TECHnically Insane: A Pharmacy Technicians view

Update.2.0

2012-03-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

Things have been going pretty good on my end. My new manager is pretty decent. The cold and flu season seems to be winding down and so has the into pharmacy drama, I believe. I know I am doing my part. So no rants from me.

On a personal note. My migraines are really flared up right now due to the weather in the midwest. Rain is a trigger. Ugh, I am not doing so great. My second dose of sumitriptin did not knock this one out. I think I have a sinus infection that is making things worse. Boo!

Flu and Scabies

2012-02-10T18:25:00.001-06:00

Things are going pretty smooth at work but it is a little stressful being short one pharmacist. We have one retired pharmacist coming in on wed. to help out, so that is nice but tuesdays and thursdays we only have one pharmacist until our new PIC starts. Kinda a crazy time of the year to be short staffed.

We are expirencing the typical cold and upper resp. stuff but seeing alot of tamiflu scripts all of a sudden.

Then headlice and scabies started going around too. YUCK YUCK YUCK.

I am glad there are 2 counters between them and me most of the time. Unless I have to help run the cash register and that gets me down to one.

I admit, I am a germ-a-phobe. I am always on the cashiers to wipe down the counters and pens. BUT I dont have any children to bring that crap home to me. I rarely ever get sick. And when I do, my kick ass immune system does its job. I am not one of those jolly rogers,jump on the antibiotic at the first sign of a sniffle. I have to be dying. I am allergic to sulfa and quinolone antibiotics, so I am not about built up resistance to other antibiotics using them willy-nilly...but that is just me.

Have a good one.

Grand scheme of things

2012-02-05T09:55:00.000-06:00

Even though I feel like in our meeting I was totally thrown under the bus, I do feel like the tension has melted at work. I am just using that meeting as a reset point personally when dealling with my coworkers. Part of me does have some resentment but I know if I cannot move forward from it, things will never get better and we will all just be stuck in an endless cycle of back biting and bitchyness. And I am over it. We just need to come together as a team. And if I had to take all the blame, I guess so be it. That is how it played out. I am going to have to except it and move foward.

My husband on the other had is furious. He cannot believe I was treated that way and thinks I should tell everyone to go to hell and let the owner fire me. That is just not acceptable. I was not raised that way. I do not want the shame and embarrassment that goes along with a firing. Plus I am good at what I do. I get paid really well. I drive 7 miles vs. up to 45 to the city. No thank you. He thinks I am letting them walk all over me and that I am not standing up for myself. I think, the economy is still in the toilet and jobs are still scarce and I better just suck it up for now.

IF something comes along, I might take it. I might go part time...who knows. He reciently became partner at his company. We are business owners now. That is something I never thought I would say. So we are busier with that. I do alot of computer stuff for them.

I know things will work out. It can only get better from here. Our new manager starts in March. It is a woman. I hope she is not a bitch!

NEW Manager

2012-02-02T06:48:00.000-06:00

We have a new manager starting hopefully March 2nd. I am glad. I didnt realize all this time my old one hated me and was basically plotting against me. Monday we had a meeting: the owner, the manager, and the 3 techs because we have been having all these issues. And that asshole basically went against everything he told me in our meetings we had, flipped the script on me, turned things around on me and made me into the bad guy.

If he was going to do that. Why not tell me face to face that he was a chicken shit bastard. Why tell me that he felt like I was being wronged. Why not speak up and tell me he has issues with me when had a chance. Coward. I am glad he is gone. He said I made him mad one day because after we got a new print cartridge and we changed it the first page printed out completly black. I made a joke about it. He said that pissed him off for several hours. HOURS. Are you kidding me. Grow the fuck up!

Glad he is gone and in another state. Peace dude!

Why?

2012-01-24T21:31:00.001-06:00

So if you f*ck up and order the wrong drug in and add it in to inventory and I fix it then don't cop some bull shit attitude with me because you messed up. Ever. I will let it pass one time. Next time I will school you very harshly and you may cry. I am over dealing with bitch attitudes all the time.

Our PIC and only full time Pharmacist quit so that will be interesting. In one week, hopefully we have a replacement. I hope we get a old vetern that will not take any shit from these bitches. I am so over it.

Pharmacy Customs

2012-01-19T12:52:00.000-06:00

Every month we have a food day to celebrate everyones birthdays that month. It is usually pot luck. Sometimes we have a theme, sometimes not. I have a really hard time with these events because I have OCD pretty bad. I know most of my coworkers are clean. I can tell by their personal hygine. But their level of clean and my level of clean are different.

I have struggled with these events since the get go. I am usually the last to eat so I can pick at the food and eat very little if I feel it is questionable. This is not something I can help. This is not me being a jerky catty female. This is me dealing with something I have struggled with since childhood.

I have been seen and treated with antidepressants for my OCD without much luck. It just made me kinda numb to the other parts of my life so we discontinued them. I now just deal with them. Since my stroke, some aspects of my OCDs have improved. Cracks in sidewalks/streets don't bother me. Little wierd things like that have gotten better. But I still have some major obsession issues like if I wake up in the middle of the night, I cant just go back to sleep with out reading first. I read over 250 books last year. (This causes alot of lost sleep.) I sometimes compulsively wash my clothing twice just so I know it is clean. I smell it before I dry it. I only use tide. No sketchy cheap stuff. Only use Bounce. No sketchy cheap dryer sheets. My husband is useless and only gets to was his own clothes. He knows I will rewash my own. If I use silverware at other peoples houses I almost always rewash it. (I dont trust them.)

I can stand my clutter in my home library. But I cannot stand clutter at work or any where else around my home. It suffocates me.

Anyways, back to the topic. Sketchy food. Who to trust. And people make some wierd stuff too. Then they wanna pass out their recipes like they have a gem. Guh! The owner made some wierd cheese ball. I sat next to her so I had to eat some but I have no clue what kind of cheese it was. Wierd. I might be sick the next food day.

Here's what technicians shouldn't do...

2012-01-17T20:37:00.001-06:00

Tecnicians should never recommend any OTC products to customers EVER. NEVER EVER. Even if we know the answers, it should not cross our lips. I am a pretty educated and smart person BUT I do not have a RpH or PharmD after my name so I know better. But this other tech, she will go out there and start recommening products left and right. Cough and cold for children under 3. Sure why not.   40 year old man with cold symptoms: sudafed...I'm like really??? You didn't even look at his profile or talk to a pharmacist about his medical problems. She asked him if he had high blood pressure. He said no. But the next day he filled medicine for high blood pressure!

This same tech also councils patients on medications. I don't think she has even been to college let alone Pharmacy school. Aparently she had some people in the community convinced she is a Pharmacist. She never wears her name tag that says she is a tech!   I am so frustrated! We have already had a meeting about her behavior.

We are an independant pharmacy owned by an non pharmacist so I doubt she will get fired for her bullsh*t. But I get so tired of it. The PIC is tired of it but he is a non confrontationalist who needs to grow a back bone!  Any suggestions?

WTF moment of the WEEK

2012-01-11T19:19:00.002-06:00

I get a call yesterday from a nurse returning my call. It goes like this.

Nurse Prompt: Calling you back on a PA request for Mrs. Needy.

Me: When did I leave you that message? (I knew it have been awhile and I was testing her...)

Nurse Prompt: *shuffles pappers*: November....

Me: Yea, I gave up hope, the patient gave up hope...I called the office ATLEAST a dozen times...what is prompting a callback now?

Nurse Prompt: I just got the message...

Me: *thinks to myself...um ok...*

Nurse Prompt: Will you re-send the P.A. info over?

Me: Sure thing. I aim to please.

The P.A. was approved within 4 hours. How hard was that??

GUh

2012-01-09T22:21:00.000-06:00

Almost all of our first of the year insurance snaffoos have been resolved except two LTC contracts. Which either way, we will get paid...we will just have to send out 30 day supplies vs 31 if it doesn't get resolved. So, we feel like we are in a pretty good place.

The McNasty Twins are in fine form this week. What.ever. 0_o Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed. I think I should get 1 taser use a year, is that asking too much?

Our after school girls are finally getting it. Well 2 out of the 3. The 3rd is just dumb and hopeless. I call her box of rocks.

New Year Crazies

2012-01-04T22:06:00.000-06:00

Back to the grind today...I know, I know...I seem a little spoiled that I am just heading back but it just happened that the days fell that way.

But I came back to a shit storm! Somehow the one contract that wacked out at the 1st of the year was one of the biggest and most inportant, depending on how you look at it. It is the insurance processor for all of the state employees! It has literally been a nightmare. We are getting 2 stories. The first is that our contract is no longer active and the second is that there is a glitch and they are working on it. No one can really get their ducks in a row on this. Not our software vendor, not Caremark, not our contract guy...it is crazy. We have 150+ rejected claimes...about half of those we have given them some medication....ugh....

Other then that, thing have went fairly good.

Now we are expirencing Daytrana shortages, though....

Christmas and all that Jazz

2011-12-23T23:20:00.001-06:00

Well, the holidays are upon us and I get get a 4 day weekend! I know I will be bored out of my mind and ready to go back to work by Wednesday. Not really certain why we are closed on Monday, but I guess since the doctors offices are closed we are too.

We already received a few crazy calls about people wanting their Narcs but insurance not covering them until monday....well tuesday now. People get so nutty. I guess I dont know since I dont have any addiction issues.

I have really been trying hard with my two female coworkers that I have been having trouble with. Things have thawed slightly. All I can do it try, try try. It is hard.

On a personal note, my husband has slipped a disc in his back and has been off of work for the last two weeks and basically bedridden (rolls eyes). He is getting better but has been such a cry baby. He is driving me crazy! His business (he is a co-owner) will be closed all next week....3 weeks under my feet....I might strangle him....

Anywho, Happy Holidays everyone!!

First rule of Pharmacy

2011-12-17T22:15:00.002-06:00

The First rule of Pharmacy the ~~hippie~~ Pharmacist-in-Charge at my very first pharmacy job taught me was: there is no crying in Pharmacy!

You have to develope a tough skin when dealing with the public in a customer service/retail position. Not only that, often times they are sick, hurt, tired, or dealing with sick/hurt or tired children. Tempers flair all the time and often times you may not be the cause of their ire but you may get the back end of it.

This was probably the best piece of advice I received for working in this field.

An update

2011-12-14T21:15:00.000-06:00

So my manager had a talk with one of my coworkers about her inaproprate behavior and she said ok and she was sorry. Within the hour she became hostile towards me. He witnessed this and asked me about it later. I wasn't even going to bring it up because I am use to her attitude at this point. He was pretty dumb founded that she would blatantly disregard his authority. We are owned by a non-pharmacist, so he is trying to find a way to resolve the conflict. Both the owner and the manager are laid back, passive people so this has been a challenge. I don't even think my manager has been able to talk to the owner about the issues yet.

It is frustrating to me because these two other techs are idiots. I am not even being a petty jerk when I say this. These are two 30-something small town women who still have high school mentalities. They think they are big fish. The thing about big fish in a small pond is when you take that same fish and put them in a big pond and they don't look quite so big anymore. Thats my view. I grew up in a huge city. My views and experiences are vast in comparison. I am good at what I do. I am efficient and well trained. I am educated. I come to work, do my job and go home. Where ever I am needed, I will pitch in.

Subsequently, my store owner has taken note of my hard work and dedication. She has tasked me with other projects and jobs. And there is an undercurrent of jealously. I can certainly understand that. I am not rubbing anything in any ones faces or trying to make anyone feel bad. I often work one-on-one with her on projects not necessarily related to the pharmacy. What am I supposed to do? She signs my check!

Jealousy is a green eyed monster. It turns perfectly normal people into horriable humans who bully, gossip and hate for no reason.

Crummy

2011-12-02T20:02:00.001-06:00

Things have gotten really crummy at work, I cant even discuss it with out breaking out in tear of frustration. But I am still reading my favorite blogs and hopefully things look up soon.

DOom

2011-11-18T01:17:00.001-06:00

Dreaded Staff meeting in the morning...have not had one in over a year in a half, since my last pharmacy manager got fired for numerous infractions, including but not limited to writing himself checks, bringing/selling us expensive short date stock, ect. I am semi terrified about tomorrow morning.

Customers

2011-11-12T08:19:00.001-06:00

We have quite the assortment of customers. They range from the super sweet lady who sends us gift baskets every few months to the gentleman to from time to time demands us to delete all his information from our computers because he is going to walmart. (He always comes crawling back.)

First let me tell you about our pharmacy. We have charge accounts. I know, blew my mind at first too. Mainly started opening them for people in our Long term care facilities then extended the benefit to other customers. It is a pain in the ass. We also have delivery. Free delivery. This is for shut ins and those with out cars but it too have become abused. We also have DRIVE THRU!

So, the majority of the town knows about our delivery and if they are too lazy to move they call to have it delivered. And they also know we have charged accounts. We no longer open new accounts but people still ask. When they cannot come up with their $3 medicaid copay, they wanna charge it til their check comes. How does that work? In the real world we have to figure out how to make our money last.

We also have some really old people who still DRIVE. B is 95! She is getting more and more confused. And she has almost ran me off the road twice. She also thinks her family members are stealing her drugs when she misplaces them. It is sad to see.

Then Mr. and Mrs. W come through the drive through backwards. They are going to cause a major accident one day. The pharmacy manager needs to grow some balls and tell them to stop. They will cut infront of 5 cars going the wrong way! Then backout.

And what is it about aging that kills the sense of smell? Some of our old people come in so ripe they we have to spray air freshner after they have left!

Then we the the needy customers who have to talk to the pharmacist everytime! Or those who ask what they need filled everytime. You take the pills, how do you not know?

We bubble pack a few of our community customers medications. S loves getting shiney new bubble packs full of meds, so much so that she will reorder then as soon as she can and throw out the remainder just to get the full cards.

Pharmacy is funny. So many characters pass through our doors...

Suggestions

2011-11-05T14:38:00.003-05:00

I know I dont really have any followers, but if anyone stumbles by I want to know if anyone has any suggestions for dealing with difficult and jerky coworkers. IT has gotten to the point where no one talks to each other and no one wants to ask for anyones help. I am not at fault here and I am tired of trying and getting treated like crap. Besides going to my boss, what else can I do to make this better??

Facebook for dummies

2011-10-31T23:50:00.000-05:00

We are having some fantastic luck promoting our pharmacy on facebook using contests. I am really enjoying brainstorming ideas and my store owner thinking that I am a genius no matter what I come up with. But obviously by ideas are genius.

Facebook is an amazing marketing/networking place for small businesses. Since I took over our page, we have gotten so much more traffic and likes. My boss says you cant buy that kind of store visablity. We have stopped our news print ads completely because they dont even compete in getting our name out there. Our name and our brand is spashed across the walls of everyone in our community.

Internet

2011-10-28T19:32:00.000-05:00

Pharmacy and internet go hand and hand. So Friday night and no internet makes for a long, long evening. All rxs have to be submitted via dial-up. (DIAL-UP, really????) No credit cards. Our registers couldnt talk to our pharmacy software...it was a nightmare. Not to even mention being short staffed.... ugh. TGIF. Glad I dont work tomorrow.

Blah

2011-10-26T19:15:00.001-05:00

Working with shitty people everyday just takes it out of my emotionally.

Love Old Things

2011-10-24T19:49:00.000-05:00

I love vintage pharmacy stuff. Here are a few of my finds:

Midol: For Headache, Toothach and Neuralgia! LOL

Prohibition whiskey Scripts

Bayer Heroin?

Morphine Monoject

Asthma Cigarettes, because that sounds about right...

Pharmacy appropriate behavior

2011-10-24T19:21:00.000-05:00

Ok: Waiting for someting to print, then setting it a side if it is not for you.
Not OK: Snatching something out of a coworkers hands.

So a fellow ~~bitch~~ tech was printing some rx's from our queue to fill this morning and then pulling them off the printer to count (no biggie, I didn't want to fill them) but I did print something and when I went to reach for it she grabbed it out of my hand. After which, she had to eat crow and had it back to me. By then I was furious. I couldn't even trust myself to speak so I grabbed my item and walked away before it got ugly.

I know its going to come to a head soon, and she isn't going to like the outcome.

New Blog

2011-10-22T17:21:00.001-05:00

Hey, Everyone. Smartie Tech here. My first blog, first post ever. I decided to start this blog because I read many medical and pharmacy blogs. I really enjoy the insight and the stories and being able to relate from a personal and professional prospective.

A little back ground on me: I am a 8+ year pharmacy tech veteran. I love everything about my job. (Except maybe the people but I am sure we will get to that more later.) I love the science and continued advancement of pharmacy. I love and hunger for the knowledge that this field offers. I love being a part of a team of people that make peoples lives better everyday. I feel like I have a very dynamic and important role in many peoples lives in the community.

Why, you ask, am I just a tech when I so clearly love and respect this profession? It is simple and complicated at the same time. I have a brain tumor. (Stable.) That is the simple. The complicated is several years ago I had a stroke (in my pharmacy) that massively changed and altered my life. At the time, because I was thinking with a damaged brain I thought I was fine and went back to work immediately. I literally left the hospital and went to the pharmacy. Looking back, now I can see how bad it was and how far I have come. It scares me how much one day, one momet can radically alter the course of my life. Even now, years later, when I am have a particularly bad migraine...I fear another stroke. So, moral of the story: I am scared. I am scared to ruin my 4.0 college GPA. I am scared to fail at something I was so perfect for before. But mostly I am scared of the failure.

So for now, I will stay in my comfort zone and not continue my goal of becoming a pharmacist.

Now, A little about my job and my pharmacy.

I am a nationally certified pharmacy technician. I know, that doesnt count for much. I dont get any added bonuses or respect. It was a professional accomplishment I got after my stroke for myself. I work in a independant community pharmacy. We are staffed by 1 full time and 2 part time pharmacists. There are 3 of us techs total and we dont get along. It is not always a plesant work environment. 1 tech mostly counts all day. 1 girl does DME billing and ~~nothing~~ counts. I am in charge of our LTC (long term care) facilities, outdates, recalls, social media, clozapine registry..basically anything important.

My pet peeves are: lazy chatty coworkers, medicaid abusing lazy people and narcotic abusers. As well as about a billion other thing!