Prescription for Success… Or Failure?
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The city in which I live—Chico, California—is a wonderful place. It’s a relatively small city (about 75,000 residents), but it’s home to California State University, Chico, so there’s always a lot of fun stuff going on. Chico is safe, clean, and has most of the modern amenities considered vital in today’s world: Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Costco, etc.
Oddly enough, however, Chico only has one 24-hour pharmacy: Walgreens. This is problematic for those of us with small children, who are prone to get sick after the doctor’s offices and regular pharmacies have closed.
A few days ago, all three of my kids came down with some nasty bug. So we loaded up the minivan and headed off to the local after-hours clinic. The doctor phoned in three prescriptions of antibiotics for the kids. Walgreens was our only option. After we loaded up the kids for the ride home, my wife remembered that we had a little bit of antibiotic left over from the last illness so we decided to pick up our prescription the next day.
The following day I head to Walgreens to pick up the prescriptions. I wait 10 minutes in line only to be told that they haven’t been filled yet. I remind the woman behind the counter that the prescription had been called in 16 hours earlier (remember, this is a 24-hour pharmacy). She tells me that the best they can do is fill them in about 10 minutes.
I wait 10 minutes and then get back in line for another 10-minute wait. When I get to the counter again, I am told that they didn’t bill my insurance, so I’ll have to wait another 10 minutes while they do the insurance billing.
OK, at this point, the Quality Curmudgeon’s blood is boiling. I am mad, mad, mad! Such incompetence! I vow never again to use this pharmacy (even though I know I will have to). I realize that my anger really was out of proportion to the situation. So, being the nice guy that I am, I didn’t say anything. I just waited along with everyone else.
After another 10-minute wait, I am called back to the window and told that Blue Cross doesn’t seem to have my daughter in their system. OK, I was about to lose it at this point, but something curious happened. My anger at Walgreens and Blue Cross turned into sympathy and compassion for Andrea, young woman who was helping me. Rather than just say, “Sorry, I can’t help you,” she called Blue Cross and spent 15 minutes on the phone arguing on my behalf. When a supervisor at Blue Cross finally told her that my daughter didn’t exist and there was nothing Blue Cross could do, Andrea just hung up and called back. She spoke to a different person who was able to find my daughter in the system and (hopefully) fixed the problem for good.
I thanked Andrea for her help. “This happens all the time,” she said shrugging her shoulders. “It’s no big deal.”
Andrea then told me that she had to have a pharmacist check the prescription before she could sell it to me, so I had to wait another five minutes. When I was called back to the counter to pay, Walgreens’ computer system wouldn’t let them sell me one of the prescriptions. At this point, I wasn’t really so much angry as I was amused. Five different employees tried in vain to override the computer system. Finally, one of the pharmacists told the cashier to just manually enter the info and sell me my prescription.
I was in the pharmacy for over an hour. In that time, I went from annoyed, to angry, to exasperated, to sympathetic, to amused.
So, what lessons did I take away from all of this? Who’s fault was it? Mine for not encasing my children in a plastic bubble? Greedy lawyers for driving up the cost of health insurance with frivolous lawsuits? Incompetent management at Walgreens for not designing a better process? Computer software manufacturers for not designing better software? Blue Cross for a lack of training and inefficient processes? So how can I improve this situation for the future? Let’s examine my options:
• Move to a bigger city.
• Encase the children in plastic bubbles.
• Try to get to the doctor earlier in the day so I can use a different pharmacy (though given the state of health care these days, there’s no guarantee that I will have a different experience with a different pharmacy).
• Switch insurance companies. Again, there’s no guarantee that would be a better solution.
• Accept the fact there are some things that I just don’t have any control over, do the best that I can and not be so intolerant of those caught up in the process.
I think the last solution is probably best. I know that Andrea and the other people at Walgreens were doing the best they could with the system they had to work in. The same is probably true of the reps at Blue Cross. Many of our readers face similar scenarios every day. You’ve got to follow somebody else’s processes and make the best of it. Isn’t that what this quality stuff is all about? Making the best of somebody else’s process and adapting your organization’s capabilities to meet the customers’ (external and internal) needs.
What processes drive you crazy. Share your experiences here.
Oddly enough, however, Chico only has one 24-hour pharmacy: Walgreens. This is problematic for those of us with small children, who are prone to get sick after the doctor’s offices and regular pharmacies have closed.
A few days ago, all three of my kids came down with some nasty bug. So we loaded up the minivan and headed off to the local after-hours clinic. The doctor phoned in three prescriptions of antibiotics for the kids. Walgreens was our only option. After we loaded up the kids for the ride home, my wife remembered that we had a little bit of antibiotic left over from the last illness so we decided to pick up our prescription the next day.
The following day I head to Walgreens to pick up the prescriptions. I wait 10 minutes in line only to be told that they haven’t been filled yet. I remind the woman behind the counter that the prescription had been called in 16 hours earlier (remember, this is a 24-hour pharmacy). She tells me that the best they can do is fill them in about 10 minutes.
I wait 10 minutes and then get back in line for another 10-minute wait. When I get to the counter again, I am told that they didn’t bill my insurance, so I’ll have to wait another 10 minutes while they do the insurance billing.
OK, at this point, the Quality Curmudgeon’s blood is boiling. I am mad, mad, mad! Such incompetence! I vow never again to use this pharmacy (even though I know I will have to). I realize that my anger really was out of proportion to the situation. So, being the nice guy that I am, I didn’t say anything. I just waited along with everyone else.
After another 10-minute wait, I am called back to the window and told that Blue Cross doesn’t seem to have my daughter in their system. OK, I was about to lose it at this point, but something curious happened. My anger at Walgreens and Blue Cross turned into sympathy and compassion for Andrea, young woman who was helping me. Rather than just say, “Sorry, I can’t help you,” she called Blue Cross and spent 15 minutes on the phone arguing on my behalf. When a supervisor at Blue Cross finally told her that my daughter didn’t exist and there was nothing Blue Cross could do, Andrea just hung up and called back. She spoke to a different person who was able to find my daughter in the system and (hopefully) fixed the problem for good.
I thanked Andrea for her help. “This happens all the time,” she said shrugging her shoulders. “It’s no big deal.”
Andrea then told me that she had to have a pharmacist check the prescription before she could sell it to me, so I had to wait another five minutes. When I was called back to the counter to pay, Walgreens’ computer system wouldn’t let them sell me one of the prescriptions. At this point, I wasn’t really so much angry as I was amused. Five different employees tried in vain to override the computer system. Finally, one of the pharmacists told the cashier to just manually enter the info and sell me my prescription.
I was in the pharmacy for over an hour. In that time, I went from annoyed, to angry, to exasperated, to sympathetic, to amused.
So, what lessons did I take away from all of this? Who’s fault was it? Mine for not encasing my children in a plastic bubble? Greedy lawyers for driving up the cost of health insurance with frivolous lawsuits? Incompetent management at Walgreens for not designing a better process? Computer software manufacturers for not designing better software? Blue Cross for a lack of training and inefficient processes? So how can I improve this situation for the future? Let’s examine my options:
• Move to a bigger city.
• Encase the children in plastic bubbles.
• Try to get to the doctor earlier in the day so I can use a different pharmacy (though given the state of health care these days, there’s no guarantee that I will have a different experience with a different pharmacy).
• Switch insurance companies. Again, there’s no guarantee that would be a better solution.
• Accept the fact there are some things that I just don’t have any control over, do the best that I can and not be so intolerant of those caught up in the process.
I think the last solution is probably best. I know that Andrea and the other people at Walgreens were doing the best they could with the system they had to work in. The same is probably true of the reps at Blue Cross. Many of our readers face similar scenarios every day. You’ve got to follow somebody else’s processes and make the best of it. Isn’t that what this quality stuff is all about? Making the best of somebody else’s process and adapting your organization’s capabilities to meet the customers’ (external and internal) needs.
What processes drive you crazy. Share your experiences here.
Related Links: Inspections & Quality Controls in China, QC Asia, Factory Audits & Products Evaluation
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