CVS is a Disaster and a Disgrace

I am so angry! My doctor called in a prescription for me on Thursday. When I went to pick it up on Saturday, they told me, first, that they couldn't find it, then, that it is on back order for Monday. Now, this is one of those drugs that you're supposed to take on a schedule.

"No one called me," I say pretty calmly for me and considering I hadn't taken the drug since Wednesday.

"Yes, they did," said the pharmacist, flipped the pages of the call log. "Oh, you're not in here." So, he called two other CVSs to find out if they had the drug. The second one did and he arranged for me to pick up. So I drove up Rockville Pike and that druggist has never heard of me and insists that he didn't talk to my original pharmacist. He proceeded to ask me what the prescription was for.

Truth be told, I'm a bit embarrassed by this particular drug; let's just say its a mood adjusting drug. So, I said the name quietly, he couldn't hear me.

He asked me to speak up.

I said, "I am not telling half the planet what drugs I take, can we, please, have a private conversation." As in the first store, the phone was ringing continually and a line was forming at both the drop off and pick up counters.
He looked it up and found another prescription that had already been filled.

"No," I said. I have another prescription.

"Well, no one called me," he said with a heavy accent and blank, dead expression on his face.

"Are you telling me that the pharmacist in Bethesda was lieing when he said that he spoke to someone in this store?"

No response.

"Can you call the other store and ask that pharmacist?" After a few minutes he picks up the phone and makes a call. He never says another word to me and acts as though I'm not standing there down below his raised platform, quietly waiting to hear the outcome. So I go out to my car, call the first pharmacist. The phone lines are totally clogged and a recording tells that I'll have to wait. Music starts. Okay. So, I called Dave and asked him to drive over to the first CVS and talk to the guy there, who, of course, was now closing up, pulling down the metal gates. Dave insisted on talking to him. The guy called the second pharmacy again and straightened it out. But the whole thing was more than irritating. Plus, I had to yell out the drugs I'm taking at two pharmacy ... HHIPPA violations.

I asked the second pharmacist for his name.

"Doug."

"Your last name?"

"Lee, why do you need my name?"

"To complain. A pharmacist is a profession and the way you are acting is unprofessional and disgraceful." He went into this whole rant that he never talked to the first pharmacist. Whatever the case, he could have been nice and could have tried to help. What if it had a life or death drug?! In fact, I went to two CVSs in Hagerstown several years ago to get pain killers for my husband who had kidney stones, and the pharmacists there were nasty. (But I can't get started on the terrible medical care available in Hagerstown! That's for another day.) Plus all of the CVSs have ignorant girls working the cash register. They can't spell and don't listen when you spell your name. When they can't find your prescription in the totally disorganized bins they throw the prescriptions into, they tell you that you did something wrong or aren't entitled to whatever you're asking for ... all in a nasty tone of voice.
Who regulates CVS?

This isn't the pharmacists fault. It's not like this is an isolated incident. They are over worked, understaffed and, probably, under paid. With the consolidation of pharmacies and the insurance nightmare that you have to go through. (I mean these medications cost me a dollar a pill and I have insurance covering the rest of it.) It's no wonder the pharmacists are cranky.
My grandparents were both pharmacists. My grandfather owned three pharmacies in Chicago in the 30s, 40s and 50s. They must be rolling over in their graves at the mess their profession has deteriorated into.

Who regulates CVS pharmacies?