I hate doctors sometimes... (a bit long)

[MelodiousBubbles]

Well... I hate having to work alongside them sometimes.

As some of you may know, I recently transferred from the front end into the pharmacy as a technician. It's good work, and I love it, but there are times when I want to choke the doctors who send these people in with prescriptions for various reasons.

This tale in particular involves a rather... Less-than-classy-looking "gentleman" missing all four of his front teeth who had a prescription for Focalin 30mg for his son.

Whatever, no problem. Let me go check to see if we have it in stock first, because I'm not entirely certain what our C-II stock looks like. Schedule II narcotics are kept in a locked cabinet that I don't have a key to, so I break out our running inventory book. Nope, we don't even have a place for it, so we've never had it.

My next step is to go to our vendor's website to see if it's available to us. Um... No, sorry. Manufacturer is back ordered until the end of the month. That's an issue we've been having with ADD and ADHD medications lately, so I go break the news.

Me=
CG= Classy Gentleman

Me: I'm sorry, but we don't happen to have that in stock at the moment, and the manufacturer is experiencing a back order, so we won't be able to get it until the end of the month...

CG: The end of the month? What do you mean, the end of the month?!

Me: I mean we are incapable of getting this medication until at least the 30th. I went and checked our vendor's website to see if we could get it in for Friday, but they don't have any to send us, so we won't.

CG: Well... What do you expect me to do?

Me: My only suggestion is that you take these to another store. *our chain* has one in the towns on either side of us, or there's a Rite Aid and CVS just down the road...

CG: .... You hold onto them. I'm gonna go ask his doctor about this cuz that just sounds weird.

Me: Very well. I'll keep them here for you whenever you come back.

I then proceed to put them in a basket, but not scan them in. If we scan them in and start working on them, the pharmacist has to deactivate them, and I don't want to make this guy's life any harder by making him go back to the doctor for new hardcopies.

A while later, I get a call:

CG: Yeah, I dropped off a couple prescriptions for my kid's ADD? And someone there told me there was a back order with the manufacturer or something like that?

Me: Yes, that was me.

CG: Well I talked with the doctor, and he said that that sounds absurd.

Me: Absurd or not, I cannot get something in that the vendor can't send me. The doctor can say it "sounds absurd" all he wants, but that won't change anything.

CG: .... Fine, I'll just let my wife handle this bullshit. *click*

Me: Well that was mature...

He comes and picks up the prescriptions, I wish him luck on finding a pharmacy that has the medication he requires, and was even tempted to offer to call around a bit for him, but honestly... He was acting like a jerk with his attitude, so I didn't feel like it.

As for the doctor: Where the fuck do you get off telling your patient that it sounds absurd that the manufacturer might be experiencing a back order? Have you NEVER had a back order for flu vaccines before? A lot more kids are being thrown on these medications, so it stands to reason that the manufacturer may have problems filling all of their orders from time to time. Don't tell your patients how we run our business when you obviously know nothing about it.

[morgana]

Of course, we DO only have Mr. Classy's word that the doctor said that . . .

[MelodiousBubbles]

The doctor that wrote the script is one I deal with frequently. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if he declared it impossible. He's a pain in the ass to deal with in general.

[PepperElf]

that's because many doctors don't understand the reality of actually supplying medications.

and in all honesty, most pharmacists will ALWAYS know more than the doctor does about each medication.

I've seen doctors write out scripts to two meds at the same time that cannot be taken together (an antibiotic and an allergy medication). The doctor was even a good one but he just didn't know. The pharmacist however knew and specifically told me, "do not take both of these together."

later on i looked up the meds and found out that ... if taken together there's a high risk of heart attack. the allergy med eventually lost its FDA approval because of it.

[Seshat]

and in all honesty, most pharmacists will ALWAYS know more than the doctor does about each medication.

Odd that. Wouldn't be because the pharmacist (gasp) specialises in medications, would it?

Doctors specialise in diagnosis and treatment, not specifically in medication, not to anywhere near the degree that pharmacists do.

[MelodiousBubbles]

Because they go to school specifically for medications, their interactions, and all that fun stuff. This doctor is really just a pain in the ass no matter what we have to talk to him about.

If we need to call him to verify something, it could take days or weeks to hear back from him. Any time he calls, he talks to me like I'm a fucking idiot, but if one of the pharmacists or one of the guy techs that sometimes visit the store come in, he's all peaches and cream.

Not to mention the fact that he tried to REALLY privatize his practice to the point where any patients of his who wanted to remain his patients had to pay a $1,800 "enrollment fee." And that's just the enrollment. The patients would still have to pay for their visits and whatnot. At leas for that amount of money, he would be giving his patients his cell number and 24-hour access to his care. You can guess how well that worked out for him.

All-in-all, he's just a jerk.