Overnight RPh's - What's your record for longest patient phone call overnight?

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accordman83

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I just had a phone call with a lady last night lasting from 2:11 am until 4:12 am for a record 2 hours 1 minute!! This shattered my previous record of 1 hour 35 minutes from just 3 weeks ago. I was constantly dropping hints that I wanted to end the call but to no avail ( I would just set the phone down to help any in store customer that came in). After this I am curious, anyone have a longer record phone call?? Also the same patient called back 4 times after ending the first call!!! I couldn't escape!!!
 
accordman83 said:
I just had a phone call with a lady last night lasting from 2:11 am until 4:12 am for a record 2 hours 1 minute!! This shattered my previous record of 1 hour 35 minutes from just 3 weeks ago. I was constantly dropping hints that I wanted to end the call but to no avail ( I would just set the phone down to help any in store customer that came in). After this I am curious, anyone have a longer record phone call?? Also the same patient called back 4 times after ending the first call!!! I couldn't escape!!!
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ummm...i don't even believe that you actually did this. if this actually happened...please stop.
 
Luckily I am blessed with central fill so no autofills for me overnight!! After 45 minutes it becomes kind of a game for me to see how long they will actually string me along, lol.
 
I wish I was making it up but it was true, I looked at the clock exactly when she called because she had called at 12:30 and I was way to busy then and I told her to call back around 2am
 
Well the women thought she was having an acute MI she was scared $hitless I had to calm her down
 
accordman83 said:
Well the women thought she was having an acute MI she was scared $hitless I had to calm her down
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I had someone sit in my waiting area for 5-6 hours and check their blood sugar every 15 minutes. They were worried that it kept changing, and had countless inane conversations with me about it. I tried to tell her that blood sugar changes, but she was very worried regardless. It was tough to get anything done that night.
 
My record was 65 minutes - we were so bored it was a game -
 
wow that sounds insane, i wouldn't be able to get any work done with that amount of time spent on the phone. i work in in patient pharmacy and my record time on the phone was prob like five mins lol


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Any one ever go around and unplug all the phones between 1am-4am to avoid all the annoying phone calls? I never did but thought about it. There were a few times when the phone system was legitimately down which help cut back on the phone calls. Some stores the ringing "one pharmacy call" was louder than others. I floated at several stores where they had headsets for talking on the phone.
 
I have/had a headset. I can't abide stopping productivity just cause of a phone call. I actually had some nice chats while working that way overnight although often I just found the callers annoying lol

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Carboxide said:
And you didn't tell her to get off the phone and call 911 why, exactly?

You better hope she wasn't actually having an MI.
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DUDE, didn't you read? He fking calmed her down. The MI saw the logic and went away...it never stalked her again from that day on.

This guy...he's going places. Talking people out of MIs and stuff...
 
Carboxide said:
And you didn't tell her to get off the phone and call 911 why, exactly?

You better hope she wasn't actually having an MI.
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Oh she had just been discharged from the hospital 3 days ago... she had had 2 ekg and 3 troponin levels drawn over 3 days all completely normal yet she was upset they didn't send her to get a nuclear stress test. We went over every single lab test she had in the past year, everything normal except potassium, vitamin d, and crp. She kept insisting something was wrong with her heart and eventually decided she was headed to another local hospital.
 
i didn't realize you can talk people out of an MI. the moment they mention chest pain, heart, etc. is the moment you tell there's nothing you can do for them. simply die, be dead, or if they wish to continue their existence dial 911.
 
accordman83 said:
Oh she had just been discharged from the hospital 3 days ago... she had had 2 ekg and 3 troponin levels drawn over 3 days all completely normal yet she was upset they didn't send her to get a nuclear stress test. We went over every single lab test she had in the past year, everything normal except potassium, vitamin d, and crp. She kept insisting something was wrong with her heart and eventually decided she was headed to another local hospital.
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Yeah, that doesn't matter at all. Just because she didn't have one three days ago doesn't mean she isn't having one now. I cannot fathom risking my license like that. And boy, would the media have a field day with that. You'd be utterly indefensible.
 
zelman said:
"You're having a heart attack, Ma'am? Does that mean you want me to put all your meds on Readyfill?"
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Spoken like a true DM, readyfill can save this patient's life!

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15-20 mins...If I can recall, daytime calls probably last longer; especially the ones with irate people who want to yell at you non stop (it's like a therapy session for them) & you have to put them on hold to actually help normal people.

Favorite type of overnight phone call would have to be the "I haven't had a bowel movement in 3+ days..." What route he or she is willing to undergo in desperation somehow always fascinates me.
 
Fools, she also needs a flu shot and a naloxone rescue kit (even if she doesn't take opiates or know anyone who does).
 
Dr Wario said:
Fools, she also needs a flu shot and a naloxone rescue kit (even if she doesn't take opiates or know anyone who does).
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There were pharmacists sending out emails to the whole district regarding how they "saved" x amount of lives from the flu by giving out x amount of flu shots

lol
 
OP, why in the world would you stay on the phone that long? (unless you were like owlgrad and had a headset and could work with the talking as a background noise?) It's not that hard, tell her she needs to call 911 and that there is absolutely no OTC treatment for a heart attack, when she keeps talking tell her, "I'm sorry the store is swamped with customers right now, I have to go. " THEN HANG UP. If she calls back, tell her that you are helping someone else and put her on hold, then finish your work and don't go back to the phone. Seriously, you remind me of the old women who used to write into Ann Landers complaining that they couldn't get anything done all day because their neighbor would call and wouldn't stop talking. She gave the same advice I'm now giving you. Just tell them you have to go and hang up.
 
Carboxide said:
Yeah, that doesn't matter at all. Just because she didn't have one three days ago doesn't mean she isn't having one now. I cannot fathom risking my license like that. And boy, would the media have a field day with that. You'd be utterly indefensible.
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Surprise, surprise, she made it out alive! I just talked to her again last night (thank goodness for only like 10 minutes), she wanted me to find her the best cardiologist in the city, was not too happy when I told I do not recommend specific docs. To be fair I did offer to call her a squad the first night and she declined (said they would just take her to the hospital that had just discharged her). The headset is a good idea, I'm gonna have to look into getting one.
 
Last edited:
accordman83 said:
Surprise, surprise, she made it out alive! I just talked to her again last night (thank goodness for only like 10 minutes), she wanted me to find her the best cardiologist in the city, was not too happy when I told I do not recommend specific docs. To be fair I did offer to call her a squad the first night and she declined (said they would just take her to the hospital that had just discharged her). The headset is a good idea, I'm gonna have to look into getting one.
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I don't understand how you can possibly justify this. The fact she wasn't having one is completely irrelevant.

Your offering to call 911 is fine, but you followed up on that by reviewing her case and telling her she wasn't having a heart attack. Any other facts in the case are non-consequential.
 
My coworker told me a story of how bums sleep in the waiting area in the 24 hour pharmacy cuz its too cold to sleep outside in the winter. He once spent his whole graveyard shift of 8 hours talking to a bum about vicodin.
 
Carboxide said:
I don't understand how you can possibly justify this. The fact she wasn't having one is completely irrelevant.

Your offering to call 911 is fine, but you followed up on that by reviewing her case and telling her she wasn't having a heart attack. Any other facts in the case are non-consequential.
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I never told her she was not having a heart attack, how could I possible know that? I just objectively went over her lab work that she had in front of her. I can't force someone to go to a hospital, there is a point where a person is ultimately responsible for their own health and decisions. She was very frantic in the beginning, and by talking with her so long she dramatically calmed down. It was fairly clear she has serious anxiety issues, and her symptoms indicated this more so than typical heart attack warning signs (I know I know...she is a woman). She called me AGAIN last night, and is doing well, I held the call to an unbelievable 2 minutes cause the 24 hour CVS down the road closed down last night and she was actually sympathetic, and guess who got all their scripts?
 
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