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We've never actually written down statistics, but probably 50% of the time we're getting yelled at, or bitched about, is because we're taking the blame of something that is YOUR fault.
1. Top of our list would go to you guys calling in a script while the patient is sitting in your office and then telling them it'll be ready in an hour. No, you don't get to do that! Do we tell your patients to walk into your office and guarantee you'll see them as soon as they darken the door? No, we do not, for obvious reasons. An hour is our typical wait time for people who bring in written Rxs or ask for refills. Call ins, however, are a different kind of beast. Most of them get left on the IVR, and depending on how busy we are, a pharmacist may or may not get to it in a timely manner. Patient 'sees you' call in their stuff and then tootles right on over here expecting it to be done. You know what? I think half the time you're only pretending to call it over to get them off your back, because if they're pestering me for something at 12:30 and my pharmacist's voicemail is empty until 12:40, I'm calling bullshit. Save us a lot of time and just give them something handwritten. Don't insist on calling it in because "It's faster." Dr Call-Ins fall to the bottom of the priority list here. They are time consuming in the fact that an Rph has to listen to sometimes garbled voice messages in an already noisy environment, copy it down, and then hand it off to a tech for processing. That's assuming everything was clear and he doesn't have to call you for clarification on anything, thus taking up even more of his very limited time. He doesn't stand there by the phone to snatch it up every time it rings, and the IVR sometimes goes for up to 90 minutes before being checked, again, depending on how slammed we are.
1.b. Telling a patient you'll call in a script and then forgetting about it. I understand you're busy and all, but meds won't do anyone any good if they never get them. And I don't mean the people that drive right from your office to the store. I mean they come to my counter on a Wednesday afternoon looking for something you promised them you'd call in on Friday morning, that we have no record of, and now they're out of pills. Awesome. It's even better when they show up on the weekend needing highly necessary maintenance meds that we can't call you on because you, unlike us, are CLOSED.
2. SIGN your prescriptions.
3. Put DIRECTIONS on them, too.
4. Specify cream, tablet, lotion, or ointment. Seriously, how hard is this?
5. Specify STRENGTH.
6. This is another huge one but it falls low on the list because I've only seen it happen twice since starting in the pharm. You put your patient on insulin for the first time in their life. Understandably, this is a scary and intimidating thing for a lot of people. Educating the diabetic about insulin and how to give it to themselves is YOUR job. When a 70-something woman ripped open her bag and pulled out a box of Novilin, saying "This is all I get for that much money?!" I asked her if she normally gets more from us. "I dunno what I'm s'posed to get, I ain't never had this stuff before! Do I need needles?" Yes, it really was what it was. I let Crotchety Pharmacist® know what was going on and he probably spent 20 minutes trying to explain the concept to her and selecting syringes to buy. A consult from an Rph at a crowded retail pharmacy is far less preferable to hearing from an MD and being taught hands on what to do. Then a few months later it happened again, with a 30 something woman.
"Do you have any questions for the pharmacist today?"
"Yeah, I need him to show me how to use this."
" . . . your insulin?"
"Yeah."
"Your doctor didn't tell you?"
"No, he told us the pharmacist would do it when we got here."
Really, what the hell are you charging these people for? I guess money for all those two week long vacations have to come from somewhere.
To clarify, I have nothing against doctors in general, just this kind of sucky behavior we see from a few of them. We see it too much. Especially #1. It makes us hate you with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. I'm starting to think you all should be required to do a rotation in a pharmacy for a few weeks, just so you can see what it's like on our side of the counter. We are both here to serve our patients/customers. We are NOT your bitches.
EDIT the second: Oh yeah. Stop pretending you know what stuff costs. It's obvious that you do not. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out but, the $4 drug list? That doesn't apply to every.single.drug.we.dispense. No one is walking in here and getting $4 oxycontin or Colcrys*. Also Medicaid/Medicare doesn't always cover everything, either. This is especially aimed at the douchewaffle who wrote Levaquin for the very elderly lady with a hacking cough and told her "It won't cost anything." Fuck you! I usually get pissed off when people give me the deer-in-the-headlights stare and their mind shuts down for a few minutes due to failure to process, but this time, I just felt really bad for her. She came in here expecting $0 and I presented her with a total of over $170 - Levaquin is expensive! I really and truly am waiting and dreading the day that will inevitably arrive in which a customer experiences genuine heart failure when they see their total, I really am.
** Yeah, generic Colchicine, used mostly for gout, used to be on our $4 list but recently had all generic versions pulled and was remarketed under the name Colcrys. It's also expensive as hell. Thanks, FDA.
1. Top of our list would go to you guys calling in a script while the patient is sitting in your office and then telling them it'll be ready in an hour. No, you don't get to do that! Do we tell your patients to walk into your office and guarantee you'll see them as soon as they darken the door? No, we do not, for obvious reasons. An hour is our typical wait time for people who bring in written Rxs or ask for refills. Call ins, however, are a different kind of beast. Most of them get left on the IVR, and depending on how busy we are, a pharmacist may or may not get to it in a timely manner. Patient 'sees you' call in their stuff and then tootles right on over here expecting it to be done. You know what? I think half the time you're only pretending to call it over to get them off your back, because if they're pestering me for something at 12:30 and my pharmacist's voicemail is empty until 12:40, I'm calling bullshit. Save us a lot of time and just give them something handwritten. Don't insist on calling it in because "It's faster." Dr Call-Ins fall to the bottom of the priority list here. They are time consuming in the fact that an Rph has to listen to sometimes garbled voice messages in an already noisy environment, copy it down, and then hand it off to a tech for processing. That's assuming everything was clear and he doesn't have to call you for clarification on anything, thus taking up even more of his very limited time. He doesn't stand there by the phone to snatch it up every time it rings, and the IVR sometimes goes for up to 90 minutes before being checked, again, depending on how slammed we are.
1.b. Telling a patient you'll call in a script and then forgetting about it. I understand you're busy and all, but meds won't do anyone any good if they never get them. And I don't mean the people that drive right from your office to the store. I mean they come to my counter on a Wednesday afternoon looking for something you promised them you'd call in on Friday morning, that we have no record of, and now they're out of pills. Awesome. It's even better when they show up on the weekend needing highly necessary maintenance meds that we can't call you on because you, unlike us, are CLOSED.
2. SIGN your prescriptions.
3. Put DIRECTIONS on them, too.
4. Specify cream, tablet, lotion, or ointment. Seriously, how hard is this?
5. Specify STRENGTH.
6. This is another huge one but it falls low on the list because I've only seen it happen twice since starting in the pharm. You put your patient on insulin for the first time in their life. Understandably, this is a scary and intimidating thing for a lot of people. Educating the diabetic about insulin and how to give it to themselves is YOUR job. When a 70-something woman ripped open her bag and pulled out a box of Novilin, saying "This is all I get for that much money?!" I asked her if she normally gets more from us. "I dunno what I'm s'posed to get, I ain't never had this stuff before! Do I need needles?" Yes, it really was what it was. I let Crotchety Pharmacist® know what was going on and he probably spent 20 minutes trying to explain the concept to her and selecting syringes to buy. A consult from an Rph at a crowded retail pharmacy is far less preferable to hearing from an MD and being taught hands on what to do. Then a few months later it happened again, with a 30 something woman.
"Do you have any questions for the pharmacist today?"
"Yeah, I need him to show me how to use this."
" . . . your insulin?"
"Yeah."
"Your doctor didn't tell you?"
"No, he told us the pharmacist would do it when we got here."
Really, what the hell are you charging these people for? I guess money for all those two week long vacations have to come from somewhere.
To clarify, I have nothing against doctors in general, just this kind of sucky behavior we see from a few of them. We see it too much. Especially #1. It makes us hate you with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. I'm starting to think you all should be required to do a rotation in a pharmacy for a few weeks, just so you can see what it's like on our side of the counter. We are both here to serve our patients/customers. We are NOT your bitches.
EDIT the second: Oh yeah. Stop pretending you know what stuff costs. It's obvious that you do not. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out but, the $4 drug list? That doesn't apply to every.single.drug.we.dispense. No one is walking in here and getting $4 oxycontin or Colcrys*. Also Medicaid/Medicare doesn't always cover everything, either. This is especially aimed at the douchewaffle who wrote Levaquin for the very elderly lady with a hacking cough and told her "It won't cost anything." Fuck you! I usually get pissed off when people give me the deer-in-the-headlights stare and their mind shuts down for a few minutes due to failure to process, but this time, I just felt really bad for her. She came in here expecting $0 and I presented her with a total of over $170 - Levaquin is expensive! I really and truly am waiting and dreading the day that will inevitably arrive in which a customer experiences genuine heart failure when they see their total, I really am.
** Yeah, generic Colchicine, used mostly for gout, used to be on our $4 list but recently had all generic versions pulled and was remarketed under the name Colcrys. It's also expensive as hell. Thanks, FDA.
.
I still got a 'point' for missing work that day, even when I explained I woke up not really able to breathe 
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