Drive-Thru Etiquette

Today's topic is Drive-Thru Etiquette.  I have to state this first, though -- I completely disagree with the whole concept of having a pharmacy drive-thru window, pneumatic tube, et cetera.  Let's face it - we're not McDonald's.  Why should we have to have a drive-thru, then?  There are only two groups of people whom I feel should be allowed to use the drive-thru -- new parents with brand new babies who are ill, and people who have just had surgery/cannot walk.  Every single person who is just too lazy to park their car and come into their pharmacy for just a few moments to be rung up is part of what I feel makes the country more obese.  Those few steps from the lot to the pharmacy counter will help burn a few extra carbs and calories.

Anyway, before I go off onto that tangent, here's the biggest pet peeves my pharmacist on duty and I thought up today.

• Cell Phones - this is one of our largest pet peeves.  If you're going to be so lazy as to not come in the store, the least you can do for us is to either place the person on your phone on hold for a few moments while you treat us with a little respect, or even better, tell them you'll call them right back.  Really.  Our drive-thru turn around at my pharmacy is about 1 to 2 minutes, if we're not reconstituting antibiotics or dermatological creams for you.  Giving us your undivided attention for those 1 to 2 minutes is the very least you can do.  One time, I was trying to verify somebody's address and birth date, since we had 2 people with the same name, yet this patient was rude enough to ignore me and snap their fingers at me to hurry up.  I made sure my pharmacist and my other techs saw this behavior, so that if they got home and discovered this wasn't their medicine, that I would not be at fault if they called to complain about me.  It's just common courtesy to treat somebody with respect, especially when they're dealing with your own health.
• Cigarettes - this one is really irritating, too.  Not everybody on this Earth smokes, and in fact, out of our 8 to 9 regular pharmacy employees in my pharmacy, only one of us smokes, and she goes to her car for her smoke breaks.  So, when you're sitting at my window, and it's wide open, there's no need to blow your smoke straight in at me.  Either put it out for a moment, or refrain from pointing it at me.  Also, it makes my pharmacy smell like crap the rest of the day.
• Consultations - this one is kind of iffy, but it should be on here, we decided.  If you just need a quick consultation (like my two minute Augmentin suspension consultation - must be refrigerated, shaken well, discard any remainder after 10 days, and you should give your child the medicine with food to try to prevent the nasty gastrointestinal side effects that can accompany it), fine, come by my window.  If you want a serious, in-depth consultation on your new Lipitor or atenolol prescription, or something like that, don't waste our time.  Come into the store.  We won't bite, we promise.  You'll save us a ton of hassle trying to lean out the window and yell to you (because most of the time, you're parked way too far back for us to talk to you in a normal voice), and you'll be able to better understand what we're telling you.  That's why basically all of us retail pharmacies provide you a consultation window.
• Pressing the button - Our drive-thru has a button you have to press to let us know you're sitting there.  Don't just assume that since you're in your big SUV that we can see you.  In fact, some of our stations aren't within sight range of the window, nor are our shelves to find our drugs.  Do us all a favor, and even if you think we saw you, press the button.  The only exception to this rule is if we did notice you and are walking towards the window, or if we are sitting right at the computer next to the window.  Don't press it and be a jerk then.
• Coming to the window when it's cold - I know this one, and maybe the last one and a half-ish (you can still get requests on the speaker system for consultations at the pneumatic tube drive-thru's) don't really work for the tubes, but seriously.  When it's cold, and you make us repeatedly come to the window, chances are we're going to get very irritated if you delay us in finishing our job quickly.  It only takes a few moments to jump out of the car, come into our nice, warm store, and get back to your car.  If you absolutely insist on using the drive-thru, it takes only moments to get your payment or prescription ready to hand through to us, so we don't get hypothermia.  Remember - you're in your car with your jacket, hat, gloves, and scarf, and we're just in our lab coats and our work clothes, which aren't all that warm, since our store is fairly warm.  Be polite.  Be ready for us.
• Have your information ready - we need to gather some information from you when you drop off a prescription, whether in the store or at the drive-thru.  If you've ever dropped off a prescription before, you know we at least need to be able to read your name, and we need your date of birth, at the very least.  We also need to know if you've got any new drug allergies, and if you're a new patient, we also need your phone number, address, and insurance information.  If you're a returning patient, you should hopefully realize you should give us any new insurance info you may have.  It'll save us time getting you all added to the system and filled and back out.  Make it easy, please, and give us what we need to know.  You can write it all on the back of the script -- it's okay, and it's totally legal.

We actually had about 4 more topics to cover, but looking over them, some of them were consolidated into the above etiquette tips, and some of them we'll save for another day.  Cell phones could actually be expanded into their own topic, and that may one day be done.  You following these rules for a good pharmacy experience.  If you end up being a regular, we won't forget you doing these things, and it usually ends up in us remembering you and not even needing to know your name when you walk up, but us remembering it.  (Although, that may just be me.  They call me Rain Man at work, since I invariably end up remembering everyone and everything that goes on there.)  Please just try to make it a pleasant experience for both of us.  We like it when our job is easy, and you like it when it's fast and accurate.