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At least, that's how my day went. How about you?
Primary dumbass: A certain lovely fellow decided that he wanted a refill on his Suboxone. For those that don't know, this can be used as a pain medication, and is starting to replace methadone as the treatment of choice for people trying to get off harder drugs, because is comes combined with another drug that, if the tablet is crushed and injected, reverses any narcotic effect from the other active ingredient. (That, and there's been a recent warning about overdose potential with methadone from the FDA). Well...
This stuff is a controlled med. Anything that is a scheduled or controlled med comes with a litany of laws straight from the DEA. The pertinent one for tonight being that you cannot have more than 6 fills total on a script (scripts for controll 3-5 are good for 6 months from the date they're written), regardless of how many fills they've gotten. Now, we, assuming that the doctor was a good one, has told the patient everything about this stuff before sticking him on it, have been filling 10 or 20 pills at a time for him at his request, as this stuff is pretty expensive, and he can't afford a full fill. Well, of course, he's out of fills, it's Sunday night, and he's out of pills too. So...what should you do?
In this guy's mind, apparently it's cuss the pharmacy technician out. I give him one warning that I don't appreciate the language, and when he continues, I hang up. He calls back a little later. I attempt to explain what a good course of action is at this point, which for him would be to call his doctor's office, which would route him to an answering service, who then could page the doctor for him. Nope, I'm apparently lying about the whole legality about the 6 fills in his little addled brain, and that he's gonna call 911 and try to commit suicide if I don't give him this stuff, blah blah blah (at least he learned not to drop F-bombs with me). After he's screamed at me a little he sure showed me and hung up.
I call the answering service myself, since I figure I don't want someone like Gatekeeper having to deal with his crazy, druggy ass. I get the doctor's home voicemail, leave a message.
Doctor calls back, and now I see why this guy didn't understand the whole refill/law issue. This lady (who had to pass a few tests to get a precriber's DEA number, no less) didn't know about it either, and attempted to chastise the pharmacist about it. Fortunately, it was the smartass pharmacist who lets all her irritation be known, and she let lil' miss MD have it. We get refills. I call Crazy Druggie to tell him the good news, and to see how many pills he wants filled. Am I greeted with relief and gratitude? Oh, hells no. He wants to talk to my manager. Well, she's not in, I'm not about to pass him up to the poor AMs in the front, they don't know pharmacy law anyways (although they should...but that's a rant for another day). He rants some more, doesn't let me ask how many pills he wants, hangs up on me again. I fill for the full quantity.
He calls again (!) when he's in the drive thru line. Rants at the poor other tech, who doesn't really have a good grasp on pharmacy law yet either (she's pretty wet behind the ears still). Manages to pry the amount he wants filled from him. When he finally does get his ass up to the window, I tell him that he should visit the board of pharmacy website to learn what all laws affect the meds he's getting. He says he will, in that threatening way, like they're gonna prove me wrong. Yeah, you go boy.
Numbnut#2: Father drops off script for little boy. I ask if he has any allergies. Father confidently states that he has a penicillin allergy. I raise my eyebrow and point out that the doctor wrote for amoxicillin, which is in the same family. He backtracks, says his wife and other son have it, and kind of insinuates that this will be a problem for this son. I ask if he's had amoxicillin before. (We've never filled for this kid, so I can't verify that) He says yes. I record the possible allergy in his profile (can't be too safe and all) and notate on the prescription that he's been able to take amoxicillin previously. Well, pharmacist calls doctor to check, being that we're prudent. MD wants to talk to mom first, but isn't able to get ahold of her until she finally shows up in drivethru. I tell mom to come inside, the doctor wants to speak with her. Mom rolls eyes, but comes in. Proceeds to whine that this son DIDN'T have an allergy, just her and her other son. I hand phone off. She bitches at doctor, complains about us. Doctor gives ok to fill. We do so.
I'm sorry lady, I guess next time we won't be careful about a potential reaction with your child that could hurt him. How dare we care enough about his welfare to do such a thing? Honestly, if she's allergic and her other kid is allergic, there's a good chance he's gonna develop an allergy too. Why chance it? Should have gone w/ keflex IMO, but whatever.
Primary dumbass: A certain lovely fellow decided that he wanted a refill on his Suboxone. For those that don't know, this can be used as a pain medication, and is starting to replace methadone as the treatment of choice for people trying to get off harder drugs, because is comes combined with another drug that, if the tablet is crushed and injected, reverses any narcotic effect from the other active ingredient. (That, and there's been a recent warning about overdose potential with methadone from the FDA). Well...
This stuff is a controlled med. Anything that is a scheduled or controlled med comes with a litany of laws straight from the DEA. The pertinent one for tonight being that you cannot have more than 6 fills total on a script (scripts for controll 3-5 are good for 6 months from the date they're written), regardless of how many fills they've gotten. Now, we, assuming that the doctor was a good one, has told the patient everything about this stuff before sticking him on it, have been filling 10 or 20 pills at a time for him at his request, as this stuff is pretty expensive, and he can't afford a full fill. Well, of course, he's out of fills, it's Sunday night, and he's out of pills too. So...what should you do?
In this guy's mind, apparently it's cuss the pharmacy technician out. I give him one warning that I don't appreciate the language, and when he continues, I hang up. He calls back a little later. I attempt to explain what a good course of action is at this point, which for him would be to call his doctor's office, which would route him to an answering service, who then could page the doctor for him. Nope, I'm apparently lying about the whole legality about the 6 fills in his little addled brain, and that he's gonna call 911 and try to commit suicide if I don't give him this stuff, blah blah blah (at least he learned not to drop F-bombs with me). After he's screamed at me a little he sure showed me and hung up.
I call the answering service myself, since I figure I don't want someone like Gatekeeper having to deal with his crazy, druggy ass. I get the doctor's home voicemail, leave a message.
Doctor calls back, and now I see why this guy didn't understand the whole refill/law issue. This lady (who had to pass a few tests to get a precriber's DEA number, no less) didn't know about it either, and attempted to chastise the pharmacist about it. Fortunately, it was the smartass pharmacist who lets all her irritation be known, and she let lil' miss MD have it. We get refills. I call Crazy Druggie to tell him the good news, and to see how many pills he wants filled. Am I greeted with relief and gratitude? Oh, hells no. He wants to talk to my manager. Well, she's not in, I'm not about to pass him up to the poor AMs in the front, they don't know pharmacy law anyways (although they should...but that's a rant for another day). He rants some more, doesn't let me ask how many pills he wants, hangs up on me again. I fill for the full quantity.
He calls again (!) when he's in the drive thru line. Rants at the poor other tech, who doesn't really have a good grasp on pharmacy law yet either (she's pretty wet behind the ears still). Manages to pry the amount he wants filled from him. When he finally does get his ass up to the window, I tell him that he should visit the board of pharmacy website to learn what all laws affect the meds he's getting. He says he will, in that threatening way, like they're gonna prove me wrong.
Yeah, you go boy. Numbnut#2: Father drops off script for little boy. I ask if he has any allergies. Father confidently states that he has a penicillin allergy. I raise my eyebrow and point out that the doctor wrote for amoxicillin, which is in the same family. He backtracks, says his wife and other son have it, and kind of insinuates that this will be a problem for this son. I ask if he's had amoxicillin before. (We've never filled for this kid, so I can't verify that) He says yes. I record the possible allergy in his profile (can't be too safe and all) and notate on the prescription that he's been able to take amoxicillin previously. Well, pharmacist calls doctor to check, being that we're prudent. MD wants to talk to mom first, but isn't able to get ahold of her until she finally shows up in drivethru. I tell mom to come inside, the doctor wants to speak with her. Mom rolls eyes, but comes in. Proceeds to whine that this son DIDN'T have an allergy, just her and her other son. I hand phone off. She bitches at doctor, complains about us. Doctor gives ok to fill. We do so.
I'm sorry lady, I guess next time we won't be careful about a potential reaction with your child that could hurt him. How dare we care enough about his welfare to do such a thing? Honestly, if she's allergic and her other kid is allergic, there's a good chance he's gonna develop an allergy too. Why chance it? Should have gone w/ keflex IMO, but whatever.
I certainly appreciate it.
Though it took longer than 5 minutes to get everything straightened out, him being the only cop there until backup arrived.
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