The Pharmacy Chick

In retail pharmacy, one of the tenets of counseling we have learned is to “speak in bullet points”.  Honestly..I kid you not.  The average human can remember no more than 2, maybe 3 main points and the more words you use, the less likely your message will get across. Use easy words and short sentences.  I listen with humor when students counsel patients.  They use flowery big words and full paragraphs with intro ,body, and conclusion…… and in short order the customer would agree with just about any statement you asked including “would you like me to chop your arm off right now?”.

Case in point:  LOL (little old lady) came to the drop off window for a Shingles shot (Zostavax for you professionals).  She asked “How do I get a Shingles Shot?”  In full “bullet points” mode I said.  “At the end of the pharmacy is a TABLE. Read the information sheet about Shingles. Fill out the consent form and turn it in to me”.  I pointed towards the card table marked “VACCINE INFO HERE”.

She replied and I quote:  “Just read the information sheet? That’s all? do you have it?” 

Blah Blah Blah “READ” Blah Blah Blah…

Just like my dog….blah blah blah treat? blah blah blah

Tags: customer interactions | |

 Pharmacy Chick works in a big store.  We carry all kinds of merchandise from pots and pans, food items, sundries, cosmetics, and of course cigarettes.  Thankfully because the store does NOT allow cigs to be sold at any counter other than the front one,  I never have to ring up tobacco of any kind.  I suppose if I had to I would, since my company sells it, its legal, and I am on their dime when I am at work….but thankfully that is not the case.  I ring up enough alcohol as it is thank you very much.

Mitch came in for his usual monthlies that consist of a few inhalers, some blood pressure meds and of course Vicodin.  (Really, is there ANYBODY out there who ISN’T on vicodin??).  This day however he was in for a rude awakening.  Hello 2010…Hello new deductibles.  His Advair and Proventil HFA came to a tidy dollar sum over $200. 

He was apoplectic at the total.  “$200?? last month it was only $25.”  And so we had to go into the ever popular reminder that when the crystal ball dropped in Times Square we had a new year….yada yada yada…and new prices..deductibles..formulary…w.h.a.t.e.v.e.r.

“But I don’t have that kind of money!”. he whined.   I glanced at the contents of his cart.  In a Pharmacy Chick Pharmacy bag was 4 cartons of cigarettes….CARTONS.  Now I have never purchased cigarettes, but I know they are expensive so I am thinking that for 4 cartons of butts, he probably dumped close to a C-note.

Hmmm..me thinks one man has his priorities messed up.

I just shrugged my shoulders and said “Sorry Man,  January is tough on a lot of people with all these deductibles”.  ” I can’t change it”.

He just took out is check book and wrote a check.  My brain was still processing the words ” I dont have that kind of money”….

Sure hope that check is good.

Tags: customer interactions | |

I was reading Angriest today (always a good read by the way) and I had to laugh out loud.  What pharmacist hasn’t had an interaction with some customer who INSISTS they spoke with you that very day about something you have no clue about.  I laughed because I had such an interaction the other day, not about Carter’s Little pills but about a missing prescription.

Miss Priss (about 25 and dressed like a hooker) came to the counter to pick up a prescription, that sadly enough we couldn’t find.  Not only couldn’t we find the rx she wanted but a check into the computer found absolutely no person match with her date of birth (a miracle itself believe me).  She huffed, put her hands on her skinny hips and said ” I transferred my birth control HERE last week AND YOU CALLED ME TO TELL ME ITS READY”.   I also checked her phone number in our data base…no match.

I told her nicely.  ” we have no match on your name, your date of birth NOR your phone number. We did not fill any prescription for her you at this location.” “could you have possibly called another Pharmacy THINKING it was this one?”.

Well of course not…a customer would never make such a mistake.  Since Pharmacy Chick pharmacy is one of a chain and there is only 100 or so in our metro area, there is NO CHANCE she could have called the wrong one.   Pharmacy Chick Pharmacy (PCP) is on a very very, very long street and as it so happens there are 4 PCP’s on the 15 mile stretch of Main street,  none of them have “Main street” in their address. There are, for example, stores on the  corner of 1st and Main,   83rd and Main and 160th and Main etc….  but our addresses are  123 1st street….123 83rd street and 123 160th street.. etc…get it?? Yea I thought so.

She said “well you ARE on Main street arent  you?” and when we told her that we technically were on 83rd street, there was a flash of  “retreat” in her face, but she wasn’t budging.  “I know it was this store!”.

Since I wasn’t going to let her leave thinking we were the failing party here I decided to take a shot in the dark and call the other stores on “main street” I hit the  jackpot on the first one.  Very loudly and succinctly I asked “Sam, this is PC at PCP 83rd street.  Do you have a prescription sitting there for Miss Priss DOB 1-2-85 on your shelf?” Sam said “yea, its been here a week, it was a special order..(sigh) you dont want me to transfer it there do you?” I found out what it was, some specific brand of BC we didn’t have..and it was a Sunday which told me she wanted it NOW…heh heh.  “Oh, I see, Sam, YOU DO HAVE IT THERE?  I SEE,  SHE MUST HAVE CALLED THE WRONG STORE. SINCE I DONT HAVE THAT PRODUCT HERE, I’LL SEND HER TO YOU”. and hung up.  During this whole call, she was on her cell phone complaining to whoever was on the other end about us and our “losing her prescription”.

There was no mistaking the look in her face.  It was THERE.  She was here.  They had the product. I didn’t.  I told her she had 20 minutes before they closed this Sunday afternoon.  “your addresses shouldn’t be so confusing” she complained as she turned on her black high heels and clicked away.

Have a nice day.  Dont miss any of your pills missy, it would be a shame to have two of you on this planet.

Tags: customer interactions, pharmacy life | |

Sometimes a customer interaction borders on the sublime. This was such an interaction, one that just was so odd that all I could do was laugh at its absurdity.

The phone rings and it was this customer that we don’t see much anymore. Other than an occasional antibiotic and their annual flu shot, these people have elected to use mail order for their pharmacy. (what ever floats your boat I suppose). So it was a surprise when she called and said ” I need to get a prescription refilled”, since the last time she RE-filled anything was over 2 years ago. “Alice, you don’t have any prescriptions on file here any more that CAN be refilled.” I said. (drum roll) “Oh” she said “I don’t want YOU to refill anything for me”. “I want to order them thru my mail order but their phone is busy and I was wondering if YOU could call them for me and order it”.

I..Think…Not.

I let her down gently but with conviction that SHE had to order her own refills.

Ah, the life of a retail pharmacist.

Tags: customer interactions | |

It must have been “love your pharmacist” week.  I don’t know where it came from but I received a host of lovely compliments about me and my contributions to the store I work in.  This came at a crucial time for me because as you know, I struggle with the joy in my job (there isn’t any) and whether I really make a difference in the long run.

One lady came in and after picking up her rx said “Pharmacy Chick, I want to tell you something…you make my life easier. I never have to worry about  my prescriptions…and that is a huge relief for me”  I never thought about that.  For somebody who doesn’t take much more than heartburn and allergy meds, I don’t think much about those who have LOTS of meds.  They make several trips to the pharmacy a month, sometimes a couple of times weekly.  Many have rx’s that need a Dr ok every month.  Others are special orders.  Some have complicated ordering procedures or sigs.  I am grateful that she told me that.  It warmed my heart.

Later a lady came in with her mother. “OH, Am I glad to see you!!  We were afraid you had left!, you have been gone much this month!”  (I have taken some vacation in July)… I told her that as long as she sees the picture on the wall, I am coming back.  She said  “I checked that picture every time I came in, so I knew you had to be coming back…PLEASE, never leave!  “  Wow.  That blew me away.  They are great people, but certainly not high maintenance.  Again,  it came out of the blue. 

A day later a man came in and after I counseled him on his rx, he said  “Chick,  it is certainly nice to see you here.   Everything is ok when I know you are here”.  Geez, what is this?

These things gave me reason to go on.  Labor cuts, stress, longer work days…all of these chip away at my morale.  I have been jerked around by corporate lately so much so that I wonder if I could ever stand up straight again.  But here I am, still gutting it out.  I realize I want to help people.  I like helping people.  I hate corporate CRAP.  I dont give a flying sh*t about their labor models, their programs, their coupons, their machinations that beat me up.  And despite the losers who try to con controlled subs out of us, I realize it repeats itself at every pharmacy in the nation.

When it comes right down to the basic components, I want to help people live better. 

And for that, Thanks to those customers who lifted my spirit.

Tags: customer interactions, pharmacy life, rare days | |

Sorry haven’t written in a while, but PC has a case of writers block trying to find something interesting and witty..and got a million things going on at home…but fear not… (or be fearful)  she’ll come up with something…like the question I fielded Monday:

PC “Here are your promethazine suppositories” (and I gave instructions)

customer:  “um, if I dont want to use them like that, will they work if I eat them?”

You do not want to know the visual I had put together on that one….

Tags: customer interactions | |

It was a pretty slow day today.  I am pretty sure everybody was either at the mall or glued to the TV watching college football, as there were some pretty significant games played today on national TV.  However, now and then I’d be busy.  This was such a moment.  I was on the phone with some insurance company trying to decipher a rejection.  It wasn’t going very fast: “Can you hold while I look at this claim?” Sheesh, what else am I going to do? 

A guy approaches the counter and my Tech Extraordinare gives the standard greeting “Hello, can I help you?”.  He asks to speak to the pharmacist.   He can see I am on the phone so T.E. tells him that once I am free, I will help him.

And so the wait begins.  It really only took me about 2-3 minutes.  Not a long time when you think eternally, but stop what you doing right now:  look at your watch, and watch it tick away for 3 minutes.  Seems like a long time right?

I finally excuse myself from the phone call and approach the counter getting ready to dispense whatever medical information this gentleman wants to extract from me.

He asks:

“Can you tell me where the ear wax removal kits are?”

I asked T.E. sweetly, (as the phone just begins to ring)  ”Would you mind taking this gentleman to the earwax removal kits?”

I couldn’t resist.

Tags: customer interactions, pharmacy life | |

Not doing much of anything on a slow sunday, Pharmacy Chick was eager to help anybody who wandered by the pharmacy.   This lady came up and wanted something to help her husband. He had just had hemorrhoid surgery 3 days prior and hadn’t had a bowel movement since leaving the hospital.  She had some Mag Citrate in her hands and wanted to know if it might help.  The hospital didn’t send him home with even so much as a stool softener (yea thanks on that one), and he still had 4 sore stitches to worry about.  Poor guy was miserable according to Wife.  After all, he had been eating normally for 3 days.

I made several suggestions, all of which contained the caveat “Make sure the doctor knows what you are doing”.  Leaving nothing to chance, she bought them ALL! Suppositories, Enemas, Stool softeners, Mag Citrate, you name it.

One way or the other, I hope they have more than one toilet at their house, cuz one of them will be occupied all night.

Tags: counseling, customer interactions, pharmacy life | |