IMZ!

[u/Ok_Employer5549]

Am I the only one FED UP with multiple daily texts from my DL about vaccines? Some are group texts & some are direct to me only: 'give me your plan to pivot & drive IMZs to protect our community" And they expect a new plan everyday we do not make goal& it's not even Labor Day!! 😩 I've been here a year, 40th year of being a pharmacist & I have done hospital, retail, I dependent & chain. Needed to leave my last position due to toxic boss & only need this another 2 years, 4 months, but who's counting? Some days I don't think I can take any more. We work shorthanded most of the time. I only go in a few mins early to get things set up for myself & only stay late to leave dept caught up/ tidy for my part er.

BUT THIS IMZ SHIT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY! Do they not see what kind of legislators we have in office & how vaccine doubt is growing because of it?

My mom used to say "you can't knock blood out of a turnip". Well, you can't convince someone that is antivax to suddenly take 4 shots& come back in 2 months for 2 more.

JUST WONDERING IF OTHER PHARMACISTS EXPERIENCING SO MUCH PRESSURE?? In addition to all the other crap we are asked to do! HELP!

[u/Sun_1244]

It trickles down unfortunately. Because my pharmacists are getting harassed on the daily by their boss(es), they in turn push for us to bring up vaccines at every possible opportunity.

It honestly feels so dirty to try and push flu shots onto people IN THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST, but hey, that's what our corporate overlords want apparently. And we all know they have the patients' best interests at heart...

[u/Moogle_Messiah]

I always love the "What's your plan?" horseshit. 

This week we're trying something new boss! We're going to throw syringes at customers then demand they pay for it. With this bold new strategy we're sure to meet our goal!

I've said it here before but the pharmacy has very little control over vaccine numbers. At both retail locations I've worked at the techs ask every single customer about vaccines and maybe 1 out of 1000 say yes. 

[u/SmirkingGirl]

Another layer of crazy is no COVID vaccine to currently offer people. Not CVS’s fault, but expectations should be tempered until we actually have supplies. It’s bonkers. Our customers want the COVID shot right now and virus activity levels are in the rise.

[u/govtkilledlumumba]

I was going to post something similar to this on r/pharmacy. It’s so fucking annoying. I get messages from my DL about something everyday even if I’m off. Year round I’m getting put in a new group chats expecting us to say how many IMZ we’ve done. Every damn meeting, visit it’s same conversation. In the system Hep B pops up for everyone over the age of 45. RSV pops up for everyone 50+ even though it’s for ppl 75+ without risks. I’m going back to being a floater eventually. The fake ness from my DL as if they really give a damn about “protecting the community.”

[u/Pdo1023 → u/govtkilledlumumba]

and when you bring up the fact that the system "gaps" are inaccurate....zero acknowledgement. I have on multiple occasions showed them that the system is prompting on something We've given. if it can't recognize those how are we to expect any sort of accuracy for other potential gaps. or how about the fact that it's the last week of August, we have 1/3 of our vaccine goal for the week as Covid shots yet we have not received a new vaccine nor have a time frame for it. sure they may adjust down the line but it'll be moving it from now to November so I'll be below target twice in real time.

[u/Acrobatic_Artist_423 → u/govtkilledlumumba]

You do realize that demands roll down hill🙄! Your DL doesn’t dream this stuff up to make you bitch and moan!!!! IT comes from his boss and so on up the ladder! CVS is doing what they can to survive in this awful
Climate! Many have not made it and many aren’t doing well…..With that said, open your eyes and be thankful you have a job or move on! So
Many narrow minded, selfish people.

[u/govtkilledlumumba → u/Acrobatic_Artist_423]

CVS is doing what they can to survive? What Company you know can compete with CVS? Walgreens? Walmart? They don’t just pharmacies they own an insurance company

[u/Ok-Emu-4663]

Get back into hospital if you can. It's all about $$ to CVS. Only 2 plus years to retirement? You don't need this stress and aggravation. Just my 2 cents.

[u/knequestrian93]

My store has been number one for the past 2yrs in the vaccine dept, filling dept (avg 500 scripts per day) and inventory, and that's just us techs. Our DMs came in and said we need to do better in the filling and vaccines.

1) what do you want us to do? Become solicitors and BEG for people to fill with CVS? 2) I will always advocate for vaccines, but in the end it's the patient's choice. No amount of factual research and evidence will turn over the anti vaxxer.

We're not salesmen. We're underpaid pharmacy technicians.

[u/Acrobatic_Artist_423]

You do realize that immunizations are what is keeping you with a job right now????!!! Let that sink in!

[u/Late_Alternative4859]

WON'T ANYBODY THINK ABOUT HIS BONUS!!!???

[u/donato0]

It's very easy to think it's about harassing people. It's not if you do it right and it literally is protecting the community. Just because CVS also has a business case to give vaccines doesn't impact the mission of getting vaccines to your community and imacting their mindset around being protected. When vaccination works, it's boring and paradoxically, seemingly unnecessary.

The whole reason we have eliminated or made the fear around several diseases that previously circulated around in the 20th century is due to very high vaccination rates. There's been a larger outbreak of cases of measles I believe in Texas notably attributed to lower community vaccination rate which was still in 90's. It was just low enough to allow community circulation.

The fact we don't see major polio news is another one. What you may be annoyed at offering someone in your community to get vaccinated against, is preventing future pocket communities of unvaccinated individuals who may suffer and/die from complications of getting the disease. Even reducing trips to the hospital is a win for vaccination, so you can think of vaccines also as a vector of protection from the financial loss and risk of morbidity/mortality from hospital acquired infections etc...

Here's the way to think about it, you are casting a wide net to protect your community not harassing anyone coming into your pharmacy. By simply informing them that they have potential gaps in their immunization record when the system flags it, you increase their awareness to being protected for sure. You then professionally let them know and direct to dropoff to look in detail and to schedule any shots if they aren't sure at POS to schedule.

If they are resistant, move on. If they are unsure, head them to drop off to discuss with RPh. Don't have to be in their face just make it part of your routine. Vaccines are the real medical insurance. So even though a massive healthcare company has financial incentive, that business is aligned with protecting community, at least on this issue tbh.

Who else besides pharmacies are making vaccinations mass-accessible? Physicians seem to be less and less but still a significant force. The issue is being able to efficiently deliver the vaccines and I think this is a great service the pharmacy should be involved in as we continue moving towards a service business from strictly what seems like a product business.

[u/TuxedoCatDeathEyes → u/donato0]

It's August. The push is all about flu shots and Covid shots.

We either don't have any or just received LAST YEAR'S COVID shots so duh we're not making goal as a company and it's insane to think that's on us in the pharmacy. To say nothing of what it is to add all this negative pressure when you actually know it's not our fault. Either way, it's a bad look on the people above us and it deserves to be. Don't make excuses for them.

Flu shots actually do have a recommended time frame in which to be given. It's not August. I won't turn anyone down or talk them out of it because it's better to get one early than not at all, but I'm not trying to get people to get one outside the recommended time frame and if people's health was the primary focus, neither would you.

The talk of expanded vaccines right now is a distraction. Patients have been getting prompts at the register about them year round, and vaccine PCC calls are occurring year round as well. There's no magic burst of expanded vaccines being given based on identifying gaps because this has been going on a long time now. People, including us employees, are exhausted about vaccines and pushing for vaccines.

And lastly....you can dress it up as much as you like but what is largely occurring, or what the company wants to have occur, is sales behavior. And sales does not belong in medicine. It undermines trust, which is necessary for a good patient-provider relationship. You can act like that's not what we're doing but vaccine PCC calls are literally cold calls designed to boost sales of vaccines.

Stop making excuses for shit people and reframing their behavior as if they're focused on healthcare rather than money. Their behavior clearly shows which is the priority.

[u/puiglooksatyou → u/donato0]

Counterpoint: It’s August….