A huge pile of crap…

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Me being a dick, True Story, Work Sucks

I absolutely hate walking in to a mess — we all do. Why in the hell does it happen to me day-in and day-out? I guess so I have an abundance of fodder for the website. Yesterday, I walked in at 1pm. What found me? Let’s see:

10 scripts dropped off waiting to be input
2 transfers needing to be called on
No doctor calls had been made…none
2 days worth of orders not put up
Stock bottles laying everywhere
5 people in line at the register
2 people in line at drop off
Tech and pharmacist each on the phone
3rd line is ringing
20 or so orders needing to be checked
3 “problem” orders needing to be handled

Where the hell does one even start? Feverishly, I took to work. Another tech straggled in a few minutes after me. Between she and I, and the two that let this madness ensue, we got caught up after about 5 hours of head-pounding-on-counter bliss.

You know what the bitch of it is? At 1pm they had only filled 50 or so prescriptions. That’s 12 or so an hour. That’s not an amazing rate - it’s not Wag’s 100/hr or anything, but for a somewhat-competent tech and seasoned pharmacist, it should be very do-able.

I finished the day with our number at 175. That’s not an amazingly high number by any account, or even for my store, but it was never worthy of a 30-45 minute wait because two fat-heads bogged down the whole operation by their ineptitude. And to tell the truth, I don’t even blame the tech, I blame the pharmacist. He’s too busy dicking around instead of verifying. He’s too busy calling because a script MAY say “Xanax 25 mg” rather than accepting the fact that doctors don’t understand the concept of a leading zero. He’s too busy re-calling on a transfer because the tech that initially called merely wrote down the other pharmacist’s first name and last initial rather than full name. He’s too busy calling on a faxed Scheduled Rx that’s on *our* letterhead (which we would have HAD to send) to verify it actually came from the MD’s Office and not the patient’s personal computer. Gimme a fucking break…this guy’s going to give me an ulcer, a stroke, and/or a horrible bonus…

Sincerely,
TheAngriestPharmacist(tm)(c)(R), LLC, Inc.

How to lose weight…

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Lazy People, Stupid People, True Story

Two or three times a week someone comes to the counter with a few over-the-counter “weight lose medicines“ and asks the fateful question, “which one of these is better?” Most pharmacists know the answer, “Both of those suck…in fact, all of them suck.”

I always tell these people the same thing — the weight loss meds sold over the counter are all worthless. They are nothing more than vitamins filled with green tea. If you want to lose weight, you have to modify your lifestyle. Eat healthier, exercise regularly, cut down on sweets. Everyone knows this, but they refuse to accept it. Why is that? Cause we can treat every other fucking disease on the planet, why can’t we make fat people skinny? I can give someone a pill that works on the beta-cells of the pancreas to increase insulin output, why can’t someone take a pill to make them lose weight?

The pessimist in me would say that drug companies don’t want to make fat people skinny. What’s a risk factor for every disease? That’s right, boys and girls, obesity! It’s the same concept as a man’s razor. Bic and Gillette could make a blade that stayed sharp forever, but what’s the point with that if we can bilk 30 bucks a month out of us grizzled guys?

I know Alli works, and I suggest it to the people holding a McDonald’s cup while they ask about the diet pills. After outlining the sludgy fart side affect, most people decide to just stay fat than modify their diet.

I started practicing what I preach, recently. I am 6′3″ and I weight in between 235 and 240. I wasn’t fat, but you could see I had an extra chin and some meat on my bones. I quit drinking soda. There goes about 900 calories (4 sodas on average) a day! At 900 cal x 30 days = 27,000 cal/month = 7-8 lbs! Just by doing that I could lose 8 lbs. Wow! So, I switch to water. My body is hydrated and burns calories dealing with that water. More calories burned! I also stopped eating sweets. I still have some candy now and then but not daily like in the past. I even started doing a little exercise…Not a lot — let’s not get crazy! I walk/jog a few days a week. Not very far either…just around the neighborhood.

The Tally as of now? I’m at 215. That’s a weight loss of 25 pounds in around 2 months. That’s a little fast I know (1-2 lbs of loss/month is suggested), but the with the sudden lifestyle modifications I made, the weight melted off.

If people would only listen to my fat normal-sized ass.

Short shift…

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Stupid People, True Story, Work Sucks

Everyone loves working a short shift. Today, I worked a 6 hour shift that fell smack dab in the middle of the day. I’ve never scheduled it like that before, so I figured I’d give it a try. Heck, make the other guy work all day…why not! It worked out relatively well, but I still had to deal with a few odd situations. I handled them in my normal calm, cool, collected demeanor as you all have come to know and love.

*ring* [As always, my comments are more important and bolded. Thoughts, comments, and explanations are in brackets]

“Thanks for calling my pharmacy. May I help you?”
“Yeah, I need some refills. The first one is for Plavix for Rick Smits.”
“Well, it looks like we transferred that one out. Do you know off-hand where we tranferred it to?” [I can look, but it takes me off of the screen I need to be on to fill others. It's a ton easier and faster if the person just tells me, they should know!]
“No…” [So, I look it up and it went to a CVS west of me - I make a note to get it back]
“Okay and the next one you need?”
“It’s for lisinopril for Reggie Miller.”
“Okay, do you know where that one was transferred?” [See a theme?]
“No…” [I look and it went to a Walgreens east of me]
“Any more things you need me to transfer here?”
“Yes, I need the Nitroglycerin tablets…”
“Who are those for? Rick or Reggie?
“Those are for Rick.” [Why we didn't do those when I was on Rick's profile, I have no fucking clue]
“I’m not seeing those on his list of medications. Did you get those somewhere else too?”
“Ohh that’s right. I got those at the Medicine Shoppe on 5th street.” [South of me]
“I’ll call and get these transferred and filled for you. Did you want to pick them up today or tomorrow?”[What answer do you expect now???]
“I’m actually headed that way now. I’ll be there in about 15 minutes.” [Boom]
“I’ll do them as fast as I can, but I don’t think they’ll be ready that fast.”
“Okay, well I’ll wait once I get there…” [That's a fucking promise, lady]

I asked her what the problem was and why they were transferred. She told me all those places were convenient for her at the time. It just goes along with my beliefs that pharmacy is going in the wrong direction and patient care will suffer. Pharmacy God sees it the same way.

These fucking Rxs were passed around more than a hooker at a Minnesota Viking party.
Here’s the schematic of where these things went:

1st Transfer 2nd Transfer
Rick Smits’ Plavix [Me]====> CVS[West] ====> WAG[East]
Reggie Miller Lisin.[Me] ====> WAG [East] ====> Medicine Shoppe
Rick Smits’ NTG ====> Medicine Shoppe [South] ====> CVS [West]

Can you imagine the amount of calls I made? At least they kind of went together.

I called:
I called CVS to get the Plavix. They told me to call the WAG. I got the Plavix and asked about the Lisinopril. They told me to call Medicine Shoppe for the Lisinopril. I got the Lisinopril and asked about the NTG. They told me to call the CVS for the NTG.

Total time: I’d say 20 minutes total.
Amount these medicines cost: Pennies
Reimbursement over cost: Not enough to pay me for 20 minutes of work…

I don’t work tomorrow, so I’m getting drunk. I don’t drink fancy whisky, whiskey, or scotch. I’m going to have my way with a case of Bud Light bottles. I’m a beer man.

I had a good story…

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Me being a dick, True Story, Work Sucks

I had a good story today…well…kinda…

The electricity went out at my store. Doesn’t everyone just love when that happens! 20 people in the store, and they all want their stuff before I kick them out. Most people, I cannot help. I apologize, offer to call them, or, in some circumstances, give them a few tablets. Ugh.

But, with the electricity out, I got the order put away, caught up on some labelling, did my C2 ordering, and did a CE. Awesome.

Rather than type up a long story about some lady getting pissed off because she can’t open Tigan capsules (it’s sooo hard!) and put them in her patient’s tube (she wants compazine tablets — she can crush them easier). I’ll leave you with this link.

Pharmer Jane hit the nail on the head when concerning phoned in prescriptions.

Regards…

PS - Upon talking to the doctor and perusing my inventory, we decided to go with Compazine suppositories…Take that, biatch!

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Like, ya know, whatever

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as --Not Pharmacy--, Hate Mail, True Story

Okay, so The Angry Pharmacist is pissed. He’s pissed I didn’t come up with a more unique name. Rightfully so, but it’s too late now. Might as well cope. In the mean time, all you cronies that are here on his behalf to pick apart my posts and send me filthy, disgusting comments…please don’t. I did nothing to you. I didn’t make fun of your fat ass, bed ridden, welfare drawing mother. Just remember, all comments posted and submitted to me can and will be used against you…If you are a super asshole, I might feel compelled to post your IP, whereabouts, browser version, and even those naked pictures of your wife I took.

Update: He’s got some good comments on his new post:

From Technorati:

The Angry Pharmacist
Authority: 99
Rank 53,381

The *Angriest* Pharmacist
Authority: 21
Rank: 308,341

Very Valid — if the true measure of validity is how many blogs have links to yours. If you tkae into consideration Angry’s site just had its 2 year anniversary. He posted about it. I will hit 7 months tomorrow…That’s kind of like comparing apples and basketballs now isn’t it? The other poster there is the same person that sent me some dickhead comments earlier today…Kel at IP 71.94.135.142 – Long Beach, CA??

Anyway - I can’t right a wrong that was made 7 months ago. I changed my header a bit ago. Honest to God, I had no idea my header was so close to his. I only read his posts and nothing more. Alas, I changed mine to something completely different and will leave it as such until I decide on something better.

Point blank. I’m not going to address this any more. What else can I do or say? I’ll get back to what I’m semi-good at: telling everyone a stupid story, explain how I over-reacted and humor ensued, and everyone can visit every few days for a laugh at my expense.

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