One of my favorite things!

Quick Post - One of my favorite things just happened today.  I will recount the conversation on the phone.

Customer (on crappy cell phone): Jason, it's John (doesn't tell me his last name, I mean, how many John's could there be). I need my two blood pressure pills filled and my Crestor.  I have the Crestor prescription with me so you get it ready and I will drop it off because I'm in a hurry.

Me:  Who wrote your prescription, what is the strength and how many refills did they give you (and yes, I realized at the time I was asking him to read while he was driving).

Customer: It was Dr. Smith (name changed for HIPA reasons), and it's for Crestor, 90 tablets.

Me: Alright then.


Now then, I used to be a real hardass in the past when people do this.  The general public, contrary to what they seem to believe, are not qualified medical professionals, and I cannot accept verbal orders.  Shit, sometimes I cannot read physician orders.  In any event, I've gotten some what tired and concussed due to repeatedly smashing my head against a wall when people want to do this and then get pissy with me when they drop it off.  In any event, it was a renewal, and John's usual (note I said usual, this is a bit of foreshadowing) physician uses a computer generated prescription system so I figured (ie hoped) that it would be the same.

Soooooo, John comes in and drops of his script (I was able to recognize his voice so I figured out who it was) and low and behold, different doctor, different dose than last time.  Anways, after I woke up from smashing my head against the wall I told him that this is why we do not let customers call in prescriptions, now I will have to correct your prescription and redo it, which is going to take me longer than it would have if you had just dropped it off in the first place and waited.

To which he responded: I'm kind of in a hurry.

sigh.

J

The New Motto for Pharmacy

So I've been reflecting of late of the direction that we have allowed our profession to take over the past 30 or so years.  Pharmacists have slowly but surely failed to unite, consistenely stabbed each other in the back, and basically whored ourselves out to corporations to the point that we are little more than... um, well the whores of the health care world.  If that language is too strong for you then how about the fast food dealers of health care, everything cheap, fast and with a free toy.

Now we are scrambling.  You see, as we have failed to consistenly stand up for ourselves and each other, worrying too much about stealing business instead of being good pharmacists, we have in effect failed ourselves.  The problem is, the people who pay for our services, namely insurance companies and government figure that since we apparently don't give a shit about our profession, neither should they.  Basically, we are getting what we deserve.

So, following that string of thought, I have come up with a new managment strategy for my pharmacy:

At Grumpy Pharmacy you pick how you get your prescription filled.  You can have your prescription filled in any two of the three ways listed below, however, choosing two autmatically negates the third:

1.  Fast
2.  Cheap
3.  Correct

So, if you want it fast and cheap, it may not be correct.

If you want it fast and correct, it won't be cheap.

And if you want it cheap and correct it won't be fast.


They say giving your customers choice keeps them happy.  I hope this works

J

The Pleasures of Small Town Living

I grew up in a small town, the same small town which I now call home.  I often remark that my 5 year pharmacy degree was the best 8 years of my life and following graduation I moved in with some University friends for a couple of years to continue the fun.  During this stint I met my wife and got married.  My wife and I continued the fun life for a couple of years, but after we decided we wanted to start a family I decided that it was time to grow up.  I had to be a father figure and partying like Van Wilder just isn’t acceptable. 

After we had our son we decided that we would move back to our home town so that we could be close to family to help.  Our son has a great relationship with both sets of his grandparents.  He spends a lot of time with them and this has helped him to become the wonderful and caring boy he is.

About 6 months ago I developed a slight tinge in my hip.  This tinge gradually migrated to my lower back and down my left leg.  It affects me to the point now that I have difficulty walking more than one block.  For those people who know me and know of my love of recreational sports you can imagine how much this bothers me.  I have been diagnosed with severe sciatica.  Tests with my pain management specialist show that I have a high tolerance for pain, which is a good thing, because if I did not I would not be able to continue working.  I cannot take any type of pain killers for this pain as sciatica is basically fake pain.  The only thing wrong is a pinched sciatic nerve which tricks my body into thinking there is something wrong with my hip, leg and foot.

For the past two months I have been having regular physio therapy, as well as having a series of intra-spinal steroid injections (which are a real treat I might add, and make me once again thankful that I have a high tolerance for pain and have also given me a true appreciation for pregnant women who have epidurals).  I have slowly been improving.  My goal is to get better without having surgery.  I occasionally have a setback in therapy but this is to be expected.  This chronic pain has also given me a greater respect for patients who are dealing with chronic pain.  There are times when I just wish it would go away so I could go to the park and play with my son.  I can understand now why individuals with chronic pain can develop depression, can become hooked on meds.

I will get better.  Of this I have no doubt, but it will take time.

So how does this relate to the title of this post, you may be asking.  Well allow me to elaborate.  A couple of blogs ago I ranted about people who complain about the fact that I do not open my pharmacy in the evenings or on weekends.  How dare I put my family first when I should be working 80 hours a week to provide service to ungrateful sheep who can’t get their shit together.  The thing is, I could really give a shit about people who bitch about the fact that I choose to spend time with my family versus being in the pharmacy.  Complain all you want about me.

Also, when I took over my pharmacy I came into an environment where a previous pharmacist seemed to believe that Bylaws and Ethics were secondary to profit.  Who gives a shit if you haven’t seen your doctor in 3 years, here’s another 3 month refill.  What’s that, you have a sore throat, here’s some amoxil!  The list of unethical and outright illegal shit is long.  Unfortunately, all these things which made people think this pharmacist was a good pharmacist were the reason the pharmacist was a bad one.  People, unfortunately, do not realize that we often need to protect them from their own stupidity and so once again they bitch about me being an awful pharmacist because I’m not willing to go down that road.  Fuck ‘em, go somewhere else then, I’m not losing my license for you, and go ahead and spread rumours about the awful pharmacist who makes you go see your physician early or who won’t just give you drugs because you think you have a sore throat.  That shit doesn’t bother me.

Ultimately, I am a father and husband first, a son and brother to my family second, a friend to my friends third, and a pharmacist last.  A pharmacist is part of who I am but it is not who I am.

So you can imagine my utter outrage and disgust when I find out that there are rumours circulating in my town that the long-term pain issue with which I am dealing is merely a cover for the fact that I am having an affair on my wife.  Secondarily, I have chosen this issue so that I can have fake physio therapy appoinments so I can go spend time with the woman I am having an affair with.

If there was ever one time I wish my blog was not anonymous this is it.  I use this blog to rant and rave in an attempt to maintain sanity.  To protect the personal health information of individual (which I think is important) I blog anonymously.  But there comes a time when I am utterly disgusted with individuals in a small town.  Some people are obviously not happy unless others are miserable.  There is only one thing that pushes me over the edge, and that is when people would imply that I am an unfaithful husband or bad father.  You can bitch about me being an asshole pharmacist.  You can think I’m a bad person because I’m an atheist and not an indoctrinated Christian sheep.  None of these things matter to me.

But if you dare imply or spread rumours that I am a bad father or husband and you will feel my full wrath.  I struggle to convince my wife who grew up in a city that living in a small town is great for raising a child. I try to have her understand that you need to have thick skin and just ignore the rumours.  People wonder why we cannot attract young medical professionals to live in a small town, or to have them stay once they are here, but I must confess when this type of thing happens I often question this myself.  Maybe moving back to the city and becoming a corporate whore pharmacist who works 40 hours a week just to collect a cheque is where it’s at.

J