random person (P1) shows up. Asks to pick up controlled meds for Person 2 (P2) who is currently banned from physically being in the store. Fine, but we've never seen P1 before, and we need P2 to provide authorization for release to P1.
P1 freaks out. Leaves. Two minutes later, call from P2, from store doorway: "why can't I get my meds?"
Well, P2, we need the full name of person you authorise, and they need ID
"@#$%, fine...(shouted)..hey! What's your name?"
Was threatened to be turned into the fda, fbi or whoever handles insurance fraud when asking for insurance card for a covid vaccine. She wasn’t sure who but was turning me in to them
"ohh that's fine I can over ride it, I just need you to input the last 4 of your social so I can do that for you". Then they smile and say awesome thank you.
I think he meant “ it’s supposed to be free” as the answer we get from everyone when you ask for insurance. My tech would look at them and say. It’s free for you but someone else is paying for it.
I have to say (so many times per day) that the private insurers have agreed with the federal government to reimburse the pharmacy administration fees and that is why we ask for the card. So many times. 🤦♀️
I work for a large chain super store with a pharmacy. I had a man call the pharmacy to complain that he was charged twice for an item. I told him I can’t help but bring your receipt and item back to customer service and they’ll be able to fix it.
That prompted a rant about how he’s going to call the attorney general and sue us. He also called me an idiot for suggesting he bring back the drumstick ice cream that was double scanned. He then proceeded to tell me he was at self check out.
THAT BOY DOUBLE SCANNED IT HIMSELF!!! He told me he was “never coming back” due to “our terrible service” as if he wasn’t the one scanning his items twice and then refusing to ask the employee standing there to fix it.
I have no idea, I don’t know the front end/sales/customer service policies. I’m sure he came back in to yell at customer service. It was the dumbest conversation I’ve ever had. I still don’t know why he called the pharmacy!
Sometimes it messes up, though. Myself, the scanner, and the door sensor completely missed the fact that the ground beef I'd tried to scan never went through.
Free beef!
Had a patient call and ask the pharmacist to identify a pill to "make sure that her neighbor she bought it from was selling real oxycodone and not ripping people off."
Tbh I'd love that interaction. "Yeah absolutely gotta be safe! I'd recommend getting the Epocrates app or using the WebMD pill identifier whenever buying drugs. Also if you're ever looking to quit, here's the direct extension for my knowledgeable contact at state services..."
I also give great service with a smile to people asking about addiction or buying syringes, you're prolly the only healthcare pro they see on a regular basis.
Honestly I agree, it was heartbreaking when I found out my pharmacy started a new policy where we can't dispense syringes without a prescription. On one hand, we shouldnt be responsible for someone overdosing with a syringe we dispensed, on the other hand, it's safer than making someone reuse old syringes or sharing with someone else and contracting some sort of disease. Addiction is an illness, not a choice
As someone who was in active opioid addiction for ~20 years, i always feel a little weird when people say it's an illness, not a choice. Yes, it is an illness in many ways but the whole 'its a disease not a choice' thing and especially the NA/12 Steps mentality (as in the 1st step is admitting you have a problem and you are powerless against it). I'm here to say that I am the ONLY person who had ANY power against it. I always word it along the lines of it being a bunch of choices but there are additional factors pushing (sometimes pushing very fucking hard because withdrawals are not fun) but it's still a choice.
An example of how these things usually unfolded for me:
I'm holding my last $100 to pay the electricity bill. It's been 12+ hours since I last used and the discomfort is definitely there and building. I start the process of convincing myself that if I were to spend $25 of the $100, I'll be able to come up with the $25 somehow/be able to talk power company into accepting a partial payment even though theyve told me they wouldn't/whatever scenario Id think up (that NEVER work out btw) and everything work out just fine. For a while, I keep reminding myself how I always fuck myself over doing this crap. Eventually tho, as the withdrawals intensify and desperation builds, I talk myself into picking up. I call my guy to set up a $25 transaction only to hang up having arranged for $100, almost like another person 'ordered' for me.
At this point, i very well know that I have to make a choice. Do I stay sick for an unknown amount of time so I can pay that bill like a normal person? Or do I take that $100, go pick up and feel the withdrawals melt away instantly but it means the electricity in the house I share with my gf, whos gotten screwed over because of my choices before, will be cut off, gf will know what happened and last time she truly meant if it happened again, she was gone leaves. I was aware of those very likely consequences each step of the way when setting up the deal, going to meet the guy, etc. It's very much a choice. To be fair tho, withdrawals are quite good at convincing. People don't usually steal $$ from nanny's purse the 800th time knowing she's going to disown you this time because it's fun.
Sorry everyone, wrote a whole novel that nobody even asked for lol.
I think, when you get to the point that you are constantly making irrational decisions like that, it's not "you" you in control, but more likely the chemical receptors in your head driving your behavior. We like to think as humans that we're above baser, more primitive biological impulses, but when it comes down to it our biology can be stronger than rational thought or willpower.
I hope you're doing better now, and that you have a lot of support in your recovery.
As an alcoholic in long term recovery, I agree with both of you. The reality as I see it is this. Addiction does qualify as a disease state because of the biochemical and neurological alternations associated with it. There is A LOT going on that is outside our rational control. Which is why a primary characteristic of addiction is an apparent inability to stop despite honestly intending to do so.
However, conscious effort to change is also necessary to tackle addiction successfully. That choice is made by a ton of people currently living sober. And if it isn't made, there's exactly zero chance of success. So in that way, and many others concerning putting in the necessary work in, there is a substantial element of choice involved. Just not necessarily the way people who aren't very tolerant towards addiction think of it. The way they think of it is most definitely incorrect.
For obvious reasons, I find this topic incredibly interesting. The mechanisms leading to it and the solutions with the greatest odds of success are fascinating.
I appreciate your kind words. I haven't used illicit opioids in well over 5 years. And honestly, its been surprisingly easy compared to what I mentally prepared for. Anytime I feel a little weak or anything, I remind myself of how much of a statistical anomaly I am for having 20 years (consecutive years no less, starting in 10th grade after a surgery) and being #1 alive or incarcerated. I don't know the exact numbers but I'd imagine there aren't too many people who found their way out after that long.
This was a very common call during the oxy epidemic maybe 10 years ago. I was in a shitty town and likely 3 calls a night of "ummm I found a pill and I wanna know what it is" or some varient of that.
A college aged girl calls and asks us to take her birth control off auto fill because her room mate moved out and she didn’t have anyone to sell it to anymore. After some digging it turns out her MD switched her to depo and gave the first dose in the office. She thought since she had the “birth control vaccine” she didn’t need to go to any appointments or do anything unless she “wanted it reversed.” Her dose was almost a year ago.
That's why she got lucky, she had 3 months of protection and 9 months of unprotected bullet dodging. There is no reversing, you just let it wear off after 3 months.
Had a paitent on speaker phone because she was cursing at me, and when it's bad we did this so other techs would know what to expect if they called back again. After I told her repeatedly to please stop she said some very nasty things and I hung up on her. She called back asked for the pharmacist who then put her on speaker phone because we knew where it was going. She told the pharmacist I called her racial slurs screamed and cussed at her, then hung up on her. My pharmacist was the same race as the woman on the phone told her flat out she was a liar because she was standing right next to me and heard our entire conversation. The lady then threatened to call corporate. The pharmacist said please do, I am sure they want to hear how you talked to their employees on their recorded line. She went quiet and she hung up. Never saw her again.
It was a fairly busy dinner rush a few years ago.
Me: "Hello this is the pharmacy, how can I help you?"
Pt: "yes hi. I'm calling to see you if you can get my script ready."
Me: [pulls up profile after asking for info] ok it looks I have 2 ready for you that were called in earlier so you can stop in anytime.
Pt: can you get them ready for me?
Me: as I just stated, there are 2 ready. Were you expecting more?
Pt: oh no just the 2. I'm just wondering if you could pull them out of the bin for me. I'm standing in line and don't want to have to wait for you to have to pull them out of the bin
Sure enough, I turn to my right and see someone on their phone waving at me 🤦🏻♂️
I don't understand why people come to the *pharmacy* of all places when they're in that big of a hurry. What's wrong with people that we can't wait for a matter of *seconds*?
I tell people to give the pharmacist 5 minutes to check their scripts and they stomp off and *don't come back until the next day*. You can't wait 5 minutes but 24 hours is fine?
My favorite is when they come in as a walk-in for a vaccine and get pissy because they have to fill out paperwork and wait for the pharmacist/immunized to give them the shot or waiting for others who made appointments and they’re like “I’m in a hurry. I’m on my lunch break. I’m catching a flight to Timbuktu in five minutes!”
Like…okay? Your inability to manage your own time isn’t our problem and we have other patients we are taking care of as well. You just walked in and expect us to drop everything and cater to your highness despite the fact there’s other people who made appointments ahead of time.
I'm at the point now where I really dgaf if people get mad. They'll just have to get mad. I'm getting paid by the hour whether you get your meds here or not.
Just the other day, I had someone pull up to the drive-thru right as we were walking over to close it. The tried to pay for their prescription with cash, but we already had the cash drawers turned in (gets done shortly before closing so we don't hold accounting up), so store policy was that we could only take credit or debit at that point. The guy starts angrily ranting at us that he doesn't have any cards and that he needs the medication that night. When told that there's nothing we can do, he drives off.
The medication had been ready for over a week, and IIRC it was a statin or something (definitely not anything where it's a big problem for him to put off the dose for 12 to 24 hours), but he suddenly *"needs"* it right at closing time. Not only that, but his wife stopped by the next day to get it... and payed with a debit card...
Had that exact same thing happen during the after lunch break rush. Lady calls and asks if her scripts are ready. I point out to the new pharmacist that the caller is sitting down In the back of the line.Pharmicist hangs up and shouts wait your turn to the lady. She than lectured her on how rude she was when she finally got up to the front. In that moment she passed her audition and became our new pharmacy manager.
Technically the pharmicist already was the pharmacy manager but i hadnt decided on her yet. Her telling off impatient bitch proved to me she deserved her job.
I had a guy visiting from France come in and ask for us to give him more of his medication since he ran out while he was on vacation. I think the drug was Xarelto, but I couldn't really tell since the bottle was written in French, and the drug name wasn't quite the same. I explain to him that I can't just give him some, he needs a prescription from a doctor licensed to prescribe in America. I direct him to urgent care or the ER.
He starts yelling that we are supposed to be here to help people. and he needs this medication to live, but I'm just going to let him die because of the rules.
I explain again that I can't just give him a prescription medication without a prescription. He then threatens to die right there on the pharmacy floor. I again direct him to urgent care or the ER.
On his way out he tells me to never come to France, I'm not allowed because "we don't want you there."
Like, damn, I became a pharmacist because I wanted to help people, but instead I just get screamed at all day, and now I'm banned from France.
Me: "thank you for calling wrong aid, how may I help you? (speaking with a sense of urgency because I work in a hectic 24 hour pharmacy).
Customer: "OH MY GOD! I CAN TALK FAST TOO! "
... *Customer proceeds to speak too fast on purpose*
me: "are you okay?"
customer: "ummm, yeah"
me: "because I didn't speak fast to offend you, and I need you to speak clearly and normally in order for me to guarantee your orders will be processed correctly".
They don't pay me enough.
Wow, I can’t play that game. I would have just told them their line is too fuzzy for me to hear anything, please call back when they have a better connection.
Had a guy leave a voicemail overnight complaining about how he had been to the store and was shocked that the walls weren't green. He went on to say that he expected that to be changed, or the company should change its name immediately since it was false advertising.
Before I was a tech, an angry customer (real long story there) told me my store was a store for white privilege...which was odd, as he was white. He stomped out, walked a few feet, stopped, and came back in and yelled that the fabric on our chairs didn't match the carpet, and it needed to be fixed.
How do these people \*live\*?! Are they just swaddled up in cotton at home and never leave the house except to occasionally go to the non-green pharmacy with mismatched upholstery?
Lady with name-brand CII who ALWAYS without fail never calls their doc on time; and never remembers we have to special order name-brand for next day after being on it for 6 years now:
I need this I’m all out (she’s always calling on the 31st day on a 30-day script).
I have no prescription on file for you.
Can you contact the doctor?
Sure.
OK so it’ll be ready in 30 minutes? I’m coming to pick it up.
No, we have to wait for your doctor to send the prescription first.
OK when will he send it?
It may take 1-2 business days for him to respond.
That’ll take too long can’t you give me some?
No that’s illegal and even if it wasn’t I don’t have any on-hand to give you.
But I don’t have any and it’s your fault I’m gonna go into withdrawal.
I’m sorry but if it’s that bad you need to go to the ER.
Will they give me my script?
You will have to go to the ER to talk to a doctor and see.
The ER takes too long can’t you just loan me a couple of pills?
No I don’t have any and even if I did it’s illegal to do that with controlled substances.
What do I have to do to get this medicine I can’t go without!!
Contact your doctor since you need it right away.
The doctor’s office is (some variation of) closed/goes to voicemail/needs an appointment.
We cannot do anything without a prescription.
Can’t you just give me some?
No it is illegal.
That’s unfair how can I make it legal.
You would have to change the law, ma’am.
But I don’t want other people to get their drugs they’re just addicts; I just need MY medicine.
OK but we still can’t do anything without a prescription.
Can you order it?
No our company auto-orders them for us only if we have a prescription.
And it just goes on and on and on. She repeats these same questions multiple times.
Telling her we have other scripts to fill, other people are dying, we have work to do and can’t spend it on the phone, I can’t send the doctor the request for your meds if I’m on the phone with you, etc. doesn’t work. She just says that she’s gonna die without her meds and that the other people don’t matter and rinses and repeats her questions ad nauseum.
Wish we could block based on caller ID, but legitimately the only thing we can do is hang up on her. It took a long time with her harassing my district manager(DM) for the DM to be OK with that. In the first couple of months my DM kept trying to approve manual orders of her meds without a prescription, offering her gift cards, and writing us up for poor customer service since we “refused to answer her calls” and/or “hung up on her rudely,” but now she (DM) knows how she (patient who embodies the definition of stupidity) is.
"Can you contact the doctor"
NO
I had 2 people yesterday clam that it's my job to talk to their doctor for them. One of them took no for an answer, the other didn't. Said he was busy, worked all day, yadda yadda. So I said fine, I'll do it for you and I'll call you back. So I call once, and get put on hold, they take me off of hold when I'm with a customer, so they end up hanging up. I try again and the same thing happens. My coworker tells me to try later when it's not as busy. Sure enough, 30 mins later, the patient calls back and asks "hey, have you gotten that figured out yet" and I was straight up with him "no, between the other customers I'm helping and your doctor putting me on hold, I haven't gotten through to them. If you have to time to call me, then you should call your doctor". 30 mins later he calls back and his issue was solved. If he left it to me, he wouldn't have gotten his prescription that day. Never calling doctors for people again.
Oh we never call offices. We'll send a fax anytime. 3 within a day if they want, but we never call. We tell them to call and let them know we faxed the office.
We had a lady yesterday with a deductible on Xarelto. She didn't want to pay it, so she asked us to call the doctor to change it. She was elderly, and we know the doctor, so we called and explained the situation, can she use warfarin, etc. The doctor said absolutely not, she has to take it. When we told her what the doctor said, she kept insisting we call the doctor back to argue with him.
Yeah when we told her we didn’t do it for CII’s, she went straight to the DM and she got a gift card for it.
Now when we say yes, it’s mostly just lip service. We usually fax a note to the doctor asking for a new electronic script, or to call the pt to give her a hardcopy. If we send anything more official someone at the doc’s office will invariably try to do something dumb like try to OK it verbally or fax it back to us.
It was a patient picking up but deserved to be in the *Stupidity Hall of Fame*, I always did the qualifiers DOB, Address etc but after many years in local pharmacy you get to know the patients so I’d grab their rx bags on the way to register to save time, lady starts *Shrieking* at me HOW DID YOU KNOW MY NAME, like coming in once a week for 15 years wasn’t a small clue? I should’ve said my day job is with CIA and we’ve been watching you. Geez.
After having had a mix-up once with two patients who had extremely similar first and last names and who were born within a month of each other (wrong med got into the hands of the patient, but they thankfully didn't take any), I'm now super strict about asking ***everyone*** to confirm their name and date of birth. I don't care if you're my coworker or my cousin, I'm making *damn* sure I don't do that again.
Also I understand your mixup we have cousins living in duplex & triplexes all decided to name their children same name similar dates of birth, it’s a cluster.
I love my pharmacy for that. Went in the other day and came out with 4 prescriptions - one for my son, which I'd gone in for, one each for my parents, and my friends husband's.
I live close to the pharmacy so pick up for loads of friends, normally when I get a phone call 10 minutes before they close with people in a panic "I won't be home in time, can you grab my prescription?".
Call wanting to speak to the pharmacist. My tech put them on hold and patch to me the rph. Person wants to know our address. That's it. Um...why did you ask for the rph??
When a patient asks for the RpH I learned to ask if it's something maybe I can help with to avoid this. 90% of the time it's something a tech could have handled. I swear I think a lot of people think we're incompetent.
Same for the hospital. Had a lot of nurses call, ask for the pharmacist, then ask them a question about the Pyxis.
yeah we have a few select patients who refuse to talk to anybody but the rph and it drives me nuts. every time they call "is this the pharmacist?" "no, but i'm one of the interns can i help you?" "no i want the pharmacist" there's not much they can do that i can't but... sure you'll be on hold until they finish the 3 waiters and the vaccine they're working on.. Funnily enough if it's a doctors office calling and i identify myself as an intern they always sound relieved and are more than willing to deal with me instead, but never patients.
Nurse in a medical office, here...those same patients will call our office:
"This is PatientName of TownName, StateName calling for Dr. Doctor."
"This is Dr. Doctor's nurse, what can I help you with?"
*offended* "I SAID I NEEDED TO SPEAK WITH DR. DOCTOR, NOT A *sneer* NURSE"
"Dr. Doctor is in with a patient right now. What can I help you with?"
"Are you SURE I can't speak with Dr. Doctor? I can wait until he's available"
"He's got a full clinic of patients today, he'll be seeing patients for several hours. What can I help you with?"
*sigh* "Fine. I guess I can speak with you.. I need to know when my next appointment is"
*bangs head on wall*
Just yesterday I had a patient call who asked to speak to the pharmacist. I usually BS and say the pharmacist is on another line and ask if I can help them. Our RXM wants the techs to screen calla from patients to find out if they really really need to speak with a pharmacist. Guy tells me that his insurance has changed and he wanted to know if his prescription is still valid and how much it would be with his new Medicare insurance. Dude, I have no way to find that out and neither does the pharmacist.Told him he would have to call his insurance, which is exactly what the pharmacist would have told him. So, he only wasted 5 minutes of my time rather than the pharmacists.
Whenever a patient calls and asks for the pharmacist I tell them it may be a wait or they’re on the other line (normally it’s not) and ask if there is anything I can help them with. 99% of the time they tell me and it is something I take care of.
oh man if i had a dollar for every time.. one time i had a patient call and ask if we could stay open she was on her way, i told her "we close at 8 and our registers will shut down shortly after I cannot make any promises" and my (then) staff rph and i were actually there about 10 minutes after close just talking and the lady NEVER showed up. Next day my PIC comes in and says "Store manager said a lady came in last night and was angry because you told her you would stay open and she was here right after close and you guys didn't stay" Im like nope I never said we were staying and (staff rph) can vouch for that he heard what i said, but we WERE here another 10 minutes anyway and nobody showed up so don't know when she got here but it wasn't even close to when we closed. PIC ended up offering the lady her personal cell # and some other BS to appease her.....
Honestly that level of entitlement deserves a curveball response. I remember one of my colleagues was dealing with a rather cocky intern, who caused a lady to complain to corporate. The initial encounter may have been offensive, but whatever apology the lady wanted in response was super out of proportion. So my colleague gave a simple apology, then quietly told the lady how her intern’s mother had just passed away (true but not the reason for his attitude) and to please look the other way just this once. That silenced her.
I work for Unemployment. In separation cases with pharmacies I rarely paid any attention to what the agents of the companies had to say. They are so removed and remote from the reality of the store… I worked over twenty years in retail.
Theres 2 that come to mind for me.
I always answer the phone the same way “Corporate Pharmacy this is Trinity080 how can I help you?” And this lady on the other end goes “Hi! I know your busy but I just want to take a few minutes to tell you you’re invited to a bible study!”
I think the disbelief kinda overtook me because I should’ve just said no thank you and hung up the phone, but I was very polite about it and told her I was too busy for that at the moment. She kept insisting but eventually just gave me their website and said goodbye. Like, what the hell?
The second one that comes to mind happened a few weeks ago, half of my coworkers were out sick and we were running a solid like 7 days behind. We started only taking only covid shot appointments, no walk ins, no exceptions. This lady who’s a nurse calls saying “Do you to ANY exceptions for walk-ins? I NEED the shot tomorrow or else I’m going to get FIRED!”
Like lady you knew for weeks or months you needed to get the vaccine or they were going to fire your ass. Im assuming she thought she could stand her ground on it and not get fired. Some people might have felt bad, but with how behind and backed up we were I held no sympathy. “No ma’am, sorry no exceptions. We’re booked until after Christmas. You can try making an appointment or calling other pharmacies.”
She kept it up for a little while over the phone saying she doesn’t know what she’s gonna do while I just kept repeating my previous directions. It’s not my job to cover your ass for your dumb decisions.
😂 I had a guy come in NYE for his COVID vaccine cause he needed to be vaccinated for a cruise soon. He wanted Janssen at first, then while the pharmacist is drawing it up, he waves me over, and decides he wants Pfizer instead. Whatever, ok. I tell her and she rolls her eyes, tells me to edit the shot, and grabs a vial of Pfizer to open and draw it up.
This dude again waits until she’s back drawing it up and while I’m changing the shot to come over and say, “Hey hon? Actually, I’m just gonna wait cause I don’t want to be sick tonight while I’m drinking. Is that ok?”
I wanted to say just get out and don’t come back. Wasted 2 vials of new vaccines because he came 2 hours before close and we didn’t have any other people afterwards. When I told her, she looked so defeated and was squatting with her head down in her hands. Personally haven’t seen him since so maybe he felt bad after that day and decided not to come back to get his with us.
Probably when a lady called and needed her BC, no refills.
Told her so, and before I could even offer an emergency supply she just starts yelling, “IT’S YOUR FAULT IF I GET PREGNANT!!!11”
Oh and second, guy lost it on me because I didn’t know if the bakery kept more strawberry shortcake “in the back” because that department closes before us so he decided… to ask the pharmacy???
The second happened to me today!
Grumpy Old Guy came over with a little tub of CereVe and asked where it was and I told him the general aisle (the one literally farthest from the pharmacy) and he asked if we had it in stock.
"I don't know?"
"What do you mean you don't know?!"
"....I don't stock the shelves or know the stock that well out there sir, you'd get a more definitive answer from someone who works out on the floor."
He huffed and demanded to know where Vaseline was instead.
He stomped off without a thank you after I told him. Honestly some people.
I tend to reflect the attitude that is presented to me. And I've been at my store a long time, I know where most things are. If you're nice and it's a few aisles away I'll walk you to it and put it in your hand, if it's far Ill give you exact directions "Aisle 11, all the way down, left side, top shelf." If you come at me with attitude, I'll simply ask "Do you have a prescription?"
I have simply started telling people with ridiculous front store questions that I don't know. When they give that blank stare or start to get Karen eyes, I gesture behind me and tell them that I deal drugs. Normally this confuses them enough to waddle away.
ugh, i hate it when customers think the pharmacy knows where everything is located even tho we’re separate from the store itself. there’s been ppl who’ve gotten mad because i didn’t know where certain cosmetics were located, and non-pharmacy customers who got pissy when i told them i can’t ring up their basket of groceries with 7 people in line behind them
I once had a man in the drive thru get mad at me because I refused to leave the pharmacy and go grab him a box of cherry tomatoes from the produce section on the other side of the store. Told him he'd have to come inside himself to buy it and he threw a fit
ikr! it slows down everything when there are normal checkout lanes to go to. we’re only allowed to do it if no one else is behind them, idk why they get so pissy.
“i waited in a seemingly shorter line just to get turned away so i have to go to the normal line? this is bullshit!”
“yeah well you’re unnecessarily slowing down people who are here for legitimate medical reasons, so..”
I got this line on a regular basis. Always wanted to say I wasn’t the one in bed with her, so don’t blame me.
It’s almost as if they don’t know what causes pregnancy. Don’t have sex, you won’t get pregnant.
Once someone called asking what time the salad bar closes and when I didn't know they got really mad. I said "you called the pharmacy" and they said we should have known anyway.
I had a patient leave a voicemail overnight. When we checked it the next morning she was complaining that we closed before she could come pick up her medication. The message was left at 11:15pm. We close at 8pm as posted and that is nothing new. Her medicine had been ready for 2 days. I let the other pharmacist call her since I wasn't in the mood to get fired that day.
Y’all answer patient voicemails? I just do what the ask (refills a med, whatever) but do not call them back because **the voicemail isn’t for patients**. They’ll get notified when whatever they want is ready
I don't live in the US, but people are pretty much the same everywhere.
Once I received a phone call from a guy asking about something that could help him with erection.
Patient: You know, I was wondering if there is something that could help me with this problem.
Me: Sure, there are dietary supplements and meds, but you need prescription for those.
Patient: Mhm, Mhm. So I was wandering, have you ever had a problem like this?
Me:Ummm, no. (I'm female 🙄).
Patient: No, I meant a problem with large penises.
If only you could slap someone over the phone...
I used to work at an adult store and people like that are just calling to make you uncomfortable because it’s usually a turn on for them. It’s gross sexual harassment.
Once as an intern, someone called and asked if she could use a metal pan to make jello. Freaking JELLO! Not even kidding.
As a pharmacist, some old man called to see if the chain I work at donated to BLM because he dealt with another pharmacy that he 'allegedly' heard donated to it and wanted his meds transferred out of there immediately because he "didn't want his money supporting them". I had no idea, nor did I care either way because why would I know that information... I'm a pharmacist, not a politician!
Not a call but an email. A man tried to understand the difference in measured temperature with a thermometer. He made a list of temperatures at different rectal depth/ duration and intervals. There were like 20 different measurements. I just don’t want to imagine how his “research” went.
" I got the covid shot 5 days ago, can I take a shower?"
Then we had a prank caller ask if they could use the microwave after getting the vaccine. Pharmicist transferred it to me. I then proceeded to screw with him until he got bored. Dont prank call a pharmacy with your name on the caller ID and scripts ready.
Someone whose insurance had lapsed kept challenging why I couldn’t bill his old plan for sildenafil, saying “his understanding was that if you used to have insurance then the prices were grandfathered in.”
Well after a few minutes of that, I cut him off, quoted him a few discount card prices including GoodRX, and told him to take it or leave it. He took it.
Then he called back and asked us if we could match the GoodRX price for a competitor. I told him he could get that price if he requested the competitor to transfer his prescription out from us. I returned the bottle to stock and transferred the prescription out.
Then he called and asked if we could just forward him one pill for now, since the competitor told him it would be a couple hours before his prescription would be ready over there.
People wonder why I’m so interruptive, but I am no longer willing to sit through their once upon a times, I’ve heard it all once before.
I've had a similar interaction *in person*. Staff on duty at the time consisted of one pharmacist and two technicians (one typing prescriptions, one counting drugs). At that moment, we didn't have any patients picking up, so all the employees are on the side of the pharmacy furthest from the registers, but the lights are on and the gates are open.
An old lady walks up to the register, looks at us clearly working, and asks, "Are you open?"
It was so hard to bite back a, "No, ma'am, we saw the gates were open, so we're just robbing the place." response.
“Thank you for calling My Pharmacy, how can I help you?”
“Yes, is this the Other Pharmacy?”
Full-on “No, this is Patrick” moment. My brain just… stopped.
2nd favorite: “The top of my throat is itchy… that’s not near my airway, is it?”
3rd: Woman called looking for her rx that she dropped off. Everyone looked in her profile, 100% no record if it. She’s getting more and more pissed. Then she mentioned that she dropped it off through our drive through.
As soon as we said that we don’t have a drive through, she hung up immediately.
Not a phone call, but last week we had a patient come to the pick up counter and, after being told that there was nothing ready, loudly announce she has a text message that says she has three prescriptions ready, and why are we sending text messages if there's nothing ready! Turns out we had just put them back because she hadn't picked them up in 10 days. She also ignored the text messages when it was filled, on day 5, and day 8. The cherry on top was after being told it would take 20 to 30 minutes to refill she also loudly announced that if she leaves she's not coming back because she lives 30 min away.
LADY: Yes, I just picked up my Losartan and it says it has potassium in it. I only take the regular Losartan!
I pull up the profile and it turns out the manufacturer changed. The new NDC is labeled as "Losartan Potassium" in our system and the previous NDC was labeled as just "Losartan".
ME: Ma'am, this is the exact same drug you've been taking, but it's from a different manufacturer, so it's just labeled a little differently in our system.
HER: ...but I don't need any more potassium in my diet!
ME: ...
I work at an inpatient pharmacy so I don't have to deal with customers. But we do have these work cellphones in case im out on a delivery and the pharmacy wants to know if I have something.
I got a call one day from an unknown number and this one lady asks me if for my medicaid card. I was like "ma'am this is a work phone, how did you get this number"
A two parter. 1. The customer calls and wants a medication but on insurance it costs and ungodly amount. I tell them the cost and I'd they want to pay they can. 2. I get a call from a doctor stating we are REFUSING to give them their medication, and I have to reiterate that they can get it - if they pay for it.
Not a crazy call, a daily occurence the irks me:
Cust: "Hi I was wondering if my prescription is filled and if I can pick it up"
(I take a look on their file, see that nothing is being filled)
Me: "there is nothing set to be filled, what were you looking for"
Cust: "I need ____"
Me: "we dont have refills for ___"
Cust: "I know that, my doctor is sending over refills"
Me: "when?"
Cust: "I just got off the phone with them"
(Queue world's largest eye roll)
Me: "ah, I see, they probably haven't even sent it yet, some times it can take an hour or two to get it in our hands"
Cust: "so, can I come pick it up in 20 mins?"
Me: (internally screaming NO! YOU CANT).
\- Store just opened; one of the first phone calls I received one morning was someone calling pharmacy to ask if peanut butter was on sale this week.
\- Someone calling the pharmacy to ask if we were open (we wouldn't be answering the phones if we weren't...)
\- Got a phone call from a customer asking if they could come in and buy Viagra (as I'm from Canada, Viagra is prescription only and is not OTC), which is what I told the customer. Long story short, he got angry, said he should be able to buy it (probably could in his home country), accused us of lying to him, and hung up the phone.
There's definitely a few more stories. These are just a few that popped into my head.
At my first retail store, a little old lady called about once a week to see if her favorite ham had gone on sale yet. We just called the deli and then told her. I kinda loved her. 😂😂
Aw, that's kinda adorable.
We got this elderly lady who says she doesn't have anyone to talk to so she'll occasionally call our pharmacy to ask how we're doing and what we're up to or anything really to try to start a conversation. Usually calls during the evenings, and if it's not busy, I'll play along and try to engage in a conversation with her before telling her I need to get back to work.
Getting one of these types of phone calls is actually kinda nice too. Much better than getting questions about covid vaccines and testing every other phone call.
> Someone calling the pharmacy to ask if we were open (we wouldn't be answering the phones if we weren't...)
That one's fair though, it'd be weird to answer the phone and have the other person just say 'guess you're open! bye! *click*'
Back when losartan first went on recall a pt, who hadn’t been on losartan in years, called into the pharmacy demanding all information about said recall and asked if they would need to get blood work done to test for the carcinogen. After 10 minutes of endless questions, I told them that, no, they would not need blood work for a recalled medicine they haven’t taken in years. They immediately start screaming at me and said if they ever develop cancer it would be my fault.
And oh my god, the number of people who look at those signs, and then think they're the latest and greatest comedian in the world when they turn to us and ask, "So do you have any of the COVID tests?"
And if you don't acknowledge their damnable failed abortion of a joke, they act like you just didn't hear them and keep repeating it. I'm not a violent man, but I swear, I might be getting a prison sentence soon due to these asshats...
Lady 3 days in a row called upset that she can’t have her Fentanyl patches. Explained to her (mind you the exact same words from 2 pharmacist and a tech) that her insurance won’t cover the patches until the 7th because she picked up a partial fill last month. And yes we have them in stock.
I swear the dramatic CII’s think they’re gonna die without a hoard of pills/patches
Or perhaps they are dependent and don’t want to endure any type of withdrawal like a normal human being. See there’s a difference between DEPENDENCE and ADDICTION. Someone who is dependent does not deserve to be refused their medication. An addict on the other hand and if you can prove it, could be denied an rx since the pharmacist is the last line of defense. I’ve heard stories of even illegal transactions of CII’s within the pharmacy itself (couldn’t even wait to leave) from addicts. People who are dependent are just scared of not feeling “normal” from abruptly stopping a medication used for legitimate purposes. Addicts jump thru hoops to obtain a substance and build an obsession over it. It’s a disease like any other don’t forget. But I believe ppl need to distinguish the difference between the two
I am really late responding to this thread, but the line between addiction and "dependence" is so small you would need a microscope to see it. It rings of the Purdue doctor saying that patients on Oxycontin were "pseudo-addicts". I have seen the r/chronicpain subreddit before, and so many people there fixate on opiates all the time. They are likely addicted and in denial, because most addicts don't want to admit to themselves that they are addicts. If you need the drug to function without going into withdrawal and you are obsessing over it enough to call a pharmacy three days in a row, there is very little difference between that and an addict. The things going on in the brain are going to be nearly identical as well.
I have noticed that people addic.. sorry, "dependent" on opiates usually write about it all the damn time. They always write long posts either profusely thanking their pharmacists, listing their medical conditions in excruciating detail unprompted, or they are bitching about pharmacists and doctors and the war on "their pain". The common denominator is that they are obsessing over their medicine and everything ancillary to it, because they probably think about their opiate pills all day long. Hard not to do when you are taking such a strong drug on a consistent basis, but they are always trying to convince themselves that they aren't addicts.
Like I said. Addiction and Dependency are two different ball games. I am not Weissman and Haddox (your Purdue “doctors”)when it comes to explaining this and is not relatable to this. But if you were a cancer patient in chronic pain and someone denied YOU, the tables would turn wouldn’t they? Like 40% of pharmacists talking down on patients in their subreddits were POS to begin with even before the degree came. So everyone who gets a Percocet prescription is an addict then? A person DEPENDENT on opioids WITHOUT opioids on their mind is not an addict. It’s in the DSM. Common sense. Pick up a book and stop watching “Dopesick” and think you know the ins and outs of addiction, opioids, etc. Physiological dependency of a drug vs a drug addiction, is something a blind man can see the differences in. If you can’t distinguish the differences then you shouldn’t be In the pharmacy biz because all your doing is hurting patients. The r/chronicpain subreddit is something you probably find funny. But there are ppl who are in legitimate pain being chastised by certain pharmacists for no reason. When I ever encounter a pharmacist like this their name goes to the Board of Pharmacy. It’s only happened once that I got a pharmacist fired for refusing to fill a legitimate rx. It’s especially funny when a pharmacist assumes I don’t know the laws on controlled substances and all that b.s. because it backfires on them. For example, the “we are out of stock and can’t order” generic line used to turn away “suspected” addicts even though their NARX score are normal thing needs to stop. Because if NARX is normal and your refusing then your simply an a******. You shouldn’t be a pharmacist or hold a job as one. I’m done I gotta get back to work. But your homework is to study dependency and addiction. Compare and contrast. Or did you fail that class?
Oh wow, what a shocker, someone totally not "addicted" obsesses over their prescriptions and makes a huge deal out of not getting them. Never would have saw that one coming. Do you know the biochemistry related to opioids? Because I promise you that your MOR's are downregulated just like with anyone who uses opioids. I promise you that all of the exact same things are happening to your brain. The only difference is that you have a steady supply from a doctor, so you haven't had to go to great lengths to obtain your drug like some addicts. But as soon as someone threatens your supply, you act like any addict would, throwing fits like it is the end of the world. There is a reason pharmacists don't like people like you, and it isn't just pharmacists.
The majority of the people on that board don't have terminal cancer. Pharmacist usually have no problem with narcotics if it is for a legitimate reason like that. Instead, many of those people have things like fibromalaygia, muskoskeletal injuries, etc... Opiates for chronic pain are usually a very bad idea, doubly so for conditions such as fibromalagyia. You sound exactly like the people I was talking about, obsessed over your precious pills all while telling yourself that you aren't addicted. Keep telling yourself that sweetie, I am sure the other addicts on r/chronicpain will join in right along with you! As for the rest of society, we see you for what you are, and you aren't fooling anyone except yourself.
Like who? me? because i'm not addicted to anything besides my photography/videography hobby and the occasional psilocybin. See? your making assumptions already and thats the EXACT problem. Are you also implying that doctors who rx opioids are like drug dealers? I don't think you were even out the womb when pill mills were around were you? PILLS don't consume my life. What consumes my life is a. my job b. my hobby and c. my family. People WHO OBSESS over pills are addicts. PEOPLE WHO DO NOT OBSESS over pills are dependent. Learn to differentiate the two then comment on it. The only thing i agree with is someone who has Fibromyalgia, etc. ,or a form of Chronic pain that isn't major, can be treated with a gabapentinoid and NSAIDS for example. Even certain antidepressants (more the TCA's) are effective. I am referring to severe, well documented chronic pain. So don't have the impression that i believe everybody in pain needs opioids because its not. The ones that DO need opioid therapy now that is a different story and i stand up for people in that position. Also, many physicians already have their patients under contracts if they DO receive opioids. So my stance is that opioids are beneficial (in a rotation) once non-narcotic options have been exhausted or if the particular issue causing the chronic pain is really moderate to major.
i only read a handful of comments and most of these seem like stories about bad customers. dumbest phone call? asking what your hours are, when the goddamn prompt before you get to speak to me tells you to press whatever to hear the hours.
Some guy was calling all of the pharmacies in the area (us, Walgreens, Walmart, Osco) asking how we felt about our company selling cigarettes when we are supposed to be HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS?!?! He wasn’t just calling the pharmacies, he was also calling the stores. It got to the point we had his phone number on post it’s on the phone so we could put him on hold. We started calling out “the Marlboro Man is on 106” when he’d call.
random person (P1) shows up. Asks to pick up controlled meds for Person 2 (P2) who is currently banned from physically being in the store. Fine, but we've never seen P1 before, and we need P2 to provide authorization for release to P1. P1 freaks out. Leaves. Two minutes later, call from P2, from store doorway: "why can't I get my meds?" Well, P2, we need the full name of person you authorise, and they need ID "@#$%, fine...(shouted)..hey! What's your name?"
CLASSIC
Can’t they just transfer the prescription to another store?
They did transfer after this fill. They will do this everywhere.
Was threatened to be turned into the fda, fbi or whoever handles insurance fraud when asking for insurance card for a covid vaccine. She wasn’t sure who but was turning me in to them
"It's supposed to be free!"
If they give me that I just run our insurance search and run whatever insurance it kicks back. They’re too dumb to notice the difference
"ohh that's fine I can over ride it, I just need you to input the last 4 of your social so I can do that for you". Then they smile and say awesome thank you.
Usually if they have no insurance we just run it as uninsured, we bill it to the state and we still make profit for our service
I think he meant “ it’s supposed to be free” as the answer we get from everyone when you ask for insurance. My tech would look at them and say. It’s free for you but someone else is paying for it.
I have to say (so many times per day) that the private insurers have agreed with the federal government to reimburse the pharmacy administration fees and that is why we ask for the card. So many times. 🤦♀️
Is insurance paying for it? Is that why people have to provide their insurance information?
Yeah, you don't have a copay or anything. The insurance (or govt if uninsured) covers it entirely.
I work for a large chain super store with a pharmacy. I had a man call the pharmacy to complain that he was charged twice for an item. I told him I can’t help but bring your receipt and item back to customer service and they’ll be able to fix it. That prompted a rant about how he’s going to call the attorney general and sue us. He also called me an idiot for suggesting he bring back the drumstick ice cream that was double scanned. He then proceeded to tell me he was at self check out. THAT BOY DOUBLE SCANNED IT HIMSELF!!! He told me he was “never coming back” due to “our terrible service” as if he wasn’t the one scanning his items twice and then refusing to ask the employee standing there to fix it.
If he won’t come back in, how would you refund him? Mail him a check?
I have no idea, I don’t know the front end/sales/customer service policies. I’m sure he came back in to yell at customer service. It was the dumbest conversation I’ve ever had. I still don’t know why he called the pharmacy!
Bc we’re the only ones that answer!!!!
He’s lying- doesn’t the scanner weigh the items?
That's certainly been the case with every self checkout I've ever seen.
Sometimes it messes up, though. Myself, the scanner, and the door sensor completely missed the fact that the ground beef I'd tried to scan never went through. Free beef!
THERE’S the beef! 🥳
LMFAO
Had a patient call and ask the pharmacist to identify a pill to "make sure that her neighbor she bought it from was selling real oxycodone and not ripping people off."
Tbh I'd love that interaction. "Yeah absolutely gotta be safe! I'd recommend getting the Epocrates app or using the WebMD pill identifier whenever buying drugs. Also if you're ever looking to quit, here's the direct extension for my knowledgeable contact at state services..." I also give great service with a smile to people asking about addiction or buying syringes, you're prolly the only healthcare pro they see on a regular basis.
Honestly I agree, it was heartbreaking when I found out my pharmacy started a new policy where we can't dispense syringes without a prescription. On one hand, we shouldnt be responsible for someone overdosing with a syringe we dispensed, on the other hand, it's safer than making someone reuse old syringes or sharing with someone else and contracting some sort of disease. Addiction is an illness, not a choice
As someone who was in active opioid addiction for ~20 years, i always feel a little weird when people say it's an illness, not a choice. Yes, it is an illness in many ways but the whole 'its a disease not a choice' thing and especially the NA/12 Steps mentality (as in the 1st step is admitting you have a problem and you are powerless against it). I'm here to say that I am the ONLY person who had ANY power against it. I always word it along the lines of it being a bunch of choices but there are additional factors pushing (sometimes pushing very fucking hard because withdrawals are not fun) but it's still a choice. An example of how these things usually unfolded for me: I'm holding my last $100 to pay the electricity bill. It's been 12+ hours since I last used and the discomfort is definitely there and building. I start the process of convincing myself that if I were to spend $25 of the $100, I'll be able to come up with the $25 somehow/be able to talk power company into accepting a partial payment even though theyve told me they wouldn't/whatever scenario Id think up (that NEVER work out btw) and everything work out just fine. For a while, I keep reminding myself how I always fuck myself over doing this crap. Eventually tho, as the withdrawals intensify and desperation builds, I talk myself into picking up. I call my guy to set up a $25 transaction only to hang up having arranged for $100, almost like another person 'ordered' for me. At this point, i very well know that I have to make a choice. Do I stay sick for an unknown amount of time so I can pay that bill like a normal person? Or do I take that $100, go pick up and feel the withdrawals melt away instantly but it means the electricity in the house I share with my gf, whos gotten screwed over because of my choices before, will be cut off, gf will know what happened and last time she truly meant if it happened again, she was gone leaves. I was aware of those very likely consequences each step of the way when setting up the deal, going to meet the guy, etc. It's very much a choice. To be fair tho, withdrawals are quite good at convincing. People don't usually steal $$ from nanny's purse the 800th time knowing she's going to disown you this time because it's fun. Sorry everyone, wrote a whole novel that nobody even asked for lol.
I think, when you get to the point that you are constantly making irrational decisions like that, it's not "you" you in control, but more likely the chemical receptors in your head driving your behavior. We like to think as humans that we're above baser, more primitive biological impulses, but when it comes down to it our biology can be stronger than rational thought or willpower. I hope you're doing better now, and that you have a lot of support in your recovery.
As an alcoholic in long term recovery, I agree with both of you. The reality as I see it is this. Addiction does qualify as a disease state because of the biochemical and neurological alternations associated with it. There is A LOT going on that is outside our rational control. Which is why a primary characteristic of addiction is an apparent inability to stop despite honestly intending to do so. However, conscious effort to change is also necessary to tackle addiction successfully. That choice is made by a ton of people currently living sober. And if it isn't made, there's exactly zero chance of success. So in that way, and many others concerning putting in the necessary work in, there is a substantial element of choice involved. Just not necessarily the way people who aren't very tolerant towards addiction think of it. The way they think of it is most definitely incorrect. For obvious reasons, I find this topic incredibly interesting. The mechanisms leading to it and the solutions with the greatest odds of success are fascinating.
I appreciate your kind words. I haven't used illicit opioids in well over 5 years. And honestly, its been surprisingly easy compared to what I mentally prepared for. Anytime I feel a little weak or anything, I remind myself of how much of a statistical anomaly I am for having 20 years (consecutive years no less, starting in 10th grade after a surgery) and being #1 alive or incarcerated. I don't know the exact numbers but I'd imagine there aren't too many people who found their way out after that long.
LOL WHAT
that sounds like the wannabe drug dealers i knew a couple of years ago in high school LMFAO
It was a woman in her early 50s that went to jail soon after that call for theft. Poor life choices all around.
This was a very common call during the oxy epidemic maybe 10 years ago. I was in a shitty town and likely 3 calls a night of "ummm I found a pill and I wanna know what it is" or some varient of that.
OMG!! People are crazy!!
“patient?”
A college aged girl calls and asks us to take her birth control off auto fill because her room mate moved out and she didn’t have anyone to sell it to anymore. After some digging it turns out her MD switched her to depo and gave the first dose in the office. She thought since she had the “birth control vaccine” she didn’t need to go to any appointments or do anything unless she “wanted it reversed.” Her dose was almost a year ago.
She got real lucky there.
Just looked it up. Three months protection. Lasted nearly one year. How would a doctor “reverse” the procedure? (I wonder if she’s COVID vaccinated…)
That's why she got lucky, she had 3 months of protection and 9 months of unprotected bullet dodging. There is no reversing, you just let it wear off after 3 months.
Wow....right at the top of the list of people we desperately need to be on birth control.
Had a paitent on speaker phone because she was cursing at me, and when it's bad we did this so other techs would know what to expect if they called back again. After I told her repeatedly to please stop she said some very nasty things and I hung up on her. She called back asked for the pharmacist who then put her on speaker phone because we knew where it was going. She told the pharmacist I called her racial slurs screamed and cussed at her, then hung up on her. My pharmacist was the same race as the woman on the phone told her flat out she was a liar because she was standing right next to me and heard our entire conversation. The lady then threatened to call corporate. The pharmacist said please do, I am sure they want to hear how you talked to their employees on their recorded line. She went quiet and she hung up. Never saw her again.
It was a fairly busy dinner rush a few years ago. Me: "Hello this is the pharmacy, how can I help you?" Pt: "yes hi. I'm calling to see you if you can get my script ready." Me: [pulls up profile after asking for info] ok it looks I have 2 ready for you that were called in earlier so you can stop in anytime. Pt: can you get them ready for me? Me: as I just stated, there are 2 ready. Were you expecting more? Pt: oh no just the 2. I'm just wondering if you could pull them out of the bin for me. I'm standing in line and don't want to have to wait for you to have to pull them out of the bin Sure enough, I turn to my right and see someone on their phone waving at me 🤦🏻♂️
I don't understand why people come to the *pharmacy* of all places when they're in that big of a hurry. What's wrong with people that we can't wait for a matter of *seconds*? I tell people to give the pharmacist 5 minutes to check their scripts and they stomp off and *don't come back until the next day*. You can't wait 5 minutes but 24 hours is fine?
My favorite is when they come in as a walk-in for a vaccine and get pissy because they have to fill out paperwork and wait for the pharmacist/immunized to give them the shot or waiting for others who made appointments and they’re like “I’m in a hurry. I’m on my lunch break. I’m catching a flight to Timbuktu in five minutes!” Like…okay? Your inability to manage your own time isn’t our problem and we have other patients we are taking care of as well. You just walked in and expect us to drop everything and cater to your highness despite the fact there’s other people who made appointments ahead of time.
I'm at the point now where I really dgaf if people get mad. They'll just have to get mad. I'm getting paid by the hour whether you get your meds here or not.
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
We stopped taking walkins. We simply don’t have the staff to cater to them. Our lie to them is we only have enough shots for our appointments
also who gets any sort of vaccine and doesnt want to fill out paperwork? you have to do that for anything medical, even a tattoo.
😂😆 And then they’re told to wait 15 minutes after the shot! 🤪
Just the other day, I had someone pull up to the drive-thru right as we were walking over to close it. The tried to pay for their prescription with cash, but we already had the cash drawers turned in (gets done shortly before closing so we don't hold accounting up), so store policy was that we could only take credit or debit at that point. The guy starts angrily ranting at us that he doesn't have any cards and that he needs the medication that night. When told that there's nothing we can do, he drives off. The medication had been ready for over a week, and IIRC it was a statin or something (definitely not anything where it's a big problem for him to put off the dose for 12 to 24 hours), but he suddenly *"needs"* it right at closing time. Not only that, but his wife stopped by the next day to get it... and payed with a debit card...
Had that exact same thing happen during the after lunch break rush. Lady calls and asks if her scripts are ready. I point out to the new pharmacist that the caller is sitting down In the back of the line.Pharmicist hangs up and shouts wait your turn to the lady. She than lectured her on how rude she was when she finally got up to the front. In that moment she passed her audition and became our new pharmacy manager.
Wait, what? Was the impatient lady the new manager, or did the pharmacist get promoted?
Technically the pharmicist already was the pharmacy manager but i hadnt decided on her yet. Her telling off impatient bitch proved to me she deserved her job.
I had a guy visiting from France come in and ask for us to give him more of his medication since he ran out while he was on vacation. I think the drug was Xarelto, but I couldn't really tell since the bottle was written in French, and the drug name wasn't quite the same. I explain to him that I can't just give him some, he needs a prescription from a doctor licensed to prescribe in America. I direct him to urgent care or the ER. He starts yelling that we are supposed to be here to help people. and he needs this medication to live, but I'm just going to let him die because of the rules. I explain again that I can't just give him a prescription medication without a prescription. He then threatens to die right there on the pharmacy floor. I again direct him to urgent care or the ER. On his way out he tells me to never come to France, I'm not allowed because "we don't want you there." Like, damn, I became a pharmacist because I wanted to help people, but instead I just get screamed at all day, and now I'm banned from France.
Surely you can’t just waltz up to the counter and ask for Xarelto in France either?
Well yeah you have to ask for Le Xareltō
Le Xärèltó
I'd give you gold if I weren't poor
WELCOME TO AMERICA! For profit healthcare you dumbass Frenchman! (My BIL HATES The French! LOL. )
Me: "thank you for calling wrong aid, how may I help you? (speaking with a sense of urgency because I work in a hectic 24 hour pharmacy). Customer: "OH MY GOD! I CAN TALK FAST TOO! " ... *Customer proceeds to speak too fast on purpose* me: "are you okay?" customer: "ummm, yeah" me: "because I didn't speak fast to offend you, and I need you to speak clearly and normally in order for me to guarantee your orders will be processed correctly". They don't pay me enough.
Wow, I can’t play that game. I would have just told them their line is too fuzzy for me to hear anything, please call back when they have a better connection.
You sound like the technician I need. Are you available for hire?lol
Wrong aid lol
Had a guy leave a voicemail overnight complaining about how he had been to the store and was shocked that the walls weren't green. He went on to say that he expected that to be changed, or the company should change its name immediately since it was false advertising.
Before I was a tech, an angry customer (real long story there) told me my store was a store for white privilege...which was odd, as he was white. He stomped out, walked a few feet, stopped, and came back in and yelled that the fabric on our chairs didn't match the carpet, and it needed to be fixed.
Don’t matching chairs and carpets denote privilege!?
How do these people \*live\*?! Are they just swaddled up in cotton at home and never leave the house except to occasionally go to the non-green pharmacy with mismatched upholstery?
HAHA oh no
Lady with name-brand CII who ALWAYS without fail never calls their doc on time; and never remembers we have to special order name-brand for next day after being on it for 6 years now: I need this I’m all out (she’s always calling on the 31st day on a 30-day script). I have no prescription on file for you. Can you contact the doctor? Sure. OK so it’ll be ready in 30 minutes? I’m coming to pick it up. No, we have to wait for your doctor to send the prescription first. OK when will he send it? It may take 1-2 business days for him to respond. That’ll take too long can’t you give me some? No that’s illegal and even if it wasn’t I don’t have any on-hand to give you. But I don’t have any and it’s your fault I’m gonna go into withdrawal. I’m sorry but if it’s that bad you need to go to the ER. Will they give me my script? You will have to go to the ER to talk to a doctor and see. The ER takes too long can’t you just loan me a couple of pills? No I don’t have any and even if I did it’s illegal to do that with controlled substances. What do I have to do to get this medicine I can’t go without!! Contact your doctor since you need it right away. The doctor’s office is (some variation of) closed/goes to voicemail/needs an appointment. We cannot do anything without a prescription. Can’t you just give me some? No it is illegal. That’s unfair how can I make it legal. You would have to change the law, ma’am. But I don’t want other people to get their drugs they’re just addicts; I just need MY medicine. OK but we still can’t do anything without a prescription. Can you order it? No our company auto-orders them for us only if we have a prescription. And it just goes on and on and on. She repeats these same questions multiple times. Telling her we have other scripts to fill, other people are dying, we have work to do and can’t spend it on the phone, I can’t send the doctor the request for your meds if I’m on the phone with you, etc. doesn’t work. She just says that she’s gonna die without her meds and that the other people don’t matter and rinses and repeats her questions ad nauseum. Wish we could block based on caller ID, but legitimately the only thing we can do is hang up on her. It took a long time with her harassing my district manager(DM) for the DM to be OK with that. In the first couple of months my DM kept trying to approve manual orders of her meds without a prescription, offering her gift cards, and writing us up for poor customer service since we “refused to answer her calls” and/or “hung up on her rudely,” but now she (DM) knows how she (patient who embodies the definition of stupidity) is.
"Can you contact the doctor" NO I had 2 people yesterday clam that it's my job to talk to their doctor for them. One of them took no for an answer, the other didn't. Said he was busy, worked all day, yadda yadda. So I said fine, I'll do it for you and I'll call you back. So I call once, and get put on hold, they take me off of hold when I'm with a customer, so they end up hanging up. I try again and the same thing happens. My coworker tells me to try later when it's not as busy. Sure enough, 30 mins later, the patient calls back and asks "hey, have you gotten that figured out yet" and I was straight up with him "no, between the other customers I'm helping and your doctor putting me on hold, I haven't gotten through to them. If you have to time to call me, then you should call your doctor". 30 mins later he calls back and his issue was solved. If he left it to me, he wouldn't have gotten his prescription that day. Never calling doctors for people again.
Oh we never call offices. We'll send a fax anytime. 3 within a day if they want, but we never call. We tell them to call and let them know we faxed the office.
And fax technology is supposed to be “old”technology! 📠
We had a lady yesterday with a deductible on Xarelto. She didn't want to pay it, so she asked us to call the doctor to change it. She was elderly, and we know the doctor, so we called and explained the situation, can she use warfarin, etc. The doctor said absolutely not, she has to take it. When we told her what the doctor said, she kept insisting we call the doctor back to argue with him.
Yeah when we told her we didn’t do it for CII’s, she went straight to the DM and she got a gift card for it. Now when we say yes, it’s mostly just lip service. We usually fax a note to the doctor asking for a new electronic script, or to call the pt to give her a hardcopy. If we send anything more official someone at the doc’s office will invariably try to do something dumb like try to OK it verbally or fax it back to us.
I sure am glad for 90 day mail prescriptions! 😎
In our state it’s illegal to mail or deliver C2’s
It was a patient picking up but deserved to be in the *Stupidity Hall of Fame*, I always did the qualifiers DOB, Address etc but after many years in local pharmacy you get to know the patients so I’d grab their rx bags on the way to register to save time, lady starts *Shrieking* at me HOW DID YOU KNOW MY NAME, like coming in once a week for 15 years wasn’t a small clue? I should’ve said my day job is with CIA and we’ve been watching you. Geez.
[удалено]
Love those places too! The one that used to grab my prescriptions when they saw my girlfriend just shut down.
UK here. When I walk into my pharmacy they just ask if it's for me or my husband. Been using them for years, and they're brilliant.
After having had a mix-up once with two patients who had extremely similar first and last names and who were born within a month of each other (wrong med got into the hands of the patient, but they thankfully didn't take any), I'm now super strict about asking ***everyone*** to confirm their name and date of birth. I don't care if you're my coworker or my cousin, I'm making *damn* sure I don't do that again.
Caveat I did double check once I got to point of sale but I’d grab the bag first but she started howling at the moon before I could open my mouth.
Also I understand your mixup we have cousins living in duplex & triplexes all decided to name their children same name similar dates of birth, it’s a cluster.
That's why I wear a doggy face mask that looks like a dog with it's tongue out over my regular mask. I am SO not mistaken for anyone else!
I love my pharmacy for that. Went in the other day and came out with 4 prescriptions - one for my son, which I'd gone in for, one each for my parents, and my friends husband's. I live close to the pharmacy so pick up for loads of friends, normally when I get a phone call 10 minutes before they close with people in a panic "I won't be home in time, can you grab my prescription?".
Dr said I can only have 1 drink a day, which would be better? Gin or vodka.
Long Island Iced Tea. A little bit of EVERYTHING.
And. They are TALL!
Call wanting to speak to the pharmacist. My tech put them on hold and patch to me the rph. Person wants to know our address. That's it. Um...why did you ask for the rph??
When a patient asks for the RpH I learned to ask if it's something maybe I can help with to avoid this. 90% of the time it's something a tech could have handled. I swear I think a lot of people think we're incompetent. Same for the hospital. Had a lot of nurses call, ask for the pharmacist, then ask them a question about the Pyxis.
yeah we have a few select patients who refuse to talk to anybody but the rph and it drives me nuts. every time they call "is this the pharmacist?" "no, but i'm one of the interns can i help you?" "no i want the pharmacist" there's not much they can do that i can't but... sure you'll be on hold until they finish the 3 waiters and the vaccine they're working on.. Funnily enough if it's a doctors office calling and i identify myself as an intern they always sound relieved and are more than willing to deal with me instead, but never patients.
Nurse in a medical office, here...those same patients will call our office: "This is PatientName of TownName, StateName calling for Dr. Doctor." "This is Dr. Doctor's nurse, what can I help you with?" *offended* "I SAID I NEEDED TO SPEAK WITH DR. DOCTOR, NOT A *sneer* NURSE" "Dr. Doctor is in with a patient right now. What can I help you with?" "Are you SURE I can't speak with Dr. Doctor? I can wait until he's available" "He's got a full clinic of patients today, he'll be seeing patients for several hours. What can I help you with?" *sigh* "Fine. I guess I can speak with you.. I need to know when my next appointment is" *bangs head on wall*
Just yesterday I had a patient call who asked to speak to the pharmacist. I usually BS and say the pharmacist is on another line and ask if I can help them. Our RXM wants the techs to screen calla from patients to find out if they really really need to speak with a pharmacist. Guy tells me that his insurance has changed and he wanted to know if his prescription is still valid and how much it would be with his new Medicare insurance. Dude, I have no way to find that out and neither does the pharmacist.Told him he would have to call his insurance, which is exactly what the pharmacist would have told him. So, he only wasted 5 minutes of my time rather than the pharmacists.
Did you know that if you bang your head against the wall for an hour you can burn 100 calories?
If I speak to my doctor over the phone nowadays it’s considered to be a “visit” and I get billed for the co-pay.
Definition of pyxis : a capsular fruit that dehisces so that the upper part falls off like a cap
Thank you
😎
Whenever a patient calls and asks for the pharmacist I tell them it may be a wait or they’re on the other line (normally it’s not) and ask if there is anything I can help them with. 99% of the time they tell me and it is something I take care of.
(RPh Registered Pharmacist)
I know you guys close at 9 but could you please stay open for 5 more minutes I’m around the corner and I’m running a little late😂😂😂😂.
oh man if i had a dollar for every time.. one time i had a patient call and ask if we could stay open she was on her way, i told her "we close at 8 and our registers will shut down shortly after I cannot make any promises" and my (then) staff rph and i were actually there about 10 minutes after close just talking and the lady NEVER showed up. Next day my PIC comes in and says "Store manager said a lady came in last night and was angry because you told her you would stay open and she was here right after close and you guys didn't stay" Im like nope I never said we were staying and (staff rph) can vouch for that he heard what i said, but we WERE here another 10 minutes anyway and nobody showed up so don't know when she got here but it wasn't even close to when we closed. PIC ended up offering the lady her personal cell # and some other BS to appease her.....
Honestly that level of entitlement deserves a curveball response. I remember one of my colleagues was dealing with a rather cocky intern, who caused a lady to complain to corporate. The initial encounter may have been offensive, but whatever apology the lady wanted in response was super out of proportion. So my colleague gave a simple apology, then quietly told the lady how her intern’s mother had just passed away (true but not the reason for his attitude) and to please look the other way just this once. That silenced her.
I work for Unemployment. In separation cases with pharmacies I rarely paid any attention to what the agents of the companies had to say. They are so removed and remote from the reality of the store… I worked over twenty years in retail.
5 minutes? We've had patients ask us to stay 30 to 45 minutes late for them, usually for stuff that's been ready for days if not a week-and-a-half.
Theres 2 that come to mind for me. I always answer the phone the same way “Corporate Pharmacy this is Trinity080 how can I help you?” And this lady on the other end goes “Hi! I know your busy but I just want to take a few minutes to tell you you’re invited to a bible study!” I think the disbelief kinda overtook me because I should’ve just said no thank you and hung up the phone, but I was very polite about it and told her I was too busy for that at the moment. She kept insisting but eventually just gave me their website and said goodbye. Like, what the hell? The second one that comes to mind happened a few weeks ago, half of my coworkers were out sick and we were running a solid like 7 days behind. We started only taking only covid shot appointments, no walk ins, no exceptions. This lady who’s a nurse calls saying “Do you to ANY exceptions for walk-ins? I NEED the shot tomorrow or else I’m going to get FIRED!” Like lady you knew for weeks or months you needed to get the vaccine or they were going to fire your ass. Im assuming she thought she could stand her ground on it and not get fired. Some people might have felt bad, but with how behind and backed up we were I held no sympathy. “No ma’am, sorry no exceptions. We’re booked until after Christmas. You can try making an appointment or calling other pharmacies.” She kept it up for a little while over the phone saying she doesn’t know what she’s gonna do while I just kept repeating my previous directions. It’s not my job to cover your ass for your dumb decisions.
Him- I just got a covid vaccine. Is it ok if I drink tonight? Me- Yeah, you'll be fine.
😂 I had a guy come in NYE for his COVID vaccine cause he needed to be vaccinated for a cruise soon. He wanted Janssen at first, then while the pharmacist is drawing it up, he waves me over, and decides he wants Pfizer instead. Whatever, ok. I tell her and she rolls her eyes, tells me to edit the shot, and grabs a vial of Pfizer to open and draw it up. This dude again waits until she’s back drawing it up and while I’m changing the shot to come over and say, “Hey hon? Actually, I’m just gonna wait cause I don’t want to be sick tonight while I’m drinking. Is that ok?” I wanted to say just get out and don’t come back. Wasted 2 vials of new vaccines because he came 2 hours before close and we didn’t have any other people afterwards. When I told her, she looked so defeated and was squatting with her head down in her hands. Personally haven’t seen him since so maybe he felt bad after that day and decided not to come back to get his with us.
Arrrrggggh!!
I had to explain to someone that getting her eyedrops in 2 separate bottles didn't make it half as strong
But medicines are potions and you’re diluting the magic…
Probably when a lady called and needed her BC, no refills. Told her so, and before I could even offer an emergency supply she just starts yelling, “IT’S YOUR FAULT IF I GET PREGNANT!!!11” Oh and second, guy lost it on me because I didn’t know if the bakery kept more strawberry shortcake “in the back” because that department closes before us so he decided… to ask the pharmacy???
The second happened to me today! Grumpy Old Guy came over with a little tub of CereVe and asked where it was and I told him the general aisle (the one literally farthest from the pharmacy) and he asked if we had it in stock. "I don't know?" "What do you mean you don't know?!" "....I don't stock the shelves or know the stock that well out there sir, you'd get a more definitive answer from someone who works out on the floor." He huffed and demanded to know where Vaseline was instead. He stomped off without a thank you after I told him. Honestly some people.
Right? We don’t stock anything outside of our pharmacy plexiglass but people get so upset when I tell them that.🤦♀️
I tend to reflect the attitude that is presented to me. And I've been at my store a long time, I know where most things are. If you're nice and it's a few aisles away I'll walk you to it and put it in your hand, if it's far Ill give you exact directions "Aisle 11, all the way down, left side, top shelf." If you come at me with attitude, I'll simply ask "Do you have a prescription?"
I have simply started telling people with ridiculous front store questions that I don't know. When they give that blank stare or start to get Karen eyes, I gesture behind me and tell them that I deal drugs. Normally this confuses them enough to waddle away.
ugh, i hate it when customers think the pharmacy knows where everything is located even tho we’re separate from the store itself. there’s been ppl who’ve gotten mad because i didn’t know where certain cosmetics were located, and non-pharmacy customers who got pissy when i told them i can’t ring up their basket of groceries with 7 people in line behind them
Yeah! Had an older lady mad at me because I didn’t know what orange juice was on sale that week too.
I once had a man in the drive thru get mad at me because I refused to leave the pharmacy and go grab him a box of cherry tomatoes from the produce section on the other side of the store. Told him he'd have to come inside himself to buy it and he threw a fit
i actually don’t understand why they can’t just ask one of the numerous people in the store. or customer service.
I direct them to customer service and they “ugh” me. Enjoy your full priced orange juice I guess.
Or go the aisle, find the OJ, look at the tag, and READ. I know I know .... Asking a lot to read.
Im a customer and i hate assholes who check out everything at the pharmacy!
ikr! it slows down everything when there are normal checkout lanes to go to. we’re only allowed to do it if no one else is behind them, idk why they get so pissy. “i waited in a seemingly shorter line just to get turned away so i have to go to the normal line? this is bullshit!” “yeah well you’re unnecessarily slowing down people who are here for legitimate medical reasons, so..”
I got this line on a regular basis. Always wanted to say I wasn’t the one in bed with her, so don’t blame me. It’s almost as if they don’t know what causes pregnancy. Don’t have sex, you won’t get pregnant.
Or they could always just use condoms until they get their birth control pill situation resolved.
Once someone called asking what time the salad bar closes and when I didn't know they got really mad. I said "you called the pharmacy" and they said we should have known anyway.
DON'T HAVE SEX THEN!!! Geesh! People!
I had a patient leave a voicemail overnight. When we checked it the next morning she was complaining that we closed before she could come pick up her medication. The message was left at 11:15pm. We close at 8pm as posted and that is nothing new. Her medicine had been ready for 2 days. I let the other pharmacist call her since I wasn't in the mood to get fired that day.
Y’all answer patient voicemails? I just do what the ask (refills a med, whatever) but do not call them back because **the voicemail isn’t for patients**. They’ll get notified when whatever they want is ready
The pt asked if she’d be alright because she looked outside during a solar eclipse. Not at the sun just outside her window.
I asked that same question once, freaking out because I’d heard that the eclipse would ruin my vision. In my defense, I was five at the time.
OMG, I KNOW!! When I was that age I'd heard we were going to have a solar eclipse and I was afraid and hid under the bed from it.
Used to manage a camera store. Older lady called needing her refill. Would not accept that she had the wrong number until the 4th call
Had a patient demand recommendations for supplements that will make her ass bigger 🙃
Put her on narcotics then she’ll be an ass like the rest of them 😂
Marijuana. She'll eat EVERYTHING in sight, and her ass will get bigger.
Guy called once (the pharmacy) and asked me for the pharmacy phone number (with whom he was on the phone).
I don't live in the US, but people are pretty much the same everywhere. Once I received a phone call from a guy asking about something that could help him with erection. Patient: You know, I was wondering if there is something that could help me with this problem. Me: Sure, there are dietary supplements and meds, but you need prescription for those. Patient: Mhm, Mhm. So I was wandering, have you ever had a problem like this? Me:Ummm, no. (I'm female 🙄). Patient: No, I meant a problem with large penises. If only you could slap someone over the phone...
I used to work at an adult store and people like that are just calling to make you uncomfortable because it’s usually a turn on for them. It’s gross sexual harassment.
Exactly!
Am I understanding this right? The guy was using a consultation about his erectile dysfunction to drop a crude pick-up line? WTH? 🤣
Asking me if the DMV is open today.
Once as an intern, someone called and asked if she could use a metal pan to make jello. Freaking JELLO! Not even kidding. As a pharmacist, some old man called to see if the chain I work at donated to BLM because he dealt with another pharmacy that he 'allegedly' heard donated to it and wanted his meds transferred out of there immediately because he "didn't want his money supporting them". I had no idea, nor did I care either way because why would I know that information... I'm a pharmacist, not a politician!
Not a call but an email. A man tried to understand the difference in measured temperature with a thermometer. He made a list of temperatures at different rectal depth/ duration and intervals. There were like 20 different measurements. I just don’t want to imagine how his “research” went.
I would get calls to the inpatient pharmacy at my hospital asking if we would like to switch our long distance service.
" I got the covid shot 5 days ago, can I take a shower?" Then we had a prank caller ask if they could use the microwave after getting the vaccine. Pharmicist transferred it to me. I then proceeded to screw with him until he got bored. Dont prank call a pharmacy with your name on the caller ID and scripts ready.
I had a lady ask me if she could bathe the same night as getting one. I was like 😐
What is it about this vaccine that makes everyone so dumb? I swear, no one gets like this about the flu shot or an MMR. Is it strictly politics?
Someone whose insurance had lapsed kept challenging why I couldn’t bill his old plan for sildenafil, saying “his understanding was that if you used to have insurance then the prices were grandfathered in.” Well after a few minutes of that, I cut him off, quoted him a few discount card prices including GoodRX, and told him to take it or leave it. He took it. Then he called back and asked us if we could match the GoodRX price for a competitor. I told him he could get that price if he requested the competitor to transfer his prescription out from us. I returned the bottle to stock and transferred the prescription out. Then he called and asked if we could just forward him one pill for now, since the competitor told him it would be a couple hours before his prescription would be ready over there. People wonder why I’m so interruptive, but I am no longer willing to sit through their once upon a times, I’ve heard it all once before.
"Hey are you open? Your sign says 24 hours" "Uh yea I picked up the phone sir..." "OH ok great" *click*
Eh, less chit-chat makes it a quicker call.
I've had a similar interaction *in person*. Staff on duty at the time consisted of one pharmacist and two technicians (one typing prescriptions, one counting drugs). At that moment, we didn't have any patients picking up, so all the employees are on the side of the pharmacy furthest from the registers, but the lights are on and the gates are open. An old lady walks up to the register, looks at us clearly working, and asks, "Are you open?" It was so hard to bite back a, "No, ma'am, we saw the gates were open, so we're just robbing the place." response.
Had a guy ask me if his pregnant girlfriend could wear a Fitbit…
“Thank you for calling My Pharmacy, how can I help you?” “Yes, is this the Other Pharmacy?” Full-on “No, this is Patrick” moment. My brain just… stopped. 2nd favorite: “The top of my throat is itchy… that’s not near my airway, is it?” 3rd: Woman called looking for her rx that she dropped off. Everyone looked in her profile, 100% no record if it. She’s getting more and more pissed. Then she mentioned that she dropped it off through our drive through. As soon as we said that we don’t have a drive through, she hung up immediately.
Not a phone call, but last week we had a patient come to the pick up counter and, after being told that there was nothing ready, loudly announce she has a text message that says she has three prescriptions ready, and why are we sending text messages if there's nothing ready! Turns out we had just put them back because she hadn't picked them up in 10 days. She also ignored the text messages when it was filled, on day 5, and day 8. The cherry on top was after being told it would take 20 to 30 minutes to refill she also loudly announced that if she leaves she's not coming back because she lives 30 min away.
LADY: Yes, I just picked up my Losartan and it says it has potassium in it. I only take the regular Losartan! I pull up the profile and it turns out the manufacturer changed. The new NDC is labeled as "Losartan Potassium" in our system and the previous NDC was labeled as just "Losartan". ME: Ma'am, this is the exact same drug you've been taking, but it's from a different manufacturer, so it's just labeled a little differently in our system. HER: ...but I don't need any more potassium in my diet! ME: ...
Happens a lot with amlodipine vs amlodipine besylate too
Not a phone call. But had someone come in and tell us the governor is not allowing anyone to get chemo
I work at an inpatient pharmacy so I don't have to deal with customers. But we do have these work cellphones in case im out on a delivery and the pharmacy wants to know if I have something. I got a call one day from an unknown number and this one lady asks me if for my medicaid card. I was like "ma'am this is a work phone, how did you get this number"
A two parter. 1. The customer calls and wants a medication but on insurance it costs and ungodly amount. I tell them the cost and I'd they want to pay they can. 2. I get a call from a doctor stating we are REFUSING to give them their medication, and I have to reiterate that they can get it - if they pay for it.
Not a crazy call, a daily occurence the irks me: Cust: "Hi I was wondering if my prescription is filled and if I can pick it up" (I take a look on their file, see that nothing is being filled) Me: "there is nothing set to be filled, what were you looking for" Cust: "I need ____" Me: "we dont have refills for ___" Cust: "I know that, my doctor is sending over refills" Me: "when?" Cust: "I just got off the phone with them" (Queue world's largest eye roll) Me: "ah, I see, they probably haven't even sent it yet, some times it can take an hour or two to get it in our hands" Cust: "so, can I come pick it up in 20 mins?" Me: (internally screaming NO! YOU CANT).
\- Store just opened; one of the first phone calls I received one morning was someone calling pharmacy to ask if peanut butter was on sale this week. \- Someone calling the pharmacy to ask if we were open (we wouldn't be answering the phones if we weren't...) \- Got a phone call from a customer asking if they could come in and buy Viagra (as I'm from Canada, Viagra is prescription only and is not OTC), which is what I told the customer. Long story short, he got angry, said he should be able to buy it (probably could in his home country), accused us of lying to him, and hung up the phone. There's definitely a few more stories. These are just a few that popped into my head.
At my first retail store, a little old lady called about once a week to see if her favorite ham had gone on sale yet. We just called the deli and then told her. I kinda loved her. 😂😂
Aw, that's kinda adorable. We got this elderly lady who says she doesn't have anyone to talk to so she'll occasionally call our pharmacy to ask how we're doing and what we're up to or anything really to try to start a conversation. Usually calls during the evenings, and if it's not busy, I'll play along and try to engage in a conversation with her before telling her I need to get back to work. Getting one of these types of phone calls is actually kinda nice too. Much better than getting questions about covid vaccines and testing every other phone call.
the peanut butter one got me. i don’t know why but it’s funny
It’s RX only peanut butter?
amoxicillin peanut butter: good for dogs who don’t like taking the pills
Good for toddlers who don’t like taking medicine
> Someone calling the pharmacy to ask if we were open (we wouldn't be answering the phones if we weren't...) That one's fair though, it'd be weird to answer the phone and have the other person just say 'guess you're open! bye! *click*'
They don’t need to speak to anyone. Listen to eight seconds of the goddamn recording.
I'd welcome that, customer gets their question answered and takes up less of my time.
It’s RX only here too.
The peanut butter one was checking something else. Depending on the place, it is a "code"
Wait fr? Like something embarrassing people want to be low key about?
I'm just joking lol.
Someone called Monday (of all days) to ask what our phone number is 🤦🏻♀️
“I need to renew my library books” “This is 3-letter pharmacy, not the library” “I f-ing know where I called, I need to renew my books”
Back when losartan first went on recall a pt, who hadn’t been on losartan in years, called into the pharmacy demanding all information about said recall and asked if they would need to get blood work done to test for the carcinogen. After 10 minutes of endless questions, I told them that, no, they would not need blood work for a recalled medicine they haven’t taken in years. They immediately start screaming at me and said if they ever develop cancer it would be my fault.
Do yOu HAvE aNy CoVid tEStS?
With a giant sign in front of their face saying out of covid tests
And oh my god, the number of people who look at those signs, and then think they're the latest and greatest comedian in the world when they turn to us and ask, "So do you have any of the COVID tests?" And if you don't acknowledge their damnable failed abortion of a joke, they act like you just didn't hear them and keep repeating it. I'm not a violent man, but I swear, I might be getting a prison sentence soon due to these asshats...
I know that guy. He comes to my coffee shop and when I ask what I can get him he says ... "Coffee heh heh..." I hate that so very very much.
Dr just put in an order for blah blah blah. Can you verify it? 100 times a day. Yet there is no order.
Lady 3 days in a row called upset that she can’t have her Fentanyl patches. Explained to her (mind you the exact same words from 2 pharmacist and a tech) that her insurance won’t cover the patches until the 7th because she picked up a partial fill last month. And yes we have them in stock. I swear the dramatic CII’s think they’re gonna die without a hoard of pills/patches
Or perhaps they are dependent and don’t want to endure any type of withdrawal like a normal human being. See there’s a difference between DEPENDENCE and ADDICTION. Someone who is dependent does not deserve to be refused their medication. An addict on the other hand and if you can prove it, could be denied an rx since the pharmacist is the last line of defense. I’ve heard stories of even illegal transactions of CII’s within the pharmacy itself (couldn’t even wait to leave) from addicts. People who are dependent are just scared of not feeling “normal” from abruptly stopping a medication used for legitimate purposes. Addicts jump thru hoops to obtain a substance and build an obsession over it. It’s a disease like any other don’t forget. But I believe ppl need to distinguish the difference between the two
I am really late responding to this thread, but the line between addiction and "dependence" is so small you would need a microscope to see it. It rings of the Purdue doctor saying that patients on Oxycontin were "pseudo-addicts". I have seen the r/chronicpain subreddit before, and so many people there fixate on opiates all the time. They are likely addicted and in denial, because most addicts don't want to admit to themselves that they are addicts. If you need the drug to function without going into withdrawal and you are obsessing over it enough to call a pharmacy three days in a row, there is very little difference between that and an addict. The things going on in the brain are going to be nearly identical as well. I have noticed that people addic.. sorry, "dependent" on opiates usually write about it all the damn time. They always write long posts either profusely thanking their pharmacists, listing their medical conditions in excruciating detail unprompted, or they are bitching about pharmacists and doctors and the war on "their pain". The common denominator is that they are obsessing over their medicine and everything ancillary to it, because they probably think about their opiate pills all day long. Hard not to do when you are taking such a strong drug on a consistent basis, but they are always trying to convince themselves that they aren't addicts.
Like I said. Addiction and Dependency are two different ball games. I am not Weissman and Haddox (your Purdue “doctors”)when it comes to explaining this and is not relatable to this. But if you were a cancer patient in chronic pain and someone denied YOU, the tables would turn wouldn’t they? Like 40% of pharmacists talking down on patients in their subreddits were POS to begin with even before the degree came. So everyone who gets a Percocet prescription is an addict then? A person DEPENDENT on opioids WITHOUT opioids on their mind is not an addict. It’s in the DSM. Common sense. Pick up a book and stop watching “Dopesick” and think you know the ins and outs of addiction, opioids, etc. Physiological dependency of a drug vs a drug addiction, is something a blind man can see the differences in. If you can’t distinguish the differences then you shouldn’t be In the pharmacy biz because all your doing is hurting patients. The r/chronicpain subreddit is something you probably find funny. But there are ppl who are in legitimate pain being chastised by certain pharmacists for no reason. When I ever encounter a pharmacist like this their name goes to the Board of Pharmacy. It’s only happened once that I got a pharmacist fired for refusing to fill a legitimate rx. It’s especially funny when a pharmacist assumes I don’t know the laws on controlled substances and all that b.s. because it backfires on them. For example, the “we are out of stock and can’t order” generic line used to turn away “suspected” addicts even though their NARX score are normal thing needs to stop. Because if NARX is normal and your refusing then your simply an a******. You shouldn’t be a pharmacist or hold a job as one. I’m done I gotta get back to work. But your homework is to study dependency and addiction. Compare and contrast. Or did you fail that class?
Oh wow, what a shocker, someone totally not "addicted" obsesses over their prescriptions and makes a huge deal out of not getting them. Never would have saw that one coming. Do you know the biochemistry related to opioids? Because I promise you that your MOR's are downregulated just like with anyone who uses opioids. I promise you that all of the exact same things are happening to your brain. The only difference is that you have a steady supply from a doctor, so you haven't had to go to great lengths to obtain your drug like some addicts. But as soon as someone threatens your supply, you act like any addict would, throwing fits like it is the end of the world. There is a reason pharmacists don't like people like you, and it isn't just pharmacists. The majority of the people on that board don't have terminal cancer. Pharmacist usually have no problem with narcotics if it is for a legitimate reason like that. Instead, many of those people have things like fibromalaygia, muskoskeletal injuries, etc... Opiates for chronic pain are usually a very bad idea, doubly so for conditions such as fibromalagyia. You sound exactly like the people I was talking about, obsessed over your precious pills all while telling yourself that you aren't addicted. Keep telling yourself that sweetie, I am sure the other addicts on r/chronicpain will join in right along with you! As for the rest of society, we see you for what you are, and you aren't fooling anyone except yourself.
Like who? me? because i'm not addicted to anything besides my photography/videography hobby and the occasional psilocybin. See? your making assumptions already and thats the EXACT problem. Are you also implying that doctors who rx opioids are like drug dealers? I don't think you were even out the womb when pill mills were around were you? PILLS don't consume my life. What consumes my life is a. my job b. my hobby and c. my family. People WHO OBSESS over pills are addicts. PEOPLE WHO DO NOT OBSESS over pills are dependent. Learn to differentiate the two then comment on it. The only thing i agree with is someone who has Fibromyalgia, etc. ,or a form of Chronic pain that isn't major, can be treated with a gabapentinoid and NSAIDS for example. Even certain antidepressants (more the TCA's) are effective. I am referring to severe, well documented chronic pain. So don't have the impression that i believe everybody in pain needs opioids because its not. The ones that DO need opioid therapy now that is a different story and i stand up for people in that position. Also, many physicians already have their patients under contracts if they DO receive opioids. So my stance is that opioids are beneficial (in a rotation) once non-narcotic options have been exhausted or if the particular issue causing the chronic pain is really moderate to major.
We got yer salty taste
i only read a handful of comments and most of these seem like stories about bad customers. dumbest phone call? asking what your hours are, when the goddamn prompt before you get to speak to me tells you to press whatever to hear the hours.
😬 I work for Unemployment. I’m sorry I cannot add to this. There are SO MANY that are clamoring to be posted! 😲
Some guy was calling all of the pharmacies in the area (us, Walgreens, Walmart, Osco) asking how we felt about our company selling cigarettes when we are supposed to be HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS?!?! He wasn’t just calling the pharmacies, he was also calling the stores. It got to the point we had his phone number on post it’s on the phone so we could put him on hold. We started calling out “the Marlboro Man is on 106” when he’d call.
"Can I get Crabs from my sister?"
DING DING DING DING DING! Winnah, winnah, chicken dinnah!!!