Firing patient

[VictorOfHungerGames]

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How do you deal with a$$hole patients. I encountered a witch looking entitled medicaid patient today who screamed on the phone for 10 mins for not having her methylphenidate ready. Wtf?!

Apparently, shes had history of bad behavior way before I started working.

She threatened to transfer out. I was like HELL YES! and the she was like, i need to talk to your supervisor! And I was like, b!*ch i am the supervisor. Lol

Has anyone refused to fill a prescription or forced a transfer of people of diminished intellect?

 

[BMBiology]

You can’t “fire” a patient when you have a boatload of student loans.

 

[RxPreceptor]

Well, I have used PMP suspicious activity reporting for some problematic patients; use your judgment (these were clearly poly-pharma, poly-MD/Dr. shopper cases...I don't know all the circumstances of your case in particular). Eventually such reporting will result in pharmacy lock-in status and severe limitations on # MDs. If none of the above apply, I would just use powers of persuasion/word smithing skills to let her decide to simply choose another pharmacy (yeah, easier said than done with them "dull knives", best to just be honest about expectations vs. limitations of your ordering/inventory)...best allocate those charisma and intelligence points appropriately (joke)

 

[MilknCheerios]

First of all, don't have any staff members take her insults as personal. It may be difficult and if she's just screaming obscenities over the phone, put the phone down. When she's stopped, inform her that it's difficult to help her if she continues what she's doing. Continue to try and win her over with kindness. Rinse and repeat.

If that doesn't work...

Inform her that you are the supervisor and manager and your staff is doing all that they can to help her, but if she's still unhappy with the service provided, your pharmacy may not be the right fit for her. She can try go "up the chain," but as long as you guys truly are doing what you can both professionally and legally, management will take your side. Now, If she's chronically early on her fill dates, you can inform the doc about this issue and request fill dates be provided on the E-Rx or hardcopy. The doc should take your side too and if he/she doesn't, explain why it's important they do so; CIIs are highly regulated.

Ultimately, you want as many people on your side as possible. Your staff, management, the doctors and nurses, and most importantly, the law. You can't please everybody, that's how you make yourself unhappy. Relax, take a deep breath, and move on with your life. Hopefully, she will too.

 

[angelsplight]

Force them out of your mind. I had one patient who proceeded to curse to me on the phone because her bdzs were not ready cause well..It is 2 weeks early and these things have no refills. I just hung up and moved on.

 

[Sine Cura]

This stuff happens all the time in retail.

Can't transfer a fentanyl from Colorado?

Can't fill fake benzos from a fake doctor?

Would you be affected by the opinions of a child? That's who they mentally are.

Of course if they are being verbally or physically abusive and making it personal you need to get rid of them and transfer out. Decent field management will back you up. I have never given out a gift card in my life and don't plan to anytime soon

 

[JustFillIt]

Well, I have used PMP suspicious activity reporting for some problematic patients; use your judgment (these were clearly poly-pharma, poly-MD/Dr. shopper cases...I don't know all the circumstances of your case in particular). Eventually such reporting will result in pharmacy lock-in status and severe limitations on # MDs. If none of the above apply, I would just use powers of persuasion/word smithing skills to let her decide to simply choose another pharmacy (yeah, easier said than done with them "dull knives", best to just be honest about expectations vs. limitations of your ordering/inventory)...best allocate those charisma and intelligence points appropriately (joke)

I agree 100%, I maximize my charisma points appropriately in a case like this. I never fail a persuasion, or intimidation, check when needed. Rarely - I may need to use thumaturgy in conjunction with a solid intimidation roll to really drive the point home. Then, when they scurry off I feel slightly more experienced than before - if I’m really lucky I actually pop a level..

Haha - if life is a game it’s not so bad after all..

 

[DrVader]

How do you deal with a$$hole patients. I encountered a witch looking entitled medicaid patient today who screamed on the phone for 10 mins for not having her methylphenidate ready. Wtf?!

Apparently, shes had history of bad behavior way before I started working.

She threatened to transfer out. I was like HELL YES! and the she was like, i need to talk to your supervisor! And I was like, b!*ch i am the supervisor. Lol

Has anyone refused to fill a prescription or forced a transfer of people of diminished intellect?

I have seen a difficult patient handles several different ways. First, is to simply tell them that we won't fill their scribes anymore and ask them where they would like them to be transferred. At CVS, they can simply go to other CVS and automatically transfer that way. I will then make a note in their file not to fill their scribes at that location. You would be surprised how many times I see that with dinguses. I also had a customer who was offensive to other customers and patients. At that location, they had an actual cop. The cop told him that he is banned from that store and if he comes in again, he will be immediately arrested for trespassing on private property. That was rare and I only saw it once. The easy thing is to simply hand their scribes back and say go somewhere else.

 

[RxPreceptor]

One of my recent dumb-dumbs...control substance monthly through worker's comp yet have to explain to her every month about the limitations about early fills on controls & time needed for worker's comp case to go through (separate entity/variable, yet she thinks I have control over?) and to make things even worse, I have to go over exact days/number of doses with her EVERY time based on last pick up day yet she still can not comprehend. She thinks she can guilt trip me/make me accountable if she takes too much drug and runs out early or is unwilling to wait for worker's comp claim to go through...**** no, not losing 1 minute of sleep over her BS. Usual rate limiting step = worker's comp case approval/MD contact....I tell her she can pay out of pocket or with commercial insurance if she pleases (nope wants everything for free and early)

 

[Wickett]

How do you deal with a$$hole patients. I encountered a witch looking entitled medicaid patient today who screamed on the phone for 10 mins for not having her methylphenidate ready. Wtf?!

Apparently, shes had history of bad behavior way before I started working.

She threatened to transfer out. I was like HELL YES! and the she was like, i need to talk to your supervisor! And I was like, b!*ch i am the supervisor. Lol

Has anyone refused to fill a prescription or forced a transfer of people of diminished intellect?

I've only actively refused to fill for a handful of people. A few were control shoppers caught on pmp. I simply tell them I'm happy to fill their maintenance meds, but can no longer fill their controls. I word it in a way that it is out of my hands/blame it on the DEA and say they do audits and expect us not to fill in those situations....most are fine with that and still fill non controls.

Only two I have out right banned. One guy bowed up on me and threatened violence for not filling two opioids from two different ERs. I told him to leave, then filed a criminal trespass when he came back a week later yelling at the staff. The other we banned because she jumped another customer in line at the pharmacy because "she owed her money." The cops took care of that.

Other than that, I've never told someone directly to transfer out....that gets skewed in a complaint and can look bad in corporate's eyes. You can get the same result without opening yourself up to a bad looking complaint.

Instead, I tell people if they want to keep filling with us, they need to show proper respect towards the staff and that their current behavior isn't acceptable, and/or certain procedures need to be respected and followed for future fills...some shaped up and the others simply transferred out on their own/never came back.

 

[ldiot]

Just make a new policy of not filling any C2-5 a single day early for any reason unless the doctor calls you to okay it for vacation or they can provide a police report of a stolen medication and the doctor also okays it. And they have to have the doctor call you, you don't call. Within 3-6 months you will lose a lot of people, most if which are pain in the ass customers who want to wait on their 120 Percocet in the drive thru.

If they use profanity warn them, and if they do it a second time ban them from the store.

If you have a Suboxone clinic nearby you might want to stop taking new Suboxone patients too. They tend to complain the most, call 8 times per day, and always end up being a waiter

 

[mentos]

In Soviet Russia, patient fires you!