The Pharmacy Chick

Summer finally arrived in Chick-Ville THANK YOU VERY MUCH!   After the winter that lasted far to long and a spring (I use that term loosely) that resembled winter,  we finally are baking in the 90’s.  You will NOT hear the chick whine about the heat.  Bring it on!

After golf today, Mr Chick and I decided to head to the club pool.  The cool refreshing water felt wonderful on a body that had just played 18 holes of golf in 95 degree heat.  It was packed with hottie teeny boppers in their bikinis (sigh, I remember the days) and many I shall describe only as “others”.

Can I just say one thing?  At some point, even BLACK quits being slimming. 

Just an observation!

On the frontlines of the pharmacy,  the Chick got a new intern for the summer…whoo hoo!  I only wish I had interns when I needed them MOST, during flu shot season.  Unfortunately thats when they migrate back to the books.  She’s a smart cookie and for the first time in X years, my intern has ENGLISH as her first language.

Interns sure have changed over the years.  I no longer accept first  year interns simply because I don’t have the time to teach them the stuff they should have learned in class.  When I was in school, we had a true “dispensing” class. It was a mock up of a pharmacy, complete with a pharmacy full of outdated donated drugs that have been pulled and counted thousands of times no doubt.  We were given “rx’s” that we were to interpret, type labels (yes TYPE…as in typewriter) then count, label and show the teacher.

The school nearest to us that we get our interns from have never been to a dispensing class. I guess the teachers assume that is the preceptors job.  “Here, this is a spatula and a counting tray..you hold the wooden end and count with the metal end, usually by 5’s unless you are some savant and prefer to count by 4’s or 6’s…”.

One of the things I always tell my students is this.  “Pharmacy school is going to teach you how to BECOME a pharmacist.   I am going to teach you how to BE one.”  Big difference. 

Every one tries to talk like their professor…”Do you have a special project for me this summer?”.  ” Yes…learn how to become an awesome retail pharmacist, since that is the setting you are in for 10 weeks.  The customer is your judge.”.

Its so competitive in the pharmacy schools now, that I know these kids are brilliant minds to even have been accepted into the program.  I want to teach them to be brilliant communicators and empathetic people too..

Time to get my Dale Carnegie books out!

Now, its time to dip my feet in the pool again!

Tags: personal life, pharmacy life | |

I was hanging out at the golf course today after work when I spotted a friend of mine who had just returned from vacation.  I asked him how his trip was and he replied ( and I am not so sure he was being truthful) ..”oh, I just LOVE spending 2 weeks in a RV with my children”.  He had packed up his family and took off for parts unknown in what is basically a studio apartment on wheels.

On my way home, i got behind 2 such studio apartments being towed by a couple of giant trucks (8mpg at best I assume).  Because I was not going AROUND this convoy on the little 2 laner I was driving on,  I just settled down for the 15 minute ride home…and starting thinking…and reminiscing.

RV….short for “recreation vehicle”.  It seems to be a uniquely North American mode of vacation because in most of my travels,  I have never seen such a vehicle in Europe or the Middle East. I do however fail to see the “recreation” part of this design.  Allow me to explain.

I perhaps have a different definition of “recreation”.  To me, it implies a break…a rest from the drudgery of daily work, such as housework and cooking.    Dragging a small building on wheels around all over the country doesn’t sound very  relaxing to me.

To me, my perfect RV is my car.  My car will take me to a very clean hotel where a nice clean bed awaits me and somebody else will make the bed, wash the sheets, and clean the shower when I am done.  My car will take me to any number of restaurants where some very nice person will cook a meal for me and somebody equally nice will serve it and take the plates away, never to be seen again.  I don’t have to hook up my car to any device to suck the poop out of a holding tank, and I don’t have to plug it in to anything to keep all the lights on.  It fits in every parking spot on the planet and I dont have  to make special allowances as to HOW I will get out of the lot I just drove into.

Likewise, I dont have to pack nearly half of everything I own (including the kitchen sink).   I don’t have to hope I have enough water to make that next flush, and if I want to take a shower, I can do so with impunity. 

I remember as a kid, we used to go camping. (this was pre “RV” term) For the record, Pharmacy Chick was never given an opt-out of these events.  Honestly, I never saw the appeal for the women-folk.  Mom had to clean out the camper, which my father dutifully dirtied  with his dogs, dead animals carcasses, hunting gear, and various work supplies (since he worked in the mountains a lot).  99% of the time, the camper was a mess that even Hazmat would defer.  Nevertheless, Mom would clean it up then go about the chore of getting it ready for the camping trip…loading it up with fresh food, making sure that the food already in there was in date (doubtful), and that the water tank was full (never was), and that the potty was empty (don’t go there).  We’d pack camping dishes, camping clothes, camping furniture, camping..well you get the picture.  Then we would take off and drive for hours on roads that even the Forest Service has no record of, until we were so sufficiently “away” from people that likely even GOD would need GPS to find us.

We were then encouraged to enjoy the great outdoors whilst Dad and Brother would do ”man stuff” , like build a fire ring …which also made no sense since the camper had a “kitchen”.  Dad liked to camp next to a creek if he could find one in case we wanted to bathe…yea…RIGHT…bathe in 36 degree water that only 20 minutes ago was snow pack on the mountan we were parked on.

After about 20 minutes of enjoying the “great outdoors”  Pharmacy Chick would usually BE discovered by the great outdoors..namely mosquitoes….mosquitoes large enough to require lisences and leashes.  Slathered in enough deet to frost a cake, I would retreat to the farthest INTERIOR corner of the camper, scolding anybody foolish enough to open the door and let one of the blood sucking creatures inside.  I would also risk asphyxiation at night by sleeping 100% under the covers, lest even one of them bite me on the face.

It never worked.

30 years later I am still scarred by this character building experience of “camping”.  After a couple of nights in the wilderness we would pack up and drag our smelly aching bodies back home.  the BOYS would  grunt and retreat to the showers, and dad would turn on the news.  Mom and I would be left to the task of cleaning up the camper, the dirty dishes, the dirty clothes, the dirty dogs and..well, you get the picture. I would also spend the next week nursing my various bites and scratches, cursing the very ground upon which my father walked if he EVER suggested another camping trip…which he inevitably did 3-4 times each summer.

So just in case you are wondering.. Pharmacy Chick doesn’t ” RV”…she doesn’t “CAMP” either, unless you consider Motel-6 as camping..that is as close to roughing-it as I am ever going to get.  Every year a group of my church friends likes to go camping…and every year they invite the Chicks for a “day in the mountains”.

I think not.

Now where is that mint that is supposed to be on the pillow…………..

Tags: back in time, letting you in to my life, personal life | |

A couple of weeks ago, our corporate office sent out a memorandum asking us to call our competitors to see if they were having any shorter hours on the 5th of July, the nations OFFICIAL holiday…which for those of you who ARENT a state employee is a required national holiday in the event that the REAL holiday happens to fall on your weekend….because we all know how much it would suck to not get that extra paid day off…OH wait a minute…I am in the retail sector..we DONT get that extra day off.  Gads, I’d love to be a government employee.

But I digress…

I called 3-4 of our main competitors and asked them if they were having any shorter hours because of the “holiday”.  The response to my question was a straight across the board NO.   When I sent that info back to corporate (a simple task anyone who can operate a phone COULD have done themselves) they decided to leave our hours the same also.

Now, I really thought that July 5 would be a lot like MLK-Jr day..a national holiday but one that most clinics and medical facilities would remain open.  And, on MLK-Jr day, we did a fairly normal level of business, only down slightly because the offices in the state hospital nearby were closed.  Today was another story. 

D.E.A.D. for a Monday.  Other than the “unlikely to be picked up” autofills, we didn’t have much to do.  And because I fully staffed the store on this Monday, we had lots of people milling around with not much to do. 

Oh, I made use of the  labor by 1) sending one home early (who was chomping at the bit to go) and 2) doing busy work like pulling outdates, moving hardcopies to the basement and 3) cleaning, but I could sense the impending doom…Tomorrow will be hell.

I wish it was my day off.

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http://franticpharmacist.blogspot.com/

July 1 post.  required reading…just make sure you grab a tissue for the tears of laughter!

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It takes a lot tick off the Pharmacy Chick, I will say that from the start.  I have been a retailer for WAY to long to have every little thing bother me.  However, tonight Mr Chick and I did something we have never done before….Walk out of a restaurant.

We had decided to meet a friend of ours for dinner after we had played golf (and she had finished work).  We chose a mexican restaurant (and while I won’t name names, lets just say that it happens to share the same name as an American car company..heh heh)

We arrived, and was promptly seated.  Our server Tina (fake name) brought us the big bowl of chips and some salsa…Our friend arrived about 10 minutes later and we placed our order.   Tina brought more drinks, more chips and more salsa.  We had ordered some Guac as an appetizer……and Tina brought us more drinks, more chips and more salsa.  We asked about the guac and she said it was coming. (tick tick tick)  So we kept eating chips and salsa and drinking soda.  Pretty soon I saw Tina coming with a tray! Hurray, our guacamole!…NOPE…two more bowls of salsa.  (we had been waiting now for over a 1/2 hour)

Mr Chick flagged Tina down and asked to cancel our Guac, and she somehow finagled us to keep the order because it was going to be “right up”. tick…tick…tick…By now we had 45 minutes under our belt and all we had before us was an empty tray of chips, 6 bowls of salsa, and enough soda inside of me to float a ship.  This time I flagged Tina down and told her we were CANCELLING the Guac and it was to be taken off the bill. She apologized and said it was very busy and our food would be out “in a few minutes”….but half the tables were empty so I wasn’t buying this.

(an aside)  Pharmacy Chick was a waitress in her early days…I will warn all my readers, that when a server tells you that your food will be ready in “only a few minutes”, its server-speak for “we just got it started cuz we forgot your order and we trying to buy time”.

Tick …..tick….tick. 

I checked my watch. The 3 of us had been there for 55 minutes, and all we had eaten was chips and salsa.  In that entire time we had seen NO actual meals come from the kitchen.  It was nearly 8 o’clock,  we still had a 45 minute drive home, and I had enough!

I told Mr C,  “Dear, put $5 on the table for the drinks,   I have waited long enough, we are leaving..and we are leaving NOW”.  The 3 of us got up, and without a word, left the restaurant.

We went to the hamburger joint across the street and had a burger and a shake.

I may write a letter.

Tags: non pharmacy stuff, personal life | |

So, Pharmacy chick wrote a post about legit narcotics users being treated like second class citizens because their drug seeker counterparts make them look bad.  Because I implied that Doctors contribute to the problem by continuing to give narcs to seekers (cant seem to see thru their lame stories), one commenter added that it “wasn’t that easy” to deal with them.

I countered that a few phone calls to pharmacies around would garner enough info to determine the status on a sketchy patient.  Most would be more than helpful to provide dispensing information for the MD to make informed choices about servicing certain patients.

I don’t know how many PROVIDERS read my blog, but I am inviting you to comment.  Tell us why you give narcotics to people you suspect are scamming or lying to you and how  you stop,  when you finally have had enough, and finally, how often do you call pharmacies or other providers to see if the (said patient) is popping up there too.

Because…Pharmacy Chick really wants to know both sides!

Tags: doctors, drug abuse, pharmacy life | |

Recently, PC had the opportunity to have an email string with a person who had some questions about being a better pharmacy customer despite her many needs including high dose narcotics.  She felt frustrated at the treatment she received at certain pharmacies when she filled her prescriptions, and tho she said she prefers to use the same pharmacy each month, they have suffered supply issues and occasionally has to find it elsewhere.  She took pains to remind me that she uses ONE doctor for all her meds and she she has never lost/stolen/ or otherwise needs “early fills”.  Never the less, she is often treated with disdain. 

In her opinion she is doing everything by the book….ordering early enough to get the stock(but not TOO early to be inappropriate), using one doctor, being polite and friendly..you know..playing by the rules that we pharmacists like our customers to play by.  And yet, she described a story where she was berated by a pharmacist as being a f’n drug addict and to get the f**k out of the store.

Wow, strong words.  All things being said, I have not met her, seen her, and my only communication as been thru email.  She could be blowing smoke..but I am not thinking so.

Pharmacy Chick has a pain clinic near by so we dispense a lot of narc’s.  Ive had my own share of scum in and out of the store.  You know the kind, the ones that leave a trail of slime as they leave the counter.  They are good at working the system to their advantage and are so good at it, they could probably teach a class.  Why the doctors dont see thru this act is beyond me.

However, I also have  a sizeable client list of people who are on high dose narcotics from a lifetime of illness or injury. Henry was in a car accident…I guess you could call it that.  He was working on a car and it fell on top of him. He was broken in a lot of places and most of them aren’t fixable.  Not that the doctors haven’t tried, but he is so full of pins and screws that his insides look like a toolbox.

Ralph lost his leg at work.   It confuses him because he takes pain meds for pain in a leg that isn’t there anymore.  I told him that his BRAIN doesn’t know the leg is gone.

Steven was a police officer shot in the line of duty. 

Tim had a kidney transplant and it didn’t go every well. He has so much scar tissue pulling on stuff he was going thru 2000 oxycodone 5 per month.  Everytime they did surgery to remove the scar tissue, more came back in its place.   Eventually he was managed on Oxycontin 80mg, twice daily.  Dunno how he managed that, but he is.

Linda has bone cancer…she is fighting it like her life depends on it…because it does.  She takes a lot of pain meds to control the suffering.  She knows she is going to lose this battle by years end likely, but she isn’t giving up.

Everybody you just met, are nice people.  They use 1 doctor.  They come to me each month for a prescription.  They  never lose it. They never have it stolen.  They never ask for early refills for suspicious reasons.  They treat their meds like blood pressure/diabetes/asthma meds, like clockwork.

If there is one thing I have learned in this life is that not all boo-boos can be fixed…and some only LOOK fixed..  If you remember in school,  there is no ceiling to narcotic doses.  You dose to pain control.  What would kill me, barely holds another. 

Its wrong to treat pain management patients as second class citizens.  Now granted, there are WAY more that deserve to have the book thrown at them when they resort to sneaky ways to get their stuff.  I’m not writing about them and I don’t go out of my way for any of them.  But I also haven’t called anybody a f’n drug addict to their face, which is inappropriate on every level.  When you wear the white coat,  you can at least hold some professionalism.

At the very least, you could be wrong about the patient..and get hauled into corporate to explain your behavior…at the very worst, you could get your butt shot off in the parking lot by somebody who took exception of your tirade.

We bloggers write frequently about drug seekers and the trash that they are…lets just remember not to paint all our patients with the same brush.

Tags: customers, pharmacy life | |

One of my readers/commenters asked if I might write a post on how to select a pharmacy.  I had to think about that one for a while because it seemed rather “elementary” of a question to be honest.  My initial response was “pick one near your home”.  But I think that a better post might be “how to get the best experience out of the pharmacy of your choice”.  And THAT is how I think I will answer this reader’s question.

When you choose your pharmacy initially, CONVENIENCE is king.  REALLY.  You want to pick a pharmacy that is near your home or someplace you go regularly..like the grocery store.  If the pharmacy is in the back of the store, even better, you are in the grocery already, no extra steps are involved to take care of your pharmacy needs.  If its in the same complex,  thats fine also, you don’t have to get into your car and make a separate stop.  Whether you really need a 24-7 pharmacy is debatable. I am an organized and efficient person and  I really dont see the need personally to have a pharmacy THAT accessible to me but then again, I am a pharmaCIST 24-7 anyway and I posess the keys…(tho I have never needed to open the pharmacy for myself…and its probably not a good idea anyway). 

Therefore since that question is easy enough to answer, lets work on the EXPERIENCE of  using a pharmacy.

First off, it is important that you develop a friendly relationship with your pharmacist.  He or She is a human being foremost and coming into the pharmacy on your first visit with a chip on your shoulder or an adversarial attitude because of whatever experience you had at your LAST pharmacy is not going to endear you to anybody at THIS pharmacy ok?  Once you establish a postive realtionship with the staff, it goes a LONG WAY, but likewise, if you start out bad, it will take a long time before you will get into their good graces.  I love the saying “you get what you give” and it applies well here.  There are a lot of little things that we do that are purely optional that can make your life easier.

Have all of your information at the ready, and at the BEGINNING of the transaction, not at the end. That means be prepared to present all of your bio data, and have your CURRENT insurance cards at the onset.  If there is anything quirky about your plan, dont keep it a secret.  an aside:  I had one guy that I absolutely tore my hair out over his insurance and he admitted that he had been a “she” and his insurance had him as a female.  He knew this but didn’t bother to inform me. The less we have to fuss over, the quicker we achieve what you want…the finished product.

Decide what you want your pharmacy to be…a health care service or a cost cutting device.  If all you want out of a pharmacy is “CHEAP” then shop at stores that only really focus on cheap and advertise their $4 stuff.  I’ll be frank with you,  we dont like to be asked if we price match. Not all pharmacies do the $4 thing.  We may price match  because our company tells us to, but its a hassle to keep track of and we think its a little cheesy and tactless.  Likewise, if all you care about it cheap, don’t expect special services from that pharmacy. They likely don’t do them.

Help us with your initial transfers.  If you have moved to a new area and need to transfer prescriptions, we are happy to accomodate. Just give us the proper information and some TIME to do it.  Be sure to tell us all pertinent information like IF YOU HAVE A NEW DR.

Special needs:  If you have special needs or some really expensive drugs,  please order ahead of time. Most pharmacies would prefer not to keep (and hold) a drug for you for 29 days of each month so you can order and pick it up the same day.  At Pharmacy Chick pharmacy, we make it a rule to call patients on rx’s that we are short on.  We value your time as much as you do and dont want you to make more trips to the pharmacy than necessary. Likewise, understand that we aren’t a warehouse.  We don’t stock EVERYTHING on the planet, and since we do 200-500 scripts a day, what we may have had at 9 am might be out of stock by 7pm..

Learn a bit about the biz.  We are the middle man between your doctor and your prescription, and your insurer and you…  Understand that we may  have to ASK to refill your prescription. If el-doctoro hasn’t oked the rx, its not going to be done and getting mad at the pharmacist isn’t going to make that rx magically appear.  Likewise, if your insurer rejects a prescription, we may not have the ability to fix that.  When your insurance company sends you new cards, information, etc…read it all.  Be informed about your choices, your limitations and your benefits.

The worst day of the week to  want something fast is Monday. Its the pharmacy’s busiest day.   The worst day of the week to need a call to the doctor is Friday.   Also, beating the door down at opening time isn’t the ideal time of the day to need special favors any more than racing to the counter at 1 minute before closing is.

“How long is this gonna take?”  and “When should I return for this?”  are basically asking the same thing but #2 is going to elicit a much nicer response than #1..trust me.   If you want your pharmacist to love you, say “I’ll be back for this in a day or so”.  He/She will throw rose petals at your feet.

Planning 1-3 days ahead isn’t just a favor for us.  It is really to your advantage, resulting in less trips to the pharmacy and leaving empty handed. I have never met a pharmacist who scolded a patient for calling ahead to see if a prescription is ready.  What IS frustrating is to see the same faces over and over at the counter bemoaning the fact that something hasn’t been authorized yet “man, dont you have a phone? Call before you come down!”

Changes:  Tell the staff when you have : 1) changed a dose  2) stopped taking a medicine 3) changed physicians 4) changed addresses 5) changed your name, or 6) developed an allergy to something.

Poly Pharmacy. We advocate using one and ONLY one pharmacy.  We understand its your right to chase the deal.  And if you want to have profiles at every pharmacy in the county chasing the gift cards, understand you are forfeiting the advantages of having your entire profile at one pharmacy. You will not have proper drug interaction checks and it will be up to you to keep track of it all.

Please, No whining.  We all know drugs are expensive.  We aren’t big fans of expensive copays either. We are only charging you what we have to. If you dont like what you have to pay for a prescription, there are contact numbers on the back of every insurance card out there. We also know you think your time is more valuable than the guy sitting next to you.  We, however, think that getting a prescription filled accurately trumps both of you.   (and you might mysteriously find that the nicer you are, the sooner things might be done)

Ive been doing this for 23 years, and I can pretty much sum a person up after 1-2 visits.  I can usually sniff out  ”high maintenance” from the get-go, and I can almost always single out the jerks.  That being said, I am also pretty good and recognizing a really neat person too.

Remember:  You get what you give….

Tags: customer interactions, pharmacy life, words of wisdom | |

My most recent lisence renewal had a fee in it for initiating a database check on controlled substance use.  We dont have it yet but I am hoppin’ ready for it to be instituted.  No more phony stories, lies, and deception.  Can I get some feed back from you readers on this subject IF you have this database in your state..and if you use it…and how it has changed how you fill narcotics??

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My favorite (unexpressed) thought of the day was this lady who came in and said…

“My doctor just called something in for me..its probably  not ready”.

me, in my head:  Correctamundo!

It was not on the recorder, and not faxed in til way later in the day.

Tags: personal life | |