extend professional courtesy [rant]

[npage148]

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Last night, i was working at my pharmacy as an intern at about 8pm. Its a busy chain pharmacy right across from a major hospital/ER. Well, it was the usually busy monday, but to make matters worse we were down 2 techs during the day, so we were still playing catch up at that time and had about an hour wait. I was rushing the ugents ones through faster. This DO, still in his scrubs, comes to drop off a script. Its a script that he wrote himself for viagra. I take his information and kindly tell him its an hour or so. He flashes me this ass hole look and say "cant you extend some professional courtesy and have it done in 15 minutes?" (On a good day, its a 20 min wait). I bluntly tell hime know and explain that everyone walks over from his ER and wants their scripts filled as fast as possible. He huffs and puffs and says ok and walks away. 5 Min later, he comes back and asks for his scripts and says hes going some place there they wil extend courtesy to other professionals. I dont know, something about the situation really pissed me off. Firstly, it was for viagra and secondly im sure if i walked into the ER with some lame complaint he wouldnt extend his couresty and rush me into the back. [/rant]

thanks for listenting

 

[bananaface]

Translation: I have a date tonight and waited until the last minute.

Men get bitchy when these situations arise.

 

[pharmaz88]

If I had recognized his name as actually being one of the ER docs, I would have done it, reminding him that when you have to call over in the future for clarification on an ER-release Rx, you'll also expect his prompt attention.

It's good to build relationships with people who have the direct capability of making your job tougher/easier, whether or not you think it's the 'right' thing to do.

If he was just a hospitalist or general physician, I would have let him wait like everyone else. Heck, how long do you get put on hold when you call their offices to ask them something?


(Note: this comes from my perspective of filling about 10% of our rx's in any given day from two nearby ERs.)

 

[bananaface]

First of all, an hour's wait is ridiculous regardless of the patient, unless there are special circumstances, like they just dumped an order for 10 different meds on you. I bet you have a drive through. There comes a point when people actually physically waiting need to get helped first, period. Drive throughs make "waiters" out of non-waiters. Yet another reason why they are stupid.

Second, if someone tries to muscle their way into special privilidges, the answer is always no. This goes for physicians and screamers. I don't act like that when seeing a physician. There is no reason for them to act that way when they come to my pharmacy. Of course, I treat all of my patients well, so nobody has anything to bitch about. That doesn't mean I won't bump someone ahead for a legitimate need.

I still say the phrase "professional courtesy" was code for "But, dude, I have a DATE!!!"

 

[Ivorymist]

You did nothing wrong. He was basically flashing his "God" card and telling you that "I'm the doc, so I deserve special treatment." That's a bunch of crap. Whoever walks up to a pharmacy is a patient who gets the same treatment as other patients regardless of what he does for a living.

He probably would have done the same thing even if the script was not for Viagra. You did the right thing in holding your ground.

 

[sunnyjohn]

Translation: I have a date tonight and waited until the last minute.

Men get bitchy when these situations arise.

arise!!! haha


If you went into his ER he'd make you wait.

 

[Samoa]

Tell him you've triaged his prescription, and you'll fill it as soon as you're done with the patients who are in pain or who need antibiotics.

 

[bananaface]

arise!!! haha


If you went into his ER he'd make you wait.

But, what if I went to the ER/ED to ask for Viagra? 😕

 

[npage148]

I dont think he was a ER doctor, i never seen his name on a blank from the ER before. THe hour wait is not rediculous, 50% of our rx's are medicaid people getting scripts from the ER filled for lortab, motrin and soma for themselves, and liquid apap and other OTC products for their kids. They come in every 5 days, refuse to pay their copays and clog up the whole works. Those patients wait. If someone actually had a legitate pain/antbiotic script, i had it out to them in 30 minutes max.

Annoying doctor story for the day. A doc come in with a script written by her friend MD for some valium. It was not dated. I told her she had to take it back to her doc. She busts out "well im a doctor too so ill just write a date on it". I told her if she did that i would take it and rip it up. She huffed and puffed and came back 45 min with it dated

 

[microbe hunter]

Annoying doctor story for the day. A doc come in with a script written by her friend MD for some valium. It was not dated. I told her she had to take it back to her doc. She busts out "well im a doctor too so ill just write a date on it". I told her if she did that i would take it and rip it up. She huffed and puffed and came back 45 min with it dated

I wouldn't think a pharmacist could take someone's prescription away from him or her like that. It could be seen as abandoning a patient and one could possibly lose a license over that. But you, surely, don't have to fill it if it is important that there be a date on that valium script...

But for the original case, it is not 'professional courtesy' to put this doctor's need for viagra ahead of medicaid and ER patients who need their medicines just as much, if not more than that doctor. Unless he's working in a professional capacity at the time, he is a patient like everyone else.

 

[Caverject]

I dont think he was a ER doctor, i never seen his name on a blank from the ER before. THe hour wait is not rediculous, 50% of our rx's are medicaid people getting scripts from the ER filled for lortab, motrin and soma for themselves, and liquid apap and other OTC products for their kids. They come in every 5 days, refuse to pay their copays and clog up the whole works. Those patients wait. If someone actually had a legitate pain/antbiotic script, i had it out to them in 30 minutes max.

Annoying doctor story for the day. A doc come in with a script written by her friend MD for some valium. It was not dated. I told her she had to take it back to her doc. She busts out "well im a doctor too so ill just write a date on it". I told her if she did that i would take it and rip it up. She huffed and puffed and came back 45 min with it dated

Which leads me to question, how do you know the medicaid prescriptions are not legit? Why would you give someone sub-standard care because you find them annoying? Maybe they really do need that kind of help. Maybe they refuse the copays cause they can't afford it? (hence Medicaid??)

 

[All4MyDaughter]

The doctor who wanted you to fill his viagra STAT was a jerk for asking for special favors. Still, I probably would have been friendlier, smiled, told him that I would see what I could do, and tried to fill it (as well as the other scripts) as quickly as possible. It never ceases to amaze me how people calm down when they know you are sympathetic and are trying to help them.

Waiting in the pharmacy is a pain, no matter what. Usually I just drop off and come back later. The only time I ever wait is if I have my daughter with me and the script is for her, because it's more of a hassle to put her back in the car, unload her at home, reload, unload again at the pharmacy, toting her around, you get the picture. So we end up circling the store with her in the cart, eating cheese nips or whatever I can find on the shelf (yes, I pay for them!), me singing and dancing and doing whatever it takes to keep her from melting down - because we woudn't be there if she weren't sick and already feeling crappy... Then people are like, "Your baby is sick, you should take her home!" and I'm like, "tell that to the pharmacy dude!"

 

[ZpackSux]

You mean to tell me that ER doesn't stock Viagra? How else will they treat those rare pulmonary hypertensions?

 

[Leah27]

Which leads me to question, how do you know the medicaid prescriptions are not legit? Why would you give someone sub-standard care because you find them annoying? Maybe they really do need that kind of help. Maybe they refuse the copays cause they can't afford it? (hence Medicaid??)

you know that they can pay the copays when they also buy doritos and make up and cigaretts and stickers and toys and video tapes.....

as for the doctor who wanted his viagra.. he's just a jerk.. a lot of people are.. under no circumstances should you stop the works to fill a viagra RX.. and a hour wait might SEEM excessive, but everything depends on teh pharmacist. and if he/she is counselling, or taking to MD's on the phone, things get backed up.... people think 15 minutes is too long.. it is just the society we live in... it is ironic that some of the most impatient people are old enough to remember a time when you had to wait until the NEXT DAY to get your medicine... imagine that!

 

[Pilot]

Back in the day when I worked full-time as a pharmacist, I floated to a Wal-Mart store in my district where I was not familiar with the patients or staff. My first shift at this store - I had an elderly "gentleman" come and drop off an Rx - then promptly walk down by the register and demand his filled prescription in less than 30 seconds. I politely informed him the Rx would be processed in the order it was received. He pitched a fit, and stormed off. Three minutes later, I turn around and he had entered the pharmacy through the cashier side, and stood inside the door of the pharmacy and glared at me.

At this point I was angry, and told him to get out of my pharmacy. He told me he was a doctor, and I told him I didn't care who he was. He began yelling and cursing, I threatened to physically remove him from my pharmacy, and I finally gave him his hard copy back and told him never to return to the pharmacy again. The pharmacy staff was shocked, as no one at the pharmacy had ever stood up to this physician before.

Needless to say, the district manager was contacted by the doctor, and the DM had the cajones to stand up to the doctor also (DM was a former pharmacist and thus understood the situation). Always good to have a DM who has principles and not only looking to smooth over situations in which the patient is clearly wrong.