Whats That Sig?!?

A Thank You

2008-05-19T23:38:00.002-05:00

Wow, I haven't posted in a while. Not cuz I didn't want to but, the personal life has been a bit hectic lately. Not surprisingly it trumped the blogging, but I'm back so hopefully I can start to be a little more regular. Probably not as regular as as our favorite pill poppers call with the neverending question "When can I have my vicodans?" but close.

So I just have the urge to heap praise on my pharmacists today. I have been very lucky tech. In all the years I've worked I can count on one hand the number of truly horrible pharmacists I've worked for. What made those pharmacists horrible? Attitude mostly, they were all basically what I would describe as Anti-Pharmacists. Most pharmacists would be the first to tell you that a tech can make or break your day. Its the same for us. We'll gladly lay in front of an old lady's walker just to give you time to run to the bathroom before she traps you at the consultation window with her 30 gallon garbage bag full of meds. What will make us this loyal you ask? Its simple really. If you treat us well, give a little praise every now and then where its due and have our backs when red faced customers are screaming that we messed up their insurance and "it can't possibly cost $1.05 its supposed to be free!"

Where I work now we tend to get yelled at a lot. We are just down the street from the country club if that tells you anything. Most of our patients are the local Dr's and their families, lawyers, judges. I'm not saying all of them but a good portion of them have the mentality that if they say jump we shouldn't ask how high but should instead immediately do it and read their mind to know how high. It leads to a lot of people being nasty to us. I had a woman pull into the drive through recently. I picked up the phone and said "May I help you?" Her response was "Smith, look in the refrigerator." My pharmacist at the time was Dr. Cookie. He looked at me and said, "No." Then took the phone and said, "May I help you?" She repeated the same line to him. He said, " So you are picking one up?" She looked at him like he had two heads. He ignored her and said, " If you need to pick one up I need the full name of the person the prescriptions for." You could tell it made her angry but she finally complied, and he got her prescription for her and finished out the transaction. I know it may seem silly but if I had done the same thing she would have complained and I'd probably have been reprimanded. He could do it without fear and did. So for all of you awesome pharmacists who treat us as team members and not lackeys and who actually value our help and opinions. I love you. I will do anything I can to make your day better. Thanks for being Awesome

Be A Dog

2008-04-28T22:52:00.004-05:00

Our stores Lead Cosmetician gave us all a new philosophy to live by today. I'm sure someone else imparted this wisdom to her and that person deserves much credit for I think its probably the secret to life.

"We should all live life like a dog. If you can't eat it or hump it, piss on it and walk away"

Etiquette Schmetiquette

2008-04-26T22:22:00.004-05:00

There have been rules for socially acceptable behavior recorded as far back as the 5th century. Those rules have changed in many many ways...but I have always believed that the basic ones have stayed remained relatively unchanged. Like, addressing people older than you with respect. Calling them Ms. or Mr. not John and Jane. That you don't say "Hey You" when trying to get someones attention. Instead say "Excuse me Ma'am, or Sir" You don't call people unflattering names when you don't get your way. You don't interrupt others conversations. You wait your turn patiently and never break line. You say please when asking for something and thank you when it is received. I was these lessons from a young age and still put them into practice but its taken me most of my life to realize I must have been raised on another planet. Very few people in society today use these rules. They must be extremely archaic. I'm very behind the times. What made me finally become aware that I am living in the dark ages? Two very enlightened customers.

I was bopping along doing my job, working the oh so important drive-thru. I had the telephone receiver to my ear speaking with the patient in the lane. When I hear over the sound of my own voice, "HEY! Where're the Hydroxycut?" Now, point number one, there is a phone in my hand and to my ear. Point two, I am very clearly speaking to the person through the glass. Point 3 my back was to this man and until I heard him I had no idea he was anywhere around. Now I must say the rudeness of this man thouroughly pissed me off. I made the decision to ignore him until I was finished. He continued to talk to my back the entire time I finished the transaction. I of course continued to pretend he wasn't there. When I was finished I turned and pretended I had just noticed him. "Can I help you sir?" He wasn't very happy by this time and demanded again to know where the Hydroxycut was. My drive-thru buzzer was going off again at this point and it was petty of me I know but I couldn't stop myself so I said, " Its in the diet section, to your right on the wall." Then I turned and picked up the phone to wait on the drive-thru. I felt him staring a hole through me but I didn't let it bother me. I know I solved nothing with my attitude, but lecturing him on manners wouldn't have gotten me anything but a customer complaint.

The second person with more modern manners was a drive thru customer on you guessed it...a CELL PHONE. This woman refused to hang up. Not only had we not filled the script she had dropped off over an hour earlier we couldn't even explain why because she would NOT get off the phone. I managed to tell her it required a PA in between her talking to her friend about some meeting. She finally stops the person shes talking to long enough to tell me she'd had 3 weeks of samples and couldn't just stop the drug. Coming up with a solution was tough, cuz basically i was talking to myself. Finally I just walked away and let the Pharmacist deal with her. Get this, her call ended and in the middle of getting counseling from him it rings again, she holds up her hand to stop him and and answers the call. I think at that point had I still been over there I would have lost it. He just let her finish her call and continued on.

This is getting a little ridiculous. SURELY something can be done. I know you can't FORCE people to behave in a civilized manner but we shouldn't be forced to pander to people with no couth.

How to Make Friends with Doctors Relatives

2008-04-22T00:40:00.005-05:00

I have a question for all of the techs and pharmacists out there. How many times have you wished you could reach through the phone and slap some holier than thou because I have a doctors permission to call in prescriptions receptionist/nurse? I have been quite lucky in that I can count on one hand the number of confrontations I have had with these types. Well I could have, until today, now I have to use 2.

So I go in at 2pm this lovely Monday, I drew the short straw so I got to close. I had been there perhaps 30 minutes when the phone beside me begins to ring. I pick it up and say, "Really Big Pharmacy." Now I Know this isn't really a company approved way to answer. I'm SUPPOSED to say "Thank you for calling Really Big Pharmacy, Dedicated Tech pharmacy technician speaking how may I help you?" I'm not a robot, and I HATE giving my name out. In my experience once a customer learns your name they try to act like you are best friends and want you to do them little favors...like refilling controls early, and I don't believe in that so the fewer people who know my name the better I like it. Not to mention the fact that its always weirded me out when a patient I don't know and have maybe waited on like 2 times begins to call me by name and use it like 5 times in the span of 2 minutes. Creepy. Wow...can we say I got off topic? OK back to the story...So I answer the phone "Really Big Pharmacy" The voice on the other line says "This is Rude Richardson at Dr Richardson's office. We received a voice mail from your store this morning about getting a pa for Lamisil for Parker Bradley(name changed here obviously). The person who called spoke to fast for us to understand so we need to get the information." OK... 1. This is a dermatologists office where the Dr in question is old as dirt and I just don't like dermatologists. Especially NOT the 2 in my area...both jerks with DAW 1 on the brain. 2. This person calling is his relative whom he has employed, probably his wife and this is going to be bad news anyway because in my years as a tech its always seemed to be that if a Dr employs his wife she tend to think SHE is the one with MD after her name. 3. We call on these things early in the morning like around 8 am its now after 2pm and they JUST now call back. Lets not even get into the fact that we've been leaving messages about this patient for over 2 weeks. 4. She had all of the information already except the name of the person who called this morning. She didn't know who to ask for.

Now it just so happens that the tech who had called this morning had stepped out to assist a patient with finding AZO. So I picked the phone back up and told her that the person who had called was unavailable and asked if I could help her. She tells me that she got the patients name and name of the drug, that they needed a pa, AND the phone number to call. What she wanted to know was the name of the insurance company she was calling. I didn't think it mattered all that much but I told her and then the fun starts. She proceeds to BLAST me for the way the message was left. "You people talk ENTIRELY too fast. Don't you know that its impossible to write all of that down when you talk like that. You need to slow down and you need to tell the rest of the technicians to stop talking fast. Its just ridiculous." I stood there in stunned silence for like 2 seconds and then my smart ass reflex kicked in and I couldn't stop the words, "Really? The pharmacists here say that about the scripts left on voice mail, but they have no trouble using the replay button to make sure they don't miss any details."

It was my turn to hear silence. This time it was an affronted silence and then came "Humph!!!" Yes, she actually made that noise at me and then hung up. I wonder if they'll do the PA for the patient?

Help From An Unexpected Source

2008-04-17T23:05:00.004-05:00

Monday, the day of the week that makes us want to run away in terror screaming more loudly that Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween and with much the same feeling of doom. My Monday was worse than a usual. I had the morning shift which is usually nice cuz you get work out of the way and have some time to relax. This time however, it wasn't so nice. Why? Because later on that day a "situation" developed. A situation that actually dragged on for 2 days. As you must have guessed by now it wasn't a pleasant 2 days. So what happened? Well let me tell you.

Its about 10 am. I'm working up a storm, posting orders, waiting on patients, answering phones and questions from a new tech who is really catching on but still needs help occasionally. Its quite busy. I am in the middle of a call with a patient requesting refills when one of our pain clinic patients arrives. Not just any pain clinic patient either, but one whom I have had to deal with at 2 different chains over my years. 2 chains and a total of 3 stores. He is well known to me. One of those who you must double and triple count because hes always "shorted". He is also one who always wants brand name. We'll call him Mr. Salvo. I finish my phone call and ask him if I can help him. He hands me his scripts from the pain clinic. We have 3 in my area. One is very good, very thorough. One is slightly off but at least keeps her patients somewhat reigned in and does treat them with more than JUST pain meds. Then there is Mr. Salvo's doctor....Dr. Shell. Dr Shell is in a league all his own. He writes more than just oxys and morphine, hydros, but his patients only fill what they want. Which means nothing but the narcs. If you call him he will OK this, and he will always say its OK for an early fill no matter how early. To give you an idea of the way he prescribes....Duragesic 100 mcg patches #15 apply 1 patch q 48 hours and 50 mcg #15 1 patch q 48 hours, for the same patient. 'Nuff said.

Mr. Salvo hands me 2 scripts, one is for Oxycontin 80 #90 and the other is for Valium 10, Remeron 15 and hydrocodone 10. He tells me he wants the Oxy in brand name. Now, I ALWAYS check that we have enough of a C2 to fill it before I allow the patient to leave. I don't like being yelled at by people who come back 2 hours later expecting their scripts to be done only to find out we didn't fill it at all. So the first thing out of my mouth on seeing that number one it was for a C2 and number 2 that he wanted brand name was "I'm not sure we have this in brand Mr. Salvo let me check." So I walk around the corner and speak with the POD (pharmacist on duty). He was on hold at the moment but told me he didn't think we had it. That he had looked for another strength earlier and saw only one bottle in the safe. That bottle was a partial. He then handed me his keys and told me to check. I walked to the back of the pharmacy and locating the correct cabinet proceeded to look for the brand name drug. Like the POD I only saw the one bottle with the X on it. I picked it up and shook it and could tell by the weight and sound that there were not 90 in there. I walked back to the front and told him that I was sorry but we didn't have brand name. Then he said in a very very hateful tone " You've lied to me about that before you need to have someone else look." I'm used to stupid statements like that so I really didn't take offense at this point, I just smiled and said "Mr. Salvo there is only 1 partial bottle but I'll be happy to go and count it to be sure." I walked back to the POD and asked told him I needed him to check again. He was still on hold with a Dr so he gave me the keys again and told me to go get it. I walked back to the safe...looked again...saw nothing different. I got the bottle and took it back to the filling station and began to count the pills, all the while answering questions from the tech we were training as well as the POD. I double counted the med and found only 64 in the bottle. I walked around the corner, bottle in hand and said "Mr. Salvo, I'm sorry, I counted them and there are only 64, we don't have enough to fill it." We then have to go through the explanation of not being able to "owe" him any and that if he took what we had he lost the rest. At that point I offered to call around and find the medication for him if he would tell me where he wanted me to try. He said, "No, do you have it in generic?" I hadn't even checked that so I told him I didn't know but I would look. So I go BACK to the POD, he is still on hold same office. He gives me the keys again. I go back to the safe. There is one bottle of generic in there. I opened it and it was sealed so we would have enough with 10 to spare. I walked back up front and told Mr. Salvo that yes we did have enough generic. I then again offered to call another store. I knew he didn't want generic. "Mr. Salvo I'll be happy to call around for you. We can fill your others if you'd like and I'll find you the brand name somewhere else." At this point he stated "No, just give me the generic" I asked him "Are you sure?" He said yes. I said OK. I finished entering and filling his scripts and then went to ring him up. Before I could scan the first one he took the bag from my hand ripped it open and popped a hydro and an oxy right then. His wife had to make him hand me the bag back to scan out. He asked if he could use the discount card he had that took $50 off of brand name. I told him no because it wasn't a brand name drug and that the coupon would reject when transmitted. He seemed fine with it and left.

Fast forward about 4 hours. I get a call from the night tech giving me a heads up. She told me Mr. Salvo had been back in and the he said I lied to him and he was going to have me fired. It seems that he still didn't believe me so calls back about 9pm. Pharmacy was dead and the fill in on duty went through the cabinet and found 1 bottle that had gotten put behind the wrong strength. I didn't look through all of the strengths, just in the place it should have been so I didn't see it, nor did the pharmacist who had been with me that morning. The tech told me that he was screaming that it was the 2nd time that I had lied to him about it and he would have my job. Now, I didn't remember any such thing so I checked his profile when I got to work the next morning. Every time my initials came up as waiting on him he had brand name, except for this one time. He asked for the corporate office phone number to complain and was given the number. He had called 2 times before I got in the next day.

Long story short he called the pharmacy and started yelling at me over the phone. Dr. Cookie was the POD Tuesday morning and he took it from me and asked him what his problem was. He went into this long diatribe about what a rotten tech I was and how unprofessional and that I was trying to kill him. Dr. Cookie explained it was a simple mistake and that 2 people had overlooked it and that the guy who had found it only found it by accident. Salvo then starts screaming that I didn't look hard enough and Dr. Cookie gave him a lecture on how many drugs were in that cabinet and that we didn't have time to go on a hunt. It got pretty nasty. He swore when he called our toll free number that it was a woman talking dirty to him and wouldn't believe that was the only phone number we had. Dr. Cookie asked him what we could do to make him happy and he said he wanted me fired and to be given brand name. Dr. Cookie at this point said, "So you only want the tech fired and not the pharmacist? You want her fired for making a mistake?" Salvo told him yes that I was unprofessional. He then demanded the corporate number again, and Cookie told him the toll free again. Salvo screamed, "That's a SEX line!" Dr. Cookie told him, "No, its not and see there even you make mistakes." I could have kissed him at this point.

All day long Salvo is calling us, he talked to the store manager who told him that he would let him have brand but only if the Pharmacy DM OK'd it. By the time She finally called back and got the whole situation laid out for her(She laughed at his demand that I be fired, stating that I had offered repeatedly to find it so we weren't at fault) She said we could give him brand but only if his doc wrote him a new script and he would have to pay the difference. Well the store manager, Dr. Cookie and myself all thought this would be very simple because after all it was Dr. Shell. So Cookie calls his office and tells the ENTIRE story to his nurse. She became incensed and told him that Dr. Shell would handle it, for us to make him keep the generic and she would call us back. When she did call back she said, "Mr. Salvo will not be bothering you again. Dr. Shell will NOT be writing him a new prescription. We told him to take the generic, there was nothing wrong with it and if he didn't like the service at your pharmacy to find a new one. We also told him that if he bothered you again we would dismiss him from our clinic." She ended with a plea to my store manager not to fire me because of him. He laughed and said that was never a question..

Dr. Shell and his staff are now on my Christmas card list. Lord knows how Mr. Salvo had been treating the office staff for them to stick up for a pharmacy. Its the first time I can EVER remember a physician standing up for the pharmacy instead of blaming them. I still don't like his prescribing habits but I'll cut him a little slack for a while. Forrest was right. Life IS like a box of chocolates.

How to Ruin a Patients Vacation

2008-04-14T22:31:00.005-05:00

So Ms. French comes in to the store today. Ms. French is one of our least favorite patients, a problem every time she arrives. See she and her hubby are from the other side of the US. Her hubby gets brand name only Vicodin. Always...ALWAYS prescribed by the same Dr. We'll call him Dr. West. Mr and Ms French have been patients at my pharmacy for over 4 years. In that time they have never once had a prescription filled by a local Dr. Dr. West prescribes everything for them. Smells awfully funny if you ask me.

Anyway, Ms. French arrives at the pick up window and says "I'm here to get my husbands medicine. I called it in yesterday. Hes out of refills. Dr. West is closed on Mondays so you can't get any. We're going on vacation. I need you to give me enough for 10 days." Ok...number 1. You knew your husband was out of refills. 2. You knew you were going on vacation. 3. You knew Dr. West was closed on Mondays. So I don't think its unreasonable to ask...WHY in the name of the Saints Cosmas and Damian did you not take care of this LAST WEEK?!?!?

I wanted badly to ask her this question but refrained and instead said "Ms. French we'll be happy to give you a 3 day emergency supply but that's all we can do without an authorization from your Dr." It was instantly apparent that she did not take this news well at all. She sucked her breath in deeply and rolled her eyes and hatefully spat out " Ask someone with authority." This immediately made tiny pinpricks of anger crawl up my arms. Normally I will bend over backward to help someone, but this particular woman has caused more problems in this store than you can ever imagine. I so wish we could fire customers, unfortunately our corporate office would rather kiss ass. With great amounts of effort I controlled myself and simply turned to the pharmacist on duty who had walked up behind me by this point and he repeated without me having to explain the situation that we could only do the 3 days and that it was a courtesy that technically we really should not even do. He then offered to get the refills and transfer the prescription to her vacation destination on Tuesday once she had chosen a pharmacy.

Ms. F didn't like that one little bit either....the next thing out of her mouth made me want to slap her and she should be on her knees thanking the Patron Saint of Idiots that I value my job. "So you are telling me that I have to interrupt MY vacation to stop and find a pharmacy?". Now I work for a very very large chain. Stores all over the place, and even should she choose not to use one of ours, shes going to a place where many people choose to retire...I don't think there is a pharmacy shortage there. He said "Yes ma'am it shouldn't be a problem to find one." She then very hatefully said "Give me the 3 days and when he runs out I guess I'll just have to sent him chasing all over hunting a pharmacy."

I hope it is a big hassle simply because of her attitude. Then maybe next time this happens and there WILL be a next time, she'll use a small portion of her gray matter to pick up a phone and call her Dr for refills at least 3 days before she leaves....I won't hold my breath though. It may be my favorite color but my face isn't very attractive when its totally blue.

Antagonistic Patients

2008-04-12T23:38:00.002-05:00

Have any of you ever noticed that some patients will never EVER come to your pharmacy without making some kind of complaint or causing some type of problem while they are there? And for those of us who are fortunate enough to work in stores that possess that Holy of Holies (cue the wondrous sound of angels singing )aka a Drive Thru...its ALWAYS the patient in said drive thru causing a scene.

Case in point, Thursday we were graced with nice shiny Escalade in the drive thru containing one very snooty woman. Now said car apparently had a small problem with the driver side window so she had to pull up and open her door to actually utilize the DT. This drives me freakin CRAZY!!! If your car window does not work for the love of God COME IN! The little drawer we use works just like the one at the bank and chances are your door is gonna get a ding or you are going to fall out of your car while attempting moves even a professional contortionist would not simply because you are too lazy to walk a few feet. ........

Sorry about that side rant but it had to come out.......Back to the story.....

She had come to pick up her BP med. The tech manning the drive thru looked it up in the computer but could find nothing ready for Ms Escalade. She proceeds to question her and is quite curtly told that it was called in last week and should be ready. Well in our work queue there is a BP med for Ms E, but it was quite clearly marked as sold. Upon further investigation it becomes clear that it was sold on the previous Sat. Now that particular day the rx manager and her pet tech were working, neither of them happened to be in the building at this moment. The tech at the window relayed this information and then asked Ms E if perhaps Mr. E had picked it up. She insisted no one in her family had picked it up and then proceeds to scream at the hapless tech that we had sold her medication to the wrong person. Hapless tried her best to calm the woman down and repeatedly asked her to please call Mr. E and just be sure. Instead after holding up the DT for approximately 10 minutes she barks out " I don't have time for this. I'll deal with you later. I have a class to teach at the college." Like teaching a class there was some big deal. Its a community college. Don't get me wrong I have NOTHING against CC's. I think they are a great way to get basics out at a cheaper price, but don't act like you are Ms Super Important over it. My dad was Dean of Students at said CC till he retired so I know that your shit is just as rank as everyone else's lady.

Anyway after she pulls off with a squeal of tires and we get the line of very unhappy to have to wait for their McDrugs DT patients cleared out I went to the office to pull the transaction. Ms E's script was bought around 5pm on Sat along with a package of Benadryl. A coupon for the Benadryl was used and all of it paid for with a check. The last digits of the account number printed as well as the check number. When the rx manager came in later that afternoon and was told of the situation she let the rest of us know that not only did Ms. E herself pick it up but that she came through the DT and the rx manager went and got the Benadryl for her(something we normally do not do but it was slow so she was being nice) rang the purchase up AND chatted with her a couple minutes after. Five days later she has already forgotten all of this..... SCARY

I am now very curious to know what subject Ms. E is teaching and warn everyone to stay away from her classes....there are too many stupid people in the world already, we don't need her teaching others to be just as moronic.

Dr. Nightingale, D.O.

2008-04-11T00:46:00.004-05:00

So recently we've been seeing a lot of scripts from a local doctor who from now on shall be referred to as Dr. Nightingale. Now, Dr. Nightingale is a D.O. rather than an M.D. I have nothing against this. I saw a D.O. for years before she moved away to take care of her elderly parents. I also knew on the surface that D.O. stood for Dr. of Osteopathic Medicine while M.D. stood for Dr. of Medicine. I didn't really know what the differences were, so I decided to Google it. My search turned up this link: . Very good information. So after reading this it seemed to me that a D.O. was more about PREVENTING disease and health problems that treating it. This dear readers(or reader, cuz there aren't that many of you I'm sure)simply confirmed my opinion that Dr. Nightingale was not a human but instead a duck and every script she writes is the equivalent of opening her mouth and letting out am ear splitting QUACK!!

Seriously, this womans license is in as much danger as an abandoned wildebeest calve with a broken leg surrounded by a pride of starving lions. A typical prescription from this womans office reads like this:

Jane Doe

Adipex 37.5 # 30 1 po qam 1 refill

Phendimetrazine 35 mg # 90 1 po tid prn breakthrough hunger 2 refills

Lortab 7.5 # 30 1 qhs 1 refill

Now, Jane Doe is usually a 5 foot 6 inch, 21 year old who weighs about 110 to 115 pounds. Thats NOT overweight obviously. She shouldn't even possess that prescription to begin with and its very irresponsible on Nightingales part. My pharmacists have come to the conclusion that the Lortab is being used to knock them out at night after shes had them hyped up all day. Is it just me or could these girls develop some BP problems from this?? Not to mention the addiction to uppers and downers. She has recently begun to add Androgel Pump to that script as well as Synthroid. I thought doctors had to take an oath to "Do no harm"? Have any of you ever seen a doc do something like this? Is this more common than I thought?

Chickenpox and Implants

2008-04-10T02:06:00.005-05:00

Wow, crazy night in the pharmacy. Guess that means it was normal. :-) It started off just like any other shift....lots of hydrocodone going out the door, lots of stupid questions from even more stupid patients who were too lazy to actually come in the pharmacy and instead chose to use Alexander Graham Bells wonderful invention. You know if I could build a time machine I might choose to go back and assassinate that man. Anyway, our pharmacists rotation is set so that one of the two gets the weekend off and they both get one day off during the week, one gets Tuesday morning off and the other gets Wednesday night. Thank God we have a regular fill in pharmacist who is awesome. None of the techs mind working with him at all. Good pharmacist great personality. I myself would rather work with him than our pharmacy manager, so that took some of the sting out of knowing I'd have to close Wed. night and open Thur. morning. So for this blog to keep identities private we'll call this pharmacist Dr. Cookie. Why? Because he ALWAYS buys a half gallon of milk and a dozen cookies when he's at our store. Its his trademark..lol. Ok back to the story.

Things are going along like usual when one of "special" patients shows up for refills. This lady is at least 70, goes to a pain clinic and is nuttier than shelf full of fruitcakes. Nice, but overly talkative and very very into sharing TMI. She is a tiny woman with a close cut hairstyle that changes color more often than Paris Hilton changes clothes, a face with more lines than a pick up artist and voice so deep and scratchy from years of smoking that when she talks you want to scream "COUGH IT UP ALREADY!!" We will call her Lavender Line. I'm sure she'll come up several times so learn that name. So...LL is one of those patients who you ring up and say "Have a nice day" to and she simply steps to the side and begins to rip open her bags like a kid on Christmas morning ripping open packages. She continues to talk to you all the time shes doing this even though you are now waiting on the next person in line. LL just talks over you and interrupts freely as if shes the only person there. Now its very rude to stop and answer her while dealing with another person but if you do not then she'll just get louder. I have found its better to give very apologetic looks to the patient you are speaking with, stop placate her and then continue with your current patient.

So LL is ripping her bags open when it suddenly occurs to her in the middle of her monologue about HMO's and PPO's that her medication was higher than usual. She begins to investigate and discovers one of her generics cost her 44 bucks instead of her LIS Medicare price. She paid for this no questions asked and probably 5 minutes have already gone by since her transaction was completed. Instead of slowing down her diarrhea of the mouth and questioning it like someone who is really worried about money and therefore NEEDS LIS would have done, she pays and now it has to be corrected. It was our mistake and was easily fixed before her transaction was completed but noooooo we have to do it the hard way. Page a manager, wait on them, page them again, wait some more, finally get them and then fill out paper work and re-ring the med all while she runs off at the mouth. Now in the middle of this big old mess she picks up her rant on HMO's again and this time brings it around to her "ex-husband who has that old piece of sh*t H*****h S*****g plan" her words not mine. And how this one was her "second husband not her real one, that ones dead". She then goes on to say out of the blue "I called him and he told me he can't get it up up anymore, but they won't pay for Viagra so hes gonna let them do surgery on him and put something in his dick" At this point my mouth is now hanging open, good thing the flies still aren't prevalent. I'm looking over her shoulder at another patient who can't stop laughing and trying to figure out exactly what I should say to that when she continues. " So I called my daughter and told her about it. I just think its ridiculous. I'm gonna go to the hospital and when he wakes up tell him I'm awful sorry but they made a mistake and gave him a vagina instead. I told her that but she told me not to that I'd give him a heart attack" About the time she got that out she finished the paperwork. I told her to have a nice day and practically ran around the corner before I lost it completely. Dr Cookie had spent about 15 minutes with her before all of this doing patient consultation...he was just beating his head on the counter at this point.

So LL is long gone and its getting right to heart of the afternoon rush. We take a copy from a nearby chain store for Acyclovir 200 suspension. New patient, so Dr Cookie very thoughtfully collects all pertinent info from the other pharmacist...Did I mention hes much loved?? :-)About 20 minutes passes and the patient arrives to pick up the med. Its a mother with a 3 year old...a very noisy, rowdy 3 year old. We're getting behind and there are a couple other patients ahead but we push her to the front because sanity is very important. I went around the corner and quickly poured it up, labeled it and handed it off. He begins to check it as I head back to the station where I am inputting scripts. I hear a frantic whisper "Hey DT?" I look up and Dr Cookie has a very alarmed expression on his face. I raised an eyebrow at him in question. "Does this kid have...(horror has now taken over the muscles of his face) CHICKENPOX?" Me.."I don't know, I'll ask." He finishes verification and I take the completed script to the register and call the name. The mom comes up to pay....the 3 year old has practically climbed every surface in the area by now...all the chairs the counters at drop off and consultation and pick up. As I scan the bar code I casually ask " Do we have a case of chickenpox here?" The mother looking supremely unconcerned replies "That's what her Dr thinks" I look at Dr Cookie and nod. Hes practically in spasms by now at the thought. I finish the transaction and ask him what the problem is. This is how I discover Dr Cookie has never had chickenpox. He began to rant about how inconsiderate the mother was etc..... One thing is for sure, hes SERIOUSLY scared of getting them. I had to go get a bleach solution to wipe down the pharmacy and he STILL wouldn't go near the consultation area again. I know it shouldn't be funny, but a big, strapping, fully grown man being terrified of contracting a child's disease(yes I am aware it can be deadly in adults)was just that. Not the fact that he was frightened but the behavior he presented I guess...anyway..that was my night. I hope tomorrow is less eventful.

Mixing It Up

2008-04-09T00:19:00.007-05:00

Thank God cold and flu season is coming to an end. I was beginning to think we were never going to fill a prescription that didn't include Tamiflu( 2 cases of the recon a week for a month) or an antibiotic again. It bothered me to fill a lot of those that went out for children. I don't think most of the Doctors even tested to make sure it was the flu or that an antibiotic was necessary. Anyway, so do any of you ever have the problem of a parent bringing a liquid antibiotic back and insisting that we shorted them? It seems to be an epidemic at my store lately...funny thing is its only one patient. Every recon we have mixed for her child in the last 2 months (can we say unnecessary medication?) has been brought back to us 4 days later with the mother ranting and raving that we "screwed up" her daughters antibiotic again that shes already run out of medication and it should last x number of days. Well heres the thing the bottle tells you EXACTLY how much water to mix. Yeah you can expect that some will probably stick to the sides...especially if its something like Zithromax, but Amoxicillin? Come on...that liquids pretty thin. We've attempted to get her to show us how she is measuring the dosage, (we provide oral syringes free of charge) and she simply insists that we made a mistake and that she came to us because her "other pharmacy couldn't mix them and she thought we would be better" There should be a flashing neon sign over this womans head that says "Moron" Anyway thanks to her we have now gone to a system where ONLY the pharmacist on duty can mix recons...The pharmacy manager thinks this is the best way to stop "errors". So not only does she give in EVERY time this woman comes in and mix her ANOTHER bottle of whatever she got this week free of charge but we are constantly backed up in workflow because the pharmacist on duty is busy mixing liters of meds. I hate people.