Two weeks ago I went for a job interview through an employment agency that focuses on placing potential candidates in the pharmacy technician field. What started out as a preliminary phone interview where I was a bit skeptical to make a decision, turned into more of an interest on my part because I see it as an opportunity to learn the other side of pharmacy.
While I still plan on keeping my retail pharmacy job working part time every other weekends, this new job is a consistent Monday through Friday job that pays more. Not only that, but I'll be back on a time scheduled routine again where I can maintain with my errands and other activities.
The position consists of working in a call center environment but dealing more with patients and doctors over the phone just working on refill requests authorization. It gives me an idea of how this end works as opposed to being in a retail setting where our resources are VERY limited when sending out such requests and waiting for a response that may take 48 hours to even 7 days.
Also, I'm at a point in my life where dealing with customers face to face is something I'm starting to lose interest in. You keep a happy face all the time, and though at times it's very rewarding that I'm able to help people and that there are still genuine people out there who appreciate the things we do as technicians -- there are still a huge amount of impatient, entitled and unreasonable people out there who are good at raising their voices when things don't go their way.
Especially when their insurance coverage decides to have an increase on their co-pays at the beginning of the year. Even though the pharmacy has nothing to do with this sudden raise, customers often blame us for this. Some feel that we are tricking them into paying such huge amounts of money and not billing the same insurance coverage based on how much they paid the previous year.
I don't know why most customers are so lazy to call their insurance and find out why there's an increase and expects the pharmacy to call for them; we'll just end up being advised to have the member speak to them instead because they're not allowed to verify or confirm any information about the patient by calling on their behalf, yes, especially if the patient is standing right in front of us at the counter!
Anyway, I don't mind working in retail on weekends because it's not as busy or hectic as it gets during the week. That said, I was offered the position after a 2nd interview last week and today was spent filling out new hire paperwork, taking a drug test and the proper medical screenings like a physical, getting my blood work and hepatitis shot. I start my new job in 2 weeks and I'm looking forward for this new chapter in my career.
No comments:
Post a Comment