Just got my COVID booster and flu shot at a Target CVS and there were about two people picking up prescriptions when I was there. More in line (after me) for the vaccines. No problem at all. Went in another stand alone CVS today to see if I could walk-in for the vaccine (I could not). There were a few other people getting shots, but it wasn’t busy. No line.
Went back to the CVS today where wife had to wait almost an hour for her COVID booster last week. Today there were NO customers in the RX pickup line and only 3 people milling about in the vaccination area. She must have been there on a bad day, as I mentioned earlier that I had a minimal wait for my booster 3 days before she went in.
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I have not experienced this in Southern CA, but in the NYT there was a blurb about this issue this morning.
I was rather impatient today when there was ONE person waiting in front of me. I was irked because they were filling her prescription but she was just standing at the window and I think they should have asked her to step aside and served me!
I like the Safeway because it doesn’t have a drive thru. There are sometimes 3-4 people in line but usually only one or two. I don’t like the Kroger in store near me (although I do like that store better) because there are always 6=7 people in line and the line then goes back into the bakery area. There was a news clip about the long (like 12 cars) lines at all the Walgreens around here.
When I was visiting a friend on Hilton Head Island this summer, there was a sign in the grocery store window that the pharmacy would be ‘closed on Thursday.’ I asked my friend and she said they’ve had such a hard time finding pharmacists that they’ve started closing 1-2 days per week and try to give people a heads up to pick up prescriptions the day before they have to be closed.
I have a CVS horror story. My husband had total knee replacement surgery on Tuesday (he came home on Thursday). The doctor’s PA called in a prescription for pain medication (a narcotic). I went to our local CVS in Concord, MA (suburb of Boston) and the clerk tells me that they are out of the pain medication and that he’ll order it and I’ll have it in 2 days!!! What??? I asked if another CVS in the area might have it–he said I’d have to get in the “questions line” to find out. I walked to the other line–10 minutes later, the same clerk tells me the pain medication is available at another CVS about 10 miles away, but he can’t transfer the prescription because it’s a narcotic. Plus, he says that I won’t know if the meds are really at that CVS until I get there. Right now, the computer says there’s enough pain medication to fill H’s prescription, but that could change in a minute. Anyway, I explained that my husband just had surgery and could he give a few pills for the rest of the day/evening. The clerk checks and tells me that he’ll give me six tablets, but that this will void my prescription and that I’ll have to ask the doctor for another one for the rest of the pills because script is for a narcotic. I figured I’d take what he gave me and call the doctor’s office in the morning. Four phone calls later (apparently the hospital’s system for calling in prescriptions is messed up and some PAs can order scripts and others can’t). Huh? This is Brigham and Women’s–a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital?? At 6:00 pm, H got an email from CVS that his medication is available. I went to pick it up and this clerk (this is a not the original CVS but one in a neighboring town) tells me I need to show H’s driver’s license. I tell the guy that H is at home because he just had surgery and isn’t really up for driving to CVS. The clerk relents and says that it’s fine if I show him my prescription. End of story.
I knew when opioid abuse backlash got going that one of the results would be that people who truly need narcotics will end up paying a price. Your story illustrates that perfectly. Pendulum shifts are rarely without some negative effects.
Hope your DH feels better sooon.
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I remember when my daughter had her wisdom teeth out I thought it was crazy that we had to stop at the pharmacy on the way home to fill the prescriptions and couldn’t get them in advance. They told me that’s the way they had to do it, take a paper prescription to the pharmacy only after the procedure. And wait.
Both CVS and Walgreens have huge staffing problems in many areas. Many pharmacists and technicians have bailed due to working conditions and pay. Many pharmacies are inundated with giving shots but no extra help to get prescriptions filled. Plus there are quotas (many unnecessary) that are supposed to be done. After awhile of taking abuse from patients and having no way to actually get their jobs done in a timely manner they quit,
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Being a retail pharmacist at a place like CVS can be rough. They do not pay their pharmacy techs well so it is hard to keep good ones. Pharmacists work very hard and generally there is no chair in the pharmacy so they are standing 8 plus hours. It was a hard job before Covid. With Covid they are doing Covid tests and giving shots. Add to that flu shots and flu season, supply chain issues, etc… a lot of pharmacies can’t keep up. Our CVS is fine but we were on vacation in Lake Tahoe and they were way behind (maybe 5 days).
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Aetna is owned by CVS.
My pharmacy, at a Safeway, has a relationship with the Regis University school of Pharmacy and has many students working there (you can tell by their lab coats). We really aren’t close to the school, at least 15 miles away, so I think they pay them well.
I got my Pfizer 3rd shot at one CVS that seemed really busy. I had to wait 15 minutes past my appointment time for the shot. A pharmacist gave it to me, and she seemed a little flustered-I suspected at the time that they were short on staff or something. All in all, I was satisfied with the process even thought I had to wait a little while.
The other day, I got my flu shot at a different CVS. They had a guy specifically assigned to give vaccines, and when I arrived, he seemed to be sitting there twiddling his thumbs in between clients. Absolutely no wait at all, he was very skilled, and I was on my way within minutes. Interesting how different the two locations were.
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We were at CVS recently. Did not seem like there were any systemic problems.
The CVS where I went for my booster a week ago was only doing three an hour, and only Moderna. The pharmacy wasn’t very busy - looked like one senior pharmacist, one junior (who administered my shot), and one young clerk. They had a hand lettered sign saying they were not doing COVID tests.
The clerk had a heck of a time explaining to one customer that she couldn’t pick up a prescription without some kind of ID. Her CVS membership card wasn’t enough.
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Gee, at my pharmacy they ask “Are you picking up for anyone else at your house?” All I need to know is their birthdate (and if I get it wrong, they give me a second guess).
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Right? I picked up something for my 2 year old Granddaughter last month, and I was like, hope I get this birthday right! Narrator: She did indeed get it right!
For narcotic drugs, in my state you must show an ID. Perhaps that was the case.
When I picked up meds for a family member (narcotics after surgery), I had to show my ID.
For a regular RX…just name and birthday.
It’s only narcotics I’ve ever had challenges getting. I’ve picked things up for my folks, my kids and sometimes they even pick hints up for me.
I recall pre-COVID reading reports stating that there was a glut of pharmacists in the northeast, that there were more PharmD graduates than there were jobs----it would seem that the job market for pharmacists has gotten a whole lot better???
As a retired pharmacist,I read all this and could weep for them. I worked in hospital pharmacy which has its own challenges but not retail hell. I did that for three years out of college and fled as soon as I could. And it’s a hundred times worse now.
Interestingly, my husband’s (also retired pharmacist) was talking to his former coworker the other day and she,too, cited a glut of pharmacy graduates, a surplus of pharmacists. I wonder if CVS if offering sign on bonuses in the Philly region. Anyway, this glut was predicted around 2008 as suddenly there were multiple new colleges of pharmacy opening at universities, way more than needed. And here we are. I retired in 2015, thank you God. Loved, loved, loved my profession but the job can be a b****, LOL. I can’t imagine the pressure nowadays having to give shots, too! We use our grocery store pharmacy, under the Kroger umbrella and we’ve had no problems so far. Other than our poor pharmacist Dr. Rebecca has terrible back problems and might need surgery. 
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