The *Angriest* Pharmacist You want your prescription filled when? Eat shit…

Are you kidding me?

Posted on February 15, 2007

Today was a regular day at the grind. I type, count, fill, check, answer, count, count, check, answer, et cetera in various scripts all day long. I read other pharmacist’s blogs, and I realize I am pretty lucky. I get 30 minutes for lunch. I don’t have to sneak to the back and swallow a sandwich when I find 4 minutes in between faxes. I close the shutters, lock the door, and eat whatever I want. Hell, I can even leave and go get something if I choose. Some days, shit runs over and my 30 minutes turns into 20 because I’m ringing out or finishing up some other detail. Today was one of those days.

At 1:29:30pm a lady runs up and hands me a script. Not just a normal script, but a script that’s actually a bunch of little bitty ones written in handy-dandy grids. 6 in all. Wow. “I’m sorry ma’am but I’m leaving for lunch. This is gonna have to wait until 2pm when I get back.” Her response was classic, “Are you serious? I’m here before you close. Can’t you do it really quickly?” I’m fucking starving at this point. “You have 6 prescriptions on here. It’s going to take me at least 20 or 30 minutes to do these. I have to get something to eat. I’m here by myself today.” I had a tech, but she was already out the door for lunch. Lucky bitch. “I don’t think it’s fair of me to have to wait for more than an hour then…if you are leaving.” WHAT? FUCK THIS! ”Ma’am, I’ve been here since 8am. It’s now 1:30. I’m going to leave for 30 minutes for lunch. Then I’m coming back for 6 more hours. Did you get to eat lunch yet? I haven’t.” Sympathy always gets em! “Well, can you tell me the cost then before you leave and I’ll come back tonite?” Sure thing! Taco Bell here I come!

Here’s where the shit gets twisted though. I look at this script and the god damn thing is photocopied. It’s a COPY! It’s for normal stuff. No controls. Just Lisinopril, Lovastatin, HCTZ, SL NTG, ASA, and something else. Why the fuck did this bitch steal 5 minutes of my lunch for a photocopy?

“Ma’am. It appears there’s a problem. This looks like a photocopy to me. I’m going to have to call the doctor’s office and verify the information on the prescription.”

“Are you serious? He gave it to me…ugh…just give it here. I’ll just take it to Walgreens. They’ll fill it…”

Okay. Here you go…Best of luck…See you at Taco Bell…

Which brings me to my next point…why the threat? Do you think I give two shits if you take your script to a Walgreens down the street? Hell no. I fill 50 or 500 scripts a day I get paid the same salary. No food off my table.

The real question is: Do you want to wait 15 minutes here or 90 minutes at Walgreens?

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Complete and utter rudeness

Posted on February 10, 2007

So, today a lady comes to my counter and asks me to show her where the baby aspirin is at. I always oblige, especially when someone says, “Please.” (and made a vain attempt to find it themselves) Then, as I grab it off the shelf for her she asks me what I know about the new inhalation insulin, Exubera. I told her I was a long way from an expert on the issue, but from what I read the actually insulin dose achieved after inhalation varied a lot from dose to dose based on correct use and whether or not the patient had a stuffy nose. Before I can finish the latter part of that little blurb I hear some jackass blurt, “Excuse me, sir. Where is the Fish Oil?” from behind me.

Listen up, fuckers. Saying, “excuse me” does not make what you are doing polite. Is it okay to T-bone somebody in your Escalade if you say, “Excuse me”? NO. Use some common sense…if you haven’t pissed your common sense out the window with pot, opioids, and Soma. If I am standing in front of someone that is NOT you, it is NOT OKAY for you to speak with me. Wait your damn turn. I will be more than happy to show you were the fish oil is, even if you are to lazy to find it yourself (or even attempt to look).

It’s not so much that you are being rude to me, I am there to help you no matter what. That’s what I get paid to do. You are being rude to the person that I am helping when you help yourself into the middle of what I’m doing. Would you like that if the roles were reversed?

How did I handle the situation you ask? I glanced at him, put up a finger as if to say, “Wait your motherfucking turn,” and I said, “I’m helping this lady right now. I’ll be with you in a minute.” Yeah, it was polite. It was the right way to handle the situation. I just wish I could think of a way to make someone’s head explode with a flick of my wrist then I’d be able to adequately handle the situation. I should have been a Jedi.

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Earth to consumers. GET A CLUE!

Posted on February 9, 2007

I want to tell everyone about this drug. It’s a great drug. It’s called Ambien. It’s an isomer of benzodiazepines. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s similar. It’s got a pretty quick onset and a relatively short duration of action. This means it will put you to sleep quickly and wear off before you wake up. This keeps you from having a hangover the next day. Remember, not all sleep is equal. If you don’t get enough REM sleep (which you are in 25% of the night), you wake up groggy and in bad shape.

So, what happened to Ambien? It went generic. Damn says Drug Company X. What are we going to do? The drugs not got one isomer that’s more active than another (levo vs dextro) so we can’t split off the inactive one. Ohh, I got it! Let’s coat it with 2 layers and allow a little drug to be released immediately and a little to be released later. Let’s call it Ambien CR, YEAH! That’ll get us 17 more years of patent protection. In the meantime, jack up the prices on Ambien before Teva can get it on the shelves.

So, people of earth. Answer a few questions for me:

How many times a night do you take Ambien? 1

How many times a night do you take Ambien CR? 1

Will Ambien CR keep you more asleep than Ambien? No.

All this technology into making this better drug, and who’s paying out the ass? Not me.

-=+=-

Other Examples:

Paxil 10mg taken once daily ====> Paxil CR 12.5 mg taken once daily

Can this be understood by anyone? No. The half life of Paxil is 21 hours. The half life of Paxil CR is 15. How much more extended can you get? It still takes 2 weeks to a month to reach steady state. Once you get there…it’s the same drug…With pizza, donuts, and applebees on the side.

-=+=-

Metoprolol 25mg BID ===> Toprol XL 25mg qd

In essence: tartrate ===> succinate Big whoop.

Screw this. We’re talking the difference of 40 bucks a month. It’s gotten better as the years have gone by, but come one. Taking a drug once a day is worth that over twice a day? Bullshit.

-=+=-

My personal favorite:

Doxycycline 100mg =======> Doryx ER 100mg

I had a drug rep from these jackasses call me and ask me if I had any on the shelf. I said no. She inquired about me ordering. I told her I’d ordered if I got an RX for it, the doctor was too stupid to let me change it, and the patient was willing to pay the unpreferred copay. She hung up on me.

3 hours later she called again…posing as a doctors office. I remembered her southern belle accent. She told me to order some because this doctors office was going to start using it and calling the scripts in to my pharmacy. I told her I would order it pending the criteria I told her earlier in the day. Then I hung up.

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So, I guess I should

Posted on February 8, 2007

Not too long ago, my pharmacy was short-handed. We needed another part time tech to pick up a few hours here and there, mostly a few nights a week and every other weekend. I posted a sign by the timeclock at my store. I wanted to bring someone in from within the store — that way there would be less training. They would already know a sufficient amount of information about our system.

I had almost no response. Everyone sees the plight of my pharmacy. They know we fill 200 more scripts a day than we should be physically able to. No one wants in on that action. Until, one evening, it was a bit slower and I was approached by a stockman named “Dan.”

Dan didn’t look like an intelligent young man. He looked like some sort of cross between a F.A.S. baby and and idiot savant like Rain Man. He came up to go counter about 5 minutes before I shut ‘er down. I had already removed my white coat for the day. I approached him at the counter and said hello. He said, “So, I saw the sign where you all were hiring or accepting a transfer.” I told him that was correct. “So, I guess I should talk to a pharmacist or something.” I told him that I had all the information that he needed. I explained he needed to fill out this application (I handed him one). He counters with my favorite question, “Are you the pharmacist?” I countered with, “I am a pharmacist.” Then we stared at each other for an exteremely uncomfortable amount of time. Finally he mustered up the courage, “Is you the manager?”

“Well, Dan, I’m not the store manager, but I am sort of in charge of the pharmacy.”

“So, I guess I should talk to the pharmacy district manager.”

“Dan, I’m gonna go ahead and take this from you (as I snatched the application from the counter). I think I’ve made my decision on who I’m going to hire.”

“Who?”

“Bye…”

I couldn’t listen to his idiocy anymore. This guy was a grade A idiot. He sucked at life. I was irritated when I first saw him. I was pissed when he was so concerned about my title. I was enraged when he decided he should go over my head. I wouldn’t have hired him in a million years. He just wanted to get one step closer to the Alprazolam…

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