Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Everything Your Fault, Customer Reports.

YOUR PHARMACY- Every single thing that went wrong with a person's prescription was singlehandedly your doing, a customer standing in front of your cash register reported today while angrily waiting for you to refile their insurance claim, and they really don't understand what the problem is.

Your first failure came when the customer's employer switched insurance carriers and you did not telepathically sense the change in the force and update the data in your computer without being told. Luckily, the new insurance company sent a card containing the new information to the actual insured party, because we sure as shit can't depend on you to keep track of other people's personal information.

Unfortunately you utterly failed to go through your customer's trash the night they threw their new card away instead of putting it in their wallet, solidifying your status as an incompetent buffoon.

Initial evidence also indicated you are to blame for the cost pressures in the American healthcare system that led to an increase in your customer's co-pay. Perhaps if you had been doing your job and singlehandedly countering the inflationary spiral that engulfs the provision of medical care in this country, the customer's employer wouldn't have had to change insurers in the first place.

You really fucked up here.

On top of it all, it would also seem you are the reason the new insurance company is taking so long to answer its phone, and a prime suspect when we tried to figure out why the medicine doesn't seem to be working at all. You only mentioned blood pressure medicine needs to be taken regularly three times during your counselling session, understandably leading the customer to take it only on days when they felt bad. They also sprayed the contents of an albuterol inhaler into their ear, which is your problem.

You also probably started World War II.

Despite your total lack of ability in your job, the customer stated they will for some reason continue to do business with you, and ordered you to fill "all their medicines" for tomorrow. And by tomorrow they mean 10 minutes from now, which anyone with a pharmacy license should know.

Not the blue ones you moron. They didn't need the blue ones.

What do you mean the Soma had no refills?

Christ.

28 comments:

Jenn Siva said...

Did someone actually spray albuterol in their ear? We have one pedi in our community that prescribes PO liquid albuterol.

It is a big joke in the RN core that albuterol cures everything. Cause no matter what you came to the ER for, if you get a neb, your child will all of a sudden feel better, and needs to be d/c'd NOW.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

I made the albuterol in the ear up. I am also 100% sure it has happened.

AndyJ said...

Well, if you didn't have girly smelling hair, none of this would have happened. Start washing your hair with LAVA soap and get that manly smell, and your customers will treat you with respect.

DisasterCh1ck said...

So glad to know retail is still exactly as I left it, 5 years ago.

/also 100% sure it has happened...
//just sayin'

Anonymous said...

greensunflowerRN: Do they not still make liquid albuterol/salbutamol for oral use? I haven't seen it for a long time so I'm not sure if it's still on the market, but maybe your pedi thinks it is.

If it's not, maybe let your pedi know about it...you could suggest the aural use instead...

Danimal said...

Wow, man, you're pretty bad at your job. Didn't you have to go to school or something' to do that? Community College or sumptin'?

pillroller said...

like the song says "If I had rocket launcher !"

DKLA said...

Don't forget the letter saying that the customer has been approved for insurance is equivalent to a prescription insurance card.

Apparently, we can immediately tell their ID, BIN, and group numbers by touching the paper.

Sarah G said...

That's what I just never can understand....if I am so inept, then why, why, why do you persist in returning to fill your prescriptions month after month after month? Why? It's not like I can look outside and see 3 other pharmacies....oh wait, I can. And I'm sure they would all **love** your business. >Sigh<

Tyler said...

hahaha, awesome post!! So true!! I fucking hate the people who come in and open up the conversation with "I have nothing but problems every time I come here!" To which I really really want to reply "And yet you keep coming back" I really wish they wouldn't come back. If they are so fucking unhappy I would love if they went somewhere else to be permanently unhappy and bitchy. Probably 90% of the time they bitch about problems, it's either the insurance isn't going through or the doctor's office called something in wrong

midwest woman said...

You are the spawn of satan.

About your book, it's ALL about the cover graphics...any thoughts on what you want it to look like?

Kat said...

And here I giggle a little bit every time I see the for "Oral Inhalation only" sticker on my albuterol and symbicort inhalers. I mean where else would you inhale them. But then I'm among the 2% of pharmacy patients who applies basic logic and reads directions.

Sunny said...

See, what have I been telling you all along? It's all your fault. See, you never listen to me. Now what did I just say? No, I did not say that I was cooking supper tonight. I said it was your night. Gee, clean out your ear.

Shalom said...

Have you ever used PDX software?

I ask, because once I was trying to use their "shorthand", and put in "i1-2pq4hprnas", thinking that would generate the text "Inhale 1 to 2 puffs every four hours as needed for asthma". Instead what came out was "Inhale 1 to 2 puffs every four hours as needed in the left ear." Apparently I needed AT, not AS. Fortunately I caught it before the label printed, but we all had a much-needed laugh over it.

I, too, have asked patients point blank, "If you have problems every time you come here, why on earth do you keep coming here?" Never got an answer to this, but I suspect it's because the 5 other pharmacies within the 3 block radius all threw them out already.

Anonymous said...

My dad once had a (child) patient whose non-english-speaking mother was spraying the albuterol on the kid's chest and neck and trying to rub it in.

Anonymous said...

once a mom picked up Amox 250/5 liquid and ended up putting it in the kid's ear because it was ordered for his ear infection. now i always make sure to put BY MOUTH

Tonina said...

This post made me think of a scene from the show "Scrubs," in which one of the doctors explains to a patient, "This is why the headache didn't go away: it is actually pronounced 'ann-al-gee-sic' not 'ANAL-gee-sic.' The pills go in your mouth."

How can people be that stupid? I'm baffled by our survival as a species when I consider the behavior of the vast majority of people I've observed during the course of my lifetime.

Từ Thanh Giác said...

I have been told my locals that after the attack on Pearl Harbor the pharmacist in Maui, went around waving the Japanese flag, celebrating the liberation of Hawaii.

Anonymous said...

Sadly we have to type "Unwrap and Insert" on suppository RXs. Who would want to shove foil up their @$$?

Anonymous said...

While I am certain that the Contraceptive-Jelly-On-Toast Legend is a myth, I wouldn't be surprised to see an Albuterol-frosted ear. My personal favorite is from years ago as an intern when a woman came into the pharmacy with a Nitro patch on her forehead. Well, the package insert DID say to apply to non-hairy skin. If you had seen this poor lady, you would have agreed that she had little option. Can you imagine the headaches?

Tylenolic

Mother Jones RN said...

Sweetie, it's always the man's fault.

MJ

Anonymous said...

@ pillroller:
There is a spare rocket launcher (loaded and ready) found by the side of the Malahat mountain highway outside Victoria, Vancouver Island -- by a tree trimmer this week. Is it yours? Directions were included; perhaps it came from a pharmacy; no-one will say.

pillroller said...

the owner probably gave up trying, like in the walking dead too many bodies not enough ammo

Anonymous said...

See it's right there when dealing with nincompoops, immunity from repercussions under the law:
Indiana Code 25-26-13-16 Pharmacist's professional judgment; honoring and refusal to honor prescriptions; immunity
Sec. 16. (a) A pharmacist shall exercise his professional judgment in the best interest of the patient's health when engaging in the practice of pharmacy. (b) A pharmacist has a duty to honor all prescriptions from a practitioner or from a physician, podiatrist, dentist, or veterinarian licensed under the laws of another state. Before honoring a prescription, the pharmacist shall take reasonable steps to determine whether the prescription has been issued in compliance with the laws of the state where it originated. The pharmacist is immune from criminal prosecution or civil liability if he, in good faith, refuses to honor a prescription because, in his professional judgment, the honoring of the prescription would: (1) be contrary to law; (2) be against the best interest of the patient; (3) aid or abet an addiction or habit; or (4) be contrary to the health and safety of the patient.
(As added by Acts 1977, P.L.276, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.156-1986, SEC.3.)

Anonymous said...

Once had a guy that we'd dispened a 20 count Amox/clav to come back after 3 days and showed us the dessicant marked "Do Not Eat" and claimed he couldn't go 7 more days without eating anything!
Some people just suffer from terminal cases of cranio-rectal insertion.

Anonymous said...

And, then, this one time, at the pharmacy...... Seriously, folks, we don't need to hear about every numbnut that has put something in their/kid's/dad's/uncle's/dog's/immigrant's ear(s). It's funny when the DM tells the stories, not you. Carry on DM.

Anonymous said...

Thank God, someone just summed up my every work day in one blog! And I just apologize to anything and everything customers complain about without meaning it anymore.

Anonymous said...

If this was taken place @CVS/Pharmacy, She would taken up to Rx Supervisor and DM, and they would make you issue 25$ gift card and write you up as poor customer service. If this happens to you again by another customer, you would be terminated since there are plenty of newly minted pharmacist who is ready to take your place at cheaper wage.