Hey all, been a minute since we had something happen in the pharmacy, but had something come full circle after a few weeks, just had to get time to type it all up.
So back in October, we noticed our drive thru drawer was slowing down and the last time this happened it basically meant it needed to be cleaned/lubed up again since we use it a lot. What we usually have to do to get any traction and action is submit a ticket online so it can be logged, and hopefully worked on.
Now I say hopefully because, well... the system is dogshit. You can submit tickets for anything for software issues, slowness with internet, physical issues that have to be fixed, etc, but getting some action for 80% of anything you submit requires some luck and hopefully getting someone who wants to help you out on the other end.
To counter this and make things go smoother, we'd typically get in touch with management and they'd check in on the tickets as well so it would hopefully get taken care of sooner and not get higher on the severity list, which then may lead to an emergency and extra billing.
We did have a great assistant manager that I could talk with and work together on this and we had great rapport, but he left early November because the new-ish store manager of a year basically drove out a lot of the old staff with severe micromanaging and cockblocking them on promotions, and she was a stickler on costs on the store. We asked to get two keyboards replaced and that was a headache as is.
So since he was gone and it's just the store manager, I tried to talk to her about it and give her a heads up and was met with "Just submit the tickets and resubmit it if nothing happens." So just to make sure all was good, I copied the ticket numbers, sent an email and copied my pharmacy manager on it. I made sure to resubmit the tickets and also ask "So you don't want me to tell you verbally or on email from here on about any ticket issues, pharmacy problems or delays, correct?" She replied back yes, and so I didn't.
So back to the drive thru. We had someone come out and check on the drawer, they said it would have to get looked at for replacement, so I made a ticket, put in all the info in that was needed and submitted it. Didn't say anything, just let the people do their job they were supposed to do. Resubmitted every 48 hours as the systems allows you to "bump" it if nothing has been looked at and did that for about 10 days with no action on replacement.
Well, day 12 comes around and I opened that morning, and as I was taking care of someone, the shelf doesn't move. Had to have them come inside to get finished up and we had to shut down the lane. So by this point, since it's down and we really need some movement on this, we submit a ticket for an emergency to get this on the record and addressed.
When a claim is done as emergency, we're basically guaranteed to get someone in there in about 2-4 hours, however it comes with all the charges that would make a frugal manager flip out about, with fees, premium time costs for service, etc, and then ordering the parts was done automatically, instead of needing the manager approval because the need was there.
So you best believe when the manager got the heads up that an emergency claim was put in, she nearly ran over to the pharmacy to ask why we didn't tell her something was happening, and I gently reminded her the she said herself in an email to not bother her with issues and submit tickets accordingly, and since it had been almost two weeks and we now cannot operate efficiently, we now had to take this route. I think when we do emergency options our district manager also gets an email, but I'm not sure. I didn't hear anything from him though.
The fallout was a huge bill for the store, since the system we had to get replaced was from a company that initially put the system in when the store opened in the early 2000's. So, they had to custom make this drive thru replacement cause it wasn't the current model they produce, have multiple visits to prep for the install, and as a cherry on top, the store got to hear a lot of complaints about drive thru being shut down for so long, and if the scores don't look good there, bonuses get lowered too.
I saw an invoice of some of the work and the guy who was working on things was chill, but I think he quoted the drive thru production around 25k cause they had to put a rush on it, and that's not adding in the service fees and more. So a fix that could have casually be started at the first ticket and followed up on and finished sooner and for less cost, ended up costing maybe 3-4x the amount just due to the fees.
Needless to say, the store manager has now conveniently asked me a few times here and there if there's any tickets in the system that need to be looked at. She's not my boss anyway, but that email chain is definitely saved in case it needs to be sent to our district manager if she thinks she can blame me for something in the future.
Anyway, moral of the story is - take care of your shit early and listen to the workers and you'll save money.
MC was the right prescription.
Manager even got to experience some of the expected side effects!
DEFINITELY no drowsiness, but for sure an upset stomach.
Correctly dosed, max strength.
And she wouldn't have needed max strength if she'd gotten an appointment earlier.
That is a tough pill to swallow.
Pharmacy puns where on call on this, no remedy for that.
There no scrip for puns this ill
The leadership over the people working the tickets is dogshit. Id also add that the leadership over you sounds like dog shit for not demanding better Resolution times, KPIs and SLAs from that team.
This doesn't happen in (most) hospitals. Nursing leaders and key physicians would be barging down the doors of the IT admins.
Is this a large box retail pharmacy?
You know it. And I agree it’s dogshit lol.
Haven't even read the post fully, got to the third paragraph and I was already annoyed lol.
Alright read it all, great job. Is this the one that starts with C? Nothing would make me happier, that 6 month contract was a nightmare.
Nope. But we have a big enough pharmacy here.
Though the one with the C is just shit overall.
Yea I don’t go there ever
I'm betting on this being a place that has green everything?
Blue.
My condolences, lol
And apparently in suppository form
Extended release 😂
The manager sounds like a real pill
Maintenance tends to be a lot more expensive if not done in time.
You’d think this would be known, but apparently not. This is why I love paper trails too.
Paper trail is important, especially the paper part. If it is CYA material, print it out and take it home. If printing isn't available, privately take pictures with your phone. Shield yourself from view of others and security cameras if you can.
When SHTF and it will impact management and leadership compensation, saving your emails in "the system" is not good enough. You never know who has access or authority over the admin "delete button."
Yes, indubitably (as I stare at the shower head that just broke and sprayed water hither and yon. The one that I had been side eying for awhile.)
This reminds me that I need to order my ADHD medication. Thank you!
I was JUST thinking that!
(For me, not you)
Why is it so easy to forget? Ahhh!
If you don't make time for preventative maintenance, the equipment will do it for you, and at the least convenient time.
this goes for your mind and body too btw. YOUR "equipment" will schedule the maintenance... by forcing you into a breakdown. A loud, obvious to those around you breakdown.
Reach out now.
The old Fram oil filters tag line: you can pay me now, or you can pay me later
If you don't schedule the maintenance regularly, the machinery will schedule it for you without your further input. Usually there will be some warnings, but if those, like the tickets, go unheeded, well...
The extra-strength suppository of consequences arrives without lubrication gel, at high velocity.
If you don't schedule maintenance, the machine will schedule it for you.
or "at all"
Maintenance or replacement. Choose one!.
Make sure to back it up off the premises as well
A copy of any "Pearl Harbor File" should always be kept off-site.
I mean, good job, but the real issue is not the manager who told you to resubmit the tickets, but the system that makes in necessary to take action in the first place.
The people receiving those tickets should manage their workload better.
I agree but if I’m going out of my way to also let you know of an issue going on and you want nothing to do with it when you’re the one complaining about costs, you’re kinda asking for it if you blatantly say you don’t want to hear about it.
Probably corporate infighting going on with budgets and they might just have one poor bastard handling tons of tickets. Usually, there would be a manager monitoring the queue with some sort of SLA to make sure there aren't old unanswered tickets.
Great at CYA with the email chain as well!
....so, how does that compare to a full replacement with the new model that'll be good for years to come?
Sizing and design of the drive thru.
A lot of the newer models of the company stores have a new more compact model that takes up a different cut of the wall space, as well as a different design of the counter with the mechanism under it.
Therefore, not something they currently make, but making a model of the one we have now compares to redoing the entire counter/wall so everything is updated wasn’t a discussion due to the emergency ticket. They just moved forward with replacement.
If they had worked on this prior, I’m not sure if they could put a new model in or the logistics of it anyway.
Ah okay, thanks OP & u/underground_avenue
The real costs comes from having to do it in a rush, instead of planning it. Bonus issues from having to do it while the place is open for business, instead of scheduling it to a quiet time or at least having a temporary workaround in place.
The rush job also prevents modifications to the building to accommodate the current model.
The custom replacement probably lasts just as long, but lacks the off the shelf quick replacements.
Haha yes, this is exactly why you always document and play by the rules. She dug her own hole, not you.
I heard a good quote a while back- 'Consultants charge millions to tell management the things their employees have been trying to tell them for free'.
This is yet another case...
If you don't schedule time for maintenance, your equipment will schedule it for you
She said not to tell her, so you didn’t, simple as that. The expensive mess that followed is entirely on her.
I'm confused why you got stuck with that bill anyway due to the vendor's inaction. wouldn't it be easy for your accounting people to point to the slew of tickets that you've logged which they didn't do shit on that resulted in the emergency ticket and only pay the regular rate?
Well it wasn’t the vendors inaction, that’s the thing. We submit tickets to the help desk for them to get in touch with the vendor and schedule the appointment so everything is logged correctly and I suppose billed right for the service.
We didn’t get any follow up on that with the following tickets when we had to discuss getting the replacement and that was AFTER we had the normal maintenance people come look at it and suggest replacement. We’ve used the company before with no issues but like I said, if the people at the help desk don’t do what they have to do, we don’t get anywhere.
This was an overall expensive lesson for all sides, so I do hope they get it together in the future cause it was still inconvenient for everyone.
oh it was an internal ticket, got it.
So the bill should be on the help desk for not contacting the vendor.
Not the store for doing everything correct and submitting multiple tickets to the held desk to then contact the vendor.
Thats the help desks fault. Not the stores.
If something happens that I don’t know about that’s on them. All I know is they bill the store directly, so corporate can figure it out if there’s a back trail of issues.
I don’t get why managers penny pinch on necessary repairs. They aren’t spending their own money. You are spending the company’s money to fix company’s property. If you don’t catch to fix problems when they’re still small. It’s going to get more expensive to fix when the problem gets bigger.
It's worked just fine for 25 years! Stop making excuses for your inefficiency!
They get to pocket unused budget.
"If this is a medical emergency, please hang up and dial 911."
"Your call is important to us. Please hold."
“A few strange clicks and a different voice” “Goodbye!”
If you don't schedule time for equipment maintenance, the equipment will schedule it for you.
I hate tickets and this week is a prime example of why. We lost comms with 1/12 of our equipment via our building maintenance system at midnight on Sunday. That tells me likely issue is a auto update that went wrong. We lost comms with so much equipment we had to rounds every 30 minutes or in other word non stop rounds on the equipment due to the fact by the time you put eyes on everything 30 minutes had passed and you had to start over.
Night shift put in a ticket right away, no response. Day shift comes in and we spam everyone we can think with zero response. Not until 33 hours later did the controls engineer for our area acknowledge the ticket, this is Tuesday morning at 9am when shit hit the fan on Sunday at midnight. 4 hours latter there's no update on the ticket so I message them for an update. Told that it's maybe a hardware issue after remoting in and can't find anything (engineer sits at a desk a whopping 15 minute drive away), they'll be by Wednesday to look at it. 9am on Wednesday they finally show up to physically look things. Nope nothing wrong physically so guess it is a programming issue...Finally 4pm on Wednesday they have the problem fixed.
What pisses me off? No SLA for them on tickets when I'm held to a tight SLA. Also the lackadaisical approach to fixing the problem when the issue is sucking up one full time position for essentially 3 days with no blow back from management, all I get is a shrug of the shoulders when bitching to my manager. In the meantime if I miss SLA by 1 second the world is coming to an end.
"listen to the workers and you'll save money."
Should be day 1, lesson 1 of manager school.
Listening to the people on the front lines who actually do the work is against the rules. /s
I call it; Running the place using Foreskin instead if Forethought.
Leadership that don’t listen to their people will find themselves surrounded by people with nothing to say.
Ticketing system failure. If 2 weeks can go by without addressing, thats a big failure
All of this because something wasn't maintained. You can bet all of my things are well-lubed!
Manager was contraindicated for malicious compliance.