A Letter to Corporate

Dear Corporate Pharmacy,

I would like to thank you for my gainful employment and the paychecks that come with it. It has been a great career so far and I have seen many changes that have improved our profession. Along with these positive changes, I have also witnessed the ruination of the profession I love. I lay the blame squarely at your feet, corporate rulers.
It is unfortunate that you seem so out of touch with what our profession represents. It is time you rethink your policies and procedures and hiring practices. It is time to take off your suits, walk into our stores, put on a lab coat, and do the job you wish to destroy; the job you think you know. While you are there, you can take a few pharmacists and technicians and move them into corporate offices so they can write the new P&P manuals. They can dictate how a pharmacy should work. More importantly, you need to STOP making policies and procedures and just let us do our jobs without interference.

Let me provide you an example.
Most pharmacies have two cash registers and many have a drive-thru. If I have one technician for the register and one to perform data entry, then no one is counting. If a line builds, people will wait and become irritated. They will complain. We at the store will get docked for poor customer service because we are not quick enough. However, we are working within the budget sent to us by corporate. Imagine a Superstore with 30 checkout lanes...after Thanksgiving. What is the best impression for customer service? A. Customers walk in and see 30 open lanes with 30 cashiers and only 5 people in each lane, or B. Customers see 30 open lanes, only 1 cashier working, and 150 people waiting in that one lane? This is what you have done to pharmacy.

I have always been in favour of pharmacists providing immunizations. I am on board with MTMs. What I have a problem with is continuing to add tasks to our daily responsibilities while not adding compensation or support for the increased workload. Have you read Animal Farm? You have made us Boxer ("I will work harder"), while you have become the pigs.