Oct

You can’t make this up

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Work Sucks

Pharmacy Mike has posted quite possibly the funniest anecdote I’ve ever read. I apologize to him for not asking permission to reproduce this here, but I’m sure he won’t mind. You can read the rest of his post HERE.

…I get a call from an 85-year woman looking to refill her prescription. I asked if she had her prescription number. She said yes. The next thing I heard was “BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.” Yes, she was dialing the prescription number into the phone as if I could decipher the touchtone sounds. I couldn’t help but laugh. While she was dialing away, I did my best to suppress my laughter and literally started yelling into the phone, “NO, SPEAK THE NUMBER TO ME!” A hot girl who was at the counter picking up a prescription started laughing at me before rolling her eyes and walking away. Alas, the elderly woman could not hear my desperate pleas, and it took about 2 minutes before I could get her attention. I honestly think she thought she was speaking to a machine the entire time.

You just can’t make that shit up. How funny is that?

Anyone else ever had that happen to them? Lemme guess, the script was for Aricept…

Or Print it...

Ash Frog says October 19th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

The story might be quite funny, but its presentation was not unfortunately.

I’m really sorry you don’t like it — wait a second — nope, I don’t give a fuck. Are you even in pharmacy? Do you own/run a website? Can you do better?

I doubt it — I’m betting we’ll never know…

Enjoy your shitty existence in Marina Del Rey, CA.

The Ole' Apothecary says October 19th, 2008 at 10:21 pm

I just told Mike the following:

The story about the lady trying to speak Touch Tone to you reminds me of the movie “Demolition Man,” in which a real, live police officer answers the phone at his station as follows:

“Thank you for calling the San Angeles Police Department. If you prefer an automated response, press 1.”

The Ole' Apothecary says October 19th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

I’ve told this story too many times, but here it goes again.

My old company used the H.L. Moore Drug Exchange as a generic supplier, so the name “Moore” used to appear on our prescription labels. A patient once came in seeking a refill, but the vial had “last refill” already on it. When I pointed this out, the fellow retorted, “Oh, no, you’re wrong, it says right here I can have some MOORE.”

jameed says October 19th, 2008 at 11:45 pm

This is probably the most incoherent conversation my tech had with a a patient asking about a flu shot.

- Does my insurance cover my flu shot?
- Which insurance do you have?
- I don’t know! That’s why I am asking!!

Pharmacy Mike says October 19th, 2008 at 11:54 pm

I actually don’t even remember which medication she was calling in. I was laughing so hard that when she finally started talking to me again, I had to tell her to hold on a minute so that I could get all the laughter out of my system. My techs were looking at me like I was crazy.

thatREDHEADfarmist says October 20th, 2008 at 12:01 am

too funny ! we get overnight messages ALL the time of similar scenarios—-very often the person who just entered their rx number into the phone assumes we somehow, some way know them and simply say…”and I wanna pick that up around 2 o’clock”

Felicity says October 20th, 2008 at 2:12 am

That is hilarious!

After sharing my fancy ‘working in a pharmacy’ stories with friends, I’ve decided to collect funny stories and ancedotes - just for fun.

So if you have some others, or know anyone who does, please get them to send me an email; I’d love to hear from them.
Thanks

Felicity
felicity@zadrocommunications.com.au

It’s all fine that you are collecting them, but these are under copyright. You aren’t planning on republishing them are you? If so, you have to buy me off…:-)

N.B. says October 21st, 2008 at 7:23 am

This is immensely hilarious. I can never figure out what is going through some patient’s minds–especially the ones who call, time and time again, to ask “is my prescription ready?” before they identify themselves by name.

Nancy says October 21st, 2008 at 9:15 am

That happenend to me a few monthes ago. This”sweet” little old lady called and proceeded to complain about our automated system and how she could never get it to work.I commiserated and thenI asked her to give me her script number over the phone & yes, boys and girls, she started to punch it in. I patiently waited til she was done and then told her all she had to do was SAY the numbers. Needeless to say she got self-rightious and indignant. Ah the joys of being a tech:p

Jan says October 24th, 2008 at 8:06 am

Happened to me. Twice. Same lady. Within the last year.

Elizabeth says November 30th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

I worked in reception, and all the exec’s from our big clients would do that. They’d say hello, I need to speak to so and so and then punch in the extn. And when I did not transfer them fast enough, they’d punch it in again. So our guys would think it was funny, and do the same thing when they’d call in, but it really hurts your ears!