Seriously, this is the pharmacy that a sick person's dreams are made of. I have been chronically…read moreill since birth (37 years...) with a rare autoimmune disease, and I have absolutely HAD IT with all of these chain pharmacies treating me like a number. As one could imagine, I take a ton of different types of medications, and as a result, I have a lot of experience trying to navigate through the healthcare system. In addition, I have a 15-year career working in healthcare administration in NYC, so I have seen every ugly aspect of the industry known to man. As my health has declined with age, it has become increasingly difficult to manage my life, but what makes it worse is constantly having to argue with pharmacies/pharmacists about filling routine prescriptions. If it's not one thing, it's something else: opening late/closing early, losing scripts, overcharging, and just generally making the patient feel like they are a giant inconvenience, simply for trying to get well.
This is not the case at The Chemist Shop.
I started seeing a new doctor in the fall, and he would only send his prescriptions to this pharmacy. At first, I thought it was kind of annoying to impose that on the patient, especially since The Chemist Shop isn't in my neighborhood (I live on the UES and I am disabled, so I imagined having to trek down to midtown every month for one or two medications, rather than going to the Duane Reade at the corner of my block). But then I learned that they deliver to me, which doesn't make sense (lol), but it definitely changed my tune immediately.
Next: everyone I've ever spoken to here is really freaking nice. Like sincerely nice. I hope I have their names right, but Nicolette and Steven have been two pharmacists that I've worked with several times, and unlike any chain I've had the displeasure of dealing with recently, the employees at The Chemist Shop actually care about what the hell they are doing. Over the past few years, I've started to run into a lot of issues at my local Duane Reade, where the pharmacists would implement their own internal rules and guidelines about what THEY felt was best for the patient, regularly overriding the prescriptions written by my actual physicians. it's absolute BS and has frequently caused unecessary barriers to my care.
In addition to my underlying condition, I have had multiple unrelated health issues since January, which required a lengthy hospitalization, multiple surgeries, and a grueling recovery process that I'm still chipping away at. I can say with full confidence that if I had been getting my prescriptions sent to Duane Reade that it would have been an absolute nightmare. Instead, I decided to stay with The Chemist Shop and even asked some of my other providers to start sending scrips there instead, and the attention to detail and customer service have been unmatched.
Another issue that I face at chain pharmacies is the general lack of interest in thinking outside the box or basic problem-solving. There is almost no patient support, let alone actual patient advocacy. Again, not the case at The Chemist Shop. At DR and CVS, I have had prescriptions immediately rejected when the insurance didn't want to pay or when the computer produced an error. No call from the store, just radio silence (and no filled prescription...). I'm constantly having to hunt down medications, wait on endless holds, and don't even get me started on the lack of accountability. It doesn't even matter anymore if you remember who you spoke with when you were given the wrong information. The person you name is mysteriously always off the day you cite their existence, and as if that's not unprofessional enough, they are also almost always trashed by the clerk standing in front of you. I can't even call it a breakdown in communication, because that implies that there was an existence of communication in the first place.
At The Chemist Shop, when an issue arises, they WANT TO FIX IT. They will offer to call your doctor if they have questions; they will look into the price of a medication if your insurance won't cover it; and they realize that the last thing anyone wants is to be sick, so they seem to try to carry the burden wherever they can. IMAGINE THAT.
As I'm writing this, I realize how ridiculously over-the-top this review is, but when you've been screwed with for decades by people who are literally employed to HELP OTHER PEOPLE, it's insanely refreshing when you come across a business that understands that a little goes a really long way, especially when you feel like shit.
So if you are as disgusted as I am by the direction our healthcare system has gone in and are looking for a reliable place to get your meds, you'd be crazy not to try this place out. I promise - the only thing you'll really have to worry about is focusing on getting better.
