Uh oh, I made a doctor angry!

Table of Contents

Jeezus H Christ ive been getting a lot of hate mail lately. Heres the latest from a real life doctor!
*\*NOTE**
I am friends with a ton of doctors. Dont take this as me bashing all doctors. Seriously, there are tons of shitty pharmacists as well as shitty doctors out there. However when a doctor writes what he/she said below (for no reason really, I havent said anything about doctors in a while) you know I cant keep my mouth shut.. 🙂 Plus im really sick and tired of hearing that we’re “wanna be doctors” (which we arent)

You pharmacists are real jerks arent ya? First off….alot of people that
are on medicaid are not all on welfare. Most of those people are the ones
who have pre-existing conditions that can not get private insurance or
insurance through a job!

Uh, medicaid = state assistance = welfare. They may have a huge Share of Cost on their Medicaid, but its still state assistance. Plus I hope you realize that im not against /everyone/ who is on the state tit. I see plenty of people who this really does help, my response mostly was about women who want to get pregnant when they cant afford to take care of themselves.

For example…I have a patient who is type 1
diabetic who uses a insulin pump. I script my patient humalog…my patient
calls and tells me the pharmacy is wanting 90.00 per vial for her insulin
and it was going to cost her over 450.00 for her 5 vials to last her a
month. I tell her to contact her local medicaid office and see if they will
give her insurance. They did…that same day! This woman works, goes to
school and has children but with her other medical conditions and other
scripts I write for her there is no way in the world she would be able to
take care of her family if she is not taking good care of her diabetes.

Bad example Doc. Type-1 diabetes is not a pre-existing condition that insurance companies will reject one on. Lets elaborate a bit further.

I realize that this example is someone who is using the system for what its intended for.
- You dont realize (because you never leave the comfort of your little protected office) that there are 25 year olds on the system who dont work, who sit around pop out kids, and will never do anything with their lives. Thats who I have a beef with.
  - What does this hate mail have to do with anything ive written? It was in response to a bitch that women on welfare should not have children. I think thats a pretty good common sense idea.
    - Where did this patient get the insulin pump for the Humalog? They don’t just grow on trees. How did she afford this? Why would a person get setup with a specialized piece of equipment (insulin pumps are indeed specialized) when they cannot afford the maintenance cost? Looks like bad foresight on someones part. Humulin R, N, 70/30 have been the mainstay for years and years, so why go with the latest and greatest. Oh, a drug rep told you.
      - Humalog does in fact cost $90. Not the pharmacies fault. Im sure you don’t work for free, so why do you expect us and the drug manufacturers to do the same?
        
        I don’t see you putting out the $90 for this patients insulin. Why don’t you sweet talk the rep into getting some samples to give to your patient.
        
        So for you ignorant pharmacists who “wanted” or “wished” to be doctors and
        couldnt be because you couldnt pass the tests, you need to shut the fuck up
        about people who are on medicaid! Alot of people that are on medicaid need
        to be on it in order to LIVE! You pharmacists think you are gods gift to
        this earth all because you stand behind a counter and “play” doctor.
        
        Great, way to go and posting this little vent where thousands of pharmacists are going to read. I hope you have a lot of space in your inbox. Lets get the primer going shall we?
        
        We bail your ass out when there are 3 specialists all writing for the same therapeutic class because you cant get off your high horse to talk with each other.
        
        We talk to the patients for free because you cannot due to your patient load
        
        We take the phone calls when your patient has a problem because you’re too ‘busy’ to talk with them
        
        We get that $300 medication (that the drug rep told you was the magical cure-all) changed to something that the patient can actually afford (that has worked for the past 20 years, but for some reason doesnt work as well because its generic).
        
        We don’t listen to drug reps who love to blow smoke up your ass, and you love every minute of it for the free schwag and the glimpse of fake boobs and a short skirt.
        
        We don’t cave in because some crackhead needs his vicodin early for the 10th month in a row for some bullshit excuse even though you caved in and authorized the refill
        
        We have to deal with the fallout of you not taking a patients insurance, and suggesting what doctor they go to for patient care.
        
        We are your backbone and scapegoat. You blame us for everything so you don’t take the heat. How many times have you said “oh, talk to the pharmacist about that” because your little PDR didnt have information on drugs over 10 years old.
        
        We keep your patients out of the hospital because you cant be troubled to approve that refill request until 10 days have passed and your patient is long out of medication.
        
        You use the PDR for your drug information. Enough said. Any pharmacist will tell you that is the most horrible and shitty drug information book on the planet. Facts and Comparisons and LexiComp win hands down. Im sorry if the CYP450 system confuses you.
        Now you may be saying “I’m not like that”. You can paint us pharmacists with a broad brush, so I can paint you doctors with an equally broad brush.
        So I have a fair right to bitch about Medicaid, because unlike you, I actually spend more than 5 mins hearing my patients bitch about early narcotic refills, and why they have to pay $3 on a $200 rx (because some drug rep told them that the new extended release cipro for $5/pill is better than the generic at $0.06/pill). They vent to me, not you. The come to me, not you.
        99% of pharmacists can go on to medical school and become doctors (AKA: The Dark Side). But why don’t we? Because we fill a niche just like you and everyone else does in the healthcare industry. Why don’t you go to pharmacy school and become a pharmacist. Oh, right, pharmacology, the hardest class in medical school to pass (says 3 of my friends who are in fact in medical school right now).
        So yes Dr, we are Gods gift to earth. You’re just bent out of shape that most patients will take our advice because you are too busy to speak with them.

Comments #

Comment by Hope on 2007-01-23 19:09:38 -0800 #

For all the times doctors have hung up on me because they didn’t want to know they were wrong, or ignored their patient’s in-the-dumper creatinine clearance, the ones who wouldn’t even shake my hand when they heard I was a pharmacist…thank you! The intelligent ones use us as a tool. The rest of them can go straight to hell. I tell their patients to find another doctor who will work WITH them. There are too many doctors out there who are flat-out incompetent; one more reason to have pharmacists out there taking care of business.

Comment by Bill on 2007-01-23 19:13:39 -0800 #

This doctor is full of crap!!! Your posts on welfare and children are what this blog so damn cool

Comment by PissedOffRPh on 2007-01-23 19:30:15 -0800 #

What med school is graduating douche bags like this guy? Maybe you should be counseling and treating your patients appropriately instead of surfing the web and bitching people out about random shit. Here is an idea for your patient to save some money: have her quit taking straight shots of syrup with each meal. Why would a patient with T1DM need 166U of Humalog every day? I know… maybe because they have T2DM or are being treated by a jerkoff doc who never discussed the relationship between sugar ingestion and BG levels. So for you ignorant GP’s who “wanted” or “wished” to be endocrinologists and couldnt be because you couldnt pass the tests, you need to shut the fuck up!

Comment by cathy on 2007-01-23 19:31:26 -0800 #

bravo!! i am sick and tired of the bullshit that just seems to flow from the mouths of the ignorant. i agree 100% about the fucked up situations regarding medicaid. the few people who really need and deserve it-congrats. to the others-get a job. and md’s who think that just because i don’t have those magical two letters behind my name…well, bite me. i did my 6 years of college and have my pharm d. do i wave it around in front of everyone’s face? no. do i make my patients call me Dr.? no. do i think i am better than my B.S counterparts? hell no. do i laugh when a pt says their md told them to ask the RPh abouot a med? yes. do i think that RPh’s would be able to help the healthcare industry more if the laws allowed us to increase our scope of practice? hell yeah. can you picture the droves of pts flocking to the RPh’s instead of their md…well, i can.

Comment by Rebecca on 2007-01-23 19:32:10 -0800 #

i bet $20 that this Doc is a new graduate. being a PharmD myself (yes, i AM a doctor of pharmacy…i don’t just play a doctor…and i understand that the angry little physician meant medical doctor), being married to an MD, and hanging out with a good number of physicians i can say from personal experience that physicians have no idea what goes on behind a retail bench. they don’t know what goes on in a hospital pharmacy. they certainly don’t understand insurance and medicaid is a totally foreign concept. they don’t even understand how their own office does billing…ask any one of them to name specific ICD-9 codes. trust me; you get a blank stare. they don’t have any idea what the actual cost of a medication is and they don’t know much about the business practice of pharmacy. they know how to practice medicine. luckily, my husband and his colleagues respect my profession (i save their collective butts on wacky orders daily) and i respect the weight of their duties. this little doctor is in a snit and isn’t even working with all of the information.
medicaid is state assistance for the poor and for people who have illnesses associated with catastrophic cost. being simply poor doesn’t automatically make you qualified. because it is state funded and regulated, each state does medicaid it’s own way. that equals 50 different medicaids. i doubt this physician considered how frustrating this can be to a pharmacist…there is no ONE medicaid. and some medicaid programs cover EVERYTHING – like tampons. you can basically shop on the taxpayers dime. lovely. he doesn’t see the same patient population we see. he doesn’t see 300 people in a single day (and we have all had those days where we fill 300 scripts and talk to 100 people) he isn’t the only person in his office asked to handle the phone, do drug utilization review for every prescription, ring out someone who wants to buy socks at your register, and try to explain how to take a medication to someone who has a language barrier. he hasn’t experienced the narcotic abuser who brings in his dental RXs for Lortab and Amoxicillin – but only wants the Lortab. He hasn’t filled a prescription for Dilaudid for someone who doesn’t seem to be in the sort of pain Dilaudid is used for – only to watch them stroll out of the pharmacy, talking on a cell phone, and get in an Escalade…and gritted his teeth knowing that state tax dollars just paid for that medication. if you have bling and hand me a medical assistance card – your priorities are messed up. if you have 7 kids with 5 different last names and you are under 30 and you are all on medicaid? messed up priorities. you could have thought about using birth control. we see it many, many times a week and the frustration at watching the health care system being abused is overwhelming. after 15 years of retail i just couldn’t tolerate it any longer. it was depressing and my daily encounters were making me extraordinarily bitter.
anyway – let the poor thing have his tantrum. he will become jaded soon. he’s already on his way to being an ass. anyone who talks so much trash about pharmacy hasn’t taken a look at the PharmD curriculum…i almost had a seizure from the years of chemistry, pathophysiology, and integrated science and therapeutics.

Comment by Tootsieroll on 2007-01-24 08:41:26 -0800 #

I find it hard to believe a doctor has such bad grammar, even in an e-mail. When I am trying to kick someone down a notch I at least try to sound more intelligent.
Seriously:
I have a patient who is type 1 diabetic who uses a insulin pump. I script my patient humalog…my patient calls and tells me the pharmacy is wanting 90.00 per vial for her insulin
“a insulin pump?”
“the pharmacy is wanting”?
Seriously.

Comment by Stephanie on 2007-01-24 10:01:59 -0800 #

Oh my word, this has to be the best retort to someones hate mail in a long time. You are absolutely right when you say that some of those doctors have no clue what in the heck they are doing! Way to put that idiot in his place!
Keep up the good work!

Comment by TF80 on 2007-01-24 10:02:22 -0800 #

These last few entries have been excellent. Thanks angrypharmacist. Keep it up.

Comment by NocturnalDoc on 2007-01-25 13:51:09 -0800 #

I am an internist and after reading through your blog…will you marry me?

Comment by REAL doctor on 2007-01-26 09:38:51 -0800 #

Please post which pharmacy you work for –
No physician in North America would send a patient to your pharmacy if they knew your bigoted attitudes about M.D.s (and hostile attitude towards their patients.)
It is because of uninformed, foolish, undereducated, “ANGRY,” and power hungry people such as yourself that REAL doctors are being unfairly investigated and persecuted by their state medical board and the D.E.A.: you say you have 3 friends that are M.D.s – with friends like you, who needs enemies?

Comment by REAL Pharmacist on 2007-02-05 08:22:17 -0800 #

Okay, first of all, kudos to you for putting the doc in his/her place. Having been a pharmacist for almost 26 years, I’ve gone through the gamut of doctors, both good and bad. A lot of them have realized how knowledgeable pharmacists are and have utilized us the their patients’ advantage. This guy falls into the other category – the one where the doctor seems to suffer from procto-encephalitis – where they live with their head up their ass!
The problem with docs like this is that they usually won’t acknowledge others’ input into their patients’ lives, oftentimes to their detriment.
Now, as for you, “REAL Doctor” (which I kinda doubt you are) – if you took the time to read the rest of the angry pharmacist’s blog, you’d soon realize that his rants AREN’T his daily routine – it’s his way of venting steam from the frustrating parts of the day. And trust me there are a lot! Take the time to actually read more of his blog – you might learn something, and maybe be a bit more understanding… of course, you might have to open your mind a bit…
As for friends like thim, I think I’d feel priviledged to be called a friend of his!

Comment by Pharm Tech on 2007-02-05 18:42:14 -0800 #

I haven’t been here in quite some time, so I am glad to see that you’re still going and still making some of us laugh. (And some of us froth at the mouth.)
Hate mail is a high form of flattery.

Comment by travis mc on 2007-02-12 00:20:44 -0800 #

as a pharmacy student doing rotations i have seen not only MD’s need us but while on rounds the med students not know as much about diagnosis and tests as we do. they look with blank stares when the attending asks what test to look for on a patient having muscle pain thats taking a statin, while thats easy as cake for us.

Comment by Melanie on 2007-02-23 11:24:34 -0800 #

Hey AP- I forwarded a link to Jim Plagakis for your hero blog- he thought I was you and emailed back. Where can I forward the email to?
melnjd

Comment by Pharmacy Association on 2007-03-23 17:58:44 -0700 #

Right now i don’t trust any dr they bost to help they don’t . i have treid lot of meds nothing works i don’t care any more my heath is bad i can’t get my dr do any thing. WBR LeoP

Comment by PissedOffAtDoctors on 2009-11-28 14:27:39 -0800 #

I’ve taken my daughter to three doctors in a row, each of which have told me they don’t know what’s wrong with her then charge me for a full office call. I’m not a doctor, I’m an engineer. Apparently smarter than these fucking doctors as I diagnosed her myself. She is now going to a doctor for cough variant asthma. I am so pissed off at the arrogance of the doctors in this country. FUCK THEM! Doctors THINK they are ENTILED to become millionaires and do nothing for it! As an ENGINEER, I get paid to SOLVE problems. The day I can’t solve a problem is the last on the job. I don’t get to say “I don’t know, ask another engineer”. HOW LAME!
Frankly ALL GP’s should just have their licenses revoked and they should allow pharmacists to prescribe medications after a consultation. G.P.s DO NOTHING!! THEY ARE ARROGANT DUMBASSES.