Medical Assistant Stupid, Pharmacist Not

No kidding…now not to bash those guys are anything, but if it’s not your title, don’t use it. I hate it when the people in my hospital call me a pharmacist. I correct them every damn time and they still get it wrong the next time. Hot. Damn.

Seriously though, how do you mix up Cozaar and Zocor? Someone shouldn’t have passed elementary school…

Medications? Yeah, hydrALAzine vs. hydROXYzine, giant difference there buddy. I ran into that one today and I had the nurse re-check the MAR and physician’s order. Sigh…

Hello, Moneybags Bank? Could you please send $!50 to Zapper Electric Company? This is me. Thanks!

See http://oleapothecary.blog.com/4379844/

MA = G.E.D. of the nursing world. (Not to put-down the GED, believe me.)

I can’t tell you how may times I’ve heard the pharmacists tear into a person calling in a script on the phone because they say, “I guess” or “I think” or “I can’t really tell, but it kinda looks like”. Who the hell are these people and why are they allowed to interpret and communicate a patient’s medication orders?? Ridiculous!

Hey, I’m an RN and that dope was an MA–so cool the shirt shit!!

I think this foolishness comes from ‘empowering’ people. What the heck is a glorified secretary doing calling in ANY prescriptions? Because she works for $7.50 an hour!! But tell her is ALMOST a nurse and she will do anything! Nurses have sold away all our skills and given away our jobs to non technical people and foreigners, all for the sake of a buck! We are considered too expensive to do the jobs we are best prepared to do. As we get closer to socialized medicine prepare yourself for dealing ONLY with these dumbasses!!

:-)

Scary!!!! I don’t think I would have been as polite as you. That would have been like a tech calling themselves a pharmacist. Isn’t that illegal or something?

It is illegal to say you are pharmacist, druggist, apothecary, or anything of the like if you are not — at least it is in my state of residence…

Apparently, she’s dyslexic.

Nurses…………..urgh……..don’t get me started.

Hospital nurses are the worst. They seem to think they are better than pharmacists and that the pharmacy lives to serve them. They misplace a med, it’s the pharmacy’s fault. They cannot use a fax machine to correctly fax an order, it’s pharmacy’s fault. They make an error in writing an order, it’s pharmacy’s fault. They wait until the last minute to request a med, it’s pharmacy’s fault. Get a grip!

One of them actually told one of our pharmacists, “Do you actually think you are saving lives by mixing that Levophed drip?”

Umm…no, we are saving lives by fixing the mistakes arising from your lack of understanding how to multiply two simple numbers to get a correct heparin drip rate. Now, go back to changing that man’s diaper and saving his life, biotch.

How…does that even…look alike/sound alike?

COZAAR

ZOCOR

they both have C’s and Z’s and O’s…

Maybe she is dyslexic? Man, that is scary.

i have to thank you…that totally made my day. I had to re-read the part where she spelled out zocor and SAID cozaar several times to make sure that I wasn’t seeing things. Then i laughed until I cried. Far too many times I deal with the patients who can’t pronounce things, it’s rare that I get a chance to speak with a nurse (or MA in your case) because i’m just the lowly tech ;) but that took the cake.

fantastic…utterly fantastic

Stressed Out Pharmacist: You hit it right on the head of the nail. Same thing happens to us. The difference in how I work is that I dish it straight back to them.

“I need an insulin drip stat!”

“How long do you have?”

“About 5, maybe 10 minutes”

I really want to say “it’s not my problem you let it run dry.” You’ll get some good nurses, and you’ll get some terrible ones. Patient care? Everyone in healthcare does it. No one is special.

Not to get off track (heh heh) but the NASCAR post-race show was sponsored by Lipitor. Jeff Gordon was in this race today. Coincidence????

I wonder what his birthday is….

Dont forget the phone-in for Lomotil, spelled L-A-M-I-C-T-A-L, lomotil!

I think it’s usually because they are familiar with one drug, for having taken it or whatever reason, and that’s what they have stuck in their head. Nothing else.

It remotely looks like it, so it must be that as all drugs have completely different letters in them!

Totally scary. We talk about this at work all the time. You have to be a pharmacist to take a verbal Rx or give a copy, but ANY idiot can call in a prescription. It’s infuriating how un-seriously they take it.

Maybe the MA is dyslexic? lol.

oh yeah, I hate it when I correct someone and they still insist on saying it the wrong way.

Patient: Hi, I need refill on my “Adtenlol”
Me: *looking at patient’s profile* You mean Atenolol?
Patient: Yeah, I know. I call it Adtenlol
Me: …

@Frantic Pharmacist

My pharmacist was talking about how they make it so that only pharmacist can take verbal Rx or give a copy to act as safety net against the blokes who are calling in prescriptions.

but yeah, why can’t they make it so that only licensed health care professionals can call in prescriptions?

When the question is why, the answer is money…

I have no issue with nurses or medical assistants or nurse practitioners as long ss they’re working with the pharmacist on the same team. Someone passing themselves off as experts and giving grief, sheesh! This gal was so dumb she didn’t know how much of a dumb-dumb she is. Today an older retired physician called to ask if he could order a drug he’d heard about at a convention to help memory and said he’d bring in the literature so we could figure out what it was. A mixture of methylfolinic acid, cobalamin and 600 mg acetylcysteine marketed as a medicinal food, but Rx only. Seems like a drug to me–so how is the company marketing it as a food and not a drug? Probably, because the FDA would not approve it without valid and reproducible research. The bottle costs $147 for 100 tablets.

So, there is this interchange on the phone, at the front counter, and the upshot is that we wounder why he doesn’t just write for memantine or donezepril. (Come to find out the licence for the doctor expired some time ago.)

Toni is right. I love nurses so much I married two of them. (not simultaneously). Nothing we hate more than these techs who claim to be nurses. Worst of all are the “office nurses” who can almost take a blood pressure correctly and nearly got Hooked on Phonics…

I actually enjoy listening to my patients butcher drug names. When I pick up the phone and find out it is just someone trying to call in refills I always make them tell me the drug names. 99% of the time they seem totally confused as they are use to just telling the techs the numbers. If I have to talk to you to take your refills I am getting some entertainment out of it.

I had a “nurse” probably secretary do something similar to me last week. I was calling the office for a PA for lipitor. The “nurse” told me to switch it to Cozaar. I kindly pointed out to her that Lipitor is for cholesterol and that Cozaar is for HTN. She was less than excited with spending more time on the phone with me, and then said “ok then switch it to Hyzaar”. At this point my jaw is on the floor, and I again kindly pointed out to her that Hyzaar is just Cozaar plus HCTZ, and is also for HTN NOT for high cholesterol. At this time I demanded to be put to the office manager and reported her dumbass. She should not be at that office if she has no clue about drugs! That is too scary!

I wish receptionists would take healthcare as seriously as we have to. They do things that they really shouldnt. I have had a receptionists sign a scipt before because the doctor was out of the office, I caught it because the Doctor was actually in the pharmacy in a meeting with me.

They also seem to think that they have the authority to make changes. For example, a recent important XR drug is unavailable from the manufacturer, it has several “bio-similar drugs” but no bio-equivalent drugs so must be prescribed my brand. I phone up and ask to speak the the doctor, I am told that I CANT speak to the doctor today, didnt give me a reason or anything. I then told her the problem and suggested an alternative so the GP could get back to me. The receptionist said, “thats ok, just swap it over and change the prescription” I was livid with her and was eventually put through to the GP. Turns out my alternative wasnt “ok” and the GP wanted something else entirely.

I will say that sometimes dealing with an uneducated office staff person is nice when you need to get something done quickly and it’s something simple. Like if Nexium needs a pa, you call and say something to the effect of “We’ll need to switch it to prilosec, the doctor doesn’t having any problem with that. do they?”

That’s taking advantage — and you know that never gets documented!

Pharmacist is required by law to receive the telephoned rx from dummy, teenager, just off the street, from the docs office. What is wrong with this picture? The dummy teenager is the bad link in the system. If pharmacist is required to take the rx, then the doc should be required to phone the rx.

Dummy giving it to technician would be dangerous. Nurse with training giving it to dummy tech would be okay. I betcha the thinking is that one person with medical training needs to be involved.

Chris, if the doc’s office staff could be sued like us pharmacists then they will think twice before doing something stupid

For the leaders of the free world your healthcare system is crap! I read almost every one of your posts with a tear in my eye for you poor US pharmacists.

Here in Oz with our “socialist” health care system there is no way a dropkick no body would call in a script. It is a direct conversation between Dr and pharmacist.

My hat goes off to all of you.

I had a great one the other day with the MA that left a message for “Fesoy.” When I called back she spelled it out for me and said “You know, the generic iron.” You mean FeSO4?? That’s a 4 sweetie, not a Y. Good God

My husband’s podiatrist wrote him a script for Keflex after my husband had written in his new patient paperwork that he is allergic to cephalosporins. I was at work when my husband brought the script in, so I called the office to inform them of the mistake. The doc actually said “Oh, I didn’t know they were the same thing, what would you suggest? You pharmacy people know more about this stuff than I do.” I thought, holy hell! How does he even write prescriptions! I am just a freakin tech and I know that Keflex IS a cephalosporin!

I had a round of phone tag with a FNP a couple of days ago trying to clarify a Lamictal script with the patient saying one dose and the script saying another. Calling the office and getting told to leave a message only resulted in getting a message from the NP about Seroquel. I never once mentioned that drug in to the other nurse/ma/receptionist/whatever. How they got those two mixed up when passing the message neither the NP or I could figure out. I have a feeling though that nothing will change on their end with regards to actually having competant people working.

One from a local office.

Lantus: 20u qam, 20u noon, 30 qpm.
qty 3.

Our pharmacist immediately called them back to clarify the 3. Should have been 3 boxes, and she hangs up and hands me the RX.

I immediately handed it back. “Sorry, you need to call the MD back. That’s wrong.”

She looks at me like I have two heads.

Anyone know why?

Because lantus is a basal insulin, and you only take it once a day. Granted it was RX 4 of 9 left on the machine in the span of a single 3 minute message. (where do they hire these “nurses” from anyways? Auctioneer school dropouts? The guys who read the legal disclaimers at the end of commercials?)

The endocrinologists would argue with you here. I’ve seen it twice a day more often than once from one endocrinologist…and he sent me the study to prove his point. it’s just a matter of time before they make it 3 smaller doses still and achieve even less peaks and valleys….(and i ask why not 24 injections — 1/hr?)

Apparently Lantus is the generic for Apidra to this “nurse”.

My favorite MD is one of the pediatricians, who calls every RX in himself, and will tell us that he’s sending over the patient shortly, and do we have it in stock. Now THATS a good doctor.

Why is it that I, as a CPhT, need 20 hours of CE per 2 years to keep my status, have demonstrated great skill and knowledge in my field (although nowhere near the level of the RPh/PharmD), am shackled as a pill counter and cashier in my great state, unable to even transcribe RX’s left on an answering machine, but any receptionist in the office can call themselves a “nurse” and call in an RX?

As i said above….one person with medical knowledge on the line. Two people guessing is bad. One person guessing and the other knowing is suitable in most states…

You really need to look at the way nurse-pharmacist relationship differently (and probably the pharmacist- physician relationship as well). My skill set and area of expertise as a nurse is completely different than yours as a pharmacist. Don’t minimalize what we do as just “wiping ass” we are the ones in closest and constant therapeutic contact with the patients and our role is just as important as that of the pharmacist or physician. I’m not saying we are more important because I think of everyone on the healthcare team as being equally important in our patient’s outcome, we are only as strong as our weakest link. That weak link can be anybody, by the way.

Kickass point noted and italicized.

I’m sure you deal with some obnoxious individuals from other professions, but making generalizations about your overall intellectual dominance over nurses is just silly. Yes, you as pharmacists have a much larger pool of knowledge when it comes to medications and their effect on patients. I only got two semesters of pharmacology in nursing school, many nursing programs don’t even have classes that focus on meds they just learn as they go through clinicals. I know damn good and well that you know more about medication than me and I respect that and appreciate the role you play in healthcare and making my job easier. There are times I’ve found med errors in the hospital setting where the pharmacist has entered them into the system incorrectly. I don’t decide that the pharmacist is an idiot when this happens. We all make mistakes, including pharmacists. That’s why meds are checked, double-checked and triple-checked.
That’s not to say that the MA you are talking about is not an idiot, I don’t think that you can blame the AACN for that though, they don’t regulate their education. MAs are not considered a part of nursing at all, nor do I want them to be considered a part of nursing.

You’re right again. The shirt and attacks wouldn’t make sense if I said “CNAs are idiots” — the layperson wouldn’t know what that means.”Anyone in scrubs is a nurse, anyone in a white coat is a doctor, and anyone else is a janitor.”

But I agree, lumping them together is wrong. I could certainly tell plenty of stories on RNs (and pharmacists TOO).

Realize I’m not trying to attack you, I know you get defensive. I just think you should look at this from a point of view other than your own.

I’m not defensive in real life! Wait…yes, I am. It’s not a bad thing is it? Meh….Screw it, I’m just always right.

I got a call today for Lovenox 30 MILLILITERS. I said you mean #30 syringes? She got snippy and replied “NO, the strength is 30 MILLILITERS”

How about this one – I went round and round with a “nurse” who phoned in “dicyclomine 100mg BID”. I called to verify, and she said “that’s what it says” and balked when I insisted that she double check with the physician. She came back to the phone saying “no, it’s correct, dicyclomine 100mg BID. D-O-X-Y-C-Y-C-L-I-N-E 100mg BID.”

Um. Ok. thanks.

My favorite so far in my 7 years of practice is a nurse calling in some Zoloft, spelled E-F-F-E-X-O-R. I know they’re both antidepressants, but really?

I too did not belive this could happen until last week. I had a message for “azithromycin 400mg spelled A-C-Y-C-L-O-V-I-R”!!! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!

We serve as a ‘backup’ for a long term care pharmacy when their nursing homes get new orders when their pharmacy is closed. Last Thursday night, Todd LPN calls me. He says, “I have a problem. I sent a patient to the ER and they were given an order for Avelox. We sent the order to our long term care pharmacy and they sent us Lovenox.”
I SCREAMED, “Whoa! hey! Stop right there. Give me the order and I’ll send you two tablets of Avelox so that you can get her started.”
I type up the order, throw two Avelox 400mg tablets in a bottle and staple it up.
He calls back and says, ” I found a note here that says they made a substitution because Avelox wasn’t covered by her insurance. So, I guess I’ll just use what they sent.”
I asked, “So, the doctor prescribed Avelox?”
He says, “Yes.”
“For an infection?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re content to give her Lovenox, a blood thinner?”
“A blood thinner?”
“You said they sent Lovenox. Are you looking at a bag of pre-filled syringes?”
“No, it’s a blister pack of tablets?”
“What does it say on the package?”
“Lev-a-quin….? Oh shit, have I been saying Lovenox?”
“Yes…. give her the Levaquin.” Click.