Telephone Calls in a Pharmacy

[thinking]

In my experience phone calls are such a headache as most of those calls are unnecessary or misdirected. Sometimes it feels like you are working at a call center. I wonder what kind of issues fellow pharmacists encounter with regards to phone calls.

1. Does your phone ring off the hook?
2. Is it time-consuming and/or disruptive for productivity/focus?
3. Is it error-prone process to take prescriptions over the phone?
4. How do you know that caller is who caller says he/she is?
5. If you are not certain who is calling, how comfortable you are taking a prescription (esp. for controlled substances)?
6. Does your pharmacy rout calls from prescribers to the pharmacist and all other calls go to techs?
7. Do some callers exploit that routing by choosing option reserved for prescribers? (you take that call thinning doctor is calling and caller asks "what time you are closing today?") 🙂
8. Do you think without a phone you can work better/more?

Please share your take on these issues.

Thanks!

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[lisinopril]

Phone calls are the most annoying things that put me (and most pharmacists) stressed out. Without phone calls, my job would be a lot more relaxing and chilling. 50% of phone calls are "where is my medication" from nurses if you work in the pharmacy.

 

[owlegrad]

1) Yes

2) Yes

3) Use the "Read Back" technique. It is no more error prone than any other rx IMO.

4+5) For calling in controls, as long as they have the DEA # and otherwise do not say anything weird I accept they are who they claim to be.

6) I ask my techs to answer every line. When you call the doctor's office the doctor doesn't pick up. There is no rule I know of that says the RPh must answer the doctor's line.

7) See above

8) What fantasy are you living in?

 

[Travex]

I agree with most of what owlegrad said. Speaking from my perspective as an intern... For #6, keep in mind that most of the time the doctor's office wants to call in a prescription or have a question about patient med history... There is rarely a call that absolutely requires the pharmacist to answer it. Sometimes they will get pissed if you say that you need to transfer them to be pharmacist ("I thought I WAS talking to the pharmacist!") but oh well. When we need to talk to the doctor, we have to go through like 2-3 prompts, a receptionist, a nurse, and sometimes wait hours for a callback just to talk to the doctor. The extra 1-2 minutes of talking to the tech/intern first is nothing compared to that.

For #7, if a patient calls on the doctor line one of the techs I work with actually makes them hang up and call again ("you called on the doctor line, i'm going to need you to call back on the correct line") just to teach them a lesson. I don't feel like pissing them off so I just take it but eh the other way is valid as well.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Teach your techs how to screen. Not everyone who asks for the pharmacist actually needs the pharmacist. Have them triage the calls, but know their limits and when they should get you.

I called the pharmacy about one of my scripts that was filled incorrectly. The tech wouldn't put the pharmacist on the line and said she could help me. She insisted the script was correct. It was not. I told her I was a pharmacist and that I was confident that the RX was not filled and billed correctly. She started in with "Well, if you are a pharmacist you should know that... blah blah blah." She was absolutely incorrect and got really upset when I told her that. She told the pharmacist I was mean to her.

 

[Dr Wario]

The absolute biggest problems we have with phone calls in our pharmacy do not come from customers, they come from prescriber offices. It is now the year 2013, there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO reason why any script should EVER need to be called in over the phone with the current technology available. The number one reason scripts are called, instead of using alternate methods in my area, is prescriber laziness. They don't care that a person that barely makes $10/hr who cannot speak English is wasting the time of a trained professional making $60/hr, as long as they don't have to sign their name on the piece of paper. They also use it as a way to cover up their mistakes because any misfills can be blamed on pharmacy interpretation.

Some might say that phoned in scripts are necessary when the prescriber is out of the office, but no, in a world where my smart phone can store all of my loyalty cards and open my garage door, there is no excuse for not utilizing this technology to make the healthcare system more efficient. I need every prescriber that calls in scripts to the pharmacy to understand exactly what you are doing TO us as pharmacists. I serve about 600-700 patients per day at my store and for most of the day there is only one pharmacist on duty. Having your worthless staff members waste my time calling in scripts is an absolute insult, especially because most of them cannot even pronounce hydrochlorothiazide and do not know what it is for. This guessing game they play costs me a vast amount of time, time that I should be using to professionally serve my patients.

Also, I get at least five calls per day from offices asking me what they themselves prescribed for their patient. This may be something area specific, so if you do not do this I will obviously not hold you accountable, but if you are calling your local pharmacy with this question...I have to ask what the hell are you doing in your office?

So in conclusion, prescribers, get your office janitors (err receptionists) off the phones and utilize the technology developed to make healthcare more efficient and accurate. Remember, not doing this wastes our time, and I barely have time to use the restroom during my shift. Do not forget, I can do many things to waste your time that I do not, I would appreciate if you would expend us pharmacists the same courtesy.

 

[pezdispenser]

<3 the Walgreens Power call center 😍

 

[Corpseman]

Teach the techs to triage calls like A4MC said.

 

[thinking]

The absolute biggest problems we have with phone calls in our pharmacy do not come from customers, they come from prescriber offices. It is now the year 2013, there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO reason why any script should EVER need to be called in over the phone with the current technology available. The number one reason scripts are called, instead of using alternate methods in my area, is prescriber laziness. They don't care that a person that barely makes $10/hr who cannot speak English is wasting the time of a trained professional making $60/hr, as long as they don't have to sign their name on the piece of paper. They also use it as a way to cover up their mistakes because any misfills can be blamed on pharmacy interpretation.

Some might say that phoned in scripts are necessary when the prescriber is out of the office, but no, in a world where my smart phone can store all of my loyalty cards and open my garage door, there is no excuse for not utilizing this technology to make the healthcare system more efficient. I need every prescriber that calls in scripts to the pharmacy to understand exactly what you are doing TO us as pharmacists. I serve about 600-700 patients per day at my store and for most of the day there is only one pharmacist on duty. Having your worthless staff members waste my time calling in scripts is an absolute insult, especially because most of them cannot even pronounce hydrochlorothiazide and do not know what it is for. This guessing game they play costs me a vast amount of time, time that I should be using to professionally serve my patients.

Also, I get at least five calls per day from offices asking me what they themselves prescribed for their patient. This may be something area specific, so if you do not do this I will obviously not hold you accountable, but if you are calling your local pharmacy with this question...I have to ask what the hell are you doing in your office?

So in conclusion, prescribers, get your office janitors (err receptionists) off the phones and utilize the technology developed to make healthcare more efficient and accurate. Remember, not doing this wastes our time, and I barely have time to use the restroom during my shift. Do not forget, I can do many things to waste your time that I do not, I would appreciate if you would expend us pharmacists the same courtesy.

And when you ask those receptions/office staff the phone number/DEA number .... response is 123ZZZZZZZZZZ, ARZZZZZZZZZZ and when you ask them to slow down, most will express their 'dissatisfaction' with your inability to follow their 'ZZZZZZZzz'.
Even more scary is when you suggest a change in dose, they would say 'Yea that's fine'. Hello, who are you to make that decision?

 

[thinking]

<3 the Walgreens Power call center 😍

Is that Power Call Center nationwide or limited to Florida and other select states?

 

[thinking]

1) Yes

2) Yes

3) Use the "Read Back" technique. It is no more error prone than any other rx IMO.

4+5) For calling in controls, as long as they have the DEA # and otherwise do not say anything weird I accept they are who they claim to be.

6) I ask my techs to answer every line. When you call the doctor's office the doctor doesn't pick up. There is no rule I know of that says the RPh must answer the doctor's line.

7) See above

8) What fantasy are you living in?

About #6 - I agree that should be the way. However, ground reality is that lots of techs need 'hourly reminders' that they have to pick the phone. And you can imagine how 'swiftly and happily' they would pick the line which is distinctively for the pharmacist. Tech's cooperation is function of (1) personality (2) landscape of job market (3) employer's policies and (4) whether or not their contract is through union.

In a nutshell, it is one thing to say ' train your techs' and an other thing to actually have their cooperation/efficiency.

 

[pezdispenser]

Is that Power Call Center nationwide or limited to Florida and other select states?

Florida, Arizona and rolling out into a few more states.

 

[owlegrad]

In a nutshell, it is one thing to say ' train your techs' and an other thing to actually have their cooperation/efficiency.

Agreed that not all techs are created equal. 😉

 

[mona2004]

.

 

[mona2004]

The absolute biggest problems we have with phone calls in our pharmacy do not come from customers, they come from prescriber offices. It is now the year 2013, there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO reason why any script should EVER need to be called in over the phone with the current technology available. The number one reason scripts are called, instead of using alternate methods in my area, is prescriber laziness. They don't care that a person that barely makes $10/hr who cannot speak English is wasting the time of a trained professional making $60/hr, as long as they don't have to sign their name on the piece of paper. They also use it as a way to cover up their mistakes because any misfills can be blamed on pharmacy interpretation.

Some might say that phoned in scripts are necessary when the prescriber is out of the office, but no, in a world where my smart phone can store all of my loyalty cards and open my garage door, there is no excuse for not utilizing this technology to make the healthcare system more efficient. I need every prescriber that calls in scripts to the pharmacy to understand exactly what you are doing TO us as pharmacists. I serve about 600-700 patients per day at my store and for most of the day there is only one pharmacist on duty. Having your worthless staff members waste my time calling in scripts is an absolute insult, especially because most of them cannot even pronounce hydrochlorothiazide and do not know what it is for. This guessing game they play costs me a vast amount of time, time that I should be using to professionally serve my patients.

Also, I get at least five calls per day from offices asking me what they themselves prescribed for their patient. This may be something area specific, so if you do not do this I will obviously not hold you accountable, but if you are calling your local pharmacy with this question...I have to ask what the hell are you doing in your office?

So in conclusion, prescribers, get your office janitors (err receptionists) off the phones and utilize the technology developed to make healthcare more efficient and accurate. Remember, not doing this wastes our time, and I barely have time to use the restroom during my shift. Do not forget, I can do many things to waste your time that I do not, I would appreciate if you would expend us pharmacists the same courtesy.

And the worst part is when from md office calling for new rx and after a while pt is in the pharmacy with the same rx in hand and the funny part is when tech even don't recognize that it is a duplicate script and put it on hold for future fill....