May
Proving the Public is Clueless
Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Blogs I like, Education, Hate Mail, Me being a dick, Pharmacy School, Stupid People, True Story
I got this from Pharmacy Chick. I’m not sure who this motherfucker is that sent this to her, but his name is Scott. I hope he gets a case of malignant hyperthermia and his “medication vending machine” didn’t know what he (or his doctor) wanted and instead of spitting out numerous bottles of dantrolene spits out a few aspirin and a cyclobenzaprine.
“I’ve been reading your blog and you seem to be upset when people treat you no better than a cashier at Walmart. To top it off, you compare what you do for a living (counting pills and dropping them in a bottle) with the work of skilled trades like carpenters, electricians, and plumbers who work on your house.
Let’s face it: You work behind a counter in a retail store, you hand things that you didn’t build or produce to people and then you take their money. Why would you expect people (customers) to treat you any differently than a Walmart cashier?
Yes, you may have invested $150,000 more in your schooling than the person wearing the Walmart smock but what else separates you? Why should customers treat you like a deity?
By your own admission, you draw a pretty serious salary. I think you should just cash your humongous paychecks and try to give people the service they think they want or deserve. You are not a wise old doctor who is treating a patient. You are simply counting 100 pills (which you did not invent or manufacture) and putting them in a plastic bottle.
I have seen “medication vending machines” in the lobby of hospital emergency departments. I can’t wait for the day when these automatic dispensing machines are available in every supermarket. I don’t need to talk to someone who went to college for eight years just to get another thirty days worth of a medication I’ve been taking for years. I want to put my credit card in a machine, press a few buttons and have my prescription drop into a chute.
I get nearly all of my refills via Medco (mail order). I like using my PC to order medication refills in the middle of the night and then seeing the meds in my mailbox in a few days. I don’t need someone who is making $150,000/yr to put three Advair 100/50’s in an envelope and mail them to me. Some college kid getting $12/hour can do that. I can’t stand going to Walgreens and being told “you have to wait for the pharmacist to come over and talk to you before you can leave the store with your new prescription.” Why doesn’t that rule apply when I purchase meds through Medco?
I’m sorry that customers treat you like dirt. But look at the scene from my side of the counter: You are handing a product over the counter and taking money from the customer. In the customer’s mind, you are not very much different than a cashier at Walmart or the college kid working the cash register at a gas station.”
Now that he’s had his 2 cents (which I wouldn’t pay him for), I get mine — which is worth $55/hr. Advair eh? Who are you going to call when you get a white growth in your mouth that tastes horrendous? I sincerely hope you call the college student. He’s going to laugh and ask for a picture to put on Collegehumor. He’s not going to tell you that it’s a fungal infection, because he didn’t go to college and learn that inhaled steroids, like the one in your Advair can do that.
Your Medco scripts are reviewed by a pharmacist. If there are any problems (i.e. drug interactions), I guarantee that you and your doctor will be notified. You aren’t “counseled” because a ton of literature is included, and they give a phone number…Legal obligations covered.
Do you have kids? Sick kid at 11pm. Better give the ole’ vending machine a call and see what he says to give your 6 month old for a bad cough and high fever. Ask it for the dosing as well…some parents have been killing their kids by OD’ing them on antihistamines. Make sure it double checks the calculations. Or, there’s a 24-hr Walgreens around the corner. The pharmacist may be asleep or watching a movie, but if you wake him up or get his attention, he’ll be glad to help.
You’re right in accessing our knowledge versus carpenters, electricians, mechanics or other trades. They have vast knowledge. I planned on doing a post on this in the future, but I’ll address it know. If my car is going ca-chunk ca-chunk, I’m fucked. I know nothing about cars. I’m not super handy around the house. I can change a lightbulb, but I probably wouldn’t trust myself to hang a ceiling fan. I’ve just never had to do that stuff before. Here’s the thing though, if those things don’t get done — I won’t die. If grandma stops taking her Warfarin because she doesn’t know what it’s for, she will die. I can tell you how the Warfarin works, why it works, what it treats, and most importantly, what OTHER drugs interact with it and could cause problems — leading to that death thing I was talking about. Let’s see an electrician explain what an INR is to a patient.
I paid a lot for my education. Sure, I do my fair share of ‘merely putting pills in bottles that I didn’t create or manufacture’ — but here’s the real bitch of it, I could have. I could have gone into pharmaceutical research and development. Hell, two guys in my class DID! I am just not methodical enough to do that. You are right though, I didn’t make those pills — but here’s the real bitch of it, I could have. I spent numerous classes learning aliquots and compounding. I could’ve made that cream, punched that capsule, or molded that suppository. It’s mass produced cheaper and faster than I can do it. Many years ago, everything was made by the pharmacist, much like I could do it now. I just don’t make every single product to save my patients money.
Scott, you may not think you need a pharmacist. You may not want the help of the pharmacist. That’s fucking fine. We don’t want you. As the international representative for all pharmacists, I hereby ban you from ever speaking to a pharmacist for any reason. You cannot ask questions. You cannot ask directions. You cannot ask for a tissue when you have a runny nose. You’re officially blacklisted, cunt. To be honest, I’d rather spend my time and effort helping those that want to help themselves and respect my educated opinion.
Next time, if I want your opinion — I’ll head over to the Dairy Queen and see which is better: Chocolate or Strawberry.
Hey Scott,
When your wife comes in with your screaming infant and wants to know the proper dose of tylenol, remember that its one dropperful of go-fuck-yourself.
Oh, and when your mail order medications get lost in the mail, I hope you spend the next 5 hours in the ER shitting your pants on the verge of an asthma attack. Wait, you dont need a doctor because you’re so fucking smart.
great entry! i can’t believe how rude people can be. every single day it blows my mind. one would think by now i would get used to it, but everyday people with 0 manners and respect shock me.
Great response. People don’t understand just how much further we go for customers when they ask. What other profession could you get your health questions answered with no bill at the end?
I haven’t even finished reading this blog and had to comment. I am NOT a pharmacist, nor a tech, but I do NOT think of my pharmacist as an overpaid cashier or dirt. I know that I depend on my pharmacist doing his job, so I can live a productive life. My doctor put me on 2 meds I think it was Tramadol and Welbutrin which if I remember right could, when taken together, cause seizures. I didn’t know this, I think my doctor was trying to get me to shut the hell up, (I wanted to quit smoking so I begged for the welbutrin.) I was changed to chantix, because of my pharmacist. So I say screw you Scott you fucken moron!!! I would never use mail order. The thought makes my skin crawl
I just came over from the angry pharmacist. I totally agree with you on this post. I don’t know how many times my pharmacist has put up with stupid questions and never seemed to mind. Thank you and all other pharmacists for going the extra mile to make sure that we taken care of.
Now that is irritating however that is what most John Q Public thinks of our profession. I had a customer come in this weekend and joke with me that I spent all of that money on school just so I could learn to count by fives. He thought that was hysterical and where I work I’m not allowed to give him a piece of my mind.
It doesn’t help when the only reports you see on the news about pharmacists are about them putting the wrong pills in the wrong bottle. It gives the impression that that is all we do. They don’t do stories on how you stopped a customer from taking extra tylenol while they were already taking the max dose of vicodin es.
Can I buy stock in the Vicodin® Vending Machines? I bet those will do well, especially with people like Scott, who probably does more than just order meds at his PC in the middle of the night. I happen to really appreciate my pharmacist. He helps me a lot more than the “toothless wonder” wearing the smock. I asked my RPh for a big favor the other day and he got it done, because I was NICE about it and acknowledged the fact that what I was asking was a pain in the arse, and apologized, but you know what? My order was ready as promised! Oh BTW I LOVE THIS BLOG!
Scott,
I dunno which pharmacist pissed in your wheaties, but your attitude stinks. Pharmacists are sooooo much more than ‘pill counters’ - try calling your doctor’s office when you need pharmaceutical advice and see how soon they return your call (and how they laugh at your dumbass questions. It might not happen in your presence, but trust me, it does happen). Yeah, some pharmacists are dicks (not you, TAiestP) but there are assholes in every profession…..I’ve met asshole mechanics and plumbers and electricians too - even asshole WalMart tellers.
I think that your anger is misplaced, dude. Have your considered therapy?
Lucky D is so right, I remember I was very concerned about getting addicted to a medicine that my MD gave me. I called him and left messages. That evening he still hadn’t called me back, so one phone call and 5 minutes later my question was resolved, not by the doctor, but by my pharmacist. Kudos to all pharmacists. I wish people would realize just how important they really are!!
I already responded to Scott on The Pharmacy Chick’s post comments, but I just have to add:
Scott, in the future, you just might end up being one of those people who can’t get through by phone to the overtaxed retail pharmacists in the area, and you end up, in desperation, looking in the hospital telephone listings and calling my department (People do this every week). In spite of all of the anti-pharmacist vitriol in your post today, I shall be delighted to help you with your problem, if only to demonstrate you the value of pharmacy services that you are discounting, but actually, to help you because I feel it is my obligation to try to help you.
You tell him!
And he’s the asshole who comes in at 5 :30 on a Sunday bc his mail order didn’t come in..
There is nothing more irritating than when customers, much like Scott, walk in with a load of prescriptions, don’t know what they are taking, hover by my counter to “hurry us up”, grunt at the pharmacist and exclaim…”it’s just putting pills into a bottle”…then running it through the insurance, you see, oh, by MAIL ORDER, sent out last week. Well, you didn’t get it, or they lost it. NOT MY PROBLEM. NO, I will NOT call them. No, you cannot ask my pharmacist a question, go wait by your mail box.
oh and Scott, those words will come to haunt you one day, hopefully very very soon. Don’t be bitter because you’re uneducated. Be bitter because you’re a cashier who thinks he’s capable of assuming responsibilities of a pharmacist. asshole.
Scott, you are nothing but the stereotypical, ill-educated, pissed off, fat-assed American that the rest of the world takes the piss out of. Your opinions-taken from the National Enquirer or Newsweek,your education probably stopped before grad school. You are a bitter, twisted individual who does NOT appreciate the job that pharmacists actually do. We are not the deities, we do not think of ourselves as such. We are the snipers on the front-line, holding the line between what is good for you and what could be potentially lethal, monitoring dosages and the medications, taking stock back that has been recalled, inputting into the research of new drugs and helping to improve those that exist-so I think WE FUCKIN DESERVE WHAT WE FUCKIN EARN YOU DUMBASS.
WE ARE NOT DEITIES.
WE ARE HERE TO HELP THOSE THAT NEED IT.
WE ARE THE LINE.
And you, Scott, have just crossed it.
Enjoy your journey to HELL….
Whoa Laura, you go girl :)
Someone get me his IP, I can get some friends of mine to track it down, then fuck with his computer :)
Wasn’t posted to my site otherwise I would have innocently shared it…
Wonderful post and great response Laura. I don’t know about you fellow pharmacists, but I went to pharmacy school to answer drug information questions. I did NOT go to RX school to answer your fucking insurance questions about why your g-damn copay is $30 and not $5….I have no fucking clue why…but I will try to come up with a reason pulled out of my ass to shut you up. I did NOT go to RX school to answer questions about your pet…that is what a VET is for. They learned about animals, not me. But I will look up the # for the local animal hospital since you were too stupid to think of that yourself. I did not go to RX school to learn to count pills by 5 and pour them in a bottle. If you, all the Scotts out there, believe that is why then FUCK you and the high horse you think you rode in on. Educate yourself on what a pharmacist really does. Oh wait, you probably can’t b/c your head is too far stuck up your ass that you can’t tell the difference from the shit in your ass from the shit you have for brains.
has a good point if one gets sick after leaving the pharmacy and ods or gets seriously sick, i would hope the medical doctor is called at 3 am. whats a pill counting pharmacist going to do?just my 50.00 worth!
Your $50.00 isn’t worth dick to the rest of us. Do you think a doctor gives a fuck about you at 3am? Call yours tomorrow morning and see - or wait - do you even have his home number? You can’t even get a hold of most doctors outside of office hours. Sure, call the exchange - it may work.
Unlike your doctor, I am listed in the phone book - professionally and personally. So, one can call my store or call me. I may be all like “wtf” but I have opened up my store at weird hours before to help someone out that I knew. I’m betting every doctor will run out to your house at the asscrack of dawn. You’re a fool and a worthless, prick.
Your assessment of the pharmacy profession is also gravely mistaken.
Twice my family has been on vacation when my daughter became ill. Both times we were able to locate a 24 hour pharmacy and discuss options and OTC treatments with competent, knowledgable pharmacists. It’s scary as a parent to be in a hotel room with a sick kid. I appreciate the pharmacists who took time to reassure me and tell me when I should expect to see improvement. Half the time I can’t get my doctor to call me back until the next day!
I’m only 17 years old, on my way to pharmacy school, and I work in a pharmacy as the interaction between the customers and the pharmacist. If the customer has a question, the pharmacist will answer it, but I just sell the prescriptions. I cannot count how many times I’ve had customers gripe about why medicaid/medicare didn’t pay for it, being in the doughnut hole (paying off deductibles) , or that they don’t need an extension of benefits. I’m sorry that your insurance won’t pay for your Prevacid, why not get the omezaprole? Couldn’t get the Ambien? GO FOR THE ZOLPIDEM? We try to help you as much as we can but it’s not our fault you don’t pay your deductible or you didn’t get the right insurance plan. Extension of benefits? That is your doctor’s problem. I may be young and inexperienced, but at least I have a respect for my pharmacist. Why not try walking in their shoes for a change. You’ll be glad your pharmacist knows what he is doing.
Ah, now this makes me happy. :)
I’m still just in undergraduate, and I’ve been having my doubts about continuing to pursue pharmacy, but this makes all the hard work (so far) seem worth it.
Scott,
You want to know the difference between a pharmacist and a cashier? We don’t get breaks. We don’t have time to eat. And we are responsible for the meds that leave our pharmacy, even if the doctor messed up. It’s our license on the line. The fact that we spent so much on our education means nothing if we make a fatal error. Same with the pharmacists who are checking YOUR prescriptions. I’m glad everything is working out for you in the mail-order pharmacy system. You are lucky to be in good enough health that you don’t need urgent prescriptions or advice. But don’t devalue us just because you don’t need our services at the moment. It’s like saying hospitals are a waste of money because YOU currently aren’t sick. Live a day as a pharmacist and you will see how much you are needed; How little time you have to eat/pee because of the stuff you are needed to sort out. No robot can do that shit. We don’t claim to have invented drugs/produced them ourselves, no more than a carpenter or tradesperson would claim to have invented and produced their tools and techniques. But we are responsible for keeping people safe… drug interactions, incorrect dosing, drug allergies, and that takes human brains to sort out. and yes, doctors make mistakes EVERY DAY!
So take your cockiness elsewhere, and thank God that you are dealing with mail-order now, because you would piss the hell out of any pharmacist in the community.
This man just earned himself a link in The Angriest Blogroll…
Scott sounds like one of those patients who prompts me to turn to my tech after Scott walks away and say “You have my permission to spit in his vial….”
oooohhhhhh………….you really got him there angriest have you heard of the internet dipshit???? everything we learn in pharmacy school you can get off the internet lol i wish i was exaggerating but I am paying 100,000 on a wikipedia education , I really wished I wasn’t.
btw……samantha do not go to pharmacy school if you have any self respect at all hahahhaa
You’re an idiot.
no for real i really do have alot of respect for you angriest….i just want to succeed in independent pharmacy but all my peers keep saying it is now currently impossible to succeed in this area…..got any thoughts?
Not indy. Go talk to The Angry Pharmacist.
What?? A blog for frustrated pharmacists?? Every job or profession has it’s down side. I always respected pharmacists! They receive an extensive education and are professionals, in my book.
I guess I’ll go start a blog about frustrated automation and control system engineers! Geez.
lol
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