Dear Woman at my Drive-Thru

Yes. I saw you there. I even heard the announcement from the speaker when you pressed the button for service. But, as YOU could see inside, I was busy reconstituting a gel for someone who was standing at my counter tapping her foot as my pharmacist, Jenny, went over the instructions for her cream, which was mis-dosed by the doctor's office. When you pressed the fucking button AGAIN, as soon as the announcement turned itself off, I STILL SAW YOU.

When I visibly dropped (literally) what I was doing to wait on you, and make Poor Mrs. Oldlady have to wait even longer at my register with Jenny still trying to explain some confusing directions, you just got ruder. Don't shove shit into my face when I'm in the process of opening the window. When I tell you with a noteably bummed look, because seriously, on slow Mondays, I want work to do, that we do not accept your new insurance, DON'T BE A BITCH AND DRIVE OFF BITCHING AT ME. If I could magically force CorpoPharm to sign an agreement with your insurance, I'd've done it when we first had this issue.

Yours in spite,
CPhT

(PS - to the readers that I have accumulated -- sorry I'm not posting very often. There's a lot of internal drama in the store, and it's not something I could even assimilate into a post that was fabricated, because it's so fucking ridiculous. Thank God my vacation is in 2 weeks. I may not post until after then. Sorry for this short post.)

Quickies, since there's downtime in 10 minutes.

Seriously, I am starting to wonder if people were born in barns.

I cannot count how many times a day people interrupt myself or one of my fellow staff members while waiting on another patient. It pisses me off to no extent. You are all important. Stop being an asshole and interrupting while we give these patients (potentially) vital information, and go away. Thanks.

Also, if you're planning to transfer your stupid freaking prescriptions in and out of a zillion fucking pharmacies, EXPECT that at some point the refills are going to be incorrect. You've fucking transferred in and out and in and out EVERY MONTH. I can see this in your profile. I can pin down where it most likely happened. Stop being an ass and bitching me out. Figure out who you had originally fill your script, and go bitch at them. Thanks.

Sometimes I hate work

I've been in this funk lately. I've had all these things happen that make me think "Hey, this would be a GREAT experience to blog about!", but then 5 minutes later I'm in a stupor because Mr. So and So can't understand WHY his Viagra is too soon, when he just got 8 pills 3 days ago, and his insurance limits him to 8 per month.

I'm going to try to sum up some of the best stories now, and try to start writing down some ideas for here.

This guy came into my pharmacy at night one night. He had a script for Vicodin HP. For 300 of them. It was a legit script, despite the fact that the doc didn't sign it. I called the office, spoke to the doc in question, had him speak to the RPh on duty as well, and we gave the guy a partial. When we got the full amount in, we discovered that he'd had it filled somewhere else the week before. I called that opposing Chain Pharmacy, and spoke to a friendly RPh who told me he'd personally filled her script -- first as a partial, then as a completion, FOR THE SAME DRUG AND QUANTITY, A WEEK BEFORE. How you could blow through 300 Vicodin HP's in a week blew every single one of our minds. I spent that day on a crusade. Between the insurance company (WHO I HATE), the doctor (who apparently is doing a drug test on the patient, which I applaud!), and the other pharmacy, we found out that this guy really isn't trustworthy, and needless to say, our PIC told him that we won't be stocking that drug anymore. He was pissed, but he knows he's been caught. He does not know that the doc is waiting on drug test results. A little more digging turned up that he's been on Suboxone and Naltrexone before. Clearly those drugs didn't work for him.

A lady came in who insists we order her Percocet brand. We know, from one of our RPh's being friends with people in other pharmacies who deal with her, that she sells these drugs. We have finally had it with her, and we are finally pushing her out the door. I am just thrilled we don't have to stock brand Percocet anymore!

The week preceding the full moon was a disaster. We had floaters in and out because we got a sick pharmacist. We had new patients transfering lists and lists of drugs in, many of which were too soon. Then, even though the pharmacists at the other stores said nothing was in their bins waiting, the patients insisted that they were, and they were right. I spent half a day rebilling for someone.

We discovered after a week that our Vicodin HP patient's doctor had previously had rx pads stolen off of him. Not the best news to hear, but at least that person is done with.

It's been a crazy time in the Pharmacy, but all these good stories that I know I was planning to write up have fallen out of my mind. I'm bummed.

One last thought:

I've got another two fuck you's to issue: number one, to our dear friends at Actavis Totowa again, because all of their freaking drugs are being recalled, and my shelves are rapidly becoming devoid of drugs I have cranky old people on. Fuck you number two goes to my dear friends at Procter & Gamble. I am so fucking TIRED of your drug reps coming in and wasting all our fucking time with all your new fucking ACTONEL PRODUCTS!! If it wasn't enough to have the once weekly Actonel 35, and the Actonel plus Calcium, now you give us twice a month Actonel 75, and, the best news yet ... ONCE MONTHLY ACTONEL 150!! I forgot to mention the 30 mg Actonel and the 5 mg Actonel as well. These drug reps come in and interrupt me as we're dealing with an onslaught of waiters, always without fail. Do me a favor, and just fucking quit bugging me. I'm not going to tell people to go beg their doctor for a drug that's likely a higher tiered copay, and I'm not going to waste my time giving out the millions of coupons you'll give me for a drug that probably won't catch on at my pharmacy. Nobody wastes their time with Boniva due to the price. Everybody loves Fosamax now, since there's generic alendronate. So stop bugging me. I'm busy.

Wondering

I've been checking in with my SiteMeter every once in awhile, and I've noticed I've actually got what seems to be some fairly regular visitors. I know I don't post nearly enough -- in fact, I'll probably have to start bringing a small notebook into work so I can keep track of things to work on, just so I can update more. But I want to know who's reading me, especially those regulars.

So, if you could -- please leave me a comment and let me know you're reading. It appears some of my regulars are actually from my home state, so it's nice to see that some of my audience lives nearish to me.

If you have anything you want me to write about, too -- feel free to ask. There are a lot of subjects you can touch opon while writing about pharmacy life and such. I know I could never touch all of them.

I'll have a real post probably tomorrow. I've got major plans involving a certain place I like to call my Second Home, and a big event there.

Crossing the Line

There are fine lines with ethics, rules ... basically, most things that can go on in a pharmacy have lines you may find people crossing.

Lately, our PIC, John, has been wayyyy overstepping his boundaries. John is a Catholic man. Many of us at our store have different religious beliefs, and for some reason, lately, it seems that they are not good enough. John has asked many of us to question our beliefs, and to even welcome his into our lives. He has crossed the line there.

One of my technicians has very different values, and for some reason, John has specifically marked her as one to work on. My tech has not spoken very much at work lately, and when I finally got her to talk, she told me her family is not very comfortable with John's religious talk. They are not the only ones. We have had countless discussions on how to handle this. After conferring with Pharmacy Chick, it seems like we finally have options. There has to be a clearer line than the one we have been drawing, but he is going to have to save his opinions for at home.

Also, I found out John has been lying to my face. I'm not going to get into specifics, but it does deal with some of our coworkers, and some of them have been angry with me over things he has apparently "forgotten" to discuss with them. I feel like crap, physically and mentally. Here I was, laboring under the opinion that he's sorted out these workplace issues, then I find out that nothing's been solved! Some of my staff wants to leave over this issue. I am alongside them in that one. It is disappointing to find out that someone you are supposed to trust is lying to your face. You rely on your pharmacists ... or at least, we do. We have always had a great relationship at our store, but it almost feels like that's falling apart.

I've given applying to another chain a lot of thought, yet in the past week, I've never had the guts to actually fill out the application and send it in. Maybe in the next week I will find the cajones, and do it. For now, though, we will see how the next week goes.

Quick hello

I haven't written very much lately. For the past week and a half or so, I've been contemplating job moves.

For the past 3 years of my life, I've worked for the same Chain Pharmacy. The supervisors have pushed me to become the best I could, to take the top jobs I could take, and I've done everything they've asked of me. Last year, I took my PTCE, and passed with flying colors. I was promised a substantial raise, and they also promised me that, once I took the top technician position available, they'd give me a great raise there, too.

The head honcho locally came in a week and a half ago, and crunched the numbers. My "substantial raise"? That was supposed to bump me up two whole dollars?

84 freaking cents. A mere 3 cents short of the next whole dollar amount. And "we tried to round it, but they wouldn't let us."

BULL. SHIT.

50 cents of that raise was also my "CPhT" raise. Another crock of shit, if you ask me. My new job title did not get me a single penny in the raise.

I jumped into overdrive -- there's more chains opening up near me, and if I could apply for one of their jobs, that'd solve all my problems! I'm sure!

But as reality set in, I thought about it. I WANT to be a pharmacist one day. I WANT to reap the benefits of forcing my way through 6 years of school, busting my ass, and when I come out, dictating to THEM what they will pay for my services, not them dictating that I'm just not good enough. Chances are that I wouldn't even work for this chain when I was done, because of the piss-poor treatment they give to techs like myself. I want to get myself to become a pharmacist, and when our (non-pharmacist) supervisors come in for raise time, I'm going to give them hell until they begin to understand that my techs are absolutely important in the everyday business of my pharmacy.

It's ridiculous that my chain pays 6th year interns $17 an hour, yet I make WAY under $10. My newest employee is almost through with his 6th year, and we just hired him 3 months ago. So, he's making $17/hr, and after 3 years, I'm still below $9/hr. That doesn't pay the bills for me. And, he only works a few days a week. They should be more concerned with keeping ME around, since he's free to go anywhere that's willing to pay for his services in just a few short months.

So, my new plan will go into action. Starting as soon as possible, I'll follow the model of what classes you need undergrad, and I'll take them online or at a community college, bust my ass doing so, and transfer into one of the major local universities. I'll fight my way through 4 more years, and when I come out, sure, I'll still be cynical, but I'll be fighting for those who aren't going to do what I'm going to do, or those who just can't.

Busy month

You know, in January, we were hugely busy. February, pretty busy still. March, starting to settle down. And April, fairly slow. I don't know WHAT has happened, because school won't let out for a few more weeks around here, but all of a sudden, we're totally busy with not enough help. I've been working long days with no chance to run to the restroom, and no chance to eat half of the time.

We've been fortunate enough to get some rotation students, though, since colleges are letting out. It's been different, teaching them our chain's computer systems, and teaching them all kinds of different things, but our PIC has been doing pretty good acclimating them to the job.

Interestingly enough, I've got to say, things have been fairly smooth overall. With the exception of me always seeming to pick the wrong thing, whether it be go to the registers instead of the phone, or the drive-thru instead of the register, or something, of course.

Today was kind of weird, though. It felt like every person had a problem when they came in. There was a girl who had just gotten 3 months of birth control 3 or so days ago, yet said she left them at her house less than an hour drive away, and still wanted me to transfer them until she realized she'd have to pay about $60 for one pack. Then, one of our little old ladies came in and complained about something or other. Then, someone needed me to go point out eye care, right under the sign that says 'eye care', where it always is. On top of that, today was the day we write up our order for the next week, so that took some time. After that, we found out that our relief tech was sick. I had an appointment, so I could not stay. She did us a huge favor and sent in a friend, after we found out that our intern was sick as well.

I guess what I have to say, is that I don't have all that much to really say right now. Hopefully June rolls us back into our typical Summer Sloth mode. As much as being busy is nice, there is something to be said about kicking back, eating some snack food, and doing your CE's on company time if there is nothing left to do elsewise.

A big FUCK YOU! to Actavis Totowa

Those jerks are the ones responsible for the recall of Bertek and UDL's Digitek. Digitek has historically been the cheaper of the two brands of digoxin we've carried (Lannett and Bertek were our choice), so we let the Lannett expire. Plus, it WAS a good $3 cheaper, and at my CorpoPharm, we like to be nice to the old people for the most part. So, we got the cheap one, let the old Lannett 125's expire, and rolled on. Until just a few days ago, when we received notice of the Class 1 Recall. In my career, I've never seen a Class 1 Recall. My PIC (who, granted, is fairly young) could not recall a Class 1 before. So, we had to spend yesterday calling patients, and ask them to please return to us their Digitek, so we could give them our Digoxin stock, which, our wholesaler was out of. Yes, our wholesaler fucked up big time and RAN OUT of Digixon. They told me they won't have any until at least next week. We had some Lannett 250's that are expiring in August. The problem is that we only have about 6 patients taking 250's, and about 30 who are taking the 125's. I managed to procure 300 off of other stores, and I'm going to have to go on a mission to get more today. We already owe 2 people 90 day supplies. If worse comes to worse, we will have to partial them out until we can get SOMETHING next week.

If you're a patient and reading this -- chances are that your pills were NOT in the affected batch(es). You'd probably have some sort of sign of problem if they were double the thickness. There's a lot of fairly obvious signs of digitalis toxicity. You'd probably see at least one. I can't guarantee you would, but I think you're okay for now. See your doc if you're concerned. The docs we talked to yesterday said they're not too worried, and that they're going to do the blood tests as a precaution at their patient's next check-ups. They don't feel that a rush to get blood tests by their patients is warranted.

We had a ton of people come in and tie us up for over an hour, extremely concerned about the fact that they had a recalled medicine. I know it's scary, but TRUST US. It's our job to know what's going on. We also don't have any FDA info, nor an information sheet from Actavis Totowa with the specifics of HOW much % the affected pills were off from what they should be and technicalities like that. Stop asking us these things, and CALL the freakin' 800 number for the jerks at Actavis Totowa who are doing their job being proactive, but not releasing enough information to satiate the public's fear.

Like I said. JUST TRUST US. We're going to get you through this. Worse things have happened.