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How AI is Changing Your Pharmacy Visit (For Better or Worse) | RxRated Podcast · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
0:09
Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
0:23
Speaker 1: You're listening to rated rrax for the name. Hey, I'm
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Speaker 1: Robbie here with Sam and Xavier. Where the rated RX podcast,
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Speaker 1: proud affiliate of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. We're back after
0:39
Speaker 1: a long hiatus here to deliver you some amazing fun content.
0:45
Speaker 1: Today's topic AI and healthcare stop. It keeps coming up
0:51
Speaker 1: over and over again because it's a very big issue
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Speaker 1: and it is literally touching every single industry. Healthcare is
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Speaker 1: definitely not exempt. Sam Xavier, in what ways did you
1:04
Speaker 1: guys incorporate AI into your pharmacy practice? Not specifically your
1:09
Speaker 1: personal case uses, but how are you using AI to
1:12
Speaker 1: help you with your day to day work at your site.
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Speaker 2: I'd say we don't have a kind of front facing
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Speaker 2: piece as much for patients, but like what I'm experiencing
1:24
Speaker 2: is we did get a new piece for our like
1:26
Speaker 2: phone system and our end so it's it can like
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Speaker 2: pretty much record everything and it'll have like a read
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Speaker 2: through like as you're going through and it'll record your
1:36
Speaker 2: your conversation. It's for counseling, it's a little funny because
1:40
Speaker 2: it'll like pop up little comments for you, so it'll
1:43
Speaker 2: be like you're monologuing, like let the other person speak.
1:46
Speaker 1: Essentially, is what it says.
1:47
Speaker 2: It's like when I'm going through like a counseling thing
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Speaker 2: of like you know, telling them a number of things.
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Speaker 2: So it'll it'll like pop up and say this this
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Speaker 2: is this monologue is a little long or something like that.
1:58
Speaker 2: But it does do like a kind of summary at
2:01
Speaker 2: the end of your conversation. So once you hang up
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Speaker 2: from it, it'll pop up and do like a summary.
2:07
Speaker 2: I haven't used that part at all, you know, but
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Speaker 2: it's that is on our end side. So it is nice.
2:13
Speaker 2: On pieces when someone calls back, you can actually almost
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Speaker 2: like a text line. You can go and scroll back
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Speaker 2: up to see what that conversation was about and what
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Speaker 2: had on there. So that little piece of it is nice.
2:28
Speaker 2: The other aspect that we're looking to add in that
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Speaker 2: haven't started yet is kind of like AI initially writing scripts,
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Speaker 2: so that any any like retail pharmacy that's already a
2:42
Speaker 2: thing essentially because it's you know, an EHR script that
2:45
Speaker 2: you're already getting entered into your program for ours doesn't
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Speaker 2: really work well. So what it's kind of coming up
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Speaker 2: to that speed where it'll be a AI system that
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Speaker 2: will read those scripts that come in and convert it
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Speaker 2: into a compound I mean program for us, So hopefully
3:03
Speaker 2: that'll be cool. But really it's just the text verbage piece.
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Speaker 1: That we use on AI side. Interesting. That's uh. I
3:12
Speaker 1: find it funny that it's almost kind of telling you
3:15
Speaker 1: to be not empathetic, that's not the right word, but
3:18
Speaker 1: telling you to just sort of shut up and listen.
3:21
Speaker 1: What's just funny coming from AI? How about you, Xavier?
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Speaker 1: Has AI touched your work side at all? Has it
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Speaker 1: made it easier more difficult?
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Speaker 3: I don't know where it's like fully integrated anywhere, like
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Speaker 3: we have any like basic locations that it's all AI
3:39
Speaker 3: or words command. It's the VA, So we don't fully
3:44
Speaker 3: use stuff like that yet until it's veitted out very well.
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Speaker 3: But we do have a VAGBT. It's kind of like
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Speaker 3: chat GBT, but it's like censored to where you know
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Speaker 3: it's locked within the VA stuff. It's basically encrypted very well,
4:01
Speaker 3: and it doesn't answer like certain questions like you be
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Speaker 3: doing like personal questions or something to be like hey,
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Speaker 3: we're not going to answer that, so it has to
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Speaker 3: be like work related questions and things like that. But
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Speaker 3: I don't see too many people using it too often.
4:15
Speaker 3: I know, are it pharmacists? They use it a little
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Speaker 3: bit to create things I think I have access to.
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Speaker 3: I thought they had access to cloud or something similar
4:23
Speaker 3: to cold things, So they're definitely using a lot more
4:27
Speaker 3: than the general pharmacists at our hospital. I use it
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Speaker 3: to help with like note writing and making it sound
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Speaker 3: more professional. Uh yeah, and then write better emails of course,
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Speaker 3: because I like to just throw my thoughts on there
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Speaker 3: and bullet point and I'm like, all right, this is
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Speaker 3: what I want to say. Uh, reword this in the
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Speaker 3: professional format because sometimes you know, angry or something you
4:52
Speaker 3: still need to come out across professionals. So it helps
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Speaker 3: you get that into shape really quickly and then sound
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Speaker 3: professional as well. And it's for in services when I'm
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Speaker 3: creating in services and stuff that I get all my
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Speaker 3: ideas out and outline them as well. I use it
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Speaker 3: to help me organize it or put it into a
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Speaker 3: you know, a cool format that I can then use
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Speaker 3: to present or.
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Speaker 4: To our staff.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So it sounds like everybody uses it in a
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Speaker 1: very different way, Xavier you to stay more organized, keep
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Speaker 1: a professional sam more to keeping the scripts and patient
5:28
Speaker 1: care sort of organized. I don't specifically use it at
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Speaker 1: my site. I do use it a lot for preparing
5:34
Speaker 1: for the podcast. I guess we're going to count that
5:37
Speaker 1: as pharmacy related stuff. I use Gemini to help me
5:41
Speaker 1: find things online, look at real time data to help
5:44
Speaker 1: come up with an episode like today, which is kind
5:46
Speaker 1: of funny. AI recommended AI, So you know, what do
5:50
Speaker 1: you what do you know about that? So I bring
5:53
Speaker 1: all this up to touch on a big point of news.
5:57
Speaker 1: It was sort of big news. I don't know if
6:00
Speaker 1: as much attention because there was APHA annual convention, so
6:05
Speaker 1: everybody was kind of distracted, and in the world that
6:08
Speaker 1: we're living right now, there's a lot of big news
6:11
Speaker 1: going on, so healthcare has been kind of ignored. But
6:15
Speaker 1: big news came out specifically related to CBS. CBS allegedly
6:21
Speaker 1: is partnering up with Google Cloud and Gemini Services to
6:25
Speaker 1: launch a platform called Health one hundred. This new platform
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Speaker 1: is designed to give a kind of one stop shop
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Speaker 1: patient experience where they could set automatic refills, find out
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Speaker 1: about copase for medications, look where to get care, and
6:43
Speaker 1: then eventually they are planning to allow it to integrate
6:46
Speaker 1: door bio wearable devices so you can have sort of
6:50
Speaker 1: a complete profile of yourself, so to kind of have
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Speaker 1: a one stop shop of your own healthcare. And it
6:56
Speaker 1: sounds like physicians other healthcare providers can sign up for
7:00
Speaker 1: it too, so they could review their patient's profile as
7:04
Speaker 1: well to see what's kind of going on. Hearing all that,
7:09
Speaker 1: what are your guys's first impressions about this health one hundred,
7:15
Speaker 1: I'd say.
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Speaker 2: It's, you know, obviously a good thing. You know, sounds good,
7:19
Speaker 2: and that would be that would be nice. The dream
7:22
Speaker 2: of being able to have that kind of quicker response
7:24
Speaker 2: it's always been, you know, a healthcare concern, regardless of
7:28
Speaker 2: what piece you're talking about of response time, of being
7:32
Speaker 2: able to talk to a provider, a pharmacist, a nurse,
7:35
Speaker 2: you know, whatever it might be, it's you know, kind
7:38
Speaker 2: of the same complaint of that kind of hierarchy problem
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Speaker 2: that we have and so potentially that could cut through
7:45
Speaker 2: some of those questions, maybe weed out some of that stuff,
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Speaker 2: so provider time or whoever's time, pharmacist time is being
7:54
Speaker 2: used more effectively, or questions that are needing to go
7:57
Speaker 2: to them. But I think the problem at least I
8:02
Speaker 2: think it's much more on my end than maybe you
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Speaker 2: see in retail, because compounding is much more niche and
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Speaker 2: unique and not built out like huge programs where it's
8:14
Speaker 2: it's reliant and only as good as the data that
8:17
Speaker 2: you put into the system. So did that tech make
8:20
Speaker 2: that scan to say it got moved over to here,
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Speaker 2: or scan the FedEx tracking number or you know whatever
8:26
Speaker 2: little piece of information that that you know patient is
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Speaker 2: calling to try to get. You know, yes, they want this,
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Speaker 2: it can be there. We can't integrate it. But is
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Speaker 2: it accurate? Is it giving them the wrong information? Is
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Speaker 2: you know, even on a refill, is it reading the
8:41
Speaker 2: wrong script refill? Or you know, how much can it
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Speaker 2: actually work between programs and how accurate can the employees, patients,
8:52
Speaker 2: healthcare people be I think at the moment that's the
8:55
Speaker 2: biggest hurdle is getting the right information to some sort
9:00
Speaker 2: of system that can relay it to patients. And there's
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Speaker 2: going to be a lot of probably mismatch information stuff
9:08
Speaker 2: if we're not able to get that precise.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that wouldn't be AI's fault though, that would be
9:14
Speaker 1: a human error. Yeah, And the part we're talking about.
9:17
Speaker 2: Either there is you know, the AI air part where
9:19
Speaker 2: they're given the wrong information. But I'd say at the moment,
9:22
Speaker 2: the biggest thing is that human air of being on
9:25
Speaker 2: time getting all that thing again. The reason they can't
9:28
Speaker 2: talk to them the first place is they're behind on
9:30
Speaker 2: something it's going to happen the same thing, and behind
9:33
Speaker 2: on entering the data that the AI could read to relay.
9:36
Speaker 2: I'm sure that would run into some issues with CBS.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, sure they will. Xavier, what are you thinking about
9:44
Speaker 1: this health one hundred?
9:46
Speaker 3: I think it's a pretty cool concept if they can
9:50
Speaker 3: actually get it to work, you know, it's a great idea.
9:52
Speaker 3: Like so they have this full integrated system where you
9:56
Speaker 3: can see patients and medications for all different doctors, all offices,
10:00
Speaker 3: and different pharmacies.
10:01
Speaker 4: You can kind of compile it all.
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Speaker 3: Into one spot or be able to see everything and
10:05
Speaker 3: pull all the pieces together. That's a big issue with
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Speaker 3: pharmacy in my opinion. The patient has multiple doctors or
10:13
Speaker 3: multiple pharmacies, it's kind of hard, you know, for one person,
10:17
Speaker 3: you know besides that patient to like manage things. But
10:19
Speaker 3: the patient is like a stroke patient or domnsied patient.
10:22
Speaker 3: They don't really manage their own met and the family
10:24
Speaker 3: doesn't really understand it could be pretty complex because this
10:27
Speaker 3: doctor ordered one thing, this doctor orders another thing. Like
10:30
Speaker 3: my aunt she got like twenty bottles of met forming
10:34
Speaker 3: because different doctors are ordering and changing and they're trying
10:37
Speaker 3: to change the XR. So like having an integrated system
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Speaker 3: like this where you can see what other doctors are
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Speaker 3: doing or what other pharmacies have for this patient.
10:46
Speaker 4: I think that's very cool.
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Speaker 3: I love that they're also trying to do continuous engagement
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Speaker 3: with people and more predictive, you know, predictive outlook of things.
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Speaker 3: They're basically trying to follow the patient and engage with
11:01
Speaker 3: the patient the whole time throughout their healthcare journey and
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Speaker 3: help them along the way. They have questions along the way,
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Speaker 3: They're helping them get to better help before there is
11:14
Speaker 3: like any injury or CRM done. They maybe to catch
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Speaker 3: things earlier with this type of system, and it's usually
11:20
Speaker 3: lighting AI with pharmacists, which is the cool part as well.
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Speaker 3: Pharmaciests have a large role in this and we'll be
11:27
Speaker 3: helping to connect the dots with the AI and if
11:30
Speaker 3: it works, you know, it.
11:31
Speaker 4: Could be a big, big, big big thing.
11:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I so I completely agree. I think it's a
11:40
Speaker 1: great idea to have sort of a centralized health hub.
11:44
Speaker 1: People's care can be very fragmented, different providers, different pharmacies,
11:48
Speaker 1: you know, especially with transitions or care processes. It can
11:52
Speaker 1: be a headache. My initial concern is I sort of
11:57
Speaker 1: think back to things like twenty three and me or
12:00
Speaker 1: ancestry dot com, where now they have this large collection
12:04
Speaker 1: of health data and well, what can they do with that?
12:08
Speaker 1: Can they sell that to insurance companies? As that can
12:11
Speaker 1: affect your care? Can that be hack? Now your data
12:15
Speaker 1: is now leased online? So good idea upfront? But I
12:20
Speaker 1: do do you guys know me? I'm a tinfoil hat
12:23
Speaker 1: wear so I'm always going to be concerned about this
12:26
Speaker 1: sort of thing. I mean, your data gets leaked anyway.
12:29
Speaker 3: You know, you get sure letter in the mill every
12:32
Speaker 3: other day saying, oh your data got released from you know,
12:35
Speaker 3: the cridit company or from uh, you know, some random
12:38
Speaker 3: website you accidentally signed up for.
12:41
Speaker 1: But why create another source for that though?
12:43
Speaker 4: You know?
12:44
Speaker 1: I mean I understand, but it's everything everything instead of
12:48
Speaker 1: a piece of stuff.
12:49
Speaker 3: The pros may outweigh to come if it actually helps
12:53
Speaker 3: prevent issues with patients and improve healthcare overall.
12:57
Speaker 1: Yes, I agree, I'm just again ten foil hatware. So
13:02
Speaker 1: I mean as a healthcare provider, I think we can
13:06
Speaker 1: all agree to some level like good idea, it's helpful
13:09
Speaker 1: for whatever reasons, skeptical or not. What really comes down
13:13
Speaker 1: to is the patient experience. What will patients actually say
13:17
Speaker 1: about something like this and looking for us? There is
13:21
Speaker 1: a system in place where AI is already being used
13:24
Speaker 1: and integrated in patient experience, including a place like CBS.
13:30
Speaker 1: So which is why I want to bring up a
13:33
Speaker 1: real patient experience. This is a thread on Reddit, so
13:37
Speaker 1: I'm going to pull it up. I'm going to share
13:40
Speaker 1: my screen so anyone can if you're watching on YouTube
13:44
Speaker 1: or viewing wherever you can, you can see it's in
13:47
Speaker 1: real time. So let me just share my screen. And
13:50
Speaker 1: for listeners on the audio selection, well, I'm going to
13:53
Speaker 1: read it to you, so fear not okay? Titled why
13:58
Speaker 1: is A in Everything? I never make posts on reddits.
14:05
Speaker 1: I just scroll. That's how knowed I am. I called
14:09
Speaker 1: the CBS pharmacy after hours to refill a prescription. Anytime
14:13
Speaker 1: I do this, the process is easy, quick, successful. Every
14:17
Speaker 1: single time it was to the point where I had
14:20
Speaker 1: it memorized. Now, instead of a typical system where one
14:24
Speaker 1: is able to up, where one is able to either
14:27
Speaker 1: speak or press numbers to make selections, it's an AI
14:31
Speaker 1: voice that only responds to verbal answers. On top of that,
14:36
Speaker 1: verifying information to pull up prescriptions is painstakingly more difficult
14:41
Speaker 1: to where it takes repeated failures to move on to
14:44
Speaker 1: the next option for verification. Why is it assuming the
14:48
Speaker 1: phone number I'm calling from is the only verification needed
14:52
Speaker 1: to match with the data birth? Why did it take
14:54
Speaker 1: failing this three times to move on to asking for
14:57
Speaker 1: the prescription number and all cap Why am I not
15:01
Speaker 1: able to press numbers for my answers? Imagine if I
15:05
Speaker 1: were in a noisy area, or god forbid, I were news. Now,
15:11
Speaker 1: not everything needs AI. The use of AI and every
15:14
Speaker 1: single regular thing is becoming a stand in society. I
15:17
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to use an equivalent of a thirty two
15:20
Speaker 1: ounce pack of water just to refill a goddamn prescription.
15:25
Speaker 1: This change is absolutely acidine and needs to be reverted.
15:31
Speaker 1: Let me stop sharing my screen here, all right? So
15:36
Speaker 1: big feelings there, Big feelings there from I think his
15:40
Speaker 1: name is Jah mul We'll say, what are you guys
15:46
Speaker 1: thinking when you heard that reddit thread here? Is it
15:50
Speaker 1: resonating with you at all? Oh?
15:53
Speaker 4: Man, this one definitely resonated with me.
15:57
Speaker 3: I now manage my aunt medicine since you had so
16:00
Speaker 3: I feel pill boxes and stuff. And man, the CDs
16:04
Speaker 3: AI system gave me the hardest time because I'm not
16:08
Speaker 3: I'm using my phone to call right, I'm not using her.
16:11
Speaker 3: So that's the first issue, Like that guy said on
16:13
Speaker 3: the reddit, is like the phone number doesn't match. So
16:16
Speaker 3: I say the day of birth and they see the
16:18
Speaker 3: phone number and they're like, that number doesn't match. And
16:21
Speaker 3: then it goes to this whole roundabout system and I'm like, yelling, person,
16:25
Speaker 3: give it, person, like yelling different things like shut up,
16:29
Speaker 3: just give me.
16:29
Speaker 4: Somebody to talk to. I just need to tum to
16:31
Speaker 4: the puns, like it took me an.
16:33
Speaker 3: Hour to get done what I could have got done
16:35
Speaker 3: in ten minutes, you know, five minutes or less. Right,
16:38
Speaker 3: it took me an hour to get to a real person.
16:40
Speaker 3: And then once you get to the you don't even
16:42
Speaker 3: get to the real person. You have to like leave
16:43
Speaker 3: a voicemail and then they call you back, and then
16:47
Speaker 3: you know, I have the new thing on your phone
16:48
Speaker 3: where you know it blocks unknown numbers sometimes, like so
16:52
Speaker 3: you have to turn that off.
16:52
Speaker 4: So like the first time they call back, the call missed,
16:56
Speaker 4: it like forwarded to voicemails. I was like, how I
16:59
Speaker 4: was losing my mind.
17:01
Speaker 1: I was losing my mom.
17:01
Speaker 3: I was just trying to rebuild a couple of medications
17:05
Speaker 3: and then it just was it was too much.
17:09
Speaker 4: I just was so upset with it.
17:11
Speaker 3: I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna drive
17:13
Speaker 3: the CBS and talk to someone in person and wait
17:17
Speaker 3: patiently because I know it's busy back there in the pharmacy,
17:20
Speaker 3: and then I'll just figure it out in person, because
17:22
Speaker 3: this is not it.
17:24
Speaker 1: So you resorted to the human touch in person because
17:28
Speaker 1: the AI system that the CBS currently has in place
17:33
Speaker 1: was absolutely bonkers for you. Is is that right?
17:35
Speaker 3: I still use the AI system because I was able
17:38
Speaker 3: to figure it out. And then once she looked the voicemail,
17:41
Speaker 3: they would call back or no, she called right back,
17:43
Speaker 3: or the pharmacist called right back.
17:46
Speaker 4: So I was able to catch it the second ring
17:47
Speaker 4: because like, you can't call it back.
17:49
Speaker 3: When you call back, it's going to call and see
17:51
Speaker 3: AI robot again right, So I'm glad the pharmacist was
17:55
Speaker 3: awesome enough to call twice, like back to back, because
17:59
Speaker 3: then I caught it sakeing time. But you know, a
18:02
Speaker 3: general person or elderly person like you know, how long
18:06
Speaker 3: it would take them to actually get through or get
18:08
Speaker 3: something actually done.
18:09
Speaker 1: They would give up, so fat like that is. It's terrible,
18:13
Speaker 1: It is terrible. Yeah, I do have my own hesitancy
18:18
Speaker 1: with how patients are going to react to this when
18:20
Speaker 1: this is already an issue. So CVS has a lot
18:23
Speaker 1: to work on before they get to the point where
18:26
Speaker 1: their vision is. Sam, what are your impression? What's your
18:30
Speaker 1: impression of this post here?
18:33
Speaker 2: I mean obviously not the best patients interaction with with
18:40
Speaker 2: whatever the you know, their CVS pharmacy there in it
18:43
Speaker 2: and set up I can I do see again? You
18:47
Speaker 2: know we're going into what info is entered. It's still
18:51
Speaker 2: a program. So you know, clearly whatever this one is,
18:54
Speaker 2: he couldn't hit numbers anymore. So it was only verbal
18:57
Speaker 2: stuff which you know came in with whatever program that
19:01
Speaker 2: you know, CBS bot and is using that can't relay
19:05
Speaker 2: that information, you know, so obviously changes is annoying and
19:09
Speaker 2: you know, wanting to do those numbers. That part makes sense,
19:12
Speaker 2: and I'm sure that there are going to be interactions
19:15
Speaker 2: and ais that can do that, but you know clearly
19:18
Speaker 2: CBS is one didn't have it and wasn't able to
19:20
Speaker 2: do it, which was frustrating, and still having that kind
19:24
Speaker 2: of most of them, you can't just cut through to
19:28
Speaker 2: speak to someone if you are you know, both you
19:31
Speaker 2: know Zay and this Jimul poster had that same issue
19:39
Speaker 2: where it's just gets frustrating when you want to talk
19:42
Speaker 2: to someone, I just I need this piece or I
19:45
Speaker 2: need this interaction, and you know that's where it gets to,
19:49
Speaker 2: you know, I'm done talking to this robot, this AI
19:52
Speaker 2: or this phone tree, and that seems to be where
19:57
Speaker 2: we're having difficulty on that patient end of not liking
20:03
Speaker 2: that AI or again not getting the answers we want
20:05
Speaker 2: or the simplicity of an AI answering and you just saying,
20:10
Speaker 2: you know, my name is Aay, I'm my aunt taking
20:14
Speaker 2: care of my aunt's meds. You know, this is her
20:16
Speaker 2: phone number, this is her info, here's her thing. I
20:18
Speaker 2: want to refill this this and where a human could
20:21
Speaker 2: understand that irregularity, this AI wasn't able to and that
20:27
Speaker 2: gap right there is causing that frustration.
20:30
Speaker 1: It's not a perfect system, and I understand the necessity
20:34
Speaker 1: of it. I would hope that AI can at least
20:38
Speaker 1: screen ninety percent of calls, but then you have the
20:42
Speaker 1: ten percent of people who have a terrible I mean,
20:45
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's actually ten percent. I'm making
20:46
Speaker 1: up numbers, so don't quote me on any of this,
20:48
Speaker 1: but people have a terrible experience with that. I doing
20:52
Speaker 1: Transition to care at my facility. I hate calling cvs.
20:57
Speaker 1: I'm just going to be candid about it. Every time
21:00
Speaker 1: I do a METAAC and I'm looking at the date
21:02
Speaker 1: there there it's called sure Scripts, which is like the
21:06
Speaker 1: company we used to look at claims people, you know,
21:10
Speaker 1: for their insurance whenever they build a drug. Whenever I
21:13
Speaker 1: see CDs, I'm like immediately thinking, oh shit, I got
21:18
Speaker 1: a call and I gotta go deal with this stupid
21:20
Speaker 1: robot thing. You know. Luckily, I think we all know
21:24
Speaker 1: the trick. You just say calling from a provider's office
21:27
Speaker 1: and sometimes you get buy a little sooner, but a
21:29
Speaker 1: lot of times it's leaving a message and I absolutely
21:32
Speaker 1: hate it.
21:33
Speaker 3: I hate it. I tried that as well. I was like,
21:35
Speaker 3: call it from a provider's office. But I was like,
21:38
Speaker 3: I know the trick is do they and you get
21:40
Speaker 3: somewhere faster. But it was like, we don't recognize your numbers, provider,
21:48
Speaker 3: and do the voice thing all over and try again.
21:52
Speaker 4: Dang.
21:52
Speaker 1: I mean, I understand why they do it. It's it's,
21:55
Speaker 1: you know, a high volume store like CBS. You can't
21:58
Speaker 1: stop and pick up the phone every thirty seconds, like
22:01
Speaker 1: you're gonna get nothing done. So as a worker, I
22:04
Speaker 1: hope it's making their lives easier because ultimately, disruptions in
22:08
Speaker 1: your workflow is a disruption patient care. But also not
22:11
Speaker 1: talking to someone as a disruption patient care.
22:13
Speaker 4: So I guess you.
22:13
Speaker 1: Really can't win. Okay, So we talked about the patient experience.
22:19
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about our experience. But now
22:22
Speaker 1: I want to look at this experience from a CVS
22:26
Speaker 1: worker because there are also Reddit threads from those who
22:31
Speaker 1: work at CVS touching on a little bit. Staying with
22:34
Speaker 1: the phone system. Let's share my screen again here, all right?
22:38
Speaker 1: This is posted on the CVS reddit thread titled thank
22:43
Speaker 1: you for calling CVS, How may I help you? So
22:45
Speaker 1: this is this is an exchange between the person on
22:50
Speaker 1: the phone and the customer, so I need to speak
22:53
Speaker 1: to a human in the pharmacy. The response, yes, ma'am.
22:58
Speaker 1: If you leave a voicemail, they will call you back
23:00
Speaker 1: within an hour. Parentheses. My pharmacy is very good at
23:03
Speaker 1: responding to voicemails promptly. Patient responds, I just had surgery.
23:08
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to hear that shit. I'm just going
23:10
Speaker 1: to say the word as it is. I'm going to
23:12
Speaker 1: cuss it out, so.
23:13
Speaker 4: Bear with me. We're on podcasts.
23:15
Speaker 1: We're on podcasts, and I'm reading it, so you know,
23:17
Speaker 1: I just need to talk to a human person. Fucking
23:20
Speaker 1: incompetent lazy phone cuts out. Person responds, I'm sorry, ma'am,
23:27
Speaker 1: I don't have a way to transfer you to the pharmacy.
23:29
Speaker 1: Then the phone number system doesn't allow it. You have
23:32
Speaker 1: to leave a voicemail and wait for a callback. Patients response,
23:37
Speaker 1: fucking piece of shit. Click And then that exchange is done,
23:42
Speaker 1: and the writer follows up with, how about you don't
23:46
Speaker 1: yell at store level employees about things far beyond our control?
23:51
Speaker 3: So it sounds like it's an employee of the store,
23:55
Speaker 3: like someone like couldn't get in touch with the pharmacy.
23:57
Speaker 3: And then they call the store, like, can you give
24:00
Speaker 3: me to a real person? So let's tick a tugraph
24:02
Speaker 3: his robot exactly exactly sounds like, you know, this isn't
24:08
Speaker 3: isn't just affecting the pharmacy staff.
24:09
Speaker 1: This is affecting the front store workers. So not good
24:13
Speaker 1: for everybody there when the system fails. So patient obviously
24:17
Speaker 1: experienced a failure trying to get care that led to
24:20
Speaker 1: the storefront experiencing a failure, and god forbid, what's going
24:24
Speaker 1: on in the pharmacy. I have no idea, but Sam,
24:27
Speaker 1: what are you thinking here? How would you do with
24:30
Speaker 1: a system like this in your store now that you're
24:32
Speaker 1: impermitting ai I.
24:34
Speaker 2: Mean experiencing it on on the pharmacy side. It's it's limiting,
24:42
Speaker 2: you know, how many calls you're taking so you can
24:45
Speaker 2: get through whatever other work you're doing, or scripts or
24:49
Speaker 2: people in person. Obviously, there needs to be a balance
24:52
Speaker 2: of it not having someone just sitting there waiting on
24:56
Speaker 2: hold for you know, however long you can take. And
25:00
Speaker 2: that's frustrating in its own even you know, that's in
25:04
Speaker 2: a circling back to ten twenty years ago of your
25:07
Speaker 2: just yeah, you're just sitting in a hold line of
25:11
Speaker 2: that's the only way that they ever had the system
25:14
Speaker 2: to do it. But the you know, frustrating piece again
25:20
Speaker 2: comes to the same idea of how much time does
25:25
Speaker 2: that pharmacist have and how it's staffed. Unfortunately, something usually
25:29
Speaker 2: like CVS maybe they're doing, you know, the absolute minimum
25:32
Speaker 2: staffing of one pharmacist on ever at one time. You know,
25:36
Speaker 2: there is some crossover there, but with the big chains
25:40
Speaker 2: and things like that, that's one of the problems of
25:43
Speaker 2: there's just one pharmacist there and you know, they just
25:46
Speaker 2: aren't able to spend ten minutes on a phone call
25:49
Speaker 2: or I get in a handful of phone calls and
25:53
Speaker 2: have to kind of fit them in through lolls And
25:55
Speaker 2: it's just unfortunately part of the system and how it's
26:00
Speaker 2: been set up with their time and how their staffing
26:04
Speaker 2: is now that can be fixed with better staffing. Is
26:08
Speaker 2: that where CBS moves to, you know, history would say no,
26:14
Speaker 2: that's been a running complaint with the staff and pharmacists
26:18
Speaker 2: there fighting back and forth on that that bottom line
26:22
Speaker 2: and paying the pharmacist who is the you know, the
26:24
Speaker 2: highest paid person there, and how it affects their numbers.
26:29
Speaker 2: So unfortunately, it's probably not going to change, because that
26:35
Speaker 2: change that's needed is more pharmacists, more than one pharmacist
26:39
Speaker 2: on at a time, and it's unlikely that someone a
26:43
Speaker 2: company like CBS is going to make that change. This
26:46
Speaker 2: is their their middle point with this. AI trying to
26:50
Speaker 2: answer some of those questions, get some of that that
26:53
Speaker 2: piece off of a pharmacist, but unfortunately it's probably going
26:58
Speaker 2: to continue to end up being that leave a voicemail
27:01
Speaker 2: callback once you get there.
27:03
Speaker 1: Hopefully you can.
27:03
Speaker 2: Get streamlined, but that bottom line of pharmacist time or
27:10
Speaker 2: having more pharmacists on at once is probably going to
27:13
Speaker 2: be that pinch point.
27:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. And I feel bad for the patient in
27:19
Speaker 1: this interaction. You know, you're you're coming out of surgery.
27:23
Speaker 1: You just you just want to go home and have
27:25
Speaker 1: your meds and forget about everything and go home and
27:28
Speaker 1: relax and the comfort of your bed, your couch, and
27:31
Speaker 1: then you're dealing with an experience like this, and so
27:35
Speaker 1: I sympathize for them. I'll sympathize for the front store
27:39
Speaker 1: employee because you know, as we know, pharmacists and they
27:44
Speaker 1: get the brunt of a lot of crap when it
27:46
Speaker 1: comes to healthcare. It's I can't think of any other
27:51
Speaker 1: healthcare provider or healthcare career where it's embedded with customer service. Obviously,
28:00
Speaker 1: you can always do a private pay to like clinics.
28:05
Speaker 1: I don't know if you consider chiropractors, you know, that's
28:10
Speaker 1: obviously cash pay a lot of times too. I'm not
28:12
Speaker 1: gonna get into that one. I know if people feel
28:14
Speaker 1: very passionate about chiropractice. So, but just pharmacy is tied
28:20
Speaker 1: to a product, and so that inherently creates a customer
28:23
Speaker 1: service aspect, and customers customers want to have the best
28:28
Speaker 1: experience and they don't really associate that with healthcare but
28:32
Speaker 1: rather a product, which sucks because we're constuck in the
28:35
Speaker 1: middle of all that, and then something like this happens.
28:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for the patient, I think it's definitely
28:40
Speaker 3: so it definitely sucks for them because like they're probably
28:43
Speaker 3: just having a bad day. You know, they've been dealing
28:46
Speaker 3: with whatever symbols they're dealing with and with their doctor.
28:49
Speaker 3: They're not feeling well, so they already be along, you know,
28:52
Speaker 3: they can go to the doctor, it takes forever because
28:54
Speaker 3: they have so many people in there that's sick.
28:57
Speaker 4: Or having issues.
28:58
Speaker 3: Right, so you finally get through all of it, and
29:01
Speaker 3: then the doctor gives you some maids and you're like,
29:03
Speaker 3: I'm at the end. I just need these maids and
29:04
Speaker 3: I can go home and I can feel better. So
29:06
Speaker 3: a lot of times we catch them after they just
29:08
Speaker 3: like worn out. They've been do the ring or dealing
29:11
Speaker 3: with the medical office or the hospital or wherever they were,
29:15
Speaker 3: and now they got to wait and then have a
29:17
Speaker 3: few more issues. A lot of times, like the pharmacy
29:19
Speaker 3: is like when the last straw like breaks for them
29:22
Speaker 3: and they're just like, I can't do this, and they
29:25
Speaker 3: lets go off.
29:26
Speaker 4: So I, you know, I feel bad.
29:29
Speaker 3: For the patient sometimes and I always, you know, I
29:31
Speaker 3: let it, you know, roll off my shoulders if they're
29:34
Speaker 3: upset with me, and I'm like, I just they just
29:36
Speaker 3: having a bad day, and it's okay.
29:38
Speaker 1: Yes, you will get another chance to make them happy
29:41
Speaker 1: when they come in for refill, that's for sure.
29:46
Speaker 4: Okay.
29:47
Speaker 1: So then, uh, last Reddit thing posts I want to
29:52
Speaker 1: read because it's gonna lead me to the next thing
29:55
Speaker 1: that I want to do here. So let me just
29:58
Speaker 1: read this first to create a little bit of context
30:00
Speaker 1: context here. This one's titled the AI Answers the Phone
30:05
Speaker 1: for Pharmacy. It doesn't know the name of its own company.
30:10
Speaker 1: She tells you to go to CBS dot com but
30:12
Speaker 1: pronounces it CVS dot com. Literally made me laugh out loud,
30:18
Speaker 1: which was a welcome bit of comic relief while wrestling
30:22
Speaker 1: to get my prescriptions in one place. So, guys, we've
30:27
Speaker 1: talked a lot about CVS phone calls AI. So now
30:31
Speaker 1: what I want to do is let's call CVS. But
30:35
Speaker 1: let's call CVS. Let's go through the voicemail. I don't
30:39
Speaker 1: want to I don't want to waste anyone's time. I
30:41
Speaker 1: don't want to talk. I don't want to get to
30:42
Speaker 1: a pharmacist and bother them. I want to be respectful.
30:46
Speaker 1: I know they're busy, especially at this time, uh, viewers.
30:49
Speaker 1: It is currently eight thirty five, so we got to
30:52
Speaker 1: call twenty four hour CVS, so they're probably going to
30:54
Speaker 1: be busy as heck. So gonna be respectful. We're just
30:58
Speaker 1: going to see what takes to you know, through the process.
31:01
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hang up the phone, so I don't want
31:02
Speaker 1: to trigger any CVS workers here, So I respect you.
31:06
Speaker 3: So I think we should try to follow a little
31:09
Speaker 3: prompt exactly to see, you know, how far we can actually.
31:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't have I don't film prescriptions to the CVS,
31:15
Speaker 1: so I don't have like a data birth or something
31:19
Speaker 1: to put.
31:19
Speaker 4: In and you don't feel anything.
31:21
Speaker 1: No, I go to I have. I have a Kaiser,
31:23
Speaker 1: so everything is kind of there. There's I gotta say,
31:28
Speaker 1: Kaiser exceptional.
31:29
Speaker 4: I love it.
31:30
Speaker 1: Everything in one app. I haven't had a bad experience, but.
31:33
Speaker 4: I've been looking. It's pretty good.
31:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So let me share my my Google
31:39
Speaker 1: voice number here. We're gonna call and I tested it
31:43
Speaker 1: and it works. I'm hoping I could hear it on
31:46
Speaker 1: my end records. I'm hoping you guys could hear it.
31:50
Speaker 1: If not, then I guess we'll just kind of I'll
31:53
Speaker 1: tell you. I'll tell you afterwards.
31:55
Speaker 4: What it's like.
31:56
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna dial this number here, and then when
32:01
Speaker 1: I get to editing, I'm.
32:03
Speaker 4: Going to.
32:05
Speaker 1: Grade it out just for privacy sake. Please, Yeah, tell
32:12
Speaker 1: you to do that, dude, dude, dud, don't say it
32:17
Speaker 1: out loud. Robbie, how he starts to do it, you
32:20
Speaker 1: can do it. Okay, you guys ready, I'm smoking here,
32:27
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. Let's see, let's let's go. It knows
32:30
Speaker 1: it's CVS.
32:34
Speaker 5: Thank you for calling CBS Farency. Please hang up and
32:38
Speaker 5: dial nine to one one. I am your virtual assistant
32:41
Speaker 5: and calls are recorded to improve call quality. Are you
32:44
Speaker 5: a healthcare provider?
32:46
Speaker 4: No?
32:49
Speaker 5: To better assist you, please let me know if you
32:52
Speaker 5: are calling in for pharmacy or front store services.
32:55
Speaker 1: I'm calling in for pharmacy, pharmacy, pharmacy, pharmacy I have.
33:09
Speaker 1: I'm having trouble the pharmacy pharmacy. Now imagine, Please.
33:18
Speaker 5: Say a ten digit phone number for identity verification.
33:22
Speaker 1: Uh, six, one nine. I'm just gonna make the number
33:26
Speaker 1: five to five eight.
33:31
Speaker 4: Made up a number its own number.
33:34
Speaker 1: That's a good I should have done that.
33:37
Speaker 5: Let's see it seems there's an issue with the phone
33:40
Speaker 5: number you entered. Let's try one more time. Please ensure
33:43
Speaker 5: it's a ten digit mobile number. All right.
33:46
Speaker 1: Oh, I don't want to say that number because then
33:48
Speaker 1: I'll be on the record. Six poe nine one two
33:52
Speaker 1: three four five six. It was nine digits seven.
34:03
Speaker 4: It's better if you have a real number.
34:05
Speaker 1: I don't have.
34:05
Speaker 4: I don't.
34:06
Speaker 5: We are unable to validate with.
34:08
Speaker 1: Your phone number, but people experience this all the time.
34:10
Speaker 5: Do you have a question about your recent prescription delivery order.
34:14
Speaker 5: Can they confirm by replying yes or no.
34:17
Speaker 1: No, speak with a pharmacy staff.
34:20
Speaker 5: Please wait while we connect you. Okay, you can now
34:22
Speaker 5: securely leave a voice moment leaving.
34:25
Speaker 1: A voicemail, leave your name all right, so you don't
34:28
Speaker 1: even get someone nice.
34:29
Speaker 4: We're pretty quickly for you.
34:30
Speaker 5: Happy to get started on your request, and we'll call
34:32
Speaker 5: you in as little as an hour if more information
34:35
Speaker 5: is needed.
34:36
Speaker 1: The whole thing, all right, there is there. You have it, guys,
34:41
Speaker 1: there you have it. So you get.
34:44
Speaker 3: A number one if you have a phone number, unless
34:46
Speaker 3: you go a little bit further because you're.
34:48
Speaker 4: Like, oh do you want to these refills?
34:50
Speaker 3: You have questions about medications on your profile and you'll
34:53
Speaker 3: kind of read out stuff to you if you have
34:55
Speaker 3: an actual legit phone number with it. Okay, but it
34:59
Speaker 3: can take you more or steps to get to where
35:01
Speaker 3: you trying to go.
35:02
Speaker 1: Sure, but if you're someone who wants to speak with someone,
35:04
Speaker 1: you're this person in pain who just want to.
35:06
Speaker 2: Make Maybe he heard CVS was great with his AI.
35:08
Speaker 2: He wants to switch and and wants to talk to someone.
35:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean like going back to this person
35:15
Speaker 1: who just had the surgery right, like she was she
35:18
Speaker 1: he or she was trying to get to talk to
35:20
Speaker 1: someone and ended up getting to the voicemail and we
35:23
Speaker 1: sort of emulated that again. So I completely understand why
35:27
Speaker 1: people get frustrated when you're when you're in pain, you're angry,
35:31
Speaker 1: you're pissed off, like this is the last thing I
35:33
Speaker 1: want to do with, you know, like to potentially wait
35:35
Speaker 1: an hour to hear back from someone. Like I get it,
35:38
Speaker 1: Like I completely get it. But I think that just
35:41
Speaker 1: is a reflection with how much more help CVS needs.
35:45
Speaker 1: And it sucks being a pharmacist therapy because you're sort
35:47
Speaker 1: of stuck in the middle, like we want to get
35:49
Speaker 1: your work done, you know, and this and this. To
35:52
Speaker 1: some degree, I'm sure this voicemail system is a godsend
35:55
Speaker 1: because you can focus on stuff and a striage and calls.
35:59
Speaker 1: But then you get the angry patient. You have to
36:02
Speaker 1: sort of diffuse there because they didn't have a good experience,
36:05
Speaker 1: and that is its own headache.
36:06
Speaker 4: So I just the end of.
36:08
Speaker 1: The story is you can't win. You just can't win.
36:11
Speaker 1: It's you're just gonna be damned if you do. You're
36:13
Speaker 1: gonna be damned if you don't. So who knows how
36:16
Speaker 1: this Health one hundred thing is going to roll out,
36:18
Speaker 1: So again bringing it back. This is their current AI
36:23
Speaker 1: system and we'll see what it looks like when they
36:26
Speaker 1: when it rolls out later this year. So I hope
36:28
Speaker 1: it's going to be better and be more like Kaiser
36:30
Speaker 1: Man Kaiser have a pretty good integrated experience, so I
36:33
Speaker 1: gotta give it to them.
36:33
Speaker 3: I got to give it to them, just just some
36:35
Speaker 3: kudos sort of CBS pharmacists that you know I was.
36:39
Speaker 3: I didn't wait long for a callback. She called back
36:41
Speaker 3: maybe ten minutes, and she was awesome and were they
36:44
Speaker 3: able to answer my questions and get the refilled right away.
36:47
Speaker 4: So when the.
36:48
Speaker 1: Pharmacist does call you bad, they're on it. That's good.
36:54
Speaker 4: Sam.
36:56
Speaker 1: Final thoughts.
36:57
Speaker 2: I mean, it's uh should be sweet once everything gets
37:01
Speaker 2: set up, but again it's it's still in its early
37:03
Speaker 2: stages here, so it's gonna be gonna be some rough times.
37:08
Speaker 2: It's understandable. It's gonna be some frustration, but it definitely
37:12
Speaker 2: could help people in the long term.
37:15
Speaker 3: I think AI is gonna get so much better, Like
37:18
Speaker 3: it's feels kind of useless right now, are not that good,
37:22
Speaker 3: but it's technology improves and grows so fast soon will
37:28
Speaker 3: be like, oh, slow down, I don't want to do
37:29
Speaker 3: all it.
37:31
Speaker 4: So that's a good point.
37:33
Speaker 1: What is scary to me is that this technology is
37:37
Speaker 1: moving faster than our laws, and so who knows, like
37:42
Speaker 1: what they what AI can do versus what the law
37:45
Speaker 1: inhibits them from doing. That's kind of the scary part
37:48
Speaker 1: with and especially in today's I guess government's era where
37:53
Speaker 1: no one wants to freaking get anything done and bicker
37:56
Speaker 1: with each other like dude, AI is the wild West.
37:59
Speaker 1: So I think it is in your incentive to protect yourself.
38:02
Speaker 1: And I personally wouldn't put my stuff on House one
38:06
Speaker 1: hundred until they were more strict AI laws. And so
38:10
Speaker 1: that's just me. You should, you know, make your own decision.
38:14
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not tengue with you. Educational purposes information,
38:17
Speaker 1: you know, this is what we do, entertainment, informational, But
38:20
Speaker 1: don't die. It's in your incentive to wait till there's
38:23
Speaker 1: laws that protect you. That's all I'm gonna say. That's
38:25
Speaker 1: all I'm gonna say. On that note, We'll catch you
38:31
Speaker 1: guys on the next one. Bye bye later. Wait it
38:36
Speaker 1: our rection do for the day