Naval Hospital Pharmacy

J. Lucky 3 months ago

“NMRTC San Diego Pharmacy Now Operated by Time, Suffering, and DHA” Welcome to the NMRTC San Diego Pharmacy, where your prescription gets filled right after your will to live gets placed on hold. This is not a pharmacy. This is a multi-hour endurance event with fluorescent lighting. You walk in thinking quick pickup. Maybe 20 minutes. In and out. Back to work. Negative. You just checked into a full day evolution with no timeline, no updates, and no escape plan. Let’s talk about the “fix” to long wait times. They did not improve staffing. They did not streamline processes. They removed refills. Just gone. Problem solved. If you cannot refill medication, technically there is no refill backlog. Outstanding. So now instead of one painful visit, you get to run the entire admin gauntlet every time. Call your provider. Wait. New prescription. Show up. Wait again. It is the same misery, just spread out over multiple days. Then there is the communication system. You are physically standing at the counter. You can see the staff. They can see you. And yet you are told to step aside and text a number like you are ordering takeout. You will stand there, texting for help from five feet away, watching your message sit unanswered while your number on the screen refuses to move. The number system itself feels like it is powered by chaos. Numbers jump. Some disappear. Yours becomes a long term commitment. You will start to question if you actually checked in or if this is some kind of administrative hallucination. The waiting room becomes a shared trauma environment. You will hear real world comments on repeat: “I’ve been here two hours already.” “They told me it would be ready. That was yesterday.” “Why is this worse every time?” At some point, everyone just accepts it. Phones down. Eyes forward. Silent agreement that time has stopped. You are not waiting anymore. You are existing in the pharmacy. The staff are working hard. You can see it. This is not on them. This is a system problem. And that is where the real answer comes in. DHA. Ever since DHA took over military medicine, everything feels slower, more complicated, and somehow less responsive. What used to be a command level problem you could at least navigate is now a system level issue wrapped in policy, contracts, and “process improvements” that somehow made everything worse. This pharmacy is just one example. Same mission. More layers. Less efficiency. And when your name finally gets called, it feels like getting liberty after restriction. You grab your meds, walk out into the sunlight, and realize you just lost half your day for something that should have taken 15 minutes. Then you remember there are no refills, and you will be back. Pros: You will eventually get your medication You will build patience beyond human limits Cons: No refill system. Mandatory text line even when standing at the counter. Wait times that feel personal. DHA bureaucracy slowing everything down Final Verdict: The NMRTC San Diego Pharmacy did not fix its problems. It just buried them under more process. And somehow, like everything else in military medicine lately, it all traces back to DHA.

Desiree 4 months ago

So frustrating getting anything at all from this pharmacy. Starts with the interaction with most if not all of the staff which basically is they treating you like the biggest inconvenience of their lives, to waiting 4 hours for literally antibiotics when the pharmacy is not full at all, they mess up tickets and make you wait again while expecting you just deal with it as if you are just waiting to buy a car and not to get medications, or if like you not are in pain and have already waited hours. Do yourself a favor and find another location or just let the disease take you at that point if you go to this place.

STEVEN WATERBURY 3 years ago

At the 32nd street pharmacy today and they have 2 windows open and both have been closed for over 10 mins with several people outside waiting. This is the worst pharmacy in the San Diego pharmacy system. Will go else where in the future

diegodocks C4 3 years ago

I am so frustrated with the whole pharmacy system. My wife takes a lot of meds for her heart and other ailments which makes me a frequent customer. I cannot afford to go elsewhere and after 20 years of service this is an entitled benefit and i shouldn't have to. I have waited 4 and 5 hours to pick up new prescriptions. I have also had to make sometimes 3 trips back and forth because the prescriptions have not been ready or were not processed. I live a good distance away and gas and time is wasted each order. I tried to use the bar code thing and after waiting 6 hours for a text that never arrived I then spent another hour on the phone to be told that the bar code thing has not been working and that I have to wait another day to process my order. Also the instructions for the bar code (that's not working) and the Q anywhere have skimpy instructions hard for elderly to understand. Not exactly clear. The wait times on the phone are ridiculous. I have been number thirty something in queue waiting for 2 hours and got to second caller only to be told by a recording that my phone call cannot be processed at this time. Three times this year that happened and each time it was around lunch time. What does that tell you? Unprofessional in all regards. Civilian pharmacies do not have these problems so why does the worlds greatest Navy? Is it just plain incompetence I would ask? This has been a problem for awhile. I would think its time to consider getting rid of whoever is in charge and find a qualified executive that knows how to run a business. By the way, who can you complain to? There is no information on any site I can find that has a pace to go to vent your frustrations. This site wont get get the attention of a superior officer who probably thinks all is well because there are no complaints because there is nowhere to complain. One star is overrated.

Kade Thomsen 3 years ago

Took an hour and 20 minutes to get my prescription. They weren’t even busy (not even 1/4 of the seats were taken) the “estimated time” on the screen said 30 minutes. The lady that always works at window #1 is VERY rude to everyone. Like everyone else says, 12 windows with 2-3 of them open. Sad but true that Walmart Pharmacy is way faster and more professional.