I much prefer talking to local pharmacies, as opposed to the big-brand ones, because they're much more lenient and much easier to talk to when something is awry with the script we sent them. At the big name stores, you get these little douch-y techs that call us for inane things that should easily be overlooked and they waste our time calling us to ask us about them.
Tech: "Hi, I'm Tech from Big Chain Pharmacy. I'm calling to ask you about the script for Norvasc (I'm just throwing in a name, I forget what it really was) that you wrote for Mrs. Hypertension."
Me: "Ok, what's the problem?"
Tech: "Well, you wrote 'take one tab by mouth daily'."
Me: "And?"
Tech: "They don't come in tabs; they come in capsules."
Me: "You're joking, right?"
Tech: "No, we're going to need you to write another prescription and send it to us."
Me: "I'm not doing that, just fill it for the capsules."
Tech: "The pharmacist says we can't do that, that we need a re-written script."
Me: "For a non-controlled substance, you need a hard prescription? How long has this pharmacist been practicing?"
Tech: "I don't see how that's relevant."
Me: "HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN PRACTICING?"
Tech: "I think they graduated a few weeks ago."
Me: "Unh-huh. Is the patient there?"
Tech: "Well, yes."
Me: "Put her on the phone, please."
Tech: "You want me to put the patient on the phone?"
Me: "Yes...please."
Tech: "One sec."
Mrs. Htn: "Umm, hello?"
Me: "Hi, Mrs. Hypertension, how are you?"
Mrs. Htn: "I'm ok. Is there a problem?"
Me: "Not with you. What I'm going to suggest is that you grab your script out of the tech's hand and walk across the street to Corner Pharmacy. Brad will be waiting for you and I'll get him to rush your prescription."
Mrs. Htn: "Oh, ok. I'll do that."
For the next six months, I wrote "Not to be filled at Big Chain Pharmacy" on all my scripts.
4 comments:
Well actually it might I suppose depending on the age of the patient. I have pcos and it not uncommon for me to go three years without one then whoosh very heavy bleeding needing medication from the gp.
I was a pharmacy tech for three years before I quit last week to join the Navy (I'll be in boot camp for 9 weeks and still be having more fun than my former co-workers:) As a tech at Big Chain Pharmacy, I can assure you I found making these phone calls just as annoying as you did. I hate interrupting doctors for tab/cap changes, but we never demanded a brand new handwritten rx. A verbal OK from a nurse was plenty of authorization. It also depended on the pharmacist we had on duty, some were OCD about it, and others were ok with changing it w/o prescriber approval. I just nodded and smiled a bunch, it's their license and 100k+ in student loans they're concerned about.
It wasn't an issue unti they demanded a hard script. That was just being an asshole about it, hence the anger.
I'm a pharm tech, and I can't imagine wasting anyone's time for something like that. Not ours, the patient's, or the doctor's time. We are most certainly able to fill a script if it's a tap/cap change. The only reason I can see a pharmacist being ocd about that kind of issue is insurance audits. Sometimes they can be assholes. If they find any little thing wrong with the prescription, they can charge us back for it.
Post a Comment