Omnicare Pharmacy-discuss

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:down: In my experience we have a big problem getting meds delivered in a timely fashion.You all know that if we don't have a med available (even if it is something as simple as a multivit) the DOH wants us to document and make every reasonable effort to obtain the med. We have to inform the doc if a med is missed,fill out a pharmacy occurrence report yada yada yada....And we are prohibited from "borrowing" a med from another resident. What happens to us frequently is we'll fax labels well before the cut off time for same day delivery but then 2 days later get a written notice that the fax was illegible...HELLO? 2 days later? You are now probably out of some meds.Shouldn't someone be picking up the phone each and every time a fax is received that transmitted poorly and notify the sender? Then there are the times we get a notice stating "our records show this order was d/c'd on this date " and we look in the chart and no order was written on or around the date they cite. ow does that happen? Or-we don't receive a med that we have called them several times for-then we end up with NINE BOXES of the med....Then other times we can not get a refill because "our records show this med was ordered too soon" How does THAT happen? I remeber working in a facilty years ago in which pharmacy staff came in on a monthly basis and switched out the med carts-we were not responsible for routinely ordering refills.That system worked out well-I don't remeber ever having these problems.Omnicare is almost self serve-we have to peel and stick re-order labels on a sheet to fax...On top of our mega med pass....whoopee...

I couldn't agree more I HATE OUR PHARMACY!!! :angthts: There I said it and I say it everyday at work when I'm dealing with their constant theraputic interchanges, denying they got orders, saying meds where dc'd and they weren't, telling us a resident has an allergy but we have no record of it, med cards with empty bubbles and you call to let them know and they argue with you (them: 'Our records show we sent you 20 pills 10 days ago' me: ' No there where only 10, and we used the last today' them: 'well I'm sorry I show we sent 20 and it is to early to reorder!!!" :argue: ) I could go on forever! Ugh!!! Did I say I hate them! I spend more time during my day dealing with pharm issues them anything else. Oh, and then there is the Pharmacist that comes in to check charts and parks himself behind the already crowded desk for hours so we can't get our charting and paper work done! :banghead:

And what pharmacy is this you ask Omnicare, of course!

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Always have issues with them, every single day. Seems like the facility could do better.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Step-Down, MedSurg, LTC.

I must agree with capecodmermaid and Pharmerica. Boy do I have a problem with them. Last Thurs. night while doing Narc. count onto shift, I noticed there were only 8 methadone pills left in a blister pack for one of our residents. He gets 4 at a time, three times a day. I also noticed that the reorder sticker was pulled. Day nurse comes on, tell him what's up and to probably expect the order in the morning. Come back that night. No methadone. Guy missed two doses. I documented to cover my butt, called the pharmacy and got the answering service. I wish I found out what the reason was for the delay but boyyy was I P.O'd. Even ordering our butt cream seems to be a hassle sometimes.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Oh where to start. I think my favorite Omnicare moment was when I called about a med and they "never got the order". I refaxed the order. Once again they "never got the order". Third fax never got it. I finally raised such a stink that they transferred me to a pharmacist and he took the order over the phone. Not to mention the time that they D/C'd all of my residents meds when her husband died and then wanted to fight with me about whether or not she was still alive. I swear a monkey could do a better job.:madface:

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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?

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
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?

Well,spank me and call me "Sally" You must be a pharmacist for Omnicare :lol2: If you have followed the thread you'll see that all of the points you just made in your lengthy post have been invalidated but just for spit and giggles I'll go again. Yes-my fax machine gives confirmation after each page has been sent successfully.The problem occurs at the other end-sometimes when they print our faxes at their end they are illegible for whatever reason.We don't find out for 1 or 2 business days because they don't call immediatly but rather later that night or the next day whomever picks up their faxes to fill them faxes us back .Sometimes by the time we have been notifiied we have a problem we have already missed same day delivery cut off... As for controlled substances-seldom have a problem with them at my facility. ...As for missing a dose-you must not be familiar with the department of health. As stooopid as it may be even if it's a freaking multi -vit we can be cited.The DOH DOES care-even if it's just one dose.And we have been cited in the past for this. As for meds not showing up-I've told you the most frequent reason at our facility for failure of delivery-we do get notice but it's a day or 2 after the med was ordered and by then we are well and out of the particular med. As for the Omniview website-we still chart on stone tablets-no computers at the desks,yet.We also do not have fax machines on each unit... The whole purpose of the thread was to COMPLIAN....-sheesh Certainly often nurses won't pull the labels in a timely manner-usually the float or pool nurses will not have as much time during their med pass.We "regulars" step up and try to make sure we have what we need especially for weekends and holidays. However the Omnicare system SUX-see the thread if you doubt that....

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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.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

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.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
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..
It's like calling Dell tech support....:banghead:
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Specializes in Geriatrics, Transplant, Education.
Most pharmacies that have many nursing homes as clients are huge entities and they are getting bigger. Pharmerica always was fantastic until they merged with Kindred pharmacy. Add this to the fact that my facility isn't near anything (unless you count the Atlantic Ocean). We were always having to call and call and call again to get meds. I've solved some of the problem by ordering a gigantic E-Kit. It has almost every drug we'd ever use.

Borrowing is not allowed and if we sent a resident to the ER...close to 90 minutes away for missing ONE medication, we'd never hear the end of it. I know it's a huge problem, but let's face it. Most of these people take way too many medications as it is. Call the doc and let him know the med was not given.

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.

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Specializes in LTC.

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.

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Specializes in Second Year LVN Alzheimers Nursing.

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.....

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