This is specific to the pharmacy section. I arrived to fill prescriptions for my wife. The line was incredibly long and stretching through an entire aisle. What was worse is it hardly moved at all. When I finally got to the front of the line I learned why.
The individual at the computer was absurdly slow. They spent 99% of the time confused and staring at the computer. She seemed to have no idea what she was doing, and needed to ask the pharmacist questions for literally everything. It was like she was in training but had no trainer.
Her attitude was pretty abysmal as well. It seemed like she couldn't care less about expediting things to a somewhat reasonable pace. I provided all documents and insurance info she needed and still stood there for 10 minutes as she fumbled through the process. She finally asks if I wanted the prescriptions today. Yes!
I asked if they had a couple of other items that the doctor mentioned. She looked at me and shrugged. I asked if she could find out, she turned to the pharmacist and asked, he looked confused and said "I'll check." Never saw him again.
After that interaction, she stood there for at least a full two minutes staring at the computer. I waited patiently. She then glances up at me and gives me a weird look. "Okay, go stand over there." She points at the long line. I ask if she was telling me to wait in the line. She shrugged. I gave her a couple of moments to respond, but she still just stood there. I clarified again if she was directing me to wait in the line. She shrugs again and says, "just stand over at the side."
So I've been waiting here next to the window for another 30 minutes with a group of other confused, irritated, and tired customers. Still no prescriptions. So, I get back in line and wait another 20 minutes, and am told when I get to the front of the line that it will be another 15 minutes. So I go back to waiting at the side of the window.
Someone finally brings two out of four prescriptions, and asks for my insurance card again. I pass it over and she walks off. At this point, I've been inside the store for nearly two hours. She comes back to tell me that there's something wrong with my insurance number and they cannot apply my copay.
At this point, I had lost my patience. Firstly, my insurance is current and they were provided with all necessary information. But most importantly, why was this not addressed earlier, as soon as they were provided my insurance information? By the time they finally got around to telling me there was an issue, my insurance's offices had closed for the day and were unavailable to troubleshoot.
At this point, I had lost all patience. I went back and forth with this person behind the counter, who was not at all understanding of why I might be irritated over these entirely avoidable issues on their part. They continued to hold that the problem was with my insurance, and there was nothing they could do. I pondered leaving right then with my prescription papers and going somewhere else, but I decided to remain, since the prescriptions were already made. I was mad that I wouldn't have my much cheaper copay price, but seeing that my wife, who was quite ill, was waiting in the car for these very medications, I was willing to pay full price and deal with the reimbursement nightmare with insurance later.
Nope! One of the medications needed to be verified by the doctor. Per the pharmacy, they have not received a response yet and couldn't dispense it to me. Now, it was not just my insurance's fault, but also the ED's fault. Definitely not Walgreens. Except, I'm a nurse at that very ED and immediately call the unit assistant to ask about it. He told me that he had just received their faxed request and had just walked it to the doctor. It was Walgreens fault - they were dragging their feet.
Moments later, the fax goes through and I could finally leave with my wife's medications ... TWO AND A HALF HOURS AFTER WALKING THROUGH WALGREENS DOORS! I could have driven to the other side of the bay and filled these quicker somewhere else. If you're coming here for the first time from St Rose, the nearby local hospital, don't bother. Skip it and get your medications somewhere else. Anywhere has to be faster and more competent than this. read more
