by Allen Williams
Observing operation at Walgreen’s pharmacy located at 78th and State Avenue
in Kansas City, Kansas was a wonder to behold. It is a modern drug
dispensing facility with computer oversight, featuring a drive through,
two service lines, an information window and a huge alphabetical
prescription holding rack containing drugs for A to Z recipients, ready
to dispense.
The first time I was there to have a prescription
filled, the two service lines were six and seven persons deep and the
drive through window processed a steady line of prescription orders.
(Eat your heart out McDonalds!) From what I could see there were a half
dozen or so pharmacy techs of various nationalities scurrying about
keeping the drive through window supplied and placing orders in the
holding rack. It was by far the most intensive activity in the entire
store and undoubtedly responsible for Walgreen’s 2016 billion dollar profits. It is for all practical purposes a highly successful retail network pharmacy. But what about real healthcare?
Only
one pharmacist oversaw this circus of activity that I could detect with
who knows how many unseen individuals behind the scene hastily filling
little plastic pill bottles with various medicines. It was Obamacare’s
assembly line medicine in full operation, a boon to the fortunate few
who hold exclusive distribution status.: “The Obama administration decided to make a deal with the PhRMA
to get them to support the legislation,” he told Morning Consult.
“PhRMA got a number of favorable provisions in the legislation.”
As you might expect, in any quasi chaotic operation born of special interest deals, things were bound to go wrong.
In the multicultural- multinational drug market, the ‘mission
statement’ is more important than the reality of care. Walgreen’s
president, Greg Wasson claims: “One of the most unifying forces behind Walgreens 113 years of success is our purpose: to help people get, stay and live well.”
Really?
But shouldn’t that process commence by ensuring that patients obtain
ALL their prescribed medicines and not someone elses? After arriving at
Walgreen’s about a month ago, I had requested my prescription records
be transferred to Walgreens from CVS. You AREN’T ALLOWED to retrieve
your own prescription from a pharmacy under Obamacare; it has to be
requested by ANOTHER PHARMACY.
On March 27th, I went to get my 2nd
prescription filled that clearly indicated there were two remaining
refills on the bottle. However, I was told at the counter that they had
NO prescription records for that medication. I informed them you
should have the records as I had requested them to be transferred from
CVS the last time I was at Walgreens. But I had to request the transfer
of my 2nd prescription a second time and indicated that I would return on Wednesday of that week to pick it up.
When I arrived at the counter on Wednesday a multicultural tech informed me that my pain killing medication
was ready. I didn’t have a pain killing medication, I replied. “Oh,
then your Prednisone prescription is ready”, the tech said. I don’t
have a Prednisone prescription either; I wouldn’t take that stuff I
replied. Makes you wonder if diabetic customers are getting the correct
medication and dosages, hmmm? Nothing quite like being knowledgeable
about whom you’re serving.
But regarding my 2nd
prescription they said: “CVS didn’t send that prescription to us because
you have no refills remaining.” But that wasn’t true as the
prescription vial I handed Walgreens clearly displayed TWO refills and
it had not yet reached the 12-month expiration limit.
The
pharmacy didn’t seem to care about the administrative foul-up and
refused to honor my request for a few emergency pills to hold me over
until I could get the doctor to write a new prescription because as
their pharmacist told me “.. it wasn’t legal.” KMART did this regularly. So was it legal
to push off narcotic pain killers and prednisone on me because they
mistook my identity? It doesn’t invoke much confidence on my part in
their professional capabilities. Instead they had my third prescription
ready (which I didn’t need) and tried to get me to take that in lieu of
what I requested. Starting to get the picture, yet?
Discussion
with the pharmacist led to an agreement for Walgreen’s to contact my
doctor and their automated system would then call me when my 2nd
prescription was filled. But, there was no call from Walgreen’s
automated system and I had to call it myself (and my doctor) to find out
that my prescription was ready to pick up nearly a week later. It
doesn’t matter what you arrange with Walgreens, you will only get what they decide you can have. Is it just me? Well read some of the 1220 Walgreen complaints and decide for yourself.
CVS and Walgreens are battling it out to control the market for prescription drugs so customer care is way down the line. Patient care comes in number four
right behind legal liabilities, HHS directives and company policy.
Emphasis is on pushing the distribution sales of prescription drugs to
the dehumanizing level, everything else is secondary.
I arrived at Walgreens’ on April 3rd to pick up the 2nd
prescription, the pharmacist waited on me directly. I informed him
that Walgreen’s automated system didn’t call me and that I had to call
it instead. He did the usual security check with my birth date and then
asked me to type in the last four digits of my telephone number which
the system didn’t take. This suggests that I quite possibly could have
left Walgreens with narcotics never prescribed for me because of their
malfunctioning system. He continued to try to get the system to accept
my phone number and I finally had to tell the Pharmacist to ring up my
charges as he wasn’t responsible for the malfunction. It was the people
who installed it. They could play with their computer later; I just
wanted to complete my business and leave.
My first hint that
Walgreen’s was more a greed driven enterprise than a healthcare outlet
occurred when I was forced into their system from the collapse of
KMART’s pharmacy. And mind you, not that KMART provided inferior
products or service but it simply wasn’t as good as Walgreen’s in
marketing their slice of the Obamacare drug cartel. KMART’s final
pharmacy closure sent my prescription records to CVS, the bottom of the
birdcage in prescription medicine.
The reader is well advised to seek other drug store providers if at all possible.