Pharmacy Certainties
Table of Contents
There are some things that go on in a pharmacy that are set in stone like the sun rising in the morning. Pharmacy school should publish this list for their students. Seriously, its all true. Lets examine a few:
- Drug reps/Headhunters/Pharm Companies/etc will always call you/stop by at the absolute worst time. Much like the tuesday after a three day weekend, or on the first of the month. During the slow times of the month you wont hear a peep from them.
- Your most important tech will make a doctors appointment on the tuesday after a three day weekend and be gone for half of the day. You wonder why he/she couldn’t make that appointment for some day when you aren’t contemplating suicide.
- The patient who you thought you filled that Rx correctly for ended up having another last name and the same birth-date as someone else in your system. Of course they don’t tell you this until after they have received the Rx and loudly proclaim that you filled it for the wrong person with a store full of people. I mean aren’t we supposed to know that her full name is Maria Consuelo Rodriguez Maravilla Hernandez Guadalupe AIAIAIAIA ARRIBA?
- That bottle of expensive-drug-x is exactly one tablet short to fill that Rx, and the patient wants you to order a whole new bottle of #100 so you can fill the balance of 1 tablet. Oh, and the patient is the only person you have on this medication.
- Someone will always come into the store with a fistful of Rx’s at exactly 1 min until closing, and want them all right now. This is after most of your staff have already left leaving you alone to do all the work.
- Your bazillion dollar counting machine will blow up only when half of your staff calls in sick, and you really really need it.
- Insurance cards + correct ID number = HAHAHAH RIGHT!
- Argus and Wellpoint will be down, but not at the same time. We cant have you do absolutely nothing all day, so we’re just going to fuck up half of your day.
- Your computer system/network/DSL goes out when your computer guy is on vacation.
- “This is not the ID card you are looking for” *hand wavy jedi trick*
- When you call out a patients name to tell them their Rx is ready, the wrong person will come up and claim it. Then get pissed off because to them “John” sounds like “Steven”.
- 30 min into a phone call to the pharmacy help desk of the insurance company to get an ID number, the patient will magically pull a current ID card out of his/her ass then wonder why you are upset at them.
- The “Nurse” calling in the Rx wont be able to read doctors handwriting, then spend 10 min taking a poll in the front office as to what that sig looks like. Heaven forbid she couldn’t read over the Rx before she got you on the phone.
- When looking at a doctors scribble, you will always pick the wrong doctor in your system. We are expected to be able to read sloppy signatures much like we are able to tell our own shit-smear on a piece of toilet paper.
- The one doctor who does not know about the iPledge program or NPI numbers is the one you deal with on a daily basis, and the only one that you can’t really tell to go eat a dick.
- The pharmacy calling you for copies doesn’t have a pharmacist, and the two-bit clerk who called you doesn’t know their fax number or have any Rx numbers.
- A patient brings in lunch for your staff, but you cant eat it because you are up to your eyeballs in work. It smells really nice though.
- There is only 1 scoop of coffee grounds left in the container, so you just drink brown water all day.
Last but not least:- That bottle of gin that you were so looking forward to after days like yesterday will be sitting on your bar empty when you need it the most.
- There is only 1 scoop of coffee grounds left in the container, so you just drink brown water all day.
- A patient brings in lunch for your staff, but you cant eat it because you are up to your eyeballs in work. It smells really nice though.
- The pharmacy calling you for copies doesn’t have a pharmacist, and the two-bit clerk who called you doesn’t know their fax number or have any Rx numbers.
- The one doctor who does not know about the iPledge program or NPI numbers is the one you deal with on a daily basis, and the only one that you can’t really tell to go eat a dick.
- When looking at a doctors scribble, you will always pick the wrong doctor in your system. We are expected to be able to read sloppy signatures much like we are able to tell our own shit-smear on a piece of toilet paper.
- The “Nurse” calling in the Rx wont be able to read doctors handwriting, then spend 10 min taking a poll in the front office as to what that sig looks like. Heaven forbid she couldn’t read over the Rx before she got you on the phone.
- 30 min into a phone call to the pharmacy help desk of the insurance company to get an ID number, the patient will magically pull a current ID card out of his/her ass then wonder why you are upset at them.
- When you call out a patients name to tell them their Rx is ready, the wrong person will come up and claim it. Then get pissed off because to them “John” sounds like “Steven”.
- “This is not the ID card you are looking for” *hand wavy jedi trick*
- Your computer system/network/DSL goes out when your computer guy is on vacation.
- Argus and Wellpoint will be down, but not at the same time. We cant have you do absolutely nothing all day, so we’re just going to fuck up half of your day.
- Insurance cards + correct ID number = HAHAHAH RIGHT!
- Your bazillion dollar counting machine will blow up only when half of your staff calls in sick, and you really really need it.
- Someone will always come into the store with a fistful of Rx’s at exactly 1 min until closing, and want them all right now. This is after most of your staff have already left leaving you alone to do all the work.
- That bottle of expensive-drug-x is exactly one tablet short to fill that Rx, and the patient wants you to order a whole new bottle of #100 so you can fill the balance of 1 tablet. Oh, and the patient is the only person you have on this medication.
- The patient who you thought you filled that Rx correctly for ended up having another last name and the same birth-date as someone else in your system. Of course they don’t tell you this until after they have received the Rx and loudly proclaim that you filled it for the wrong person with a store full of people. I mean aren’t we supposed to know that her full name is Maria Consuelo Rodriguez Maravilla Hernandez Guadalupe AIAIAIAIA ARRIBA?
- Your most important tech will make a doctors appointment on the tuesday after a three day weekend and be gone for half of the day. You wonder why he/she couldn’t make that appointment for some day when you aren’t contemplating suicide.
Comments #
Comment by filet on 2007-09-05 11:39:51 -0700 #
You hit the nail on the head again. Argh!
http://www.fastfoodpharmacy.blogspot.com
Comment by Gary on 2007-09-05 16:06:57 -0700 #
Oh man i love your stuff. my friend showed me to your site. sadly all this stuff is so very true…
Comment by MonkeyGirl on 2007-09-05 17:50:21 -0700 #
“I mean aren’t we supposed to know that her full name is Maria Consuelo Rodriguez Maravilla Hernandez Guadalupe AIAIAIAIA ARRIBA?”
*snerk*
I thought “AIAIAIAI” was her diagnosis, not her name. 😉
Comment by Adam on 2007-09-05 18:51:32 -0700 #
mmm, gin. all so true
Comment by IDidn’tGetAChanceToPee on 2007-09-05 20:34:40 -0700 #
I worked Monday Tuesday AND Wednesday, but I made sure I went to the liqor store before 🙂
Comment by martinS on 2007-09-06 07:57:01 -0700 #
add its always the pharamcists fault when the doctors office hasn’t called in their refill ok for a med they have been out of for a week and they are on their way out of town. they obviously can’t freaking figure out that if you take 1 tablet daily and you have 3 tablets left you are close to running out! also please add spiced rum and a good tequila to your shelf.
Comment by rxtech-kat on 2007-09-15 20:13:37 -0700 #
Don’t forget the strung out customer who smells of booze. That comes one minute before close, and can’t even find her PERSCRIPTION!
“I know I had it, I put it in my purse before I left the house! I know all the druds and the direction. Can’t you fill them now and I’ll bring it by first thing in the morning?”
The rx she claimed was for: vicodin, soma, and norflex. Sorry lady the time is now 9:05 pm, and the pharmacy is now closed. Come back in the morning with you invisible scripts. And oh yes I’m sure the doc gave you prn refills on that vicodin!
Love you blog by the way it’s my way overdue laugh, after a really bad day @ the big crappy understaffed pharmacy chain.
Comment by Rose on 2007-09-19 19:12:21 -0700 #
Ohhh! I’ll one up you on the comment regarding customers bringing in scripts at closing!
It was 6pm, and CVS pharmacies close at 6 on weekends for…oh…5 years or so? (and yet we still get people bitching and whining about getting there and we being closed and how DARE we close at 6!!!) This couple came in right after the gates closed as the pharmacist and I (I being the tech) were cleaning up the last bit of crap. They needed the drug immediately (!!!) so we took a look and saw that it was from a nearby hospital and for Cipro. The pharmacist and I thought “Oh crap, probably just got out of the hospital” and decided to do our good deed of the month and fill it. Well…the insurance didn’t work. So we asked for a new card to which the man says “There isn’t a new card…” but yet somehow takes out a card and says “This is the only one I have…” Voila! It’s a new card as it isn’t in our system. Then…it wasn’t active yet (after a call to the insurance of course). So they hemmed and hawed and said they wanted to buy it anyways. So we handed the bag with the drug in it (generic Cipro) to which they go “It is TOO expensive! Why can’t it be cheaper?”
Maybe I should mention the couple was from India. I have NOTHING against Indian people (have tons of Indian friends)…but the ones I have dealt with at the pharmacy have been HORRIBLY rude and always try to bargain with us about the price…and never understand that the co-pay is set and we can’t do anything about it.
So to end the lovely story, they left the pharmacy…with their prescription in hand and no drug. Because they didn’t want to pay for it.
Time lapse: 20 minutes. 20 mins spent to end up with nothing. That just pisses me off.
I just LOVE your blog! Makes a horrible day look so much brighter!
Comment by Al on 2017-11-19 19:37:36 -0800 #
Can also mean “return to stock”. I’m a pharmacist and have had confusion with others because of this dual purpose acronym.