Last night I was watching Medical Miracles, which was an interesting show. It featured a woman who was suffering severe tremors due to Parkinson’s Disease and an 11-year old boy who had been blind from birth. For the woman with Parkinsons, they were able to put probes in her brain hooked up to a battery pack in her stomach. It was able to short circuit the part of the brain that was causing her bad tremors. For the 11-year old boy, they were able to give him an artificial cornea, which restored sight in his one eye that still had optic nerve functioning.
So I enjoyed the stories, was impressed by the medical procedures, but what’s the deal with CVS?? Not only did they have a blatant sponsorship of the program, “Since you’ll still have to be on medications for Parkinson’s, and it’s a financial struggle, CVS has generously donated a gift card to help you with your expenses.” But they also had a bunch of commercials. One of them featured a pharmacist who said something to the gist of: He had an elderly Polish couple as customers that had been in the War and had a hard life. Since 2 minutes wasn’t enough time to help them figure out how to take their 20 medications, he went over on his day off and spent half a day helping them figure it out.
Guess what, CVS? This backfired for me. This implies that 1) You’re not allowing your pharmacist enough time to explain and counsel your customers on their medications, and 2) Because of this, your poor pharmacist had to spend his day off (i.e. uncompensated time) to counsel this couple.
I think it shows that, while you may have some really kind-hearted pharmacists, there’s something wrong with your procedures that your pharmacists feel obligated to spend uncompensated time providing the counseling they should be able to provide while they’re on the clock.
Okay, my rant is over.