling the cough and cold aisle unsure of what to buy for their child will get 2 minutes or less of pharmacist advice before they feel compelled to vault back over the barricade to their work station to avoid paying the $5 gift card out to an unhappy customer.  Even Dominos gave up their 30 minute guarantee for safety's sake.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i thought i'd pop in and give my 2 cents after reading both posts, finding it on a google search.

MANY medications do not come precounted. only Few do, and even then most come in larger stock bottles that are cheaper to buy in large quantities. stock bottle of 100+ tablets that are counted to 30, 90, or whatever your script calls for.

the patients health must be protected as a whole. Each and every prescription must be checked for accuracy. And if there are 5 scripts being filled at once, and one of them has a serious interaction or needs clarification, that's gonna take a while to clear up while your tube of ointment waits to be checked. Would you want the pharmacist to just ignore the medication for the elderly woman that could kill her, just slap a label on some acne medicine so you can be out the door in 15 mins? Or would you prefer the Pharmacist do his job, make sure the old woman is safe and wait an extra 5 mins while he talks to the doctor before he checks and bags yours? This is such a bad Idea, I can't believe that it made it into practice.

Anonymous said...

I like rite aid , I waited at cvs for 1 hour and was told that prscription was ready 30 minutes ago . After everything was said and done I was pissed off , made to feel it was my fault and given nothing in compensation ( I didn't ask for any thing back ) . So if rite aid is willing to offer you an incentive to come in that's says alot
About there true goal of getting you in and out fast . I don't think there guaranty will make them any more prone to make a mistake .
So stop complaining and go to rite aid !

Andrew Gray said...

^^^ Poster above, you are wrong. Pressure on pharmacists to work quickly does increase the risk of errors, which carries a real risk of injury or death. You might think that 15 minutes is enough for dispensing your prescription, but consider that the pharmacist could have any number of prescriptions queued. A pending queue of 7 patients with 5 prescriptions each would not be unusual. And the dispensing process is far more complicated than just counting tablets. Often, extremely complex problems need to be investigated and solved, and there are constant interruptions, such as shop customers, phone calls and customer complaints. Do you want to risk it for a chance at a $5 voucher?

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Andrew. Putting pharmacists on a timer is a terrible idea. It's a common misconception that filling a prescriptions only involve counting the pills and slapping on a label on a bottle. Checking for medication interactions, accuracy of the technician's work, and catching mistakes made by doctors are critical steps to ensure patient safety. Rite Aid's new 15 minute guarantee is unreasonable and dangerous, and adds unnecessary pressure for the pharmacy staff to rush through prescriptions, increasing the chance of overlooking critical human errors.

Recently, an amoxicillin prescription filled at a Rite Aid pharmacy (in Charlotte, NC) was typed for 7.5 teaspoons instead of 7.5MLs. It made national headlines when the 9-year old patient overdosed on amoxicillin because this error was not caught by the pharmacist.

How many more of these mistakes to make national news will be necessary before Rite Aid retracts their 15 minute guarantee?

RA Pharm Tech said...

I work at an RA and the 15 minute guarantee is utter crap. I am already under pressure as it is being the only tech on for 6 hours at time. It's lovely when 4 people, with 2 or 3 scripts each come in back to back expecting their 15 minutes, while I input, count and label the prescriptions, answer the phone, ring out customers (bot from the front end and the pharmacy because people shopping just think "Oh a register, I can check out there!" not realizing I am busy!!!) not to mention showing people where the eye drops are or answering stupid questions like "what time do you close?" when the times are clearly visible when you walk in!!

I seriously hate my job sometimes and I cannot stand to be rushed. I've only been a tech since September and I would rather work at McDonald's where at least being fast won't result in someone's death or discomfort if I get their order wrong.

Anonymous said...

I am a tech at a RA in PA. I loved that NY and NJ put the kibosh on the 15 minute stupiditee. My question is, how can we go about getting it stopped in PA?? There has got to be something in the PA BOP policy that is being violated by RA here and in every state really. PLEASE let's all figure out a way to stop it nationwide!! Thanks for any advice you can give!!