What's the biggest, scariest pharmacy monster out there?
Is it the "three letter devil" and company? The rise to power through vertical integration and the gory, merciless strangulation of any independent competition? The maniacal laughter of the devil named "corporate" as he stands with his boot pressed to the throat of his employees?
Is it exorbitant student loans, ruthlessly quashing the financial independence of pharmacists everywhere and dampening the sparks of innovation across an entire field?
Is it the horrifying, ghastly nightmare voice you hear in your sleep... "Tweeellllve phaaaaarrrrrrmaaaaacy caaaaaaaalls."
Is it the drug interaction you wake up over a cold sweat at 3am, thinking, "Did I miss it? Did I counsel? Should I have refused to fill that?
Is it the aggressive, abusive behavior from patients, supervisors, and frustrated, burnt out coworkers alike? A hostile work environment full of flashing, beeping, impossible deadlines, created to haunt you through all the days of your life?
Is it the skyrocketing DIR fees and other anticompetitive practices that somehow go unregulated? Is it the graveyard with the frightening tombstones of the nearly 10,000 independent pharmacies that have closed since 2009?
Is it patients being forced to use unreliable mail order without adequate temperature control for sensitive medications? The menacing spectre of preventable medical costs arising from interruptions to therapy?
Is it the looming threat of workplace injury? Damage sustained over years of extensive standing, bladder holding, involuntary fasting, and long-sustained stress?
Is it the flooded, oversaturated market, paired with his evil sidekick, "flat job growth outlook"? Is it the pool of applicants so deep you're drowning, gasping to stay above the rising tide?
Give your vote in the blog comments...who will be the spookiest, the scariest of them all?