WARNING: This post may be painful for those in the profession to read.
For over a year and a half now, the first thing anyone visiting my little blog garden has seen under the headline at the top of the page is the promise that the question of "why does my prescription take so damn long to fill" will be answered. Tonight I looked over this blogs archives and realized it was a promise not kept. While many topics have been covered here, and you have been provided with ample evidence of how drugstore workday life does indeed warp the mind, the question of why it took 2 hours for you to get 20 Vicodin has remained unanswered. I can't help but to think there may be someone out there who has been logging on every day for the last 18 months hoping in vain for this mystery to be solved. Should such a person exist, I offer my humble apologies. To everyone else, I offer the following prescription scenario:
You come to the counter. I am on the phone with a drunk dude who wants the phone number to the grocery store next door. After I instruct him on the virtues of 411, you tell me your doctor was to phone in your prescription to me. Your doctor hasn't, and you're unwilling to wait until he does. Being in a generous mood, I call your doctors office and am put on hold for 5 minutes, then informed that your prescription was phoned in to my competitor on the other side of town. Phoning the competitor, I am immediately put on hold for 5 minutes before speaking to a clerk, who puts me back on hold to wait for the pharmacist. Your prescription is then transferred to me, and now I have to get the 2 phone calls that have been put on hold while this was being done. Now I return to the counter to ask if we've ever filled prescriptions for you before. For some reason, you think that "for you" means "for your cousin" and you answer my question with a "yes", whereupon I go the computer and see you are not on file.
The phone rings.
You have left to do something very important, such as browse through the monster truck magazines, and do not hear the three PA announcements requesting that you return to the pharmacy. You return eventually, expecting to pick up the finished prescription.....
The phone rings.
......only to find out that I need to ask your address, phone number, date of birth, if you have any allergies and insurance coverage. You tell me you're allergic to codeine. Since the prescription is for Vicodin I ask you what exactly codeine did to you when you took it. You say it made your stomach hurt and I roll my eyes and write down "no known allergies" You tell me......
The phone rings.
.....you have insurance and spend the next 5 minutes looking for your card. You give up and expect me to be able to file your claim anyway. I call my competitor and am immediately put on hold. Upon reaching a human, I ask them what insurance they have on file for you. I get the information and file your claim, which is rejected because you changed jobs 6 months ago. An asshole barges his way to the counter to ask where the bread is.
The phone rings.
I inform you that the insurance the other pharmacy has on file for you isn't working. You produce a card in under 10 seconds that you seemed to be unable to find before. What you were really doing was hoping your old insurance would still work because it had a lower copay. Your new card prominently displays the logo of Nebraska Blue Cross, and although Nebraska Blue cross does in fact handle millions of prescription claims every day, for the group you belong to, the claim should go to a company called Caremark, whose logo is nowhere on the card.
The phone rings.
A lady comes to the counter wanting to know why the cherry flavored antacid works better than the lemon cream flavored antacid. What probably happened is that she had a milder case of heartburn when she took the cherry flavored brand, as they both use the exact same ingredient in the same strength. She will not be satisfied though until I confirm her belief that the cherry flavored brand is the superior product. I file your claim with Caremark, who rejects it because you had a 30 day supply of Vicodin filled 15 days ago at another pharmacy. You swear to me on your mother's'....
The phone rings.
.......life that you did not have a Vicodin prescription filled recently. I call Caremark and am immediately placed on hold. The most beautiful woman on the planet walks buy and notices not a thing. She has never talked to a pharmacist and never will. Upon reaching a human at Caremark, I am informed that the Vicodin prescription was indeed filled at another of my competitors. When I tell you this, you say you got hydrocodone there, not Vicodin. Another little part of me dies.
The phone rings.
It turns out that a few days after your doctor wrote your last prescription, he told you to take it more frequently, meaning that what Caremark thought was a 30-day supply is indeed a 15 day supply with the new instructions. I call your doctor's office to confirm this and am immediately placed on hold. I call Caremark to get an override and am immediately placed on hold. My laser printer has a paper jam. It's time for my pharmacy tech to go to lunch. Caremark issues the override and your claim goes though. Your insurance saves you 85 cents off the regular price of the prescription.
The phone rings.
At the cash register you sign....
The phone rings.
......the acknowledgement that you received a copy of my HIPAA policy and that I offered the required OBRA counseling for new prescriptions. You remark that you're glad that your last pharmacist told you you shouldn't take over the counter Tylenol along with the Vicodin, and that the acetaminophen you're taking instead seems to be working pretty well. I break the news to you that Tylenol is simply a brand name for acetaminophen and you don't believe me. You fumble around for 2 minutes looking for your checkbook and spend another 2 minutes making out a check for four dollars and sixty seven cents. You ask why the tablets look different than those you got at the other pharmacy. I explain that they are from a different manufacturer. Tomorrow you'll be back to tell me they don't work as well.
Now imagine this wasn't you at all, but the person who dropped off their prescription three people ahead of you, and you'll start to have an idea why.....your prescription takes so damn long to fill.
A year and a half late, but a promise kept. I feel better about myself already.
296 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 296 of 296There's my work day, right there..
Here's my work day, right here..
I used to work as a pharmacy technicion for 5 years. What you wrote is true. But there are another 20 things to do at the same time.
Not a pharmacist, but I believe every single word of your post. I used to work for the Social Security Administration, taking applications for retirement and disability benefits and eventually realized that there is not one single question that someone won't answer wrong, and that includes, "What is your name?"
Getting medical histories out of people filing for disability benefits was a joy. People didn't know what meds they were taking, what treatments they were getting, how often they were seeing their doctor. I'd ask the doctor's name, and get, "Oh, it's Doctor Smith." "What's his first name?" Person didn't know. What's his address and phone? "He works in, you know, the medical arts building," as if you couldn't walk out of your house without stumbling into the medical arts building.
The most amazing one was the lady who'd lost a kidney. I asked her the name of the surgeon who took it out. She didn't know.
Let me tell you, someone removes my kidney, I'm going to know EVERYTHING about him before he even starts. I terminated the interview and sent her home with instructions to not come back without complete information. Jeezum crow...
I eventually went back to school, learned how to program computers, and never regretted the career change for a single instant. I never had to look at a computer and think, "Are you a freaking idiot?"
What really frosts me, though, is that there are millions of people like this. And they're all allowed to breed, and when they vote, their vote counts just as much as mine.
What would add to its completeness is the DM strolling in and needing to know why your employee loyalty scan rate is not @ target and why your customers are dissatisfied with your drive thru wait times.
At least you were able to collect the co-pay. In New York it's "just say no" for ALL Medicaid co-pays
I'm not a pharmacist, I'm a nurse at a nursing home. And you'd be amazed at how similar the days are. Trying to pass meds, people asking you for meds the doctor hasn't ordered, calling doctors to get it ordered, calling family, faxing the pharmacy to get it sent, the pharmacy calling because they can't read the order clearly enough though my printing is perfectly clear. Writing a new clarified order to fax the pharmacy, meanwhile the person keeps interrupting asking when they can have the medication... not to mention the CNAs, therapy, supervisors, family members who interrupting asking you to direct them to the person they are looking for... ugh. Sometimes even in an 9 hour period I can't get one person's medication taken care of. It's crazy! You said it all!
Yes, reading this was hilarious and an insight into what pharmacists have to deal with, but it really isn't that bad. I have many pharmacist friends who have vented to me and I feel them, but I'm guessing they never worked hard physical labor for 1/4 of the pay they are getting now. Also people who put their lives at risk for less pay also. I've done it all, 12 hour shifts, 16 hour shifts, working 7 days a week and I appreciate my current job even more now. Sometimes you have to flip a switch and just not let the dumbasses you run into at work stress you out.
wow, i'm a newbie pharmacist in retail and no one seems to understand when i explain to them exactly why i can't get lunch or even have a chance to sit down during the day. i am definitely going to be passing this along! love it, so sad but true!
AWESOME!! .... so sorry you have to put up with crappy people like that. :(
Clearly you must work at my pharmacy.
I cant believe I've just been introduced to this blog, but let me just say WELL DONE SIR. I've been in pharmacy for 10 years now, the last 3 as a Pharmacist, and I was reading through alot of the comments... I cant believe nurses arent closer to the root of most of our problems! I guess I'm the only one that has to fight with nurses that (in my opinion) are all bitches, I'm sorry but they are, and anyone who knows me knows I would never attack anyone like that but wtf??? When you have to explain to a nurse that she cant call in Percocet or Oxycodone, what does that say about the quality of nurses these days? And forget about a nurse thats worked with a Dr closely for any amount of time, they have that Dr in their back pocket. I can handle stupid people because lack of knowledge about what we do exactly makes them stupid, but dealing with idiot nurses is what ruins my day.
To all of you hospital pharmacists that feel so sorry for us retailers, I would much rather talk to stupidity over the phone than have it directly in my face. I interned in a hospital for a good while, and even the LPN's think they are above pharmacy. Sorry guys we are all on the same team, but for me personally, retail is way better than any hospital I've ever worked in. Maybe I can just chalk that up to bad hospitals, who knows??? And dont get me started on PA's or nurse practitioners - what a joke!
So I do work in a pharmacy . . . AND THIS IS EXACTLY TO THE 'T' WHAT HAPPENS ON A DAILY BASIS!! I'm so going to have to print this and post it in my pharmacy!! Thank you for enlightening the people that do come to my pharmacy. Now no b****ing when you come to drop off your prescription to me and I tell you to come back in 20 minutes! =)
This completely made my day as well, but not because I still work as a pharmacist/pharmacy manager in retail now, but because I recently GOT OUT. I dealt with all that BS day in and day out, and the money is NOT WORTH IT. I have since started working at a Specialty mail order pharmacy and THE GRASS IS GREENER!! The way that retail pharmacies expect us to work is ridiculous. All the things above are true, but also that a) we don't have a second to eat and b) we have no time to use the bathroom.... and if we do, we either a) feel guilty or b) have so much to do when we get back from a less than 5 minute break that it's not worth it. I love the fact that I now have a desk, regular breaks, and a normal eating schedule!! For a little less money (still 115K+), I have no regrets on my decision to leave. And since I am still on payroll at that certain retail pharmacy that promises they are "The Pharmacy America Trusts", I can pick up a shift now and then so I can either a) stay up-to-date on regular medications/OTC products or b) deal with the BS this blogger listed above.
Wh about when the doctor has to send a perscription over 3 times and finally has to call for the pharmecy to acknowledge that they received it. or when the pharmacy technician can't talk in full sentances so I can't understand what she is saying to me.
I am just south of Fort Knox working for Walmart. In our area there were 5 total pharmacies serving the area, us walgreens and three independents. Walgreens just stopped accepting TRICARE and so to make up for the loss, bought all three of the independent pharmacies over night. They're patients were never informed. Doing twice the prescriptions and we've not hired anyone new yet, plus we're still averaging 40-60 txfrs/day. Our wait times were already around an hour before this started.
Can You make sure it's the blue watsons for my Hydrocodone
LOVE IT!!!!!! You should also add the drive thru customers wanting milk and cigarettes, with no prescriptions to drop off or pick-up.
Wow. I have to honestly say that I had no idea that I, as a patient with a chronic disease and thus on a myriad of prescriptions, was felt of in such a way. I absolutely understand and agree that you have a tough, crappy job. I had a crappy retail job, too--rather, that is when I could work, so I understand telephones ringing, machines not working, customers being frustrating and downright insulting, smiling when you want to cry or needing to use the restroom or being hungry and not being able to do either.
That being said, I've spent half my life using a pharmacy--seven of so using the exact same location--so I understand things are busy and try my best to give plenty of time to fill a script, put up with floating techs (I live in a college town with a large pharmacy technician school), getting other patients' scripts accidently, (I learned to check the bag and prescription before I leave, as, you see, I really can't come to exchange it, as I'm on a fixed income and have to have a kind friend drive me.) I'm sorry for the times my also busy physicians and nurses forgot to call my prescriptions in and the trouble it's caused you.
On that note, I had no idea I was such an idiot. A butthead. A drug addict. Ill-informed. Stupid. Crappy. I'm taking Jane's lead and moving my business to a small, privately-owned pharmacy. It will take more time, more money, as I will have to call a cab or find a medical bus, but at least I won't have to think about what vulgar things my pharmacist is thinking of me. Thank you for letting me know, monkeys.
P.S. To the young almost-pharmaceutical graduate that didn't know what the word 'prophylactic' meant...good God, maybe you need to go back to middle school sexual education.
Being a customer I really appreciate this information. Thank you! I already know how stressful of a job the pharmacy team has. My ex husband was a tech. I'm always patient and understanding.
My daughter is a pharmacist and I hear all of the things that she goes through, therefore I try to get my prescription filled a bit BEFORE it runs out so that I can give them a day to fill it at their leisure.
"..another part of me dies" LOL Love this!! 7 yrs in the rx bizz now and yesssss I agree with every single sentence! My coworkers and I always wonder what amazing ratings would a pharmacy show have.. kinda like Greys Anatomy where its fictional (to comply with HIPPAA of course). But even juicier if it were a reality show!
oh my god!!!! I am a pharmacy Assistant atthe most bussiest pharmacy in northern ontario and this article is right on the money... often you are pulled in every direction, jerked around by customers that dont know there birth dates to weather they have private coverage or not... not hard questions really!!!! The customers should really work with us for one full day then they would never in this world ever be rude again... they would have a wake up call... seriously customers, before you are inpatient or rude to the staff at pharmacies think about this article and just think... life is too short to be damn angry all the time...
this is exactly the reason i left retail. one year was enough for me
love this have read it about once a month for the last 5 years still makes me laugh and reminds me that pt's are brain dead everywhere! what do you need filled?(everything)they don't know what they are taking,why they're taking it,and don't take it as prescribed then call asking why you didn't fill something they haven't taken for 6 months or ask why you filled something they are no longer taking and want to return it makes me want to scream think i need to read this again it seems to calm me down getting angry again;)
Hi, this is one of my favorite all time posts. I'm always tempted to post it in our pharmacy. I hope you don't mind, but I referenced this post in my own blog for an entry entitled "Things NOT to say to your pharmacist"
If you want to view it, it's at http://artofcombiningrandomness.blogspot.com/2012/04/things-not-to-say-to-your-pharmacist.html
Yup, I can totally relate
Terrible shifts! Doesn't your Board of RX limit the shifts up 12 hours!??
SPOT ON!
The phone rings. So what?
Pharmacy, Best Buy, airline ticket counter, et al. Why are customer-facing businesses always answering the bloody telephone when I, the customer who got off his backside to drive to your place of business, am standing here waiting? Why is the lazy, confused, anonymous dolt on the other end of the phone so important?
Why haven't those with advanced degrees, including pharmacists, yet worked out what should be given priority? An automated attendant is a start but those voice recognition systems are not the panacea they seem to be at the phone system sales pitch meeting. Like most gee-whiz technologies, they are really meant to turn aside inquiries in the hope that callers will simply give up. Oh and there's no need to give out your web site URL. We can Google it if we really need it.
The point is that all businesses with a heavy call volume should have at least one person to field and summarize calls. It would be worlds more efficient for a phone rep to ask X number of succinct questions of the pharmacist and return those calls thereafter rather than have the pharmacist tied up listening to a long winded speech from a customer trying to get to the crux of the issue.
By the same token, the only people still using corded desk phones appear to be pharmacists. Where are the headsets? The belt packs? Why prolong a call by putting someone on hold when you can speak to them via a headset while walking up and down the aisles of meds?
Technology is not just compute-based patient tracking and insurance claims. Use it to pull your industry and your particular operation into the 21st century.
For that sort of workplace you are pretty much correct. Your education is wasted. As a Pharmacy student, I pray that you are joking about the difference being a CE. I WISH I could have scraped through with my Bachelors! Alas, I was born a few years too late. Don't worry, I'll probably always make less than you and will definitely work longer hours.
Marie, it sounds like you either live in a small town where people still practice manners because the pharmacist knows your momma OR you go to a mom and pop drugstore that sadly will not be able to compete in this cutthroat market and go under in the next 5 years. Generally the answer to your question is yes because generally these are the customers we get. People who want something for nothing and they want it yesterday and don't you dare try to tell them what to do. I once had a man scream at me that I was a dumb bitch that needed to learn how to do her job because I tried to convince him that the Preparation H "pills" that he has "always taken" were in fact suppositories. But don't you worry. We know who our good customers are. They light up our days and they are appreciated!
One thing I can never understand: how can you be so heinous to people who know where you live?? Honey, I have your ADDRESS on FILE! And YOU have a history of suspicious behavior that the police may be interested in...
The only thing I can think is maybe your script was ready but if you don't pick it up, then by law the pharmacy must reverse the insurance claim and return the meds to stock within a few days. The policy for my pharmacy is 5 days, not sure what the law is. If a patient waits 6 days, they show up thinking that their meds are ready but in fact the pharmacy must fill it again and resubmit to the insurance company. If we don't do it this way, we can be charged with insurance fraud. Hope this helps.
I was a Pharmacy Tech for 4 years and have sworn never to go back to that environment, but this post is SO spot on, SO true, that it does make me miss the crazy job a little.
There is still something satisfying to me about all that juggling, all that stress, all that impatience and conquering the hell out of it.
From my blog, The Phrustrated Pharmacist:
This sign was hanging in a pharmacy where I worked, and no one knew where it came from, but it's great:
A Patient’s Guide to Pharmacy Etiquette:
1. Be sure to stare at the pharmacist while your prescriptions are being filled. Staring makes them work faster.
2. Never remember the name of the medication you want filled. By calling it “the little white pill” you are sure to receive the correct medication.
3. When calling in 8 or more prescriptions, always arrive at the pharmacy to pick them up within 10 minutes. It is ok to hurry the pharmacist. If they make a mistake, it won’t kill you or anything. It is strongly encouraged to call them in on your cell phone while waiting in the drive through.
4. Instead of calling your insurance company, who sets the price, feel free to ask for the exact price of your prescription before it is filled. After all, the staff should know the copay of every drug, for every person’s individual plan.
5. Always ask how long it will take to be filled. If you’re lucky, you will get it free if it is not ready in 15 minutes or less. Also, be sure to ask if the prescription is ready every 5 minutes, because the pharmacist often keeps them after they are ready just to piss you off.
6. Be sure to complain about the copay. The copay is set on the whim of the pharmacist and has nothing to do with the insurance company you chose.
7. It is not necessary to present your insurance card or even know the name of the company. Pharmacists are psychic and know everyone’s insurance.
8. Upon requesting a refill for a maintenance medication with no refills, always question why the doctor has to be called when you’ve taken the same medication for years. It is only a myth that prescription medications have to be ordered by a physician. The pharmacist usually doesn’t fill prescriptions just to piss you off. NOT filling prescriptions is good for business, after all.
9. Always question why the insurance company is so concerned with you getting your medication ten days too soon. After all, you’re only paying $5.00 for it and that’s all it costs.
The Phrustrated Pharmacist
tphrph.blogspot.com
Try a local independent pharmacy! The service is always better! Inpependent pharmacist care about their patients! The insurance co-pay is the same wherever you get your RX filled!
May I ask what country you moved to? I myself plan to practice pharmacy in a different country. Thanks.
I know you wrote this 6 years ago, but I'm dying laughing. I am a pharmacy intern and every single word of this holds true. Especially the when you said that a little piece of you dies every day....lmao.
Pharmacist dude, that is exactly correct except that the cherry antacid works way better than the lemon because the lemon cream has citric acid! Haha! Some form of that strory happens everyday at my pharmacy. Keep posting great stories!
Having worked at a Doctor's office, I'm sorry we have to put you on hold... but it is usually for the same reason you have to make all those phone calls. xD 'Who wants what again? Hold on let me grab their chart... She told us to send it to Babylon, but you're calling from England? Ug... well it is a controlled substance. We're going to have to make a note to tell this patient she has to stick to ONE pharmacy for all her controlled meds, this just won't do.'
LOL awesome. Exactly what I go through as a new RPH.
I am a Pharm Tech in CA. Touche!!!!!
You forgot one thing though, I've been standing behind this counter for 6 hours now, and I'm about to pee my pants, but I'm too busy to stop for 3 minutes and go, and I'm expected to concentrate, and I don't want to start doing the pee pee dance and look like a complete idiot! I actually went to the bathroom while this nonsense was going on and a lady followed me when the tech told her I had stepped out for a moment. She knocked on the stall door and gave me hell cause she was in a hurry cause she had ice cream in the car! OMFG!!!! I'm medically retired, but I do miss it. Believe it or not.
Some women notice pharmacists! Some people adore their pharmacist from afar, because they are sure their pharmacist would just ignore them. Maybe not all, but some do.
This is my life, except add twice as many phone rings because our number is mistakenly printed as the store's number everywhere.
Never forget the look on out new clerks face when they picked up the phone to "YOUR MASHED POTATOES GAVE ME DIARRHEAAAAAA ARE YOU THE MANAGER"
The second look in telling them that the aforementioned scenario isn't that uncommon was also pretty golden.
I left retail 5 years ago to do compounding instead. you nailed it perfectly and brought back a lot of bad memories.....
This was amazing. Thank you, I will never again fail to understand that I am the anathema of my pharmacist.
This dosnt happen in New Zealand as we have a seperate area that elevates us away from retail only customers and the retail girls are well trained. I think the state of pharmacy in your country is very sad however I invite yiu to consider that as a pharmacisr you have an ethical obligation to refuse working for any company who is asking you to compromise your professional conduct or the safety of the patient. These chain pharmacies yiu work for are clearly doing this. In our country you could rally and take company to court it seems like you are happy to not change the system and keep complaining...although I realise corporations inUS are exceed power beyond other countries. Its very sad I feel your pain - pharmacist
If we did this, we would literally never answer the phone. There's always something else we should be doing, whether that's entering/filling/checking/dispensing/counseling prescriptions, doing documentation/paperwork, answering questions from patients, answering the phone for prescriptions/questions/insurance/clarifications etc. We have to balance getting parts of everything done, or it's impossible to catch up.
I'm only replying because my phone won't let me comment on it myself. but the only thing else that could be added is that the person you're dealing with thru all of this barely speaks any English..
I completely agree with this post. When I go to the doctor, pharmacist, car repair, etc. I always try to be as laid back as possible. I also let someone know if I have to be in a hurry and why (school pickup in 20 minutes, massive list of activities aftewards, dr's office didn't give me the script the day before, etc.).
I worked in a drug store environment for 10 years, and active customer service (machine repair, etc.) for another 5. This story is so very familiar. I don't balk when they tell me it will take an hour for the script, all day for car repair (not oil change), etc. Well written post! Thank you!
This is awesome!!! I worked retail a few years ago and this is exactly what happened....all the time!
I hate stupid people. If you can't find the bread in the ONLY grocery isle there is at walgreens, cvs, rite aid, etc., you don't know that acetaminophen and Tylenol or hydrocodone and Vicodin are the same thing, how much your Rx will cost, the side effects, and everything else mentioned above... then you deserve to be given the wrong medication and incorrect dosage so you can die in the middle of the grocery isle for being an idiot. I am at Walgreens RIGHT NOW waiting (that is how I came upon this website) and an obese man in front of me is asking the tech how much he should weigh and his life history of weight fluctuations... meanwhile the tech asks if he has new insurance, which he does, but he doesn't have his card.. However, the CVS literally across the street does have his info... I repeat... I hate stupid people...UGH!
Yeah cry me a river about the results from shoving addictive chemicals down people throats. And pain killers require addictive chemicals right, what a load of crap. I asked a few doctors why the narcotics and everyone of them told me it's to deal with mental aspect of being in pain. Yeah because taking someone out of pain wouldn't do that right. Sanctioned drug dealers and crooked doctors. So yeah cry me a river about the results from your own actions. What a joke, have fun explaining your actions to Christ.
Greetings,
This lifestyle is really going to make the eight years of pharmacy school seem worthwhile. Particularly after the ridiculous PHARMACIST OVERSUPPLY hits the market. Imagine trying to pay off your $170,000.00 student loan making the $17.00/Hour wage that is going to prevail when the excessive number of new pharmacy schools begin to really crank out the excessive numbers of new RPh's that the chain drug stores have paid them to pump out. The Pharmacist Glut is coming, paid for by the big chains and their "generous" endowment of new pharmacy schools. Too many RPh's = $17.00/hr. About what your average social worker makes. Only SW degree is way easier to get through.
Enjoy,
Oz
Dumbass,"What is my respitshun going to cost."
Me "Same as last time, Dumbass."
and the phone rings....
And a part of me dies. Yup.
Now I understand why it takes my pharmacist time to fill my order. It's mostly the Dr offices in my case which take hours and sometimes days to call in a scripts. WTF?
You must work at K-Mart
So. Much. YES.
this is a really old blog entry that i've just been lucky enough to read. i don't know if you will see this response but......i have said virtually the same thing to my peers who still work in retail. pharmacy is where pharmacy is b/c we have ALLOWED ourselves to be put there. pharmacists can and should take our profession back. i think it could be done expeditiously, if we all stood together as we stood up for ourselves. no other profession in which one earns the title of 'doctor' is mandated to show customers where the cool whip is kept.
That's a day in the life of me at walgreens except when I deal with these ppl they don't like the answer they get and play the I speaky no english card. That's south florida for you though. Latinos crack me up
Glad I don't work retail pharmacy anymore. Merely reading all this stuff brings back bad memories. I know there's not much choice out there besides CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid and unfortunately, most pharmacists have to settle and work for one of them in order to make a living. I was lucky to have seen the light years ago and moved on. Those who are thinking about starting a career as a pharmacist... Think twice.
Why spend that much time on a junkie? I waited over 3 hours for a transfer and provided all of my information for a zpak. No apology nor explanation. LOL. come on if you deal with junkies of course they are going to come back with all that great service you are providing. how about spending that kind of effort for your chemo patients instead of narcotic seeking patients.
OK, this is the worst case scenario, we get it.
What about the rest of the time?
I want to thank you and countless others in the pharmacy for all that you do. I am a nurse that works in a hospital and have the most wonderful and understanding pharmacy staff there. They really are gems. I want to thank those that work retail pharmacy for all that you do. Thank God for you angels!
You forgot the guy beeping his horn at the drive through while you're doing all this and only have 6 hours a day of tech help, no cashier, for a 12 hours shift. When the tech does come in, they have to do 100 things that have nothing to do with serving the patients. So you get to be the cashier all day, too. No lunch or even restroom break without getting a pile of crap.
So, this is why in the summer of , I quit and finally put my real estate license I had gotten in 2008 to good use. I make more money and really enjoy my work. My morning commute is down to the coffee pot, then up to my home office. My first appointment is never before 11 AM. I even get a real lunch break. Sometimes even a nap. :-)
My only regret is not doing it years earlier, in 2008, when I first thought about it and got my real estate license.
Written to my former Rx clerk when she passed on this blog: It goes on & on & on & on....... Susan, I hope you're not sorry that (20 something years ago) I recommended this profession to you and that you actually took me up on that advice. (I know you're not) We lived this scenario back then too. Of course you departed from retail much sooner than I. 30 years of my life were devoted to exactly what was described in this blog with countless equivalent alternative nuisances, but you know?, I don't regret a minute of it (well maybe a couple of hours here or there). While totally true, what I did not see was any single comment made about why we would continue to do this, so here is mine. For every one hundred, thousand or more of the world’s most selfish, misunderstanding and uncaring examples of humanity we deal with, there comes that ONE person who arrives at the pharmacy counter with a LEGITIMATE problem for which we provide a solution and then at some point, maybe a day, a month or a year later, returns and expresses true gratitude for the service we’ve provided (usually at no charge) comes the payback and satisfaction we’ve earned for practicing our noble profession.
Is it sad that I am considering pharmacy after teaching middle school science? It sounds so much like my day, and I am not talking about the students... sigh, public education. At least the pay is over minimum wage, which I can't say about my teaching position with two Master's degrees.
PS: I love my pharmacists(damn nasty ticks) that I see much too often and your post has inspired me to finally write those great things to the Target folks that I've been meaning to do for ages.
Okay, I do not work in a pharmacy. However I do work in an ER and I have worked for customer service for a large insurance company starting with an H, during the roll out of the Medicare Part D program. And I have had my own fair share of prescriptions filled. So this made me LOL. I have been behind that idiot at the pharmacy before, just trying to drop off my Rx, so I can give them plenty of time to fill it before I come back several hours later or the next day to retrieve it. Unless its something I need immediately, or the middle of the night, I generally don't wait around for them to be filled. Because I know what type of people you have to deal with on a daily basis. Plus I live just down the street from my pharmacy, so I can stop by later to pick it up. And I always make sure everything on it is correct before I drop it off, have my ID, and if my insurance has changed I bring my medical card and my script card if its a separate carrier (outsourced) from my medical. I know it makes your job, the insurance company's job, and my overall experience so much better and nicer. :)
Insert "nurse case manager" where "pharmacist" exist and you just described my day.
You work in a community pharmacy.You must have never worked in a chain.Work in one for a year or two and then you can have an opinion
I work in managed care...and love it. :)
No we don't! Only the idiots who went into this profession for the wrong reasons (ie money) feel this way. Those of us who knew what we were getting into and sacrificed 8 years of school to have the opportunity to help people do not think of out patients in this way. Pharmacists like the ones you see here are dragging our profession down. It's embarrassing for me as a caring pharmacist to read the posts on this site and comments. So no Marie, all pharmacists do not think of you that way.
As a customer I found this hilarious. Unfortunately. I've witnessed many scenarios of awful, obnoxious people behaving at their worst. Sometimes, if it wasn't so horrid, I'd consider it some of the best slapstick comedy around. I've ALWAYS been appreciative of every person who works behind the counter, in any retail setting. But I'm kinder to the technicians and pharmacists because I've seen the abuse they take, and yet barely do I notice anything negative from the professional (except, perhaps, some gritting of teeth).
Due to an accident (not my fault, rear-ended by a teen too busy texting to notice a stopped school bus 8 car lengths ahead), I'm a patient who needs to use medications to get through my day. In my profession, education, bathroom breaks are impossible, customer satisfaction (students and parents) can either make or break your day, and the stakes are higher than ever while the cultural disrespect for my profession continues to erode. And I don't receive adequate compensation for my level of education (Masters in Literacy) as a reward. But I LOVE the look of "Aha, I get it!," when a lesson a child has been struggling with finally clicks. And I LOVE to watch a non-reader blossom into a voracious fiction consumer when I finally find a book and recommend to them, hoping, just hoping, they'll fall in love with it. I LOVE teaching.
The reason I'm taking the time to write a comment is because of some of the comments from people who work in the business of pharmaceuticals. I judge no-one until they've given me something to judge. And I'm constantly worried that the person ringing up my order of prescriptions is judging me. After reading some of the comments, my worries are justified. Some commentators paint everyone (their customers, their patients) with broad, sweeping generalizations filled with malice (some only mild irritation, thank goodness). When a student doesn't understand what I'm teaching, I don't think they're stupid. When they need more help than the others, I don't look down on them. I help them with all the tools I have in my toolbox. Because I care.
So, thank you to all the people behind the pharmacy counter. And to those of you who despise what you're doing, perhaps it's not the career for you. I'm sure there are wholesale and minuscule changes that can be made to the industry. But until you've walked half a minute in some of these people's shoes (I was training for a marathon before my accident, now I get around with a cane), try to greet every customer with compassion in your MIND.
I've worked in the pharmacy for a large chain for 8+ years as a tech and an intern. I USED to enjoy working in retail. Used to because approximately 7 months ago I got licensed, and 3 months ago I became the Pharmacy Manager. Every day I wonder how I'm going to do this for the rest of my life, and how everyone else has survived this long...
This is why I only made it four years in retail. I became miserably depressed and cynical, and it affected all areas of my life. Those 14 hour days with no lunch and a 5 min potty break (which then somehow puts you 15 more minutes behind!) are well behind me. If you are a natural born people-pleaser, retail is that much harder to stomach. Thank you for writing such a descriptive, truthful article!
TRUTH!
And this is precisely why, after 22 years in retail pharmacy, I am no longer in the field. I loved my job when I started in 1988. There was no such thing as a "Pharmacy Tech".. we were glorified cashiers. We weren't allowed to input scripts, count meds, take doctor calls or anything back then. Customers were, for the most part, polite and patient because "you are busy".
Now, the patients have no patience, manners, or politeness and they have a sense of entitlement that makes them "allowed" to yell and scream and swear at the pharmacists and techs because it takes time to do all that needs to be done.
In short, when a friend asked me if I would ever consider going back into retail pharmacy, I smiled and said "they can't print money fast enough to make me go back."
Bless you all who are still in the field.. you deserve a halo and a big raise.
So true... Thank goodness for our states PMP program too.
I've been a retail tech for the past 2 1/2 years and this post gets every detail of my sad sad working life down to a tee. At least I know so many others are suffering with me (drinks a 5th of whiskey and refills bottle with own tears).
This was as a reply to consumers complaining and moaning about why it takes "so long" to get an Rx...yes, how absurd these customers can be is obnoxious, but if we didn't want to be pharmacists, we wouldn't be. And go to mexico and get abx and then complain about resistant strains of bacteria.
Absolutely amazing.
What kind of shitty customer doesn't say Thank You when they get their meds? What the fuck is wrong with people in this country?
I always say thanks when I get my meds, or finish getting my groceries, or whatever, I truly don't understand why people can't be bothered to do that.
For the pharmacy techs / pharmacists, you do realize that not having breaks is against FEDERAL law right? Your complaints are all legit for sure, but why the fuck do you let your employer literally break federal law every day? That is really confusing to me as well. Get a lawyer and submit official complaints. There are whistle blower protection laws. The department of labor doesn't fuck around with illegal conditions. Not abiding by labor laws is a huge deal.
THIS is why I quit being a Pharmacy Tech after 2 months and changed my major from Pharm. D. to Microbiology; bacteria is way better to work with than the people you find at the pharmacy.
Wow , I work in a compounding lab at my pharmacy and yet I see this type of thing happen all the time. Even in the drive thru when people should know it will take awhile they choose to turn their car off yet keep their music on and smoke their vapor pipe instead of coming inside to ask and answer all their and no our questions.
Yep, that is life as a pharmacist. However, I could add a few more multi-tasking items in your mix. Someone is screaming for a flu shot, the store manager comes back to harass you about some meaningless, micromanaging corporate report, someone forgot to order small vials so you are forced to put everything in a 60 dram vial, your corporate minion supervisor is being snarky about getting a CMR done today (30 minutes of uninterrupted conversation with one patient-not in this lifetime), the 10 totes of an order are still waiting to be put up, the drive thru bell will not stop making the earsplitting obnoxious noise (so loud, surely it is an OSHA violation), the thermostat is being controlled in a state that is 40 degrees cooler today so you are sweating through your smock since it is 87 degrees in your glass cage, AND of course, your bladder is about to burst. And that is a good day.
As a Chronic Pain patient with back injuries and nerve damage....it saddens me that all those addicts pain a horrible picture of those who are truly in pain.
More pain meds is not the answer, but I hope not all pharmacists paint all those who have to use Hydrocodone/Oxycodone/Lyrica/Butrans/etc etc as plain ole addicts.
I'm sure you guys don't....but it really frightens me that I could be judged for filling my lyrica, butrans, and hydrocodone...
Lol. I am replying to a dead thread but i have to defend us doctors. We have 50 folrmularies that constantly change that we are expected to keep up with. Why are you thinking your formulary is so special? Lol. We really dont keep up with any formularies. We find out the same way you do whats on formulary, by the pattern of rejections.
i love the part where we are supposed to be directory enquiries and know the phone number to every business in town!
I feel like such a dick for being impatient at the pharmacy now!
The next time I use the drive thru and am politely told "We'll be right with you" I'll be sure to keep pressing the button every 30 sec, especially if I can see your on the phone and/or helping other customers. Your welcome!
I think everyone is printing this out to show their pharmacist. Great story & love the blog too. :-)
Like many others have said...I love you!
Omg you summed it up !!!! Wish all people entering a pharmacy could read this . My day everyday Plus more !!
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