My condolences go out to the family of the Wal-Mart worker who was killed this morning when he was trampled to death by over-zealous customers. I hope that his family fights for some sort of solution to prevent this type of stupidity from ever occurring again.
That said, I have to ask, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE THAT CONTINUE TO WALK--NO RUN OVER A MAN'S BODY JUST SO THEY CAN GET THE LATEST AND GREATEST DEAL ON BLACK FRIDAY?!?!!!"
I'm too sick to type everything else that I need to say in order to somehow explain the sadness and overwhelming anger that reading this article created. I need to go throw up now, excuse me.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Not a fan of the days BEFORE the holidays...
Guess what folks? As the holidays approach everyone somehow kicks it into overdrive and gets busier by exponential factors. Strange but normal...What I don't understand is the mentality that so many seem to have in that they wait until the last two days before a major holiday to request/pick-up their meds, or worse yet, realize that they've been out for a week and it's now a five alarm emergency. My patients don't seem to fathom that doctors have families too, and for that matter so do I. Don't darken my pharmacy counter or screech to a halt in my drive-thru at 9:59pm and expect me to be full of holiday cheer to see you there.
I have to say that working the week before and or the few days after a holiday are a royal bitch for anybody, in any field. Anybody would rather be home prepping for the holiday itself, or visiting with loved ones. Working the day after just plain sucks because you would probably like a day to wind down from all the holiday fun/weird/anger inducing family interaction. For those who have to work the actual holiday, well, my heart goes out to you. I know it has to be done in some cases, but really some sort of rotation has to happen so that the same doesn't get the shaft every year.
In any case I wish everyone a warm and happy Thanksgiving, and for those of you who don't celebrate the day of gluttony and family, have a great Thursday okay?
In other news, I am impressed with the comments and subsequent posting at The Angriest Pharmacist's page on a note I sent a while back. As one poster put it, regarding my post, we have created so many demons that it will take a lifetime to exorcise them all. Talk about an uphill battle...
Any typos I must give credit to my kitten--she has discovered the laptop and all it's glory. It's now a place to crash and or a place to chase the mouse pointer. Not to mention there are so many keys that she can step on and not even realize the chaos that will ensue.
I have to say that working the week before and or the few days after a holiday are a royal bitch for anybody, in any field. Anybody would rather be home prepping for the holiday itself, or visiting with loved ones. Working the day after just plain sucks because you would probably like a day to wind down from all the holiday fun/weird/anger inducing family interaction. For those who have to work the actual holiday, well, my heart goes out to you. I know it has to be done in some cases, but really some sort of rotation has to happen so that the same doesn't get the shaft every year.
In any case I wish everyone a warm and happy Thanksgiving, and for those of you who don't celebrate the day of gluttony and family, have a great Thursday okay?
In other news, I am impressed with the comments and subsequent posting at The Angriest Pharmacist's page on a note I sent a while back. As one poster put it, regarding my post, we have created so many demons that it will take a lifetime to exorcise them all. Talk about an uphill battle...
Any typos I must give credit to my kitten--she has discovered the laptop and all it's glory. It's now a place to crash and or a place to chase the mouse pointer. Not to mention there are so many keys that she can step on and not even realize the chaos that will ensue.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Middle of the Road
Yep, that's usually where I sit. Not tonight. Tonight, I'm moving to an island somewhere for the next couple of years. Not because Obama won. Nor would a win by McCain change my mind. What then? you ask...Really, I'm scared of either one. I did vote and no, I won't share as to which party. I just wish that for once the two opposing parties could work together, not for party goals, their ways and means provided by lobbyists and supporters but for the good of the actual country. I am sending up a prayer for my country before I go to bed this night. Perhaps a difference can still be made, for the better and not just for those who can afford it. I hope that we are strong enough as a country to weather the coming storms....
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Go Bananas
Just a quick bitch because I'm beat and my head feels as if a silverback is beating on it.
Why, why, WHY do people feel that it's okay to throw a tantrum that would make a 2 year-old proud when they pull through the drive-thru and find out that we don't have a particular medication in stock? I get that you don't want to come back tomorrow and yes I make every effort to have enough in stock at all times but my patient load is increasing every day. The lines that really piss me off are as follows:
"Gas is x-dollars a gallon--do you know how much this second trip is going to cost me??" Actually I do as I pay the same price/gallon as you do and really if you had called ahead (if gas is such a hardship in your H3) I would have been happy to have you come in tomorrow.
The real kicker is the next one:
At 8am: "I drove an hour from location X to get here and you didn't have the decency to call me and tell me that you didn't have medication Y. What kind of a pharmacist are you?" "Why didn't you call me at home then?"
Well, I did call your phone number on file which is actually your OFFICE where I left you a polite message to call me regarding one of your prescriptions. I didn't leave anything more revealing than that because I don't know who has access to your OFFICE voicemail...A message that you ignored and instead claimed you didn't receive.
Not only that, I left the message at 9pm, after you left my store at 8:30pm saying you would be back in a few days, not 10 hours later--By the way, who checks their OFFICE voicemail before they get to the office less than twelve hours from when they were last there anyway? Why didn't I call you at home??--Give me the f'ing number and I will next time--I won't leaf through the yellow pages for every Tom, Dick, and Harry with your last name and make a guess as to which one of the three entries could be you potentially violating YOUR HIPAA rights asshole. (It's bad enough I have to chase down doctors this way when they don't see fit to put an office phone on their script pads.)
One more thing--if one more two-legged excuse for the missing link wants to rant and rave about how far they drove to get here I will come across the counter/through the drive-thru window and go postal on their ass. Why do you make the 'pilgrimage' to my store when you pass six other perfectly good pharmacies along the way? Is the stupid coupon so much more important than the safety of having all your prescription information in one place? Is the $100 spent on groceries that earned you $0.05 off on your 13 gallons of gas really going to save you so much money that you can retire early? Never mind that you killed two gallons getting here in noon-time traffic and wasted another quarter gallon and quarter-hour waiting in line at the drive thru?
I have to leave now, my systolic pressure is through the roof. Good night.
Why, why, WHY do people feel that it's okay to throw a tantrum that would make a 2 year-old proud when they pull through the drive-thru and find out that we don't have a particular medication in stock? I get that you don't want to come back tomorrow and yes I make every effort to have enough in stock at all times but my patient load is increasing every day. The lines that really piss me off are as follows:
"Gas is x-dollars a gallon--do you know how much this second trip is going to cost me??" Actually I do as I pay the same price/gallon as you do and really if you had called ahead (if gas is such a hardship in your H3) I would have been happy to have you come in tomorrow.
The real kicker is the next one:
At 8am: "I drove an hour from location X to get here and you didn't have the decency to call me and tell me that you didn't have medication Y. What kind of a pharmacist are you?" "Why didn't you call me at home then?"
Well, I did call your phone number on file which is actually your OFFICE where I left you a polite message to call me regarding one of your prescriptions. I didn't leave anything more revealing than that because I don't know who has access to your OFFICE voicemail...A message that you ignored and instead claimed you didn't receive.
Not only that, I left the message at 9pm, after you left my store at 8:30pm saying you would be back in a few days, not 10 hours later--By the way, who checks their OFFICE voicemail before they get to the office less than twelve hours from when they were last there anyway? Why didn't I call you at home??--Give me the f'ing number and I will next time--I won't leaf through the yellow pages for every Tom, Dick, and Harry with your last name and make a guess as to which one of the three entries could be you potentially violating YOUR HIPAA rights asshole. (It's bad enough I have to chase down doctors this way when they don't see fit to put an office phone on their script pads.)
One more thing--if one more two-legged excuse for the missing link wants to rant and rave about how far they drove to get here I will come across the counter/through the drive-thru window and go postal on their ass. Why do you make the 'pilgrimage' to my store when you pass six other perfectly good pharmacies along the way? Is the stupid coupon so much more important than the safety of having all your prescription information in one place? Is the $100 spent on groceries that earned you $0.05 off on your 13 gallons of gas really going to save you so much money that you can retire early? Never mind that you killed two gallons getting here in noon-time traffic and wasted another quarter gallon and quarter-hour waiting in line at the drive thru?
I have to leave now, my systolic pressure is through the roof. Good night.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
I must be sniffing glue
I spent an evening this week at a law CE and left feeling like a student again. Not a bad thing. Since then I've been so much more productive. Hell, I even sat down and did another one tonight. No, I'm not on crack, but I would swear I was. Weird huh?
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Pin the tail on ASS, not ME
Okay, I have had it. Mother fucking HAD it!!
Here's the sitch:
Lady comes to my counter and the first thing out of her mouth is "You filled this wrong!" Okay, I'm listening. She hands me an open, no a mangled Prempro package with the little dial-a-pill case and her receipt and just stares at me. Here we go....
Looked at profile, patient has been getting Premarin 0.3mg for the last year or so and was recently switched after a refill request to Prempro 0.3mg. Not unheard of, especially since she was rattling on about her last appointment saying that the doc had adjusted some of her meds but she didn't know which ones at the moment. Oh Goody. Next thing I do is pull the script. My partner filled it for the correct med that was FAXED in using the latest in E-PRESCRIBING software. Okay, not seeing the error just yet so I tell the patient, even show them since it was printed clear enough that a blind guy could read it, that it's not our error but I'll be happy to call the doc and see what happened. Here's the kick in the teeth...
"Oh, you don't have to call her, I'll do that, it's not a problem. What I want to know is when you're going to refund my $50 dollar co-pay?"
Umm, when hell freezes over twice?
Patient: "Oh, I'm not upset about the error, it wasn't yours, and I understand that these things happen because I'm a health care worker but I want my money back. That's not fair." Of course it's not. Life isn't fair or did you miss that memo? If you want your $50.00 co-pay back go take it out of your doc's lazy hide. You yourself acknowledged the DOCTOR'S ERROR. Why is being taken out of my hide??? This rant could go on forever. Never ending bullshit short, I ended up refunding her $50 but sure as hell didn't credit her insurance. The dumb bitch even had the nerve to whine to the front-end cock that I gave her 'trouble' and to top it off she handed me the Prempro to dispose of! While I'm hold the Prempro in a death grip that could produce diamonds I casually asked her why she opened the package when she had said that she wondered why the packaging AND THE NAME OF THE DRUG were different(????) instead of just calling us and asking....I'm still waiting for an answer on that one. She just gave me the 'Oh no she knows I'm brainless deer in the headlights look' and walked away.
Here's the sitch:
Lady comes to my counter and the first thing out of her mouth is "You filled this wrong!" Okay, I'm listening. She hands me an open, no a mangled Prempro package with the little dial-a-pill case and her receipt and just stares at me. Here we go....
Looked at profile, patient has been getting Premarin 0.3mg for the last year or so and was recently switched after a refill request to Prempro 0.3mg. Not unheard of, especially since she was rattling on about her last appointment saying that the doc had adjusted some of her meds but she didn't know which ones at the moment. Oh Goody. Next thing I do is pull the script. My partner filled it for the correct med that was FAXED in using the latest in E-PRESCRIBING software. Okay, not seeing the error just yet so I tell the patient, even show them since it was printed clear enough that a blind guy could read it, that it's not our error but I'll be happy to call the doc and see what happened. Here's the kick in the teeth...
"Oh, you don't have to call her, I'll do that, it's not a problem. What I want to know is when you're going to refund my $50 dollar co-pay?"
Umm, when hell freezes over twice?
Patient: "Oh, I'm not upset about the error, it wasn't yours, and I understand that these things happen because I'm a health care worker but I want my money back. That's not fair." Of course it's not. Life isn't fair or did you miss that memo? If you want your $50.00 co-pay back go take it out of your doc's lazy hide. You yourself acknowledged the DOCTOR'S ERROR. Why is being taken out of my hide??? This rant could go on forever. Never ending bullshit short, I ended up refunding her $50 but sure as hell didn't credit her insurance. The dumb bitch even had the nerve to whine to the front-end cock that I gave her 'trouble' and to top it off she handed me the Prempro to dispose of! While I'm hold the Prempro in a death grip that could produce diamonds I casually asked her why she opened the package when she had said that she wondered why the packaging AND THE NAME OF THE DRUG were different(????) instead of just calling us and asking....I'm still waiting for an answer on that one. She just gave me the 'Oh no she knows I'm brainless deer in the headlights look' and walked away.
- I want to draw and quarter every asshole that starts their conversation out with "You filled this wrong!" and I later find out that THEY are so fucking in the wrong that they would wish I HAD filled it with something really wrong and really hurt them. At least then they would have an excuse.
- Being in the health care field doesn't mean shit. For all I know the janitor calls in the scripts and the doc is out golfing while the MA makes the diagnosis.
- For the sake of all that is holy, Doctors are not!!! And neither for that are pharmacists, or nurses, or fucking CNPs. Therefore, if you make an error, OWN UP TO IT. Have some professional integrity for fuck's sake.
- And one other thing, if you use anything electronic, check your work BEFORE you send it out for God, Mother, and Country to see!!! Even if you handwriting is piss poor, it beats a mangled sig that doesn't make sense or like the above example the wrong freaking drug being used.
Okay, I'm done. One more day and I'm on vacation. At that point I won't care if the whole store burns down. The Workaholic will be out of the building.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Say What?
I had a very large, rotund gentleman motor up to my counter yesterday in one of those itty-bitty scooter chairs the store provides for those who have difficulty ambulating around the store and ask the following:
"Where's the Ecstasy at? Or did I miss it?"
Now both myself and my technician standing nearby did a double take and sort of giggled because our minds immediately seized up at the thought of this very polite Jabba-the-hut type man using the X for any type of fun in the sack. We politely told him that that substance was illegal to possess and sell, so we wouldn't have any here at the store.
Now it was his turn to do a double-take. He explained that he must have been mumbling or we didn't hear him right--he was looking for the 'exter-C' which I decided must have been his pronunciation of 'Esther-C' which I promptly walked out and found for him on the shelf. He then motored away still belly laughing all the way. Wow.
"Where's the Ecstasy at? Or did I miss it?"
Now both myself and my technician standing nearby did a double take and sort of giggled because our minds immediately seized up at the thought of this very polite Jabba-the-hut type man using the X for any type of fun in the sack. We politely told him that that substance was illegal to possess and sell, so we wouldn't have any here at the store.
Now it was his turn to do a double-take. He explained that he must have been mumbling or we didn't hear him right--he was looking for the 'exter-C' which I decided must have been his pronunciation of 'Esther-C' which I promptly walked out and found for him on the shelf. He then motored away still belly laughing all the way. Wow.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
HIPAA SCHMIPAA
I was off today. I offered to fill Dad's Medrol Dose Pak prescription at the evil competitor in my home town instead of him getting blasted by his crappy prescription plan. At the pick up counter the little tart minding the counter refused to give me the prescription because I denied a need for counseling. Hmm, let's think a bit here....
The prescription is for my DAD, in other words, NOT FOR ME therefore I don't need counseling and it would be a glorious HIPAA violation if I really gave a rat's curly tail.
She still wanted to question my refusal and looked over at the pharmacist on duty even after I told her that I myself was a licensed pharmacist. Honestly people do I have to dig my license out of my wallet for proof. I have to admire her willingness to follow the regs regarding a new prescription but please, lighten up on the whole OBRA '90 will you folks??
The prescription is for my DAD, in other words, NOT FOR ME therefore I don't need counseling and it would be a glorious HIPAA violation if I really gave a rat's curly tail.
She still wanted to question my refusal and looked over at the pharmacist on duty even after I told her that I myself was a licensed pharmacist. Honestly people do I have to dig my license out of my wallet for proof. I have to admire her willingness to follow the regs regarding a new prescription but please, lighten up on the whole OBRA '90 will you folks??
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Other Blogs of Note....
Check these blogs out. They have been conceived by those who have walked this path before me and are much wiser than I. Their stories will shock and amaze you, and in the case of the newly christened DrugMonkey (formerly DrugNazi) will make you cry, or at least sit there dumbfounded. I've posted links to the various blogs over there to the right. Thanks for playing!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
2nd post for the night...
For any who are curious, or just unlucky enough to stumble onto this page, I'm hoping to leave a lot of my work related baggage here instead of taking it home with me. Never mind that I would have to be home to blog anything, details aren't important here. Hopefully I will present some of what I encounter at work in a manner that will at least entertain some and make others stop and say to themselves...'hmm'. Really I just want to sleep at night and not have crazy weird work related dreams/nightmares.
Feel free to share if you too have encountered something similar or if you have an experience that just takes the cake. TTFN!
Feel free to share if you too have encountered something similar or if you have an experience that just takes the cake. TTFN!
Is this drug $4?
Me: 'Thank you for calling Pharmacy X, pharmacist speaking, can I help you?"
Caller: 'Is this a pharmacist?"
Me: No, I answer my phone that way for grinnies..."Yes, can I help you?"
Caller: If I tell you the name of a drug, can you tell me if it's on your $4 list?
Me: Go ahead...
Caller: "Omeprazole 20mg." Pronounced by the caller as follows.....Ohmepra-zole-ay twenty em-geese.
Me: No, I'm sorry but it's not.
Caller: But it's generic isn't it?? Why isn't it $4 dollars?? My doctor said it was on your list!
Me: I'm sorry but you were misinformed. I can give you an out-of-pocket price quote, but I can't give an insurance quote without having the prescription here.
Caller: "Okay, well how much would it be with my insurance?"
Honestly I don't know why it was a postal worker that went over the edge first.....
Caller: 'Is this a pharmacist?"
Me: No, I answer my phone that way for grinnies..."Yes, can I help you?"
Caller: If I tell you the name of a drug, can you tell me if it's on your $4 list?
Me: Go ahead...
Caller: "Omeprazole 20mg." Pronounced by the caller as follows.....Ohmepra-zole-ay twenty em-geese.
Me: No, I'm sorry but it's not.
Caller: But it's generic isn't it?? Why isn't it $4 dollars?? My doctor said it was on your list!
Me: I'm sorry but you were misinformed. I can give you an out-of-pocket price quote, but I can't give an insurance quote without having the prescription here.
Caller: "Okay, well how much would it be with my insurance?"
Honestly I don't know why it was a postal worker that went over the edge first.....
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