Pharmacist on hunger strike in protest of unsafe practices.

[McDiggy]

http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/07/a-former-medco-pharmacist-is-on-a-hunger-strike

This morning, Raj Bhat entered the 10th day of a hunger strike to protest allegedly illegal and unsafe business practices, as well as wrongful treatment of pharmacists by Medco Health Solutions, the big pharmacy benefits manager, where he worked until July 2005. Prior to his dismissal, Bhat complained to Medco managers that a new policy requiring pharmacists to process at least 45 to 55 prescriptions an hour was “unreasonably high” and led to a growing number of errors that placed patients in jeopardy.



As a pharmacist, albeit in a hospital setting, I can tell you that 55 scripts an hour is unbelievable. 65 seconds to to a complete DUR? I am amazed. Completely reckless and unsafe. And its not just Medco, Expresscripts, or Caremark. Any mail order company you use makes their pharmacists try to reach "goal script" counts. Think about that for a second. The person making sure that your drugs do not interact with each other...that two of your doctors aren't prescribing similar meds...considering the appropriateness of therapy...he or she is being told to do it in one minute and 5 seconds.

I always thought...if the public only knew that these corporations were doing with these prescriptions...they would be enraged. But nobody seems to notice...or care. It looks like one pharmacist has finally had enough.

[blue neen]

1. 55 scripts in an hour. That's way too many.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

Mr. Bhat should be commended for speaking up, instead he's been punished by the corporate gods.

[im1013]

2. Completely ridiculous!

But...why did he wait 5 years to say anything?


:wtf: