This is how it went down. In my first 20 minutes of an 8 hour shift at work today, I was faced with unhappy customers. Look, I get it. You're in a hurry, and the last place you want to be held up is at the pharmacy. Guess, what? It's the last place I want you to get held up, too. "Not good for you" pretty much translates to "not good for me". So, let me tell you about one of the interactions from as neutral a position as I can muster.
First, let me preface by saying, before I arrive at work, I have NO IDEA what has happened in your dealings with the pharmacy. I'm starting at square one. Whatever difficulty you've had, or think you've had, is news to me, but I'm always motivated to try to solve the problem.
With that said, let me tell you about Ms. Doggone. Unbeknownst to me, she has been waiting in our waiting room for 15 minutes for us to fill a prescription for syringes for her pet. She's a bit miffed that her name hasn't been called yet. So, she just walks right up and hovers behind the customer I'm currently waiting on. Ok, not really kosher to begin with, but we'll let that slide and get right on to the main attraction. She gives me her name and the name of her pet. I call up the patient profile on the computer. Next to her pet's name and the prescription she's waiting on is the dreaded RED "Call Prescriber". As a pharmacy tech, I mentally cringe at those red words. It means there is an issue with the prescription, and we've had to contact the prescriber for clarification. In Mrs. Doggone's case, the issue was the prescription had been written without information regarding the size (in mL) of the syringes required. We needed the veterinarian to get back to us (phone, fax) with the size syringes they wanted for the patient. We CANNOT move the prescription forward until the veterinarian contacts us and clarifies their prescription (which THEY WROTE). So, I try to explain the issue to Mrs. Doggone, but she's not having any of that. She knows what size it's supposed to be. I respect that she is that aware of what her pet requires, but she's not the veterinarian, so, as knowledgeable as she might be, it's not sufficient enough to fill the prescription. It really does require the veterinarian....the one that failed to put the necessary information on the script in the first place. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not angry with the vet. We all make mistakes. I'm just a bit peeved that we're the ones Mrs. Doggone was "less than respectful" with when we did not cause the delay and were actually trying to help her understand the issue, but I also understand that's part of the job territory. Mrs. Doggone wanted her script back. Apparently, she was going to take it to another pharmacy (one that knows what they're doing). No problem. I got the script, had a pharmacist cancel it out, and handed it back to Mrs. Doggone. She left my register tossing a few more choice words over her shoulder.
Not a great start to my day. More importantly, not a great start for Mrs. Doggone. She was about to find out that the next pharmacy wouldn't be able to fill the prescription without getting clarification from the veterinarian either. I can only hope the next pharmacy was able to get a faster response from the veterinarian than we were.
The lesson of this story is this..... sometimes, your doctor (or vet) fails to write a complete prescription. They might accidently leave off information that is necessary for a pharmacy to process your prescription. Any legit, responsible, trustworthy pharmacy MUST get the missing information STRAIGHT FROM THE PRESCRIBER. We cannot make it up. We cannot take an educated guess. And, we cannot take your word for it. It may feel like we're the people delaying your plans, but, truly, we are not. We are just the bearers of the bad news when your prescriber has written a script with missing or inaccurate information. We don't really enjoy waiting on them to get back to us any more than you do. But, we'll work as hard as we can to get the information as quickly as possible. This requires cooperation and promptness on the part of the prescriber. In the meantime, we'll treat you with courtesy. I hope, when you know more about how the pharmacy works, that you'll extend the same courtesy to us.
Don't forget to take your happy pill!
P. S. My day got better
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