Nov
Patients – call the doctor yourself
Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Doctors, Just a question, Lazy People, Me being a dick, Patient Education, Stupid People, Work Sucks
I got this comment in response to PROFESSIONAL COURTESY. My response is below in bold. Now, I’m not trying to single this person out or make them feel bad, this question just applies to so many people — and the response actually applies to ALL patients…:-)
I respect pharmacies and pharmacists. I honestly see them put up with a lot of rude, direspectful people. I have a question. I don’t want to irritate my pharmacy in any way. they are a large chain and I am not the only customer who needs help. I have a family member in their 80’s who needs a refill on hydrocodone..sp ?. and there are no refills. We called in the request yesterday morning and the pharmacy said they are waiting to hear back from the doctor. We are going out of town for Thanksgiving and the medicine did not actually run out until today. Would there be a reason why the doctor would not call back or fax back or whatever the procedure is? I don’t want to irritate them. And I know our family member will not need this medication after this refill. They were hit by a car 4 months ago and have gone through therapy, etc. But they are too afraid to tell the doctor they hurt. There have only been 2 refills requested since that time.
What would be your best advice for us?
Regardless of the situation or time frame – the best advice is always the same:
PATIENTS CALL DOCTOR’S OFFICE
If the patient calls the doctor’s office, it truly makes the office give a shit. They hear from me EVERY DAY — they here from you every other month…and you pay their bills! I won’t call that office and raise hell, but you will! So, do it…you fucking call me raising all kinds of hell, why not them too?
Patients like to say that “their doctor is so slow”, “he always does this”, “I can’t believe he didn’t call in the refill!” News flash, you can go to any doctor you like — so do it! Find a new doctor that runs a better office — one that will take care of you when you need it and not when it’s convenient for THEM.
I guess all this boils down to is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. Yeah, it sucks that you have some, but I cannot be expected to do everything — I can’t call your doctor every 2 hours asking for your refill. You gotta take some initiative of your own rather than floating through life like lumps of crap expecting everyone else to powder your ass.
Anything to add?
I usually tell most of the people that come into my pharmacy to call the doctor’s office if it has been longer than a day or 2 after we fax the doc, to call the office.
Responsibility? In the age of the government bailout?
I do hope Mr. Obama ends up talking about the notion of responsibility, if that is at all possible to promote from a liberal Democrat administration.
In the meantime, I am throwing away other people’s garbage. If they set the empty (or even half-full) soda cup ON TOP of the trash can, I go by and throw it in, and y’all will see me do it, too.
No, I think you covered it well:)
I do agree we should take the responsibility. What would be your advice for us when we call the doctor? What should we say? Everything I read seems to come across that the pharmacy and the doctor’s ofice don’t want to be bothered. I don’t have to deal with refills or things like this fortunately. And anytime I have ever had prescriptions my pharmacist has been very good to me. So I have no complaints about pharmacists…honestly. I just want to know what is the best thing to do, without upsetting or annoying anyone. …so that we can get her medication before Thanksgiving, which is 2 days away. She tried to be tough and not express pain. And she is a trooper. She saw the doctor for her last visit just 2 weeks ago and I asked her why she didn’t tell him then that she is still hurting…due to her fractures. She said she just does not want to have to bother anyone. So this is entirely our fault. But I told her surely the doctor willbe understanding and give her a refill one more time. She is a woman who hates to take medicine and has been very healthy all her life. So would it be irrational on our part to think that this will be refilled? I just hate to see someone who is otherwise very healthy sit in pain and not enjoy life, especially the holidays. All because she is stubborn..or has always believed you don’t complaina bout pain. Thankfully I have never broken bones or had to be on pain medications. I can’t imagine what people go through!!
And again I apprecite everything pharmacists do, especially the ones who can sell medications at lower prices(ex: $21 for Rx that would have been $98 at Walgreens) to those who do not have insurance ..or those who can’t afford all of their medications. We have several pharmacists here who do such things. And that is wonderful for those people..of all ages!!
Thank you for sharing your personal thoughts and advice.
Best of luck!
This website is awesome! It makes me laugh and feel like I am not the only pharmacist out there that wonders what the fuck? on a daily basis. I am thinking of asking my employer for compensation for the wrinkles on my forehead I have from when I crinkle my face when I have the what the fuck moment several times a day. I once told a patient of mine HE had to take responsibility for himself by calling in his refills onthe refilll line or calling the doc for refills renewals. Ha! Everyone that heard me started laughing (doctors and pharmacists). Yeah, it was a new job :) and I stupidly coming from an inpatient clinical pharmacist position to primary care thought that actual grown adult people took responsibility for themselves. HAAAA. So Naive.
I’d been a hospital pharmacist for 20 years before I had to get a maintenance prescription for anyone in my family, and I was quite surprised to find that the pharmacy would call the doctor’s office to request refills on expired prescriptions. It was a very nice convenience because my physician was closed over lunch hour and I was always too busy during the day to wait on hold to get through to her, and the pharmacy could get the order and fill it and have it waiting.
And that’s how it works out for most — it’s a customer service. It all started as a way to get customers to come to your drugstore as opposed to another. Now, we all do it and it’s mostly EXPECTED — when at first it was merely a courtesy.
This is what no one realizes, your doctors office sees hundred of patients. You are not the only patient requesting refills. Many other patients from other pharmacies are also waiting for refills as well. So if you as a patient realize that your bottle is running low on pills doesn’t that tell you that maybe you should call in the refill request a few days before it is due. Please do not wait until it is the last minute or a friday night to tell us you have no more refils or pills left. This is what really irritates us. You should have called us on monday or tuesday and by friday it would have been ready for you. Another thing that really frustrates the pharmacy staff is when you call us on monday morning and ask us to request a refill. Then you proceed to ask for a few pills to get you through. This, honey is not considered an emergency. It is monday morning and your doctors office is open. You can call and have them call you in a prescription or you can wait till later in the day. Why does everyone feel like it is an emergency so they have to have a few pills. If it really is an emergency to you than why don’t you drive your ass down to the office and pick up the prescription yourself. This way you get the full amount that you need and have some refills for next time. It is like I always say, patients need to take responsibility for themselves. We should not have to do everything for them, or do they want me to come to their house everyday at 8am and 8pm to give them their daily pills?
Today most doctors offices voicemails will actually say that your refill will not be completed for another 24-48 hours. So why do patients still wait for the last minute to call in the refill. Come on people grow up already and be responsible.
It’s not just calling for refills but the customer calling every 15 minutes wanting to know if their refill has been approved. There are doctors in my area that charge their patients for calling in refills why can’t we charge them as well?
I totally agree, patients should and HAVE to call the doctor, the problem is patients want us to do everything.. is not like we don’t have the time to make a 5 minute call, is not about it, it is just not our responsibility. period.
A practice I’m acquainted with (soon to be one of my rotations sites) posts a flyer on every door (particularly when you leave) explaining that it will take 3-5 days to refill an Rx.
Doesn’t solve every Rx problem, but is sure helps.
Particularly when it’s the patient’s responsibility to take care of themselves (the idea itself is becoming a novel concept…).
I have one customer that makes my day. She always makes refill requests a minimum of one week before she runs out. I never have to call her doctor for a renewal, she takes care of that. One time the doctor (neglected or forgot) to okay her renewal. She came in to pick it up, had to tell her we were still waiting for the (one week) doc to call. She smiled and said she would take care of it. The lady pulled out her cell and called the doc, actually got him on the on the phone and gave him the riot act. Within 5 minutes the doctor called in the renewal and I told her what a pleasure it was to have a customer like she her. Her parting comment was “I pay part of that jerks salary and he damn well better do his job.”
Mondays are almost the worst for MD calls.
Holidays and the week leading up to it are a nightmare. Not only is your pharmacy juggling twice as many requests to be filled NOW! but your doctor is as well.
Plan ahead. If you think you’ll run out during a weekend or more importantly, a holiday weekend, contact your doctor. You. Call. Doctor.
Offices tend to ignore pharmacies on holidays and our local ones refuse to respond to us unless it’s an emergency or through some miracle we’ve fostered an exceptional relationship with them.
And if it’s birth control, you have no excuse. It’s laid out in front of you, week by week, _day by day_.
What do you mean I have no refills left? This is a medication that I’m going to have to take for the rest of my life! If I was out of refills, why didn’t YOU tell me that when I picked it up last month?!
I guess I can wait in the store and do some shopping while you call my doctor. I’ll check back in 10 minutes. Can you show me where I can find the mandarin oranges that are in your ad this week?
I never had this problem at the pharmacy down the street.
“Anything to add?”
Nope, it looks like you covered it.
Soo, patients don’t want to bother their doctor but they are willing to call the pharmacy 10 times in an hour because they are leaving for a vacation in 2 hours?? I don’t get it!! We are the middleman when it comes to refill requests. Call the doctor’s office directly and explain to them what’s going on and they will call us. If they don’t, you know who to yell at (not me)!!
is this wrong? You tell me.
I was in my pharmacy Wednesday, waiting for a prescription re-fill. The two ladies who work the counter and the lady pharmacist were talking about a customer who had just phoned.
“who is Mrs. L—–?”
“dunno”
“well, her daughter just called and she says her mom needs a re-fill on Vicodin”
“hahahaha! Fat chance!”
This is a small town. Everyone knows Mrs. L. and her daugher.
Should they be talking like that? Isn’t there some kind of pharmacist rule about client privacy?
Embarrassing situation, I won’t be back there, that’s for certain.
When patients are seeking early refills or cause problems — even just one time — their name is remembered forever. They, unfortunately, get labeled as a drug seeker or problem patient.
Concerning this situation, for all you know Mrs. L could have already called 10 times that morning and her daughter called while you were there.
While the comment was unprofessional, it was intended only for the ears of employees that are all trained in the protection of private health information.
That’s exactly why I do not allow people to lurk around my counter — I FORCE them to go sit down in my little waiting area — out of direct earshot. If you were at the register, however, picking something up — that is a different story. Comments like that should not be made while someone is at the register or close enough to hear the comment.
Honestly, I would just speak with the manager — discretely — perhaps by phone and let him/her know what was said, that you think it was inappropriate/unprofessional, and that the staff there needs to be notified of the fact that their words could be heard by more than just the pharmacy staff. If you wouldn’t say it in front of that patient, you probably shouldn’t say it at all. While they won’t fire or even reprimand anyone, it’d be a good opportunity for some retraining.
What’s really weird about the situation is the fact that it appears the pharmacist (or someone) didn’t even know who she is — yet they said “fat chance” about the refill. It’s confusing because people can have refills on pain medicine — and some people take it consistently for many many years w/o issues. Why the person would act like “fat chance we don’t refill that” on a medicine that can be refilled is weird.
Some medicines (in the C-II class) aren’t allowed to have refills. These are meds like Percocet, Oxycontin, Adderall, Ritalin, et al. Maybe they said one of these and the employees realized she couldn’t have a refill and maybe you misunderstood the drug name?
I’d still call em…
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we have a handy little sticker that i put on the outside of the bag when you are getting your last refill. if you are particularily stupid, i helpfully circle the big fat “REFILLS = 0″ on your bag, your receipt and just to rub in your total stupidity, on the label too. i know how shocked you were last time when you had no refills left after all these subtle reminders, but its no reason to cuss me out when i tell you to call the doctor yourself.
As a technician, I find it incredibly frustrating when patients do not have refills and refuse to take any responsibility in getting them. Whenever I tell them that yes, we have faxed the Dr. every day this week and still haven’t heard a response, they become outraged and expect that you should be calling the Dr. until they get what they want.
Am I stupid for thinking that when a Dr. writes a script with 3 refills, he or she is suggesting that the patient should make another appointment when those 3 refills are up? Obviously they want to see how the patient is doing on the medication and if any changes need to made. But people disregard this and expect to get refills on that script for the rest of their lives. GET A NEW SCRIPT!
They just need to call their Dr.’s office after we’ve faxed/left a message on a refill line to ensure the job gets done. It is not up to us.
I have a problem WITH a doctor who enjoys making me wait for my 2 refills that they have found is the only 2 medications that work for me, to keep me comfortable. Yes, I have been one of those that calls the pharmacy quite often but with no choice because the only way I can ask for refills is by leaving my request on an answering machine at the doctors ,and then they screen it and decide if they feel like and when they feel like calling in my refiils. I have no insurance, and almost 60, had too many tradgedies in my life time, and yes, need the medicines to help stabalize my severe nervousness and osteoarthritis, and fybromyalgia. The medicines are Vicodin for the pain in low dose, and Xanax to help calm my nervesness from panic attacks and meeting new people , both legitimate conditions. Well, I put in a request for my 2 refills about 3 days early, because we had a long driving trip, causing extra pain riding in a large pickup and meeting strange people. Her comment I was told, it`s too early, (3 days?) and she will never fill them again because of that! So now what do I do? Where`s the compassion anymore? Does it no longer exist? I realize they are both controlled medicines, but they keep me functionable. (sometimes certain medicines like that are completely legitimate) for certain conditions in certain people. So, suggestions would be great to help me continue being able to get my medicines next month when I had a doctor like that who quit me?
Find a new pharmacy that makes you happy. Find a new doctor that calls in your refills in an adequate amount of time.
Next time, if the TECH tells you that bullshit, tell her you are out of refills and it will take those three days to get the refills. We know it was a tech because I would hope a pharmacist would have the ability to make the connection — whereas a tech only sees that it’s early and he/she now gets the ability to enforce the pseudopower denial sword normally held by the pharmacist. Most techs love telling people NO and busting people trying to pull bullshit.
FYI, long term Xanax is never legitimate. It should be used for a very short period. If you have continued anxiety attacks, you need to be stabilized on something that’s not habit forming and won’t make you a freaking zombie — like Paxil or Buspar…And don’t give me any bullshit about how Xanax is the only thing that works or that you’ve tried those and they didn’t work. I won’t buy that shit. You need to take these long term and use the Xanax as an adjunct for 1-2 mos. Then you can likely just discontinue using it as those meds would control Generalized Anxiety Disorder very well.
Finally, Vicodin is a poor treatment for “fibromyalgia” — which is kind of a made up disease. If it is a legitimate thing, it is likely related to nerves and nerve pain which would be best treated with Gabapentin or Lyrica along with Amitriptylline (which would conveniently help your anxiety).
As an end stage cancer patient it is so encouraging to find that so many pharmacists are such unfeeling assholes. You bastards should all rot in hell. If you wanted be Drs then go back to medical school. Yes there are drug addicts, liars and cheats that try to scam you each day, but you made the choice to be what your are. I sure the money is a great enticement rather than trying to help sick people. I truly hope you suffer from some of the conditions that you so eagerly laugh at one day. All of you can go straight to hell.
How many packs a day do (or did) you smoke?
Go fuck yourself. I have all the empathy in the world for those that are ill and seeking help. I do NOT give a shit about those that do not give a shit about themselves and refuse to take their healthcare into their own hands and do one fucking iota of work.
How is me balking at calling 75 doctors a day (many several times) show that I am uncaring, unsympathetic, or anything at all? My pharmacy fills 800 scripts on a Monday — 550 of those are refills. I can’t care for patients that are there seeking my counsel if I am on the phone with YOUR doctor calling to get YOU a refill on YOUR soma.
I fax doctors the second you request a refill. You want a call? Pick up the goddamn phone melanoma man…
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