Since we are in the middle of a global health crisis I feel it is my duty as a citizen to warn others against going to this pharmacy.
Since COVID-19 became a global priority our lives are no longer solely our own - they now also depend on the behavior of others. Pharmacists have always been an important link between doctors and patients. When they do their jobs poorly it can be dangerous in better times; that same behavior during a pandemic becomes unforgivable. Serve that up with a side of discrimination and you have yourself a lawsuit.
I fought back tears as I witnessed an elderly and disabled woman of color crying in her wheelchair as she was publicly humiliated by two pharmacists at this CVS location. The pharmacists are positioned behind a row of cashiers and a plastic window to help protect against COVID; you can imagine how loud they'd been yelling that I couldn't avoid hearing them. This woman was trying to pick up a medication I am familiar with because ironically I was there for the same reason. I heard, quite clearly, that they were accusing her of being a drug addict who was trying to shake them out for pills. They sounded like a bunch of bullies at a playground. They yelled out the name of the medication she was quite literally begging for (and excuse me but that's private information) and I recognized it 100% as definitely not being a controlled substance. They said the name of the medication twice so it's impossible to have made a mistake. They were telling her to sleep it off and that she was shaking like a drug addict- but she wasn't, they were just being cruel. She couldn't project her voice (she looked like she was in her 80s or 90s) and she was even less audible because she was crying. She was saying "I'm not shaking, it's the table," (she was leaning against something unsteady) "why are you doing this to me,"and "please help me." This woman survived how many decades on this Earth, she's hopefully about to survive a pandemic, all just to be traumatized at a CVS? Heck, even I'm traumatized.
One of the pharmacists bullying her pretended to pick up the phone and call a lawyer; no lawyer would corroborate poor medical advice at a CVS. The elderly woman tried to tell them it wasn't a controlled substance, but the more she tried to explain the louder they talked over her until the cashier joined in, told her to move, and tried to take the next customer. That next customer waited for another cashier and his decision just exacerbated the situation (I can't imagine how uncomfortable he must have been having to refuse any involvement in that drama). When It was my turn I told the cashier that I was on that exact medication and it's used off-label for diabetic nerve pain. If that woman took their advice to "sleep it off" she'd wake up in the hospital because abrupt withdrawal leads to seizures. I had to at least try and help this woman, but I paid dearly for it when I was then also denied service. I couldn't get anyone to check the bin two feet away or tell me what my options were as far as contacting my doctor or insurance company - they wouldn't even tell me what the problem was and I was holding a cell phone with a text telling me that my medication was ready. There's a poorly working app I checked as well, just to be sure, while standing in front of them. I got right back on line when I saw that the woman behind me was being asked the proper questions I'm used to answering: first name, last name, DOB. This isn't my first rodeo, I did not get those questions because let's face it they had no intention of helping me. This is how they behave during a crisis?
I spent well over an hour in the store and 45 minutes on hold by phone (no one ever picked up). It was because no one ever picked up that I had to walk to the store. I couldn't call my doctor to have the prescription sent elsewhere, or my doctor's secretary, or anybody else for help. The CVS website isn't exactly equipped to handle anything more complicated than saying it does or doesn't have your medication. I had nowhere to turn.
I am sincerely grateful that there are platforms like Yelp to help us all connect and give us the opportunity to warn each other against danger. This pharmacy is in no way worth the risk you would be taking and its staff clearly has no respect for human life.
The worst part? I was almost out of the store when I got coughed on. By a CVS employee. read more