How often does this happen and what do you do?

[Charcoales]

Person going "shut up the doctor already told me what its for" when u are in the middle of explaining side effects of an er script... I usually try not to explode and just give'em the med.

Also love it when they are visibly rolling their eyes at me when I offer naloxone since I see a 50% dose increase on a narcotic let's say oxy 60 mg tdd to 90... I should prob refuse the sale of that happens since they aren't understanding the risks of their medication..m

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[AH.Rx]

Patients are rude, disrespectful, and of course...dumb (generally uneducated about anything medical/science related).

Try not to get offended by their attitude. It’s not like some scholar, actual smart person is disrespecting you, say bill gates or Elon musk. It’s just some casual patient who thinks pharmacists are trying to sell them bad drugs at hiked up prices and probably think vaccines are bad for children. Def wouldn’t mind if one of these fools disrespected me. Let bygones be bygones, am I right?

 

[Charcoales]

Patients are rude, disrespectful, and of course...dumb (generally uneducated about anything medical/science related).

Try not to get offended by their attitude. It’s not like some scholar, actual smart person is disrespecting you, say bill gates or Elon musk. It’s just some casual patient who thinks pharmacists are trying to sell them bad drugs at hiked up prices and probably think vaccines are bad for children. Def wouldn’t mind if one of these fools disrespected me. Let bygones be bygones, am I right?

True, hard for the hr to no go up a bit when you're just trying to follow the law on consulting and you think you're helping them heh sigh

 

[hye345]

Person going "shut up the doctor already told me what its for" when u are in the middle of explaining side effects of an er script... I usually try not to explode and just give'em the med

No one goes to the pharmacy because they are in a great mood. In addition, also consider the fact that they probably just came from the doctors office, another venue not noted for a cheerful atmosphere. Yeah, it’s hurtful and rude, but try not to dwell on it. Odds are, the five individuals who came before him, or the fives who are coming after, are perfectly normal, maybe even pleasant. Focus on those instead.

 

[johnpharm01]

"No one goes to the pharmacy because they are in a great mood. "
That's just excusing some bad behavior and sounds like a corporate response to me. And how would you know this to be true? Just because they are coming in to the pharmacy doesn't mean they are in a bad mood. Unfortunately, people behave like this at major chains. I would get a thick skin and end the counseling session right there. If its a regular customer I would ignore them in the future whenever possible.

Worked at two independents and people rarely got upset. At one a lady was getting agitated just to cause a scene. Told her I would her help her out but she would have to relax. She stopped throwing her tantrum.

 

[hye345]

"No one goes to the pharmacy because they are in a great mood. "
That's just excusing some bad behavior and sounds like a corporate response to me. And how would you know this to be true? Just because they are coming in to the pharmacy doesn't mean they are in a bad mood. Unfortunately, people behave like this at major chains. I would get a thick skin and end the counseling session right there. If its a regular customer I would ignore them in the future whenever possible.

Worked at two independents and people rarely got upset. At one a lady was getting agitated just to cause a scene. Told her I would her help her out but she would have to relax. She stopped throwing her tantrum.

I'm not excusing anything. If you have a patient who is consistently rude, then by all means, warn them that you will not be able to fill for them in the future. I'm just saying that in my experience, most people aren't like this. I've interned/worked at several locations across 2 chains and 3 states, and the percentage of bad apples ranged from 5-20%, depending on the luck of the draw (being at wrong place at wrong time, etc...). Most were not rude, disrespectful, or dumb. Of course, we only focus on the negative ones (I'm guilty of this as well), but we shouldn't. I've had more than one pharmacist/doctor be rude to be on the phone, so by your logic, are we all jerks?

 

[johnpharm01]

I would say I never judge a patient its not my responsibility. I do evaluate their behavior and I don't reward bad behavior. In addition, one incident does not necessarily mean that a person is going to be a problem in the future. You definitely have to be compassionate. But at the same time I recognize the environment in the major chains promotes deliberate, malicious behavior by customers toward staff that is not born of disease.

HYE 345 I would recommend you speak with you management if you work in a major retailer. Don't know you role, etc but many of them won't let you ban a patient that's the DM's call.

I am curious Giga and HYE 345, how would you proceed with the counseling session?

 

[johnpharm01]

Its interesting you ask this question though. Years back I was at ASHP midyear attending a CE by a North Carolina BOP member. He started out his talk by describing a similar situation as described by the OP but in his example the customer died (tramadol/seizures). It sounded like the speaker (BOP member) was criticizing the pharmacy staff. I asked him what he would expect the staff to do. He stated the patient should have been counseled. The pharmacist had tried to do this but the patient was rude and dismissive like OPs.

 

[hye345]

I would say I never judge a patient its not my responsibility. I do evaluate their behavior and I don't reward bad behavior. In addition, one incident does not necessarily mean that a person is going to be a problem in the future. You definitely have to be compassionate. But at the same time I recognize the environment in the major chains promotes deliberate, malicious behavior by customers toward staff that is not born of disease.

HYE 345 I would recommend you speak with you management if you work in a major retailer. Don't know you role, etc but many of them won't let you ban a patient that's the DM's call.

I am curious Giga and HYE 345, how would you proceed with the counseling session?

I can’t speak with the entirety of CVS, but we have banned plenty of people in our district, as has a buddy of mine in a different district. It depends on how supportive your DM is, but usually the magic phrase is “this person repeatedly abuses my staff”.

As far as counseling, if patient says he has had it before, I give them 1 or 2 short main points, just so I can say I counseled them with clean conscience. I’ve had maybe 1 or 2 people walk away as I was talking. I don’t think much of it; can’t physically hold them down now can I? It still records as counsel.

 

[Truthspeaker]

Its interesting you ask this question though. Years back I was at ASHP midyear attending a CE by a North Carolina BOP member. He started out his talk by describing a similar situation as described by the OP but in his example the customer died (tramadol/seizures). It sounded like the speaker (BOP member) was criticizing the pharmacy staff. I asked him what he would expect the staff to do. He stated the patient should have been counseled. The pharmacist had tried to do this but the patient was rude and dismissive like OPs.

Interesting. I'm not following the logic behind this example at all. How would counseling a patient on the possibility of a seizure from Tramadol prevent the patient from dying from Status epilepticus? Is the patient supposed to call 9-11 or self-administer diazepam while actively seizing? If the patient was being counseled, the pharmacist already made the decision to dispense and felt the benefit of the Tramadol outweighed the risk of seizures. If the patient was on a boatload of seizure meds then it is more of a judgement issue than a lack of proper counseling.

 

[ldiot]

Person going "shut up the doctor already told me what its for" when u are in the middle of explaining side effects of an er script... I usually try not to explode and just give'em the med.

Also love it when they are visibly rolling their eyes at me when I offer naloxone since I see a 50% dose increase on a narcotic let's say oxy 60 mg tdd to 90... I should prob refuse the sale of that happens since they aren't understanding the risks of their medication..m

Just stop counseling and ask them some random question. For example, if it's an inhaler say "Oh great, so just to verify that you understand, can you demonstrate how you would use this inhaler?" Then after 2 seconds stop them and tell them that they are supposed to shake it first

 

[BidingMyTime]

I love when that happens, I'm like "Great! I will document that you have refused counseling per Illinois law." Saves me time, why do I want to waste time counseling someone who doesn't care?

Funny story along this line, I went to counsel someone the other day, med they had been on for awhile, but it was a mfg change. The were upset they had to wait for me and said "I've been on this med forever, I don't need counseling." I'm like "great! I will document that you have refused counseling per Illinois law." 20 minutes later they are calling & yelling at the tech that we gave them the wrong med. I was happy to get on the phone and tell the person that part of the counseling they had refused, was informing them that there had been a mfg change on their medication. And that if they wanted to know in the future about mfg changes, then they should accept counseling.

 

[owlegrad]

I love when that happens, I'm like "Great! I will document that you have refused counseling per Illinois law." Saves me time, why do I want to waste time counseling someone who doesn't care?

Funny story along this line, I went to counsel someone the other day, med they had been on for awhile, but it was a mfg change. The were upset they had to wait for me and said "I've been on this med forever, I don't need counseling." I'm like "great! I will document that you have refused counseling per Illinois law." 20 minutes later they are calling & yelling at the tech that we gave them the wrong med. I was happy to get on the phone and tell the person that part of the counseling they had refused, was informing them that there had been a mfg change on their medication. And that if they wanted to know in the future about mfg changes, then they should accept counseling.

Lol so petty. I love it.

 

[Sine Cura]

The prescribers are so bad in my area that most people don't mind waiting for a consult as getting their **** at the pharmacy (if the e-script is actually sent to us; I would say at least 20% of the time ERx are sent to the wrong pharmacy) is far faster than sitting in a waiting room for hours. Usually it is the uppity "I'm a nurse" type of people that are the annoying ones.

 

[johnpharm01]

Interesting. I'm not following the logic behind this example at all.

Its been a while so the details are fuzzy in memory I believe the individual was also on methadone.

But its an analogous situation. Pharmacist tries to counsel, patient is dismissive, rude. In this case the BOP member insisted that the patient still be counseled.

I think we have a responsibility to counsel but at the same time patients can refuse it. I think that we have to be compassionate and thick skinned but we also have a right to a decent work environment. As a customer if I go into a business and someone is causing a scene I tend to leave.