"Please don't repackage my pills"

[Primer]

Dang, I spend a few days with my Mom, and I have a ton of stories, mostly about her!

So, she took her prescriptions to a different pharmacy from the one that she believed the tech needed to take a laxative. http://customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?t=1671

One med that she gets comes in a prepackaged bottle straight from the manufacturer. Mom actually politely asked the tech not to open the bottle, count the pills, then dump them into another bottle, and slap the script label on that. Since the script is for the same number of pills that come in the bottle from the manufacturer, she asked that the label just be put on the original bottle instead--saving time, labor and materials.

The tech could not seem to understand why my Mom would want to do it that way.

First, she's who she is.
Second, she's a retired nurse, and concerned (paranoid) about cross contamination.
Third, it really does make sense.

The fluid meds that she gets come in plastic bottles in boxes. She asked that the label be put on the box instead of the bottle itself, as, "The bottles get wet, the ink smears, the label disintegrates, making it difficult to refer back to the doctor's instructions, and the prescription number for refills."

Again, the tech couldn't seem to understand why.

I'm kind of glad I won't be there tomorrow when she picks up her "mislabeled" drugs.

[CanadaGirl]

Why couldn't the tech understand? English not a first language or something? You'd think a customer trying to save the tech money and time would make him actually want to do what the customer suggested.

[AFpheonix]

In our pharmacy, we've been asked to not label stock bottles that are unit of use, because it does lead to more prescription errors if someone doesn't bother to make sure that the quantity written for is the quantity in the bottle. Also, our filling process uses a scale that only the pharmacist can override, and the system keeps track of every override. I still label stock bottles though, since it's a hell of a lot faster and the scale is not always accurate.

We also tend to put labels on the bottles instead of the boxes because usually people throw away the boxes and thus the refill numbers and directions.

However, if a patient requests a certain way of filling their script, ours is not the place to question. Just flipping do it, as long as it's reasonable, as your mom's requests were.

[Argabarga]

It's also possible the tech cannot deviate from company policy over how to fill and process. It may be company policy to count everything even if the unit of use container already comes in the quantity to be dispensed.

If a unit of use bottle comes inside a box, at my pharmacy, the policy is to label the bottle, not the box, the logic being that the box will be thrown away once opened and the bottle will be used, so that's the part that should have the directions, I cannot deviate from this, even if the paitent wants it this way.

So, in the tech's defense, he/she may have no option depending on how tight assed the managment feels when setting fill policy.

[Primer]

It's also possible the tech cannot deviate from company policy over how to fill and process. It may be company policy to count everything even if the unit of use container already comes in the quantity to be dispensed.

If a unit of use bottle comes inside a box, at my pharmacy, the policy is to label the bottle, not the box, the logic being that the box will be thrown away once opened and the bottle will be used, so that's the part that should have the directions, I cannot deviate from this, even if the paitent wants it this way.

So, in the tech's defense, he/she may have no option depending on how tight assed the managment feels when setting fill policy.

Argabarga, I tried to explain this to my Mom, but she would have none of it. That's why I said I was kinda glad I would not be there for the pick up!

I understand about policy, but she still thinks that if it makes sense, then there is no reason not to do it.

[Mixed Bag]

I understand about policy, but she still thinks that if it makes sense, then there is no reason not to do it.

That my biggest weakness as an SC. If someone can give me a good reason I haven't thought of why my great idea won't work, I'll shut up right away and apologise if I see fit, but most people apparently aren't accustomed to being called upon to participate in such rigourous exercises in logic and seem amazed that I wouldn't just accept something because it's the way it's done. Another factor is that I'm more conscientious than ignorant, so there's a good chance I've already considered their explanations. (Yes, I know when to take it up with the manager and leave the employee alone--most managers, and employees for that matter, of course, have been courteous, and my quest for implementation has been met with mixed results; though before the smoking bans I saw one restaurant impose one shortly after I complained that separate sections didn't work in that place, so I may have well been the catalyst there.)

[Argabarga]

Argabarga, I tried to explain this to my Mom, but she would have none of it. That's why I said I was kinda glad I would not be there for the pick up!

I understand about policy, but she still thinks that if it makes sense, then there is no reason not to do it.

I feel your pain, my Dad is this way, and is getting worse and worse as he gets older. He's an engineer by trade, so he's definately a subscriber to the "If it doesn't make sense, you don't have to follow it" school of rules and laws, and it gets him into trouble more than a few times a year.

He's also never had to work a retail/service job in his life and has no clear understanding of the concept of store policy being somthing employees are forced to follow vs. came up with on thier own.