Omnicare Pharmacy-discuss

Seems to be a bit of hatred for pharmacy out there. I have some suggestions...the fax machine can be programmed to print a confirmation or "problem with transmission" sheet after each fax so you know that it went through. You can also have it just spit out the page for ones that didn't work so you're not standing there all day all the time. Just because the re-order sticker is gone, does not mean the nurse before you actually reordered it.

When it comes to C2 scripts, there is no such thing as a refill on them. There has to be an original prescription signed by the MD. They have to mail out a prescription to them and get it back within a week. Some MD's don't / won't get these back in the mail. Then the DEA must be called according to the Feds.

Missing a dose for a day? So what. The regulations say that missing a dose or giving it late is only considered actionable if the missed or late dose can cause harm to the resident. What would you do if you forgot to take your Zocor one day? Big deal. Most of our meds are not going to kill anyone if they miss a dose.

As for the meds that don't show up, they should be sending a report with the (meds that do arrive) about the reason some aren't there. They should also fax those (somewhere) in your facility before the meds arrive. Besides, Omnicare has website where you can check on the status of each med you've re-ordered throughout the day. It's called Omniview and your DON / ADMIN can get you a username & password.

Sure, thing get missed and screwed up sometimes, but overall there are things you can do about fixing them before they cause problems instead of coming here to complain. I hear way too much complaining in LTC and not much taking responsibility. Why don't you talk to the pharmacist who comes in and tell him or her what's been happening and solve the problem?

Yep...I'm going to agree with KTWLPN...first I check to see if we did our part right. Was it re ordered within the appropriate time frame, did we fax to the right number? (Most of the time we have the comfirmation report from the fax). I know I chart all my calls to pharm and reasons for missed doses.
The state doesn't care about all of that. Period. Yes....people miss doses at home and it might just be a MVI, but that is the State.
Since I work weekends, I often have trouble just getting a pharm on the phone. When I do I'm told it will be sent on the next run...good luck figuring out how long that will take to get there.

Right now, we don't have interent access at work, but in the future, I will look into that one.

It's not just Omnicare...all huge pharmacies have problems and pharmacists who barely speak English and get mad if you tell them you can't understand them. As for the fax machine...I got a call from the pharmacy to holler at me for not including a stop date on the antibiotic order....I asked the guy to look at the date on the fax since I knew the resident had died at least 3 months before the call. Apparently the fax was on the floor in the corner of a room and no one bothered to look at it.
As for missed doses...we had a DPH surveyor try to cite us because one patient's Prilosec wasn't given before meals. Hello...who ever says the state doesn't care has never been through survey.

We use Pharmerica too, and while the E-kits we have are helpful for most things, I've had some frustrating experiences, mostly due to working sub-acute where there are LOTS of new admissions (for which they only send 7 day supplies) and lots of new orders on a daily basis. I run into a lot of problems with not having HS meds to give to my new admissions (I work 3-11, and we do the majority of sub-acute admissions, since hospital tends to send them at change of shift) because they aren't delievered yet. Usually we can deal with it, but you better believe I raised hell when it took me nearly 2 days to get a new admissions Dilaudid (not in our narc e-kit) because they said they never got the doctor's fax of the script. And nope, we couldn't give pt anything else--allergic to oxycodone & codeine (which is in basically everything in the narc e-kit)....so for 2 days this poor pt had to get extra strength tylenol. Way to make me feel like a crappy nurse.

Our facility use to have Omnicare but we switched in Jan because we were having to many problems with them and our DON was tired of them. We switched to GPS pharmacy with the Opus system. It is very nice not having to reorder meds. GPS comes out every two weeks and replaces our meds all we have to do is reorder liquids, insulins and eye drops things they can't tell when we are out of. I do not miss Omnicare one bit.

Thanks everyone for the input I have the Omnicare markerter currently stocking me to switch over. I was intrested because they will do the MR for you however after reading several of your post Im not to sure.....

I have a laundry list and am not sure where to start...

Meds are delivered twice a day by a courier service (mid afternoon and around MN). Most of our admissions come on the PM shift, if orders are faxed over by 5PM then they come on the MN run sometimes with the med sheets; if the sheets do not come then the nurse has to hand write them just until they arrive the next day. If the orders are not faxed before 5PM then the meds do not arrive until the next day. Wonderful not to have medications for post-hospital admits. Or try administering them without med sheets.

Told constantly that something is reordered too soon... shows up then on my facility bill. The have the face sheets and payor sources for everyone in the building but, my bill always has charges for individual residents that i should not be paying for.

They changed my rep one day and when I called her and heard someone else's voice on her answering machine; had to make another phone call to find out what was up. My nurse manager called to question a something and was told by the new rep (that i didn't know had changed) that it was the DON's fault since a letter had been sent out explaing the change. I called the pharmacy to ask, what Letter???? They can send out these non-stop invitations to monthly dinners andtalks on anti-depressants and such but can't get the needed info to me. They also were suprised to find out that my "new" rep had not called to set up a meeting with me and had berated me to my staff. Needless to say, another rep was assigned to me.

The new rep we have now had for about a year. Any issues we have are immediately our fault OR because they have new people working in the pharmacy. Nothing is ever fixed or taken care of. I am still tring to get credits on my bill from months ago.

Last week, one of my managers spent 3 hours on the phone in one day trying to get narcs for the new rehab residents. One resident had not had them for 3 days. They had written a letter on March 11, mailed it on the 16th and received it on the 18th (when I was not there) detailing their new policies on ordering narcs. Great!!!! The NHA faxed a letter to the head of the local Omincare giving a 60 day notice that we were changing pharmacies, enough is enough. He immediately got a call from a regional person wanting to come in for a meeting.

During the meeting, two Omnicare district reps arrived and promised the sun & moon. They were "shocked" to hear of all the issues we were having for years. They would be our main contact and "fix" everything. First of all, the way they tried to fix everything for my manager was get on the phone to the local and tell them to take care of things. So, back to dealing with the same old s---. Lip service, very noticeable. My NHA stood his ground and stated he will continue to proceed with the 60 day notice.

All you need to do is type in Omnicare into any search engine and you start finding all the problems they have had over the years. Multi-million dollar suits for fraud and such. That's what happens when you absorb all the smaller guys and are the largest in the nation. customer service has went right down the tube.