Thinking about what makes chains successful....

And I'm not thinking about their cut-throat, back-stabbing, loss-prevention-paranoid Zoot Suits, and other nefarious characteristics we all hate.  Nor is it their misguided sense that "convenience" and a drive-through equates awesome customer service in and of itself.  Nor is it their ability to buy en-masse, and shaft everyone else with a $4 list, and play loss-leader games.  Quite frankly, only the last item on that list helps them.  The patients hate the others as much as their employees do.

As much as I hate to admit to it, there are benefits to working for a chain store that have to do with more than mind-boggling sign-on bonuses and high salaries, or a (false) sense of job security.  That helps, but I started thinking about why, even though I had the choice to work at independents, and if I looked hard enough, could even find one that provided benefits, why did I always seem to end up back at a chain?  Especially after vowing each time I left one, no matter how decent of a store and upper management I had (and I had a couple that were awesome stores/regions), that I WAS NEVER GOING BACK TO THE BALL-AND-CHAIN WORLD.

Seriously - after the Humana contract addendum I read yesterday, I really started thinking.  What aspect of the big box makes them so successful?  Why are they able to keep stores open?  How do they pack people in that absolutely hate to do business there?  But most of all, how do they convince even the smartest of us pharmacists, who know better, to come to work for them?

I think it boils down to this.  You aren't the only one in the boat.  You aren't the only one with an oar.  If you sink, you're not going alone.  Plus, with their resources at your back, unless you just really fuck up or, gasp, rock that boat (DrugMonkey!!!  You bad, bad Monkey!!), you're gonna be ok.  And that is a comforting place to be, no matter how much crap from all sides you have to put up with.

We're herd animals, folks, and there is safety in numbers.  There is strength in numbers.  There is camaflouge in numbers - somewhere to hide, someone else to blame.  Yeah, that weak little zebra on the Savannah may have been taken down by the big bad predatory lion king, but we avert our gaze, don't make eye contact, and convince ourselves they weren't keeping up anyway, or were threatening the safety of the herd by their actions, and now that blood is spilled, we're at least all safe for a while longer.

It's much more difficult when you're stuck out there on your own, especially if you aren't in a town near anything or anyone - colleague-wise - or if you are in town that (sadly) has hostilities between the independents.  You can come to feel completely over-whelmed, alone, and abandonded by your colleagues, especially if, like myself, you never really were a social person outside of your store.

But we are all in this together, and it is only together that we will be able to turn our profession around.  As isolated as I am, and as little time as I have for myself, I have been struggling with what I can do to help, and blogging is about all I've been able to come up with.  But we can't just bitch about things, although it is cathartic, and helpful in that it can identify problems that we all share, and keeps us from feeling isolated.  But in order to fix this, we must, must, provide solid, do-able solutions, for the short and the long term.  And we ALL must take part in implementing them.

Speaking not feeling so isolated, how about some pity comments?  DrugMonkey, thanks for posting my link to the Humana addendum (thanks, I think).  My views went from 165 in about three weeks, to currently 1065 (HOLY TRAFFIC, BATMAN!) with his link post, but NOT A SINGLE PERSON COMMENTED.  Be careful what you wish for, right?  But a little feedback would be nice.  I cannot believe that not a single person out of that thousand had a thought to share about what Humana is about to do.  No "thank you for the heads up" or "wow, you stupid idiot...can't you interpret contracts?  That's not what that means."  Nada.  Nothing. 

No anger at Humana for dictating to us how we should run our stores - we all have different circumstances, and they have no right telling a store filling 500 an hour that they should be able to have a prescription ready in 20 minutes.  Sure, most of us do have them ready in 20 minutes (if management doesn't "encourage" you to sit on them while people shop), and most of us would never think about allowing a patient to go even 12 hours without a badly needed medication because we couldn't order it in "a timely manner."  Am I the only one who is outraged by this?  If so, someone please nicely tell me why I am wrong to be outraged by this.  I really would like to know.

But, before I digress....(if you've been following me, all two of you, hopefully that'll give you a chuckle.  For those who haven't, that seems to be my current fav phrase.)

Back to my point.

We have got to start having each other's backs.  We have got to start standing up for one another.  SHAME ON ALL OF DRUGMONKEY'S FELLOW EMPLOYEES WHO DIDN'T SPEAK UP WHILE THE BULLSHIT WAS GOING DOWN.  SHAME, SHAME, SHAME ON YOU!!!  YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE PHONE, CALLING IN THE OFF-DUTY EMPLOYEES, THE RADIO STATIONS, THE TV STATIONS, FOX NEWS, THE LOCAL NEWS' I-TEAM...ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO WOULD HAVE LISTENED!!!!!  You should have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, and just stared the Zoot Suits in the face.  You should have picketted outside the store on your breaks and off hours.  We all should be inundating Rite Aid's email and snail mail and Facebook and Websites with our outrage for this.

We have got to stand together and help one another.  Pharmacy has disgracefully slid from being the most trusted profession - a place that we proudly held for at least a decade.  I was proud of us during that time, but I knew if the direction pharmacy was heading wasn't stopped, that would soon go the way of the dodo, and sure enough, it did.

Folks, participate and be active with your buying groups.  If you are not successful, they are not successful, so they are there for you, and they want you to succeed.  Probably the last few people on the planet that wants you to succeed.  Help them help you.  My buying group is tiny but wonderful and provides wonderful support, but due to my location, I am the only one in my state in the buying group, and the group is out of Oklahoma, and they have had a huge fight on their hands, and may not be able to keep up with it all.  Fact is, none of us can keep up with wading through mountains of paper contracts, while also being a pharmacist, alone.  We must band together and help each other.  Nominate each pharmacist in the buying group to read a different contract and then share information.  This will work for all kinds of different tasks we do each day.

If you're getting a great price from a wholesaler, communicate with your buying group.  Found a great secondary wholesaler?  Share with your buying group.  Find a great source for laser cartridges or other supplies?  Share with your buying group.  Find a great source for labels or bottles?  Share with your buying group.  In all likelyhood, they can negotiate an even better price for the entire group!

Reach out.  It's painful for the incredibly antisocial Phrustrated Pharmacist, and if you read my post So, How Are You Feeling Today?, you'll see I've become more and more antisocial the longer I've been at this job.  I hate being on the phone.  But I'm doing it.  And if I can do it, so can you.

Gotta go - I could go on forever about this!  But I won't...

     --T.Ph.RPh.