Saturdays SUCK

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as APhA, Disgusting, Drug Topics, Errors, Lazy People, Me being a dick, Me hating others, Money, Patient Education, Politics, Stupid People, TPA, Technicians, True Story, Work Sucks

I’m lucky that I don’t have to work weekends on a consistent basis, but I do get the pleasure of working every 4th Saturday. What sucks about Saturdays? Nearly everything.

- I have to work 11 hours as the lone pharmacist.
- I get no lunch break. I sneak back to our little office and swallow a sandwich whole. I usually get interrupted 2-3 times to check in-store prescriptions or answer an old person’s call — they usually just have refill numbers of course!
- The technicians scheduled are all my part-time HS/College kids — meaning they know the most basic of tasks in the pharmacy and on the computer system. So, I type almost all prescriptions AS WELL AS check them. At least they count, right?
- We run two shifts of techs. They switch out at the lunch hour.
- We don’t do a ton of scripts. Maybe 200 total…250 is pushing it.

My last Saturday that I worked wasn’t super busy, but I was inundated with idiots and assholes — more so than on a regular day! At one point in the early afternoon, a short, fat man approached the counter right after my lunch time shift change.

“Yeah, I called and talked to the pharmacist, and he said you had Carter’s Liver Pills.”
“Well, I’m the pharmacist today — the only pharmacist working here all day. I didn’t take the call. I’m not sure who you talked to. Anyway, I’m not sure what ‘Carter’s Liver Pills’ are. What are they for?”
“They’re for the Liver.” [I guess I had that coming]
“Well, nowadays, there isn’t anything available over-the-counter for ‘the liver,’ and products couldn’t advertise themselves as such. Let me look it up on the internet.”
“Well, I don’t know why the pharmacist would say you had them if you don’t. He said they have them on the shelf!”
“Sir — I’m the only pharmacist on duty, and we did not speak today. Are you sure you called the Angriest Pharmacy?” [Well of course he did! He talked to the pharmacist!] “Well, give me just a second to go check some sources on the internet.”

So, I went to McKesson first to see if I could get it. I often use MCK to ascertain the existence of some of the shit people dream up that their friends, third cousins, and great grandmothers told them about years and years ago. When you search “Carter” on MCK, it returns one result — CARTER’S LITTLE PILLS. I immediately just thought the man was short, fat, and stupid…mistaking / misinterpreting the word LITTLE for LIVER.

I then moved to Google. I searched “Carter’s Liver Pills.” That took me to a OLD message board site that explained the name was “Carter’s Little Liver Pills,” and the word liver was dropped when government involvement required documented efficacy [DESI, anyone?].

Next stop was Wikipedia. This told me that it was heavily advertised BISACODYL even back then. Coincidentally, it is STILL bisacodyl, and it is available….available in MY STORE! Woo hoo! Surely, the short, fat, stupid man would be happy with my research and time invested and would buy the product and be pleased with his poopie pills. But then I woke up….
“Okay. Here’s what I found. Carter’s Liver Pills were renamed to Carter’s LITTLE Pills many years ago due to government or FDA regulations. We actually have those. They are down the stomach aisle as they are just a laxative called Dulcolax. The drug name is Bisacodyl.”
“No. That’s not it. They’re called Carter’s Liver Pills, and I drove all the way up here to get them cause the pharmacist told me you all had them. Apparently, you just don’t want to help me.”    [Why does this always happen to me?]
“I’m not saying you didn’t make a phone call and talk to a pharmacist. I’m simply telling you that you did not call THIS pharmacy nor did you talk to THIS pharmacist. As you can see, I’m working here with these younger technicians — none of them would have answered the question about “Carter’s Liver Pills” without asking me. Girls — did any of you talk to anyone about “Carter’s Liver Pills”? [Of course not] Okay. Anyway. We don’t have Liver Pills. No one has Liver Pills. What I’m telling you is that Carter’s Little Pill is what replace Carter’s Liver Pill.
“Well, you just try telling that to my wife. She’s expecting Liver Pills.”
“And I’ve told you…this is it.”
“Why can’t you just admit you made a mistake?”    [Wait...whaaa??]
“Mistake? Mistake? You’re joking right? What mistake was made here?”
“You don’t have Carter’s Liver Pills.”
“I guess if you want to split hairs, I do not have Liver Pills. I do have the new version called Little Pills. The LIVER pills are no longer made or sold anywhere.”
“Then why did the pharmacist tell me you did?”   [Wow, really?]
“I am the pharmacist. We have never spoken. We have never met….”
“Then where is the guy I talked to?”
“That is a mystery isn’t it. I don’t know if you noticed, but I am the only male employee here today. The rest of these high school girls certainly didn’t impersonate me and tell you that we had the Liver Pills. Did they?”
“Well, it’s all clear as day now. I can hear it LOUD. AND. CLEAR. You are perfect. You’re too god damn good to make a mistake…well, you’re not too good to make one, but you’re certainly too good to admit it! I can hear you LOUD AND CLEAR! I can’t believe I drove all the way into town and I’m going home with nothing! Who’s gonna pay for my gas money? I drove 8 miles!”
“I’m sorry that you are at a disadvantage here. If I had made a mistake, somehow,  I would have admitted it….but, I haven’t made one. You are just angry for some odd reason. If you’d like, I could call your wife and explain to her the product’s new name — and that it’s the same thing.  Or, if you’d like, I could take a sharpie and cross out the word LITTLE and replace it with LIVER!”
“This is exactly why I don’t get my prescriptions filled here. You all are the worst kind of people.”
“It’s probably best that you don’t fill them here. If you did, I’d refuse you service from this point forward.”

As he said, “LOUD AND CLEAR” — both times — he pointed to his left ear, where he had a HUGE hearing aid. So, the man was partially deaf. He must have MISHEARD the pharmacist he talked to on the phone! [Which wasn't me]  The last line, where I said I’d refuse him service, was said as he was walking away. It’s pretty unlikely that he heard me…so, while I’m a wussy for whispering, I meant it!

Anyway, that’s the story of my run in with the short, fat, stupid, and DEAF man dwarfish asshole.

PS — Kudos to the DrugMonkey for a KICKASS article on the suckiness of Pharmacy organizations. Wonderfully pithy, well-worded, and a resounding YES to the question of, “does drug topics have the guts to let its contributors / authors publish the cold, hard truth?”

http://tinyurl.com/DrugMonkey

My “Why APhA Sucks” article from Dec 2008 pales in comparison.

Another DrugMonkey jab at APhA

Diagnosed — A Case-Based Post

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Doctors, Education, Patient Education, Results, True Story

Older lady (50-something) calls in today….really…today January 13, 2010.

“I have a pretty bad stomach ache. I’ve tried everything.”

After a lengthy discussion with a lady that was pretty sharp when it came to OTC meds and taking care of herself, here were the facts:

- Epigastric pain above the belly button, beneath the sternum.
- Rarely radiated. Sometimes pulsated. Sometimes had back pain, but figured it was due to her job as a cashier.
- Patient has (un)controlled hypertension. Her BP is high, but she is finally under treatment after years and years of uncontrolled HTN. It’s on the way down, but not to goal yet.
- Has tried the following meds: Rolaids, Gaviscon, Milk of Magnesia, Fibercon, Colace, Zantac/Pepcid, Omeprazole, Protonix, and Tylenol/Ibuprofen (after thinking it could be muscular).
- Worsened over time.

So, short list of facts. Very busy pharmacy. As a pharmacist, we’ve really gone as far as we can go with our expertise — as far as what we can suggest. What do you think the patient has? What do you tell her to do?

The answer is below.

I told the patient she had let this problem linger for far too long. She needed to go to the doctor and be seen. I told her to “mention the pharmacist wondering about a ‘triple A’ to her physician. Some doctor’s might call it an A-A-A.”

I told the lady at the time that this was a crazy idea, probably not even on the radar, and the doctor would probably laugh, but it was something to think about on the list of possibilities. I then explained it to her — what an abdominal aortic aneurysm was — and she was obviously scared which made me feel like a douche. I told her how rare they were and not to worry about it.

Later this evening I get a FAX from her primary care physician with her admission face sheet and the following handwritten:

HOW DOES A PHARMACIST DIAGNOSE AN A.A.A. OVER THE PHONE?

– If she survives the surgery, we can say you saved her life…(well, you and the vascular surgeon)

Lucky Guess…I know…because I didn’t even know her name when we spoke on the phone — I didn’t ask. We do fill her medicines, and I recognized her name when I saw the fax. I even know her face…I will update on her status tomorrow if I find out.

=========UPDATE=========

Facebook Faux Paus

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Work Sucks

I was finally lucky enough to get Facebook to allow me on. Angry had been on for quite some time — yet all my attempts to join were blocked due to my “webmaster” email address and oddness of my name if assuming it’s a person’s real name. Anyway, I would like to introduce you all to:

-=+=-

Angri Est Pharmacist and his Facebook Profile

(I didn’t really want a personal page, but I had to make it to build a “fan” page. I might end up deleting it if I know it won’t fowl everything up! All the info is fake or stupid little Easter Eggs and no one wants to be my friend anyway!)

-=+=-

Next we have the Official Facebook Page of The Angriest Pharmacist:

The Angriest Pharmacist | Promote Your Page Too

So, I only have 33 fans right now (and I am one of them!). I’m publishing this here in hopes to get at least a respectable number. I promise this isn’t going to be a feature of the site…maybe just a way to get a new audience.

The Angry Pharmacist’s Page has him at 682 fans.
He also has a group in his honor — “Angry Pharm. is my Hero”

TAP is a good guy. Hero? Mehhhh….I’ll give you,
“mentor to a generation of externs and general rabble-rouser”

Angri Est Pharmacist is a fan of

The Angriest Pharmacist

Create your Fan Badge

The Angriest Pharmacist on Facebook

All things being equal

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as APhA, Disgusting, Drive-Thru, Drug Companies, Drug Topics, Errors, Management, Me being a dick, Me hating others, PHARMACY SECRETS!, Politics, Stupid People, Technicians, True Story, Work Sucks

Prereading for this post:   Walgreens has POWER (80 COMMENTS!)

I was going through some server logs and discovered something. This tid bit of information was shocking to me. The above post/link was and is being heavily monitored by Walgreens themselves. As you know, the bottom of each post I type has two links these days. One allows you to email a post to a friend using my server’s resources. The other link opens a printable copy of the post along with links and annotations.

The email function is heavily used across the entire site — very heavily used…and it is also logged for security purposes. Today is the first day I’ve looked at said log since implementing the function and verifying it worked eons ago. It’s been used by a plethora of people. From students spreading the funny advice, to bikers spreading stories about our little spat, to companies seeing what’s been said about their new policies and procedures.

Such as WAG… who used it to spread the post amongst their corporate headquarters and various offices. One employee sent it to a great number of other “@walgreens.com” email addresses some time ago stating, “it’s important we know this is circulating…” and “continued monitoring is necessary.” Several were sent as, “FYI per meeting agenda.”

I don’t have more information than that. Their hits from their walgreens IP address (which resolves to walgreens.com) number in the thousands to this site in the days to weeks following that post. I’m sure it’s blocked at store level — but they were watching.

So, my POWER Pawns — did anything change? In my area, I’ve noticed nothing of this program as I’m rural and not yet touched. As I said before, I’m excited. The Walgreens I compete with couldn’t possible provide worse customer service. We’ve actually stopped advertising in the local paper as they do it for us. POWER won’t do anything but make me money. Did we rattle their cage a little bit?

One of the pharmacists working at that store actually just quit a few days ago. Just walked out. Now he’s commuting over an hour to an independent pharmacy. He was filling more than 800 per day and never allowed more than 2 pharmacists, 5 techs and 1 dedicated cashier. They had a counting machine, he said, which accounted for about 25-50% of the volume, but it was constantly on the fritz. Remember what Drug Topics said a few months ago? It’s what I remind my coworkers of every time I catch a mistake — 4 errors per 250 scripts. That’s just not good enough for me.

Commentors will be kept anonymous on this post.