Ha, fooled you. There is no common sense when the modern MBA (Masters in Business Administration (also known as a license to destroy a business)) gets involved.
Case in point.
It probably doesn't surprise anyone here that I go to the local pharmacy at least twice a month to pick up meds, especially since Mrs. Andrew and I are over 6 decades old each.
It probably doesn't surprise anyone here that pharmacies generally work really hard to make sure that Patient X gets all the meds for Patient X and only Patient X.
Thus, off the top of one's head, there are multiple methods for cataloguing and storin,g prescriptions to-be-filled and prescriptions filled.
Thus, off the top of the head, everyone immediately thinks, "Last Name, First Name, DOB, Address, Drug Name." Right? Especially since Patient LNX, FNY, DOB1-1-0001, Address 1234 Whosatthefrontdoor St may have more than one prescription to be picked up.
Following me?
Oh, sure, there's other methods that certain peoples with the letters MBA after their names might think works better, like sorting each filled prescription by the first 3-4 numbers in the prescription number. Fast and efficient, right... as long as one is picking up one prescription and the main computer tells the pharmacy tech or pharmacist what bin said prescription is in. Not so fast and efficient if said patient has, oh, say, eight (that would be '8' for juvat) prescriptions to be picked up at once, as the pharmtech suddenly looks like a methed up old-school switchboard operator from some silent movie comedy.
Sigh. You, dear readers, may see where this is going. For juvats out there, I'll explain...
Have you noticed that I hate MBAs with a passion? That I consider MBAs almost or as dangerous to a company as modern unions? Are you following me, juvat?
So... After a long night of not much sleep because third world donkey games erupted in the parking lot right outside my door all night long with no adult or police supervision at all, I was a little lacking in sleep this afternoon when I went to the local pharmacy to pick up two, count them, two (2) prescriptions, one that was ready yesterday and one that was filled today. Two friggin prescriptions.
Get my shopping done, as the pharmacy is also part of the local grocery store, of which I won't name because normally the place has it's stuff together but, well, MBA... and I go to the pharmacy to pick up said two (2) medications.
And (and I am sure some of you, like Tuna or JB or maybe even, nah, juvat, have seen coming) the pharmacy system for the whole chain is down.
Happy Smily Face Pharmacy Tech, who knows me by sight, has today's prescription ready. But informs me the computer system is down and they can't find the other prescription.
Said other prescription has to be picked up today because it's a necessary prescription and, no, I can't wait till tomorrow thanks to the Federal Government's intrusion on patients' rights due to some jackwagons overprescribing or illegally using some prescriptions. So said FedGov says "Patient must suck up, minimum window to fill before running out" and since FedGov also looks over the prescribers' info and says "Oh, you gave that person a prescription that can legally be filled two days before previous prescription runs out and you've done that 5 times and that means the patient now has 10 days of drugs that, of course, they won't responsibly manage and will go and sell on the open market or take extra for fun because patient who has been taking the same damn prescription for 15 years can't be trusted to take the prescription responsibly."
I hate the FedGovDeepBureaucraticState. With a passion. Burn it down. The Chaos of Doge was one of the few bright and shining moments in recent governmental history.
Back to the story. I had to pick up drugs filled yesterday and pharmacy tech can't find them easily because computer system is down and the individually filled prescriptions are stored by their first 3 or 4 digits of their specific prescription number (after the pharmacy location number, that is.) Yes, that's right, prescriptions aren't stored by Last Name, First Name, DOB and Address so that all the prescriptions for Patient X are in a bin system sorted by last name. So, well, Beans, if a last name, would be in the bin(s) for people whose last name starts with 'B.'
Nope. Each individual prescription, when filled, is stored in a drawer and there is no connection between the patient and the filled prescription other than the label on the container or shone on the computer screen for PharmTech to read.
So, yes, system-wide computer failure.
No drugs for you. Fortunately the PharmTech knows me and, since he had nothing else to do, because the system was down, managed to search each bin until he found said meds. And then had to laborously write down all the identifying information on each prescription onto a form on a standard letter-sized page, which meant he had to write about font-size 2 to make everything fit in said form.
Why was this asinine system put in place? Well, Senior VP in Charge of Pharmacy managed to, under the old system of "Last Name, First Name, DOB, Address," (and you can see this coming from a mile away, can't you?) give someone the wrong prescription, which nearly killed them.
Said Senior VP, flexing his mighty MBA credentials, instituted the 'Store each filled prescription under it's own individual prescription number in numbered bins' bullscat. Which, truth to tell, worked. Not as well or as quickly as the old system, where the PharmTech would see me coming and grab a big bag of filled prescriptions and plonk them on the counter because big bag was stored in the bin for whatever my last name is (I know it, you may or may not, doesn't matter, starts with 'W'.)
Pharmacist and PharmTech were unhappily informing people after me that it would take like forever to find things and they could only find things that the patient (or patient's representative) knew about.
Masters in Being Analsphincters. I hate them. Burn them, burn them all.
A perfect example of MBAism is the movie "Office Space." Gary Cole, the actor, is the best personification of said MBAism ever shown on film, down to suspenders and his 50mph hair (hair that has enough product to hold it all in place in winds up to 50mph on the golf course.)
Yeah, that's an MBA for you.
Yes, I am aware that some people with MBAs are actually good people and good managers and executives. Some. They are also the ones that don't tell you within 15 milliseconds of meeting them that they have MBAs.
Well at least one PharmTech was human Beans, give thanks for that. This post makes me wonder how many MBAs were involved in the decline at Boeing.......hmmmmmm?
ReplyDeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. Geez, sorry Sarge et. Al., Rant On.
DeleteOh, h@!! yes, Boink was done in by MBA's, and lawyers too. The techs and engineers that designed and built some of the greatest planes ever probably spake words like "this is crap and will do Boeing in!" when confronted with plans from the M-D MBA/lawyer types after the great merger. What the MBA/lawyer types passed to the Main Suits was "this will make the company grow and prosper!". GE, same thing with Neutron Jack Welch. Maybe if wannabe MBA's were required to serve in the enlisted ranks for 10 years before being allowed anywhere near college, maybe the MBA BS might get straightened out. Maybe, especially if they have a good old NCO to "straighten them out" from time to time.
Find a company dying or killed by management and it's pretty much linked to MBAs that have no actual experience in whatever business the company is involved in. Every time.
DeleteAnd then there's the Headquarters Issue. Watch a company that's doing great and the HQ is near or part of the facilities that build whatever products make the company great kill itself by... building a corporate Taj Mahal. And I use that Taj Mahal correctly, because the suits (usually MBAs but also including Masters in Accounting) will build a new corporate HQ and that will spell the death of said company. The Taj Mahal is, after all, basically a fancy... tomb.
I thought MBA was Makes Bad Assumptions.
ReplyDeleteThe Chain Supermarket/Pharmacy I use used to have two apps, one for the Supermarket and one for the Pharmacy. Worked great. My wife had her pharmacy account, I had my pharmacy account, and we shared the supermarket account under her phone number. Then Someone decided that merging the pharmacy app into the supermarket app Made Sense. However, that meant that all the pharmacy information in my app couldn't merge into the merged app. We tried having their customer service techs walk us through it, we tried going into the store and having their people merge it, my wife spent hours trying to get it to merge, and she's no slouch with computers. Nope, nothing would let my information merge in and work alongside hers.
So now when I get a notification that I have something to pick up, rather than just going to the app and going clickety-click to have it mailed to me, I call, waste their time and my time asking to have it mailed to me. "You could just do that on the app!" "Well, no. When The Posers (that's a typo for Powers, but I think it fits better so I'll leave it) Be decided to merge the apps, it buggered everything up for fair, and I've been unable to get it to work." "Oh..."
The same company that I am referring to, which I normally laud for their greatness, also screwed up the pharmacy notifications. Yes, they'll notify us both with voice messages and text messages. Like "You have one prescription for $X.XX money ready" or "You have three prescriptions ready for autofill" or "We have an issue with a prescription, please contact us about it."
DeleteGreat. Which prescriptions? What's the problem? So now I have to call and go through the system to find out what's going on. Grrrr...
Perhaps the most enduring benefit of serving in the Green Machine about the time you entered the world is being able to use the Veterans Administration for my meds. Now the VA is run by MBA rejects so work around the system is required. I fill out and sign the refill slip sent to me with my last refill, drop it in the mail, and two to three weeks later the 90 supply refill is in my mailbox.
ReplyDeleteAt least that sounds like a semi-workable system. Unfortunately the meds involved are not the types you can get a 90 day supply of because FedGov thinks everyone on Those Drugs are drug-seeking junkies who sell them while overusing them or something.
DeleteI’m 75. I’ve got an MBA. Because I do, I know that the problem you describe was likely concocted by people with PharmD and MS IT degrees. You can blame MBAs all you like but, in this instance you're simply displaying either ignorance or a tendency to over simplify. MBAs rarely get involved with filing system details.
ReplyDeleteYes, the VP is a pharmacist. So was the previous VP. The new VP is also an MBA and is/was more proud of his MBA than his real degree.
DeleteI'm not knocking all MBAs. Just most of them. From bitter experience I've only encountered about 1 in 10 people with MBAs that actually are good administrators. The first clue is, well, do they basically announce that they have an MBA and what school they went to within 15 seconds of meeting them.
As to filing issues, nope, two jobs with two different companies as an admin puke and MBAs have announced new filing systems to make things more efficient. One company changed filing systems three times while I was there. Announcements made, and me and the rest of the little people had to implement said changed. And that was just invoice and work order filings. And then, of course, the ritual of the reorganization of the cube farms. Every time. All to be 'more efficient' and the results were far from being efficient.
The one good MBA I ever encountered worked passionately and diligently to get the other MBAs in the company to approve the making of... a mold for battery packs. The at-then-currently used mold, designed to make 12 parts at a time was only able to make 5 pieces, and was breaking down even more. The contract was a multi-million dollar contract with a very big tool manufacturer but the good MBA couldn't get the rest of the MBAs to commission a new mold and the reason was said mold would cost thousands of dollars. On a multi-million dollar contract that was basically a license to print money for the MBA's company. But thousands would negatively impact that quarter's profits so no dice.
Same with authorizing new hires or overtime or pay increases. Every MBA except the I-want-a-new-mold MBA refused any new hiring or authorizing overtime or even slight pay increases because that would negatively impact that quarter's profits. Then there was the 'slash 10% of the work force right before we sell the company to make the company's bottom line look good and then hire everyone back as temp contract workers because it makes the quarter's profits look good.
I come by my bigotry towards MBAs from long and bitter experience.
Yes, there have been and are good ones out there. But like lawyers, 10% of them give the rest of the bunch a good name.
I have tutored many MBA students through their Math courses and have been exposed to much of what they study. Heck, I even took some of the MBA courses that looked interesting to me. (Yes, they really do have some interesting topics!) When my son got his MBA (paid for by the company he worked for), I asked him the same question I ask everyone with an MBA: "Does the company you work for allow you to use the knowledge you learned through your MBA program, or do they just do it the way the CEO wants it done?" I have never had a response other than "CEO". I strongly believe that companies hire MBAs, and other degreed people, mainly to be able to say "We have X people with advanced degrees, so we must know what we are doing."
ReplyDeleteThere is that. Gotta have an advanced degree. I lost a decent job because I, with only an AA with solid math and science background, wasn't nearly as 'educated' as the person with a BA in interior decorating. No. Not kidding. Who made that choice? An MBA. (bangs head slowly on desk.)
DeleteYes, they have very interesting topics. Some of them actually pertain to the real world. But most graduates seem to be full of hypothetical knowledge rather than practical knowledge and firmly believe in said hypothetical knowledge (like rearranging the cubical farm for efficiency) and suddenly the work environment resembles said "Office Space" movie. Some of the issues of hypothetical vs practical are addressed in Rodney Dangerfield's movie "Back to School," where a self-made man goes to school with his son and then fights the professors who are teaching hypothetical knowledge. Good movies, both of them.
And, yes, the CEO, CFO, OBGYN has/have the ability to screw up a business. That's why there's usually some controls over the top management.
Never understimate the power of lawyers to eff up something that works well for 99.999% of people. In anticipation of a fellow shyster ever finding an opportunity to launch lawsuits against their employer, said shysters will make a process more complex, more convoluted, more time consuming, and rife with new points for potential failure. But, it might keep them from getting sued aver a repeat of the earlier problem. Said problem almost always being a human being failing to follow the old process. Bah, Humbug! I'm a big fan of Shakespeare on such issues.
ReplyDeleteThat said, like some others here, courtesy of having worn the uniform for a long time, we get most meds from Express-Scripts mail order. I have found them to be very efficient, and if I have a problem (next refill not arriving until after I leave town, etc) their phone workers (actual Americans who speak real redneck American lingo!) are able to make things better. Condolences to those stuck out in Civvie-land and subject to the whims of the MBAs and corporate masters.
JB
There's something like that in the law enforcement world. It's called 'accreditations.' Basically a gaggle of retired police chiefs descend upon a department saying that said department isn't accredited (which really means nothing) and then proceed to charge beaucoup grande bucks to 'accredit' the organization by changing just about everything administratively. Like the policies and procedures manual, goes from a relatively decent product with clear and understandable wording to an eldrich tome full of gobbly-gook that, if you pronounce things wrong, will cause Old Squid Face (Cthulhu) to awaken in sunken R'lyeh.
DeleteOh, yeah, that makes sense. Totally.
In my professional experience, I have found that people with all nature of advanced degrees have the ability to complicate and destroy a system. This is often because of the fact that they believe that their educational experience gives them an increased insight into how systems should work, often based on a limited or non-extant gap of knowledge of how the system actually works. Seldom do such redesigns start with User needs or User Specifications for the system.
ReplyDeleteYup. No amount of practical knowledge can overcome the need for an MBA to inflict his/her/its brand of stupidity because said MBA knows better and more...
DeleteI've spent too long at companies watching the whole thing go down, death by a thousand policy cuts, with MBAs acting like picadors and toreadors. Rarely does the company bull win.
Certain selected meds were always a major hassle to get for patients, especially folks that were not able to either remember to take their meds correctly, or couldn't see the labels so visiting nurses were setting up all the meds in pill boxes for folks. Which usually would work okay, minor hiccups, until the sister/daughter who lived in FL or TX wanted mom or older sis to come and visit for say a month...at which time the visiting nurse would have to call the pharmacy, promise their first born and sign in blood, that the patient really was going away for a vacation for a month and really, really did need ALL of their meds, even the pain meds, and the prescriptions needed to ready to be picked up by such and such a day, as that was when there was a family member available to get the meds so they were at the house in time for the next VN visit so all the meds could be put in medboxes. With a label taped on the back of said box saying what med/dose/time each pill was in that box.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will join the crowd and say, as someone who did not serve, the VA, once they got their crap squared away--about 2016 maybe?--the med mailing system the VA has is truly a pleasure to work with. Prior to the turn of the century however, it was a nightmare!!
The only degree that is worse than an MBA would be an Engineering degree held by someone working at GE. Those guys, although VERY detail oriented, were absolutely complete micromanagers. And I say this as the offspring of a GE engineer. I had one patient whose husband was pushing back her meds so that it was exactly 8 hours or 4 hours apart...so if they got started late that day, she was taking her Parkinson's meds later and later so that she would miss a dose at the end of the day. He just about had a cow the day I told him he had an hour leeway to get her morning meds into her, so a bit earlier was fine.
My Dad did his MBA at MIT and then went to work at RCA for a year before being sent on a tour of Korea, courtesy of the Army for a couple of years before going on for his PhD. The thing that saved him was while growing up, his Mom had a large chicken and egg business, the farmer next door was always looking for young, strapping, money hungry types, and Grampa had a well drilling business and no compunctions against nepotism or employing under-aged sons. So by the time he went off to MIT, at the tender age of 16, he had an extensive work record and the callouses to prove it.
There was money enough in the family to pay for one college education, not two, and he had a baby sister, eleven months younger, who had her heart set on going to Boston College for a BA in music. Which she did.
So, yeah, life experience really did help cut down on the "I have a college degree and am not afraid to flaunt it" that I have seen from lots of other degree types.
Suz
Because of FedGov's control over certain meds, we can't build up much of a stockpile to cover things like hurricanes or travel or even Mrs. Andrew vomiting as the 'surplus' supply is kept at a bare minimum. Yay. We're literally controlled in our movement by said FedGov. And if we dare to leave the house for any length of time that requires at least one dose of said meds, we have to carry the actual pill bottles with us else said FedGov considers us trafficking in drugs. Go out to dinner? Time it before or after evening meds as we don't want to carry her supply with us in case we get robbed. Because FedGov doesn't consider being robbed of said drugs to be a legitimate reason for 'allowing' us to fill an emergency prescription.
DeleteThat whole pain-in-the-mule is rant fodder for another day. If I can keep a civil tongue in my head.
Don't hate all MBAs, just some/most of them.
I blame MBAs for all this outsourcing, particularly to China
ReplyDeleteAll they do is think of short term profits and not long-term implications
Yep. Seen it firsthand. Got fired from a permanent job (along with a bunch of people) in order for the MBAs to make that quarter's bottom line look good for a takeover by an other company, and then got hired as a contract worker at same job (along with a bunch of people) because the money for contract employees was on a different page than actual employees moneys.
DeleteDeath by a thousand paper cuts.
The accountants (not necessarily MBAs have been around for a while. A British officer in India (John Masters, I believe) wrote of indenting for the loss of a steel crowbar. In the 1930's civilian Indian accountants handled this. He noted that their fixation on proper forms and procedures had atrophied all sense of the real world. There followed protracted correspondence as to proper forms, signatures, number of copies, and grammar before finally approving the replacement. The reason for the loss was never questioned - that the crowbar had been eaten by termites.
ReplyDeleteYou must file your TPS reports... (reference to movie "Office Space.")
DeleteBureaucracy, whether government or corporate, justifies itself by requiring more and more reports about itself. Which requires more bureaucrats, which requires more and more reports, which... It's an Ouroboros, a snake eating itself. And as it expands, it crushes any productivity and creativity. Look at Lockheed, how quickly Kelly Johnson's Skunkworks was able to produce whole designs from paper to finished product in record time due to the lean nature of management to workers versus regular Lockheed products.
I'm glad you got your drugs, despite the MBA thing. I happen to have both Rx drugs, and an MBA, but I just store mine in a cabinet (Drugs, not the MBA) which gets more use than my MBA, which was acquired to assist with promotion to higher ranks and for when I got out. I take no offense if you are worried- it was an expensive piece of paper that I no longer even have hanging in the office. The only good it did me was keeping the paint on that part of the wall from fading, as I didn't get the promotion, didn't get out early, and didn't need it for the current gig. - Tuna
ReplyDelete