Pharmacy tips.

[HYHYBT]

Eckerd? Used to be Revco.

Revco was bought by CVS, though of course your particular Eckerd certainly could have been a Revco at some point.

I know, irrelevant... I just miss Revco

[PharmTechPhantom]

I'm really sick of my company constantly switching manufacturers. Just when I get the label on the shelf and all my customers adjusted to their new pill, we go from Sandoz to Apotex and field hundreds of questions from people asking if it's the same thing.

Also, my store is Birth Control HQ. We've got four or five colleges in the immediate area, and Sundays are full of college girls who waited until the last minute! Oh, and we sold 8 Plan B's on New Year's Day.

[AFpheonix]

You get musical manufacturers too?
Our DC keeps sending us Mallincrodt and Watson vicodin on alternating weeks. We have this stuff in 2 cells in the Yuyama machine. I can't use the machine to dispense every other week, and have to reprogram it whenever they send us Mallincrodt again

[PharmTechPhantom]

Our machine is called at SmartCabinet and it's anything but smart. We've just sent 13 dispensers back to the manufacturer because they weren't working for some reason.

We haven't had problem with Vicodin, but Nuvarings, Inderal LA 80mg and Pravastatin 40mg are another story.

[AFpheonix]

Inderal LA is on manufacturer bo right now....we haven't gotten a release date. I've been out of the 80mg for awhile now....I guess I'll start sending notes to doctors to change em to something else.... Maybe they can do Toprol or something else like that. Some of these guys didn't want to do multiple doses of the regular release propranolol.

I hate the 3 pack Nuvaring now. I'm waiting for someone to freak that they've gotten a labelled foil packet instead of an individual box.

But hey, Zofran just went generic, we got our first shipment last week. Yay!

[PharmTechPhantom]

I really hated getting prescriptions for Zofran, and having to charge people so much for an anti-nausea med. Hopefully the generic will help that.

I'm trying to get all my Part D people two switch to generics. I've got people paying rediculous amounts for Crestor and Lipitor when they could get simvastatin or pravastatin for cheaper! Part D just kills me.

Anyway, who do you work for? If you don't mind me asking.

[AFpheonix]

I'm at the "Pharmacy America Trusts".

It depends on the biddy. Some of these people are too picky, so I just let em' take whatever they want.
I had one brainiac doctor prescribe DAW Dantrium for someone on public assistance MPD. Um..hello...they don't do brand....
I'll let em' try for a pre auth, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

[CrazedClerk]

For a Canadian soon to be moving to the U.S., this thread scares me a little...

[PharmacyPimp]

Mmmm...generic Zofran. It's a shame that it's not much cheaper than brand but at least there are generic Actiq lozenges now. I'm glad to here that I'm not the only dealing with musical manufacturers, IPledge fools, Medicaid pimps, and a ScriptPro machine. My personal favorite was when I got a Plan B prescription from a patient with 5 refills that she needed "immediately" since she was leaving for college the next day.

[AFpheonix]

What cracks me up about the Actiq is that the same company making the brand makes the generic too. The boxes even look the same

I'm hoping that people will be getting at least the generic copay on the zofran now, although that doesn't help the people that have plans that still don't cover or people that don't have coverage in the first place....
A lot of companies don't even have the NDC on file yet, so I can't bill for either brand or generic

[Cia]

I love going to the pharmacy for my cat's pills. The dispensor people seem to get a kick out of calling Munchkin's name.

[dizzy_starshine]

I love going to the pharmacy for my cat's pills. The dispensor people seem to get a kick out of calling Munchkin's name.

We have a dog on our books and I seriously do absolutely love going outside to where the owner waits and giving the bag to the dog. She carries it home in her mouth and it brightens my day. I also love it when we get a pharmacist covering days off or holidays and they look at ' Poppy Puppy' as if it really might be a person. I've often joked that in rainy weather we should put a muddy paw print in the sign here box.

[BookstoreEscapee]

The pharmacist at my old pharmacy is awesome. It was 2 miles from my house in a grocery store, and not that big so it was usually just the 1 pharmacist there. I'd drop off my scrip and then go back an hour later and not even have to give my name, he'd just grab it when he saw me walking up. And twice I picked up my medicine and he didn't have enough pills to fill it, and when I went back the next day to get the rest, he'd still remember my name and grab it before I got to the counter. Unfortunately that store closed a few months ago .

The scrips for that store were all transfered to the next closest supermarket pharmacy, and he moved there too. But they're a lot busier and usually have a couple pharmacists and a few techs so he doesn't ring up the customers any more. Last time I was there they had both registers running and at least 6 people working back there.

As for checking your pills, I always open the bottle and make sure they're the same as last time before I leave. My new pharmacy does something I think ALL pharmacies should do...on the drug information sheet along with all the scary side effects they have a description of the pill--format (capsule/tablet/etc.), color, any writing on it and even what color ink it's written in. I mean, if you're getting a new medication, looking at the pills isn't likely to tell you whether it's right or not.

Speaking of medicine...i better go take mine before i forget...