CVS - Friend or Foe?

Let's, for a moment, talk about the hassle of picking up a prescription. Now I know it's not like it used to be - with big companies taking over and running smaller, family-owned ones out of town we are pretty much stuck. No more running to the local corner pharmacy when you have an emergency and getting the help you need. Like many years ago when my cat actually ate one of my birth control pills (it fell on the floor and she gobbled it up before I had a chance to grab it). That day I went down to my local family pharmacy, explained the situation to the pharmacist who knew me by name and she gave me a pill. Had it been CVS, there is no doubt in my mind I would have been forking over $50 for a replacement pack just for that one pill. But I digress.

On Tuesday my significant other went to the doctor and needed to me to pick up his script for him after work. No problem. I stopped by the house when I got home - about 4:45 - dropped off my work stuff and headed the three blocks over to our local CVS (his doctor had faxed the prescription over at the end of his appointment about a half hour prior). Terrific! I was thrilled - as we all know that if you have your doctor call it into the pharmacy at CVS you usually aren't required to wait the requisite 20 minutes (where I swear they intentionally make you shop the store to buy unecessary items while killing time).

I pull in - grab a spot - pretty much a good feat at this location and walk on in. Here is where it starts to get ugly. Nothing is ever easy so I should have known that up to this point things were moving ahead way to smoothly.

I walk down to the back of the store where the pharmacy line is four people deep, not counting the couple who are half asleep in the "waiting" chairs to the right and the woman sitting there hacking. Great, now I'm exposed to some strange person who probaby has Sars.

Ten minutes later it's my turn. I tell the pharmacist I'm there to pick up a prescription and give him the name. "I don't have anything under that name," he tells me abruptly. I tell him the doctor faxed it in within the past half hour to 40 minutes. He goes to the computer. "There was no prescription called in." No shit sherlock, I said it was faxed in. So I tell him again, it was faxed in. He walks ever so slowly in that indignant I work in retail way, pulls about 20 sheets of paper off the fax machine and comes across ours. Terrific. I know it's two scripts that come in boxes - all you have to do is slap a label on each. How long could it take? Five minutes max? I'm thinking again, I'm in good shape. Whammy! (as Nikki would say)

He informs me it will be at least 45 minutes before it will be ready. 45 minutes! You have to be shitting me! I'm ready to pull a Shirley MacClaine in "Terms of Endearment" - give my boyfriend the pill!!!!! I explain he needs to start this medication today and that it's imperative I have it. He tells me I'll have it but it will be 45 minutes. He couldn't have given a care in the world.

So I go home. Tell C the whole story. Take a shower. Make something to eat. and get ready because I had a friend coming over in an hour to pick up some stuff. I figured it would be fine. I could go over to CVS to pick up the script and be back in plenty of time. He said 45 minutes right?

Fifty minutes go by and I decide to pick up the phone and call before heading back over. I'm very nice, "hi I'm just calling to see if a prescription is ready?" I give him my name and I get a nasty "you were just in here" as a reply. I said yes, like an hour ago. "Well, he says, "I just put it in the system two minutes ago." What does that mean? You guessed it! It would be another 45 minutes to an hour. That makes it nearly two hours to pick up two items that again, all they had to do was slap a sticker on them and I'd be all set. Assholes. Then he adds that one of the scripts isn't covered by insurance and will cost $55. Whatever, at this point who cares. I told him it was fine.

So I hang up the phone, bitch a little, Ok I'll be honest, I bitched a lot. And then decided when Sasha came over (her husband was dropping her off) I would drive her home and stop by CVS - safety in numbers right.

So an hour and a half later, I again pull into the CVS parking lot - the place is jammed there is only one open parking space - so different than the good sign I had pulling in nearly three hours earlier. Oh, and did I mention this CVS actually has metered parking! Yep, metered parking meaning that not only to I have to deal with the ignorant assholes who work there, I have to pay for it. The fun never stops.

We head on down to the back of the store. Again, the line is multiple people deep and it's finally my turn. As I'm asking for the prescription there is a woman to my right who looks about as unhappy as I who offers up a "good luck" as she's been there 20 something minutes and they can't find hers. Shocking!

I give them my name. She finds nothing. Can't spell the last name even though I spell it out for her twice. Then goes to the computer, still can't find it - although she's telling me it has been filled. In between all this she's pissing and moaning to her co-workers that she's worked 16 hours and has to leave. And then they all start laughing and almost having fun at my expense! I'm steamed!

She has me move out of line and over to the "consult" window. Probably to keep me from causing a scene :-) and again starts asking me the spelling. Ugh! Still can't find it. More time passes, she calls for someone up front to help her and then turns around to the counter where there is a paper bag and sure enough - C's prescriptions are sitting right there and ready to go.

So by 8:30 that night C was finally on his way to recovery. Ugh.

Honestly, where's the humanity. Why are people so ignorant and uncaring and selfish. And further more, wouldn't it make more sense in this industry to have someone who speaks and reads English handling prescriptions? You'd think so right?