Oh, sorry.....we don't have the meds you require to live

[bacchinalus]

If the office is that bad at responding to renewal requests (and they all are !), then I would definitely request the maximum daily units wording be added to the script. That way, if you are using less, then you can call the pharmacy for a refill earlier, yet still have extra medication for when the doctor's office is slow to respond.

[Seshat]

See if you can find a pharmacy that's not too busy, but busy enough to stay in business, and who can work with your doctor's office.

My family pharmacist makes up weekly meds packs for us (and other patients they do it for), every week. We can pick them up every Monday, and we don't have to worry about planning ahead for refills.

As long as we periodically visit the family doctor so she can check that our standard meds are keeping us going, she just writes the refill scripts for our pharmacist whenever he needs them. He sends a batch of requests for refill scripts to the doctor's office (which, helpfully, is in the same medical complex as the pharmacy), and our doctor writes the scripts sometime between getting them and the day he makes the packs.

This does mean that our pharmacist keeps the rest of the packs that we own; but for us, the convenience and reliability is very valuable.
Especially for days when I'm fibrofogged out the wazoo: it can be very difficult to figure out my meds, or even to remember whether or not I've taken them. This way, I just have to figure out if it's morning or evening, and which day of the week it is.


Um. Fibrofog day today. Why am I babbling about this? Oh yes! Because something like this might be helpful. I know it's not as useful with variable-dosage stuff like insulin, but if your pharmacist has this sort of plan available at all, he may well have a suitable system for them.
It can't hurt to find a good pharmacist and talk to them about this possibility.

[cashierbex]

Not all are like that. At least mine tells people and finds another store for them close by. The bad apples are just getting all the publicity cause of the crap the company is pulling. But I might just be biased.

[Sunsetsky]

I won't go to Walgreens for prescriptions anymore. When I was pregnant, I had really bad morning sickness and was prescribed medication for it. They told me that my insurance was inactive and it wasn't (I called my insurance to check). They even refused to try to run it through again after I told them that my insurance said otherwise.

The least they could have done was call her. I work at a veterinary clinic and when we are out of the medication that a client needs for their pet, I call the person asap to let them know and try to find a way to get them what they need.

[smileyeagle1021]

Could also have been an emergency, like part of her medication got spilled/broken/invalidated in some way so she had to refill early, etc etc.

I know Dave has already replied to this issue, but sevendaysky really hits the nail on the head on why the pharmacy needs to be on top of stuff like this... the patient often times has NO control over needing an emergency prescription.
My grandma was diabetic and she before went out of town for a weekend, took plenty of insulin to last the weekend, but obviously didn't take her whole supply with her, got home and found out that there had been a power outage while she was gone and everything in her fridge has to be thrown out, including the insulin. Was she being horribly irresponsible in that case? Should she have to face the consequences of her lack of planning? Obviously not, it is a common assumption that you aren't going to lose power while you are out of town.
There were also a few times that she needed to get extra because she had arthritis and had a hard time handling the bottles and occasionally would drop them.
A pharmacy obviously can't expect to have every medication in stock 100% of the time, they can have problems beyond their control just like patients can... but they do have 100% control over letting a patient know immediately that there is a problem so that they can find an alternative.

[bacchinalus]

Have you asked them what kind of automated system they have set up to message you if something goes wrong with the script, or to let you know when it is filled?

Most pharmacies have a system that can either call, text or email you to give you updates. Ours will let you know if you have no refills, or if it requires insurance approval, etc.

Obviously I'm not saying that the pharmacy couldn't have done better to handle this (they could have done any number of things, the least of which was check to see what they had in stock before sending you on your way). But when you go to a new pharmacy ask them what they have set in place to notify you, just in case things get too crazy during the day.

I know from personal experience how hectic it can be with every phone ringing, e-scripts constantly printing, new drop-offs every 3 minutes, and the register line building up. Little things like a text saying "There is an issue with your prescription. Please call us." can help take a lot of the burden off the techs.