Real phone call at PharmacyChick pharmacy…
RING RING
Customer: I just received a reminder call that I have a prescription there..what is it?
Employee: Let me check (goes to shelf) We have Viagra here for you
Customer: Oh I forgot about that…do you think I need it?
Employee: I have absolutely no idea..
If it had been me…I would have said…Why dont you ask your wife?
Tags: customer interactions | |
“Do you have a prescription for Brown?”
(look on shelf…no Brown) “no, dont have a prescription for any “brown” family today”
” ARE YOU SURE?” ( oh my favorite line) “They said they called it in”. (of course they did)
I go to the computer…”and what is the first name?” and he gives me his first name…we dont have him in the computer at all.
“ok, John Brown”. I dont have you in my computer and I haven’t received any phone call, fax or escript for you at all today.
“Oh, its not for me…its for my dog.”
(do a quick check of fax pile and see a vet rx for a Sally the dog Johnson) “The only vet rx I have is for the last name Johnson”.
“Oh, thats me. See? they did call it in” (restraining the Dilbert fist of death).
(cant resist) “So how was I supposed to get Brown out of Johnson?”
“Its actually my girlfriend’s dog”.
Girlfriend…do us all a favor..dont breed with this one.
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“Hey, can I get a flu shot today?”
“Sure” (and I give him proper instructions to fill out form…etc)…which he does…
He hands me the form and his insurance which is not accepted yet. Most contracts havent’ been finalized..after all, it is FRIGGIN AUGUST and its 97 degrees out side.
“Sir, your insurance won’t pay for a flu shot yet, it hasn’t signed contracts for billing yet..check with me after Sept 1″.
He launches into a diatribe ” Yada…I am high risk, and must have a flu shot” (its August..and still 97 degrees out side) “I cant believe they won’t pay for my shot..they did last year” ( yes they did..in October)..stammered on…and on…
I offered him the shot for the usual $28 if he HAD to have it today.
I guess keeping his $28 was more important.
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“your insurance is terminated”…..”NO, THIS IS MY NEW CARD”. “Yes, I see that, but its marked as terminated. I have all the right numbers” “HERE, LOOK AT MY OLD CARD”. (matches new card except for color) “ I agree with you sir, it should work, but it doesn’t and I can’t fix that” “GIVE ME MY PAPERS BACK” “Ok, here you are sir, good luck”.
I would love to be a fly on the wall at the pharmacy down the street when he hands these same rx’s to some pharmacist…who looks at my half peeled of labels and wonders why he is there…but will find out soon enough..”coverage not active on date of service”.
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If I have a prescription for Dog food, can I bill it to my insurance?
no, we cannot bill dog food to your health insurance.
“But its PRESCRIPTION dog food”.
no can do…not even if you are eating it yourself.
Tags: customer interactions, memorable customers, pharmacy life | |
Every day brings its own interesting quirks and quibbles. Some are head-shakers, and others just make you wish certain customers would crawl back under the rock they emerged from.
1. Script from ER> Symbicort 250/50. From the get go, somebody has no clue. I call the Urgent Care clinic and actually get Dr on the phone. Apparently he knew nothing of what he was prescribing because ” Thats what she said she was on”. He said to have patient figure out what she was on, give her that, and let him know. She swears its Symbicort.. We finally had to resort to “what color is the box you used?” She said red… I said, “thats not one of the options… Blue or Green? blank stare…
2. customer calls us and wants us to fill some simvastatin for her. We discover she had never had it here. She said she got it mail order and wants to know if we can fill it. We say sure, we can transfer it from mail order…but NO, she doesn’t want us to transfer it….just fill it. Must be the slow class.. We think we are moving in the right direction when things get weirder.. ” Can you check my chart to see if I am supposed to be on simvastatin anymore?” Um, we dont have your chart records Ma’am. This is the pharmacy. Call your physician..” Do you have his phone number?” Sure, what is his name? “I dont know, dont you have it on your chart?”
moving on…
We get a script for Suboxone. 12mg for 1 week, 16mg the next then back to 12mg.. (!?!) We call for clarification and the nurse says “we wondered if we would get a question about that”. yea well thanks for helping the pharmacy out by NOT clarifiying anything, thereby making us call. Turns out the patient is having some procedure that week and may need MORE suboxone. How about not getting hooked on narcotics in the first place.?
” Do you deliver?” No we dont have a delivery service “well do you suppose one of your underlings would like to make a quick $20 by delivering my prescriptions?” um, not likely and I am sure they appreciated being thought of as “underlings”.(thought but not said)
RING RING… ” do you have 480 OxyContin 80mg?” Not in a million years.
“What do you mean I have to take Generic Effexor now??” State welfare doesnt’ pay for brand anymore now that there is a generic. “what a ripoff”.. (free is free, I fail to feel a lot of compassion right now)
But the winner of the day goes to :
“Do you have Lovenox 150″ (we affirm that we do). ” OMG! you do??? I have called every pharmacy in town and nobody has it and I gotta have it today! wow!. can’t believe my luck…(we fill the rx..and ring it up…cash rx) “Oh thats too much money…do you price match?”
I need a beverage…
Tags: customer interactions, customers, personal 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 | |
I always bristle when the FIRST thing out of a patients mouth is one (or both) of the following statements: “How long is this going to take?” or “How much is this?”, without even so much of a “Hello” preceding it. I bristle even more if I am treated like an afterthought by the so-called customer whose attentions are diverted by the cellphone fused to his/her ear ” Hold on hunney, the pharmacist wants something”. ( EXCUSE ME? YOU ARE THE ONE WHO WALKED TO MY COUNTER..YOU WANT SOMETHING..NOT ME.) Honestly, can you imagine getting away with that in a doctors office?
I got the call before I saw her face. Barely understood because of her crappy Bluetooth device she wanted to know if we had 120 Oxycontin 40 mg. 5 minutes later she was standing before me with the prescription. The only words out of her mouth (to ME anyway) was “How long will this take. I got a plane to catch”. One look and I knew we were going to have a problem. Oxycontin 40mg # 120, 1 QID.
Maybe if I knew her..maybe if she had been filling the same rx her for the past year…but that was not the case. New patient… and I hate those kinds of sigs. Its the same moron who writes Tussionex 1tsp q 4-6 hours… or Proair HFA 4 puffs every2 hours. Give me a break. I told her I needed to verify the directions on the blank. They were not standard or appropriate for the dosage form…it wasn’t 2 tabs bid, something completely different.
First call to the office: Voice mail. Second call to the office (asking for a humanoid) : voice mail. Third call was made by the customer getting irate. She handed me HER cell phone to talk to the office “they are getting Kristin” …I handed it back: Voice mail. I guess Kristin is a machine. She was getting livid.
I had her naked over a barrel, not by design but by necessity. I needed to verify the sig…and wasn’t budging. This script was only signed by the doctor. it was written in somebody elses hand.
It happens all the time. We get some of the weirdest crap written, faxed and emailed to us every day.
We are a nation of people in pain apparently, and we are all about quantity and not quality. I got some nutcase whose Oxycontin 80 script reads “take 5 tabs daily”. Based on patient interview, he does at least take 3 am and 2 hs. That (while a HUGE dose) is at least prescribing within reasonable limits based on the drug itself.
I got a script for Fentanyl patches. Apply 1 patch every 24 hours. No notes added or explainations offered. Even after I verified it, I didn’t like it much. Neither did the insurance who even after PRIOR authorizing it, still audits my claims about once a year. Stick it Mr PBM, I have every I dotted and every T crossed.
I receive quite regularily a script (from the same Dr who just doesn’t get it) ” Oxycontin 5mg 1-3 every 4-6 hours…etc etc”. Granted, I know what he means, but it still is not written correctly or appropriately.
OR, the E-script I got last week for Azithromycin 250mg #30.. 1qd with prn refills. I got it after office hours which meant I had to page him. He called us back. ” We got this escripted to us..Were you intending on prescribing Mr. X Zithromax daily for a year?” He decided to be funny and replied ” No, I am intending on giving it to him the REST OF HIS LIFE”. Well alrighty then. Thanks for your help…( the patient never picked it up..I guess his life was pretty short)
It gets kinda old doing the call-back thing. There are too many layers between me and the Dr, and “voicemail” is the lousiest of them all. Its the professionals version of the brush off. Its the 21 century version of “have your people call my people” …only there aren’t any people.
What would really help (and I know this is a real stretch for prescribers)…is if when you write a script that is weird by intent or design…how about elaborating on it so we know you INTENDED on prescribing it like this? A little help here perhaps?
I recently got a script for Cymbalta 60mg 4 caps qd. That normally would necessitate a call to the office. But the kind dr included a tag at the bottom of the fax “Patient is a heavy metabolizer and requires excessive dose”. End of story. Now was that so difficult?
“Kristin” finally called back and was just a bit put out that I called into question the sig on the Oxy. I said ” Look Kristin, I have never seen this lady before and likely never will again. She is just stopping by on the way to the airport (her story not mine) and Oxycontin is 12 hour release, not 4 hour release. I want YOUR name on this RX blank assuming responsibilty for this sig…..yada yada yada”
Every time I sign off on a prescription I am putting my stamp of approval on the contents of it, including the sig. If I dont like the sig, even if its “correct as written” I am not going to fill it. “correct as written” does not make it “CORRECT”.
For every one I have verified as correct, I have found sigs that were unintentionally wrong. We are humans. We make mistakes. So if you are a patient reading this and the pharmacist wants to verify your prescription, don’t take it as an afront to your personage. And, if you are a Dr reading, help us out a bit. If your script is over the top, leave us some indication that it was intentional.
Oh, and what about Ms Bluetooth? “kristen” said “well, if you dont like the sig, change it to 2 tabs BID”.
What the….?
Tags: customer interactions, doctors, mistakes | |
Ok, so I haven’t REALLY posted 122 other drug seeker stories, but lets just say I could have!
One of the suckier parts of being a pharmacist is when I have to wear the police uniform also. And while I don’t actually have to arrest anybody, I dont like that “policing” role that we are often thrust into. THIS day however was just too easy.
We had been filling for “Steve Anderson” for almost a year. He’s been in my sights for his prolfic use of urgent care centers, his adoration of Percocet, and his chagrin for anything BUT Percocet. He is the boy toy of some chick who lives nearby, and really not bad looking I suppose if you are into sleeping with guys about the same age as your eldest child. Ewww.
About the only think I could do to thwart Steve was warn UCC’s (urgent care centers) after the fact that he gets around. All of his scripts were legal..aside from the fact that he probably lied about his so-called pain to get them. Near as I could tell, they all had his legal name and DOB on them.
Last week I got a call from one of my competitors. Despite the fact that we ARE competitors, we all share the same disdain for drug seekers and try to help each other out by sending out a phone chain when an obvious seeker is making the rounds. This time it was Big Box. “Hey Chick, we got a dude here that my tech recognizes from earlier this week. He is using a different name than he used last time. We sent him packing, he may be headed your way”. ” He has used Steve Andres and Steve Hintman is on the script he has now.”.
I was busy at the time and just wrote the name down on a scrap of paper and stuck it to the wall. I didn’t have EITHER of those names in my computer.
About a half hour later I was at Terminal 1 when Steve Anderson (behind dark glasses–a poor disguise by the way) comes to the counter and Tech Extraordinare 2 greets him. He hands her a script. She is not privvy to this phone call and since she is my newest tech, she doesn’t know Steve. I look up and immediately think You have to be sh**ing me, let me see that script. I walk over and say ” Hi Steve, whatcha got today (as if I dont know)…. And sure enough it has Steve Hintman on it with a different date of birth than his other one.
“Steve, I see you have a new last name!” to which he replied ” Um, yes its a MARRIAGE thing…its complicated…” Sure Stevie……
“I see you have a new date of birth also…” I said, and I left that question open ended.
I didn’t even wait for his answer. “Dude, we can’t help you here”. He snatched his paper back and stomped off. I called the other close-by pharmacies and they were all prepared for him. He would have to do some serious driving before he was going to get THAT script filled.
So a word of advice for all you drug seekers out there. If you are gonna pass a script with a fake name on it AT THE VERY LEAST do it at a pharmacy that DOESN’T already know you on a first name basis.
Sheesh.
(and if you are really named Steve Anderson, Steve Hintman or Steve Andres)..my apologies..so get over it…they are made up!
Tags: customer interactions, drug seekers, pharmacy life | |
A sound elicits a response. No matter where I am in the house (but especially if I am in the kitchen) the crinkling of plastic wrap causes my dogs to make a bee-line from where ever THEY are to the base of my feet. It doesn’t matter what kind of plastic I have, whether it be around a magazine or a bag of chips, my dogs have a pre-built in response that “treat” might be in order. And so it is THEIR response to this sound.
The Pharmacy is no exception. Not all responses to sounds are visual. Everytime a customer drops off a prescription and says “AND how long is THIS going to take?” I have a certain response. It is somewhat unpleasant not because of the question, but generally because of the TONE in which it is offered. It is not unreasonable for a customer to what to know how long the wait is, but the tone in which the question is asked makes all the difference in the world. My response is internal, an immediate dislike of the request…and if the tone is accusatory, you can bet that my wait time has just increased by 10 minutes.
I had such a request last week. Some lady with her fancy Coach bag and Cole Han shoes dropped off a prescription an 2:45 pm. She was doing this for somebody else. “And how long is this going to take?” (twenty minutes is our minimum wait time..I dont care if I am filing my nails, twenty minutes is the proper response). I told her “twenty minutes, tops”, as we had a few waiters a head of her at that point.
“THAT is not going to work for me, I have to be downtown to pick my child up from school at 3:15. It was at least a 15 minute trip. If she shut the F-up and let me fill the rx, we could get to work on it, but NOOO, we had to sit and discuss why it takes so long to fill a prescription…and I had to hear HOW important her 315 appointment was. So I stood there. There was just me and 1 tech. She was at the other end at the cash register ringing up sales.
Mrs CoachyColeHan went on and on. And I stood there. After she exhausted her diatribe, I (as politely as I could) said in essence ”in the amount of time you just spent telling my why it SHOULDN”T take me so long to fill this, I could have been actually doing it and getting you out of here to make your appointment”. Perhaps a light flickered in her dim bulb brain. She left me to fill it. By 3: 05 I had it done, paged her back and sent her on her way.
She might have had it 5 minutes sooner if not for her diatribe at the counter.
There is that burning feeling inside of me when I get those kinds of statements/questions. I used to fall over myself trying to be all things to all people and found out that usually I ended up being nothing to everybody but a door mat. I have had to learn what is “enough”
“My dr said he JUST called it in 10 minutes ago.. its not ready??” burn….
“THAT LONG?” burn…
“THAT MUCH??” burn…
“do you price match” after I have already filled it..and presented it to cashier.. burn…
“oh, here is this card my dr gave me to make this cheaper”..like above..rx done and at register.. burn..
“can YOU”….. “Will YOU…do what I really should be taking care of myself“…more burn…
I am tired and have a lower boiling point now than I ever used to in my early days as a pharmacist. Part of the problem is me, I am older and have used up my patience-allotment. Part of is is the changing culture of patients, and what they think is valuable. Who cares if it works..it is cheap? that is what I hear when somebody disses my recommendations because it may cost a few bucks more.
Its not very often that anybody ever knows the response that goes on in my body when I hear these things. While my patience-0-meter is at an all time low, my ability to put on an oscar winning performance to hide it is at an all time high. And while I still try to do my best for all these people, I have also learned to accept that my best is all I can do and if that isn’t good enough….tough luck.
Tags: behavior, customer interactions, personal life | |
So Pharmacy Chick was at work last night and one of her customers came in to say hi. “Hey Dave! hows it going?”. I said… “Oh, I just wanted to stop in and say hi, since I am not picking up prescriptions for my mom anymore”. (he was her primary caregiver)
“Oh, did she move to a new place?” (thinking assisted care that required bubble pack or something)
“Yes, she did”. so i asked “Where did she move to?”
” She died March 9th”.
how do I get out of this one…
Tags: customer interactions | |
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 | |