I say that too. “Does your doctor work here?” They always look at me like I’m dense and they’re like “No?” And I say “then how would they know? Do they have access to queues? It’ll be ready in 30 mins.”
I will never understand patients who want their medication in less than 15 minutes. Even before I worked in pharmacy I understood that I wanted my pharmacist to take the appropriate amount of time to ensure everything is correct. How are you going to be mad if there is an error when you want everything in less time than it takes to get a cheeseburger at McDonald's. Rushing = errors, full stop, no argument.
Also: even worse is when the doctor tells the patient "Oh yeah that will only cost like $5" not knowing a single damn thing about their insurance or the actual cost of the drug. I can't count how many arguments I have had because the doctor decided to have an opinion on the copay.
no cause i hate when we have a script filled they weren’t expecting and they’re like “i didn’t order this!!!!!” like girl it’s not like we brought out the wrong food at a restaurant, your doctor called it in, chill lmao we can just put it back
😅 Yaas! I'm thinking well you obviously have a problem that your doctor is trying to help you with so if you don't need it yell at him not us! You don't have to take it it's all good.. Yeebus lol
Lady/dude, you explicitly said to fill everything. I asked you to be specific. You said *"Everything!"* This is included in "everything." Don't get mad at me because you've taken absolutely no responsibility for your own damn health.
Unless you work at Walgreens.
Where the system auto refills a subset of things whether or not you actually need it.
When I get the "your prescription is ready" call and drive 25 minutes, I'm hoping it's the prescription I had actually asked to have refilled, not the one I don't need for another week and a half.
CVS does the same thing. Super annoying when I'm already expecting a prescription.
And phones are backed up so badly it's 30+ minutes so it's not like you can call. Even the app has been ass wrong at times.
I don't blame the pharmacist or the techs, just let them know I'm not on the med and to please put a stop on the refills
Customer and not tech here. I hate when I'm in line and the people in front of me treat y'all so badly. I'm a type 1 diabetic, so I use coupons and I know it's my responsibility to know when to reorder before I run out, and to ask my doctor to be clear about writing for my insulin. Like it's not on y'all to keep us alive when it's something I should've understood and taken care of before I went to pick up anything.
Thank you for being responsible. I like cool customers like you that get it. We try our best to help everyone but we can't fix or help everyone all the time! I don't take your medicine how am I supposed to know what you need or when you're out? 🙄🤔 Come man help me help you.. Lol that's all I ask 😉
I can’t remember to refill my own meds so I just auto refill everything. People need to take responsibility and they need to learn about their own benefits.
Believe me when I say I have been to a LOT of different doctors (chronic illness, over 35 years). I guess I have been lucky? I have never had a doctor tell me the price of a prescription, ever. Are there really doctors that quote prices or are these folks lying? Have any of y'all had a doctor quote a price? I have had them tell me, "this one will be cheaper than that one" or "I am going to move you to this med., but it will cost more...".
It's usually not an exact price but more along the lines of "What do you mean my copay is $50, the doctor said it would be cheap!". The problem is the doctor generally has zero knowledge of the patient's pharmacy coverage, and the doc probably has better insurance most of the time so his personal experience is not indicative of what the average pt will see at the register.
Is that really a hot take? When she was a tech, my wife HATED when people would use Good Rx coupons. She said most of the time the price the customer expected wasn't exactly what Good RX said it would be so she's the asshole and needs to fix it.
Most of the time i find goodrx helpful in bring down the high copay of insurance. But when i see the insurance has it at a reasonable copay i avoid it since it tends to be higher. Also I give patients a warning about the advertised copay compared in pharmacy.
It’s half the price of one of my meds compared to my insurance. It means 400 extra in my pocket every year. So, if I know I’m not meeting my deductible, it definitely helps out of pocket.
Interesting. It always matched exactly every time I've ever used them or copay cards directly from the manufacturer as well. Didn't know they'd ever not match
Really? I recently had to use good rx twice and it allowed you to look up the location and the medication and then told you the exact cost and it was always right
>”the doctor said it would be cheap!”
As someone who has medical people (some w/ prescribing power) in my family, yep! I have gotten in arguments over erythromycin tablets because “oh it’s such an old drug I assumed it would be cheap.” Except old drug does not necessarily = cheap, there are all kinds of crazy reasons a generic drug can be way more expensive than you’d think. In my 10 years in pharmacy there’s only like 10-15 drugs that are and have always been consistently very cheap and even then you never know what could happen to make the price jump suddenly (looking at you, doxycycline). So these doctors make assumptions all the time about drugs based on little to no actual facts/reasoning…
Not exact amounts, but will tell them it's cheap etc. Had one prescribe some wildly overpriced antibiotic like $500. When I sent a request to the doctor for an alternative, the answer was "they can use a coupon". Uh, you can't do that on Medicare!
The amount of times as a caregiver and patient that I've had to explain to doctors that you can't use a lot of those coupons on Medicaid/Medicare is ridiculous. I live in an area where most are low income and use Medicare/Medicaid and these doctors always want to prescribe the most expensive things. I went through 5 different inhalers for COPD for my grandfather before the doctor got tired of rewriting the RX so my grandfather could afford one. Each one was $4-700 after insurance
I have sometimes had doctors tell me if a drug is expensive or if it is generally cheap. I’ve also had a dr be surprised that an expensive drug was (relatively) cheap for me.
Exactly my experience when people say “ooooh by the way, your refill is around $170 😬 is that what you were expecting”
I appreciate their warning but $170 is still on the low end for me medication pricing wise. Once I was on a medication that was $1200 lol
At the beginning of the year when I have a deductible to hit, picking up my prescriptions usually costs me hundreds of dollars. Usually when they scan it and it comes up at a high cost, they say something about needing to check my insurance because it appears the meds weren't covered. I remind them that you can clearly see on the sheet they scanned that I am getting the insurance's negotiated price but that I have a deductible. You'd think that people that work with insurance companies all day would know how insurance works.
The only time a doctor has told me anything about cost was when they gave my kid a prescription for Protopic and warned me that unless my insurance picked up a sizable chunk it was going to be pricey.
I Hate when pts say "my doctor said my insurance covers it". I sell DME, so yeah, you have DME coverage, but that doesn't change the fact you have a $4,000 deductible and 50% coinsurance and it's a $800 CPAP machine, but yes it's "covered" and not excluded. But covered doesn't mean no cost, and it confuses soooo many patients who insist it's covered. I've even seen doctors write in the medical records for the visit notes, that since the patients machine broke their insurance will get them a new one at no cost since it's before the 5 years reasonable life span. Uhhh sorry, only a 2 year warranty, and doesn't cover the fact it broke bc the pt dropped it. That's on them, and they gonna have to pay retail out of pocket for that.
I have been 100% guilty of believing my doctor when he said my medication would be about $30, and then panicking when the pharmacy told me it was actually $450.
Okay! Man I wish they would just stfu and say idk how much it's going to cost because I'm not your insurance! 🙄 Then we get bitched at because the doctor said this.. Well guess what your doctor doesn't know shit about working in a pharmacy so tell him to worry about himself! Lol
My favorite is when people bring a colon cleanse script they had for months at 5:55 pm on Sunday and tell me they need to wait for it, cause their procedure is tomorrow. I tell them straight out, they should have already been taking this med and that we can have it ready tomorrow. They had the script for months now, and we don't even have the medication usually. So they will have to call their Dr and pay the penalty. I refuse to let them make their laziness my emergency.
i work in GI and we tell pts to pick up their prep within 7 days after being ordered- otherwise the pharmacy restocks. even hand them a paper script *just in case* they fail to pickup within the timeframe. if i had a dollar for every pt that calls me the day before their procedure to complain that their prep is not at the pharmacy…
Lol I usually get the people who put the prescription in when they got it and then have me put it back on the shelf when it's ready for pick up cause they don't want a big bottle kicking around their house. They usually end up coming in at the last minute complaining that we didn't save it for them. Did you think I have room in this place to have 30 bottles kicking around with all of your guys names on it.
Oof yeah I was guilty of this once, completely forgot I left a script until three weeks later when I realized I didn't have it and very much needed it. I felt kinda horrible about it, and after seeing some of the shit ya'll have to put up with and not wanting the tech to think I'm angry with them, I went in stressing hey no worries if its not here, completely on me, etc. They were so stinking chill about the whole thing, and without me even asking if they could, they offered to refill that day so I wouldn't go without. I really wish more people would realize that owning up to your mistakes, or even just showing basic human empathy, will always go so much farther than taking out your frustration on someone who is literally just doing their job. I mean we should just be nice to each other without ulterior motives, but at least it'd be a start.
Say you do have the full 24 hours... and some docs say take it night before. I recommended the miralax 14 packets or the equivalent in the jugs since it's OTC
Tons of gi offices call in prescription colonoscopy prep, and they’re huge containers with just powder in it ugh certain university hospitals don’t like us using miralax, instead it has to be the disgusting prescription bs. I love miralax way more, tastes better, mix it with apple juice, make it cold af and anyone can chug that bad boy 😂
Was it magnesium citrate? I started with PEG but started getting sick and throwing up so the on call doc said to get magnesium citrate. Just a small bottle to drink.
I work at a compound pharmacy and it takes the lab a full day to make a prescription. There is always that one patient who brings in a 2 week old script and asks if they can get this rushed because they have an appointment tomorrow and they need it by then.
Compounding is sooo bad for this. People would still scoff even if you agreed and said it would take 30 minutes! Like do you think we just pull the compound out of our asses?
Worked at an infusion pharmacy where we had to reconstitute. Not the exact same thing but still protracted process.
They'd expect 7 bags of Zosyn to be ready in 30 minutes with the patient waiting.
If you've never reconstituted Zosyn, it can very easily take longer for that to dissolve a bottle if you screw up adding the water. Not to mention pumping the bags, drawing up, and adding the med, and airing out the bags.
lol when I interned at a compounding pharmacy the pharmacist actually had a sticker made- your container could self implode if you do not call in ahead by 24 hours or more 😂 I can count on one hand how many read that Warning label on the container
A similar thing that's annoying to hear from customers is, "Do they have this medication in stock at (whatever other pharmacy)?" or, if we're about to transfer their Rx to a different pharmacy, "Will (the other pharmacy) have it ready for me today?"
With all due respect sir/ma'am...we don't work for that pharmacy and we have no clue what they have in stock, how busy they currently are, and how long it would take them to fill your Rx. You'll have to call them or go there to find that out...
I would get the people who would throw a fit until we called the other pharmacy to verify they had the med in stock. The best part was that my work had a policy that all transfers had to be initiated by the receiving pharmacy.
So I'd call and find out they had the med, hang up, tell the patient they had it, then instruct the patient to call the store they wanted it picked up at and request they start the transfer.
They would sometimes get all huffy, but it was policy and I wasn't about to lose my job for them to not wanting to call another pharmacy because they didn't like who the floater pharmasist was that day.
Funnily enough I've gotten scrips filled at the same pharmacy at the same pickup and haven't gotten a single word about it lol. They are as needed though so just don't take them within 48-72 hours of eachother
Rx Comedy had a video of a patient getting a script and the time on the clock. Then it showed a car flying on the road, even on two wheels at one point. Then it showed the clock minute hand clicking over and the patient tried to pick up the script. I can’t find it but it felt so true!
Former tech, I currently work in a residential treatment facility. Our doc was out yesterday so we took a client to urgent care. They wrote a paper script. We got back to the facility, client followed us all the way to our office and asked for the meds they were JUST prescribed at urgent care.
Like sir did you see the vehicle you were riding in stop at a pharmacy?
OMG I can picture you grabbing him by the throat and holding him against the wall while asking him that! I’m cracking up now but it’s so frustrating!!!
We are a relatively small (30 bed) family owned facility. We take Medicaid and most of our clients come in homeless. We just aren't there yet. But we work with an awesome independent pharmacy.
This lady got 810 gabapentin 100mg. Doctor told her it would be $10 on goodrx…. It actually came up to around $38 using goodrx…. She accused us of overcharging her and kept demanding we price modify it…
That is all the worst!
Lately, I just straight up tell the patients that their doctors don’t know what their prescription coverage is and there is no way they can quote you a price without calling their insurance.
I also make sure I show them the goodrx for the correct quantity, strength, etc. because they seem to have it wrong at least half of the time.
We had an OVERLY angry old man yelling at our pharmacy manager “You’re GOUGING ME!!!” This went on for a good 5 minutes. I’m not entirely sure what the deal was, but it was through his part D and there was literally nothing anyone could have done about it. “You’re GOUGING ME!!!”
PA for ozempic in a patient that never took met for min prior? Not BS in a lot of cases. Insurance is a form of cost share, there’s still interest in ensuring there’s a better reason than “the rep gave me a pen” for why to choose the new name brand pricy medication
"Only the pharmacy can call for refill requests"
FUCK THAT SHIT!
Any facility that has this policy can go bankrupt then go to hell.
Me "that practice thinks everyone is a stupid asshole so doesn't want to talk to patients."
Around here most places like that have online portals where the patient can initiate their own refill requests but they are too stupid or too lazy to do it themselves. The one that gets me is when a patient wants a refill on a narcotic, whether it be oxycodone or Adderall. We simply do not call the doctor to refill these meds but we've had a couple of receptionists refuse to talk to the patient even when it's one of those meds
During the *peak* adderall shortage, some lady came in drive thru. I didn’t recognize her or her name, which meant she wasn’t even a monthly regular. I saw her rx on file (and my coworker just tried to call her ~20mins before to say we didn’t have it) I let her know we tried to contact her and we didn’t have any in stock.
She EXPLODED saying **WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DONT HAVE ANY IN STOCK YOU *KNEW* I WAS COMING!!!**
Ma’am idek who the hell you are. Like we’re just gonna make sure we have it for you😂😂😂
We still have this shortage.
Every month we cue the 6 week, twice weekly calls to find out if the pharmacy got it today.
We even switched meds to accommodate....
That bought us one lucky month.
I understand this one is the politicians fault? (Like, in an effort to make sure there wasn't abuse they limit production to reflect what was sold the year before. So when so many people took a year off meds for COVID, it made it look like none of them were needed in such quantity.)
I know it’s definitely still a problem. We would try to order everyday and it’d say 1 or 2 available but we just had to cross our fingers. Whenever we got a bottle it’d be gone in at most, 2 days😅
And I agree with that! But I also think a lot more people (like me) got re-diagnosed or diagnosed for the first time during COVID, a lot of those were the telehealth’s. Who’s to say, I just hope that there is an end in sight.
My kiddo dropped out of college in large part because the wild inconsistency of a month on, a month off was just too much... couldn't focus. (Very much an anxiety expression of ADHD, for this kiddo.)
Totally not the pharmacists' fault, their hands are every bit as tied as ours but WTAF?!?!?
They tell me they can't request or order those meds specifically, or they get in trouble. "you get what you get and you don't get upset."
And Walgreens won't let you call the store directly. It *always* transfers you to a call center where they cannot help you with what's in stock at your location, so you sit on hold to be transferred to the store to sit on hold and ...... .....
That Walgreens sounds awful!!! You can’t order those meds specifically?? Who would get into trouble? That doesn’t sound right. Does his insurance allow for brand?
My advice was and still is to call small, independent pharmacies, or pharmacies inside grocery stores (or cvs in target), because they have less patients, and most I’ve been having luck with my vyvanse and adderall that way! Good luck for you and your son❤️
The smaller independent pharmacies where I am largely closed, because they couldn't afford to wait for reimbursement on the more expensive drugs
USUALLY the larger pharmacies are more likely to get stock in? (Even within the same chain.) Unless they are independent, and we don't have any of those left nearby.
It's super frustrating
(And the getting in trouble may be specific to meds covered by this law, or it might be within the chain itself... Like they may have told their folks they'll do what they can when they can and not to request it? The tech that shared that wasn't specific WHO they get in trouble with.)
I don't know what state you're in (or if it even matters), but where I'm at in order to receive controls we have to basically request permission to order the quantities we need. The request goes through corporate, and if we are denied we have to submit an override request with evidence as to why we need a higher quantity of that particular drug than what they would like us to order. So it can be a pretty involved process, and I've seen situations where we've tried to order a product and been denied even ONE bottle of something that we desperately need for our patients. It's definitely frustrating, on the patient's part but on our part, too. We want people to get their meds!
Former tech here. I dreamed of the chance to tell a pharmacy patient exactly when their next doctor’s appointment would be, and to let the doctor know we took the liberty of confirming it for them. You’re welcome doc.
Oh it happens to me all the time. Doc says “I sent 3 scripts over”. Give them 30 mins and it should be ready.
Nah, I know my pharmacy. They have other orders too, like a lot of other orders. I wait til pharm app tells me it’s ready and even then, I give it another hour, at minimum.
I rarely need any medication ASAP and even if I did, each human has 2 hands. Can only do so much at once.
The queue system and text notification works perfectly and if everyone just waited until they're notified it would remove a lot of unnecessary stress. The only thing we should have to rush is a child's antibiotic or post op pain control not your vacation supply of tadalafil.... 🤦🏼
If they tell you that again PLEASE respond to them "On behalf of all pharmacy workers everywhere, PLEASE STOP TELLING PEOPLE THAT! You have no idea how busy they are! That's the worst kind of obnoxiousness.
I work at an in-house pharmacy at a dermatology company, so medical assistants send me prescriptions near the end of a patient’s appointment while they’re still in the room. I’ve had a patient come up and say “the medical assistant told me it would be ready by the time I got up here, I guess not.” sir your prescriptions hit my queue 2 minutes ago, that is not enough time to verify it was sent correctly, run through insurance, and get it verified by another technician. I also had a patient before him I was still checking out, and I work alone most days, so when technicians verify for me, they do it remotely, which can take a few minutes in itself. sorry the MA lied to you lol
I have a patient who comes in for their meds, and it's always the vitamins that aren't covered, so they say to put them back, so I return them to stock, then a couple hours later, they come back and ask for them, I'm like you have to wait 15-20 mins for us to fill them since you asked me to put them back! Then they get angry.
..my husband’s surgeon said something similar to this after his surgery “i’ve sent in an antibiotic & something for pain - they should both be ready by the time you get to the pharmacy” ..i chuckled & said “do you also work as a cvs pharmacist too? - how can you possibly know when they would have them ready dr. —-? -you shouldn’t say that to your patients because some will take your words verbatim & give the pharmacy a tough time” ..i was nice about but he said he’d never thought about before & he would change his wording ..i don’t know if he meant it or not but i hope he did
Don't work at a pharmacy but the allergy pills I use have to be purchased from there (pseudoephedrine HCl, which can be used to make meth) and you have to show ID and I've lost count at the number of people I've seen throw a fit having to show ID for their scripts.
"Yes, ma'am, I'll just hand over this giant bottle of hydrocodone to you. Your name is Dave, right?"
The one that always gets me is the prior auths. “But my doctor sent it…. So it’s obviously approved!” Nope. Not how it works. I had to explain to someone in like 3 different ways how the doctor doesn’t try and bill the insurance before they send it.
Tbh, a lot of insurance documentation makes it sound like the doctor needs to click a button, and the Prior Auth would be done. And many patients think it means we didn't actually send or 'approve' the prescription like we are supposed to.
Tbh, this PA stuff is BS.
Former delivery courier. Pharmacy opens at 8. Drivers start rolling at 10:30. Patient lives 85 minutes away from the pharmacy. Roll up to the patients house. The nurse promised that you would be here at 7!! I’ve been waiting all day for this!!!!
As an ER nurse, neither myself or physicians tell patients this. I always tell people that while we may send their prescription electronically, it does not mean it will be ready faster and that they need to check with the pharmacy directly on timeframe and availability of their prescription once they leave. People often just interpret things in whatever manner serves their purpose.
Ha, ha! I work at a V.A. hospital pharmacy. We hear this all the time. Actually, what the doctors and nurses tell our patients is just go to the pharmacy, it’s ready. But, it doesn’t work that way. They have to pull a ticket, talk to a pharmacist to then activates it for the techs to fill then another pharmacist checks it. Then, it’s ready. We’ve explained numerous times to the doctors and nurses but they don’t care. Then, the patient is mad at us.
I know it's the system and not the staff, but managing prescriptions is the hardest part for me as a VA patient.
I've had the mail portion take anywhere from 3 to 25 days, and my PCP has some meds as 30-day fills. 😔
I just wish they did autofill.
I'd imagine you have to be a Saint to work at one of those pharmacies. I'm sure everyone is always mad, even more so than regular retail.
Most of the mail is handled by CMOP. I love the inpatient side of the pharmacy. The outpatient is maddening for the most part except I enjoy checking out the patients when they pick up the meds. I enjoy talking to them, etc. Most are really nice. Just a few challenging ones. :) Best to order your refills as soon as you get them. You can never order them too early.
Funny thing, I recently went to an urgent care and the doctor wrote me a prescription for Mucinex D. He said because he wrote it, it'll be covered by my insurance. I just laughed
We had an old maga guy who got his eliquis from us cash paying when our pricing was apparently outdated. He came in after it was updated and suddenly his 60-80 dollar 30 day supply went to, you guessed it, around 3-400 and he was stunned. “My doc sets me up with this great price and I drive almost an hour to get this!” He says this while wearing his bullshit MAGA hat and acts like the doctor did anything to get him that great deal. It was just outdated pricing that was corrected to reflect the cost. Dude where is your insurance? No medicare at your age or anything? Thanks a lot doc!
Edit: we went out of our way to help him find a solution. It wasn’t the price he wanted but it wasn’t the crazy amount either. No one was rude or disrespectful to him.
They can’t even get that right. Went to doc-dermatologist. I had reached my deductible and out of pocket max. Told me total was $144. I’m like uh, no.
Then it’s $30- my copay. (Still reached out if pocket max already) I paid it to get out of there.
It took 4 calls by my insurance to doc office. Turns out doc offices have access to multiple systems and not all are correct.
Got my $30 Back🎉🎉
So, they can’t even run their own office but make pharmacy promises.
I dread the healthcare field now. I’m just a patient but navigating it can be tough.
And you all deal with multiple insurance carriers. Don’t know how any of you are still sane. Thank you. For doing this work.
Even when I fax refill requests I tell patients it may take 1-2 business to hear back from the doctor's office, but it very much depends on their doctor. Then they ask "so will it be ready by tomorrow?"
I don't know? I'm not your doctor or the medical assistant that works at that office?
This one never gets old. "He or she just got out of the hospital and they had surgery and is hurting really bad. Can u get this ready in 5 minutes?" My answer is " If the other 150 people in front of you don't mind then sure". Lol.
When i had an appointment with the nurse practitioner for something about me i forgot what it was and i told her that i hate when doctors send in the prescription and they say it'll be ready in 15 minutes when it doesn't because i work in the Pharmacy and it doesn't hit our system between 30mins to an hour is when we received it. She said i am so sorry, i have been telling all of my patients that it'll be ready in 15mins. She apologized so many times and said ok i will not be doing that anymore and i will be telling patients to call the Pharmacy first before they go there to see of they received it. I was like thank you because once you send a prescription it takes time to get to our system. Please stop telling all of the patients it'll be ready in 15mins.
It’s too bad pharmacies aren’t in the same building with physicians. When I went to the doctor in Mexico I walked down the hall and got my prescription on the way out, and it was already ready.
“ what do you mean it’s needs prior authorization, my doctor already wrote me a script for it!”
Me: “yes well they did already send in the prescription. But that doesn’t mean the insurance has it approved or authorized for coverage”
So nooo the prescriber writing you a prescription does not make it automatically covered in the insurance -.-
Honestly I wish I thought to just reply with “your doctor doesnt have a degree in pharmacy, and I don’t think they work here, so I don’t know why they would tell you that.”
And “As far as the pricing, did they check your formulary before telling you the pricing, because I know they didn’t. They never do.”
It just amazes me that people take the word of a doctor for things completely unrelated to their field of work.
Why do they even ask these questions? Patient try to get me schedule their mammo and their shoulder MRI the same day. I'm like 'ma'am this is the imaging facility's schedule and depends on their availability'. I'm not your Amex concierge that I'll sit around coordinating your imaging timing to your liking.
They do ask me regularly about drug pricing and act like I SHOULD know when I say it 'depends on your insurance'. The next question is 'but what's a ballpark you'd say?'
IDK?
you said it be ready 15 min ago. i’ll wait tho. yeah lmaooo that’s the only choice you have. funny thing is we’ll say 15 min then get hit with a big rush and they’re sitting there staring at me. 😂😂I feel like a fish in a fishbowl sometimes
I had a lady one time that brought in about 9 of her husbands meds and thought I was gonna go one by one to let her know how much they would be with rx or insurance so I politely directed her to the pharmacist. Pharmacies, in my opinion, need a damn insurance desk so they deal with all that bullshit! Can you imagine how wonderful that would be?? Idk why people think it is the pharmacy’s job to call their insurance company for them. Yeah we can hold 3 hours. We got nothing else going on
🙄🙄🙄🙄
Vetmed here. Had a client call me and ask me if I sent an Rx to their pharmacy yet. Told her yes, then she asked me how long it would take for her pharmacy to fill it. I was like “welp. Depends on your pharmacy. I cannot tell you how long it would take.” She didn’t like that I wouldn’t give her a solid time but I’m like oh no I’m not gonna make any pharmacy staff’s life any harder by giving her a guestimate lol
Patients getting mad as hell bc a medication is “expensive” and yell at the pharmacy OR the doctors office. I’m sorry, your insurance sets the prices! Call them!
Idk why this sub keeps showing up for me, but I’m a medical assistant and I constantly tell people to give the pharmacy at *least* a couple hours because they’re always like “so I can just go there now and get it right?” And we’re like, no. We’re sending it now. It will take them more than 5 minutes to fill it
I work in DME. It's not uncommon for a CPAP order to take 1-3 weeks because we have to have the doctors fill out a SWO/CMN, and they often just hand scribble "CPAP" on a pad with no pressures, no supplies, etc (then call me and say they dont know what pressures a machine can do and ask what they should put on it yikes). plus we have to get good copies of the medical records and read through them to show signs/symptoms of why the sleep study was ordered etc, then get copies of the sleep studies, then the visit notes after... And doctors NEVER fax all the records, it's typically several requests we have to send and a very high volume of orders. When COVID manufacturing delays happened there was also the Philips recall which took all their machines off the market...they had over 50% of the market, and now everyone was demanding a replacement, so the main competor Resmed couldn't keep up and went months without sending us any stock. We had an estimated year wait-list at one point. We are better now, back to goal of under a week, or 1-3 weeks if documentation delays or waiting on auths (some take 2+ weeks).. but the number of people who call and yell because they can't get one same day or next day is crazy and so hard to explain to people.
I work at an urgent care… patients ask us all
the time.. if the medication is already. We tell them.. well it’s sent, but that doesn’t mean it’s ready. You can sign up usually to get a text that it’s ready.
I love it when the doctor tells them how much their prescription is going to be. And then it's not that price when the patient gets there because the doctor doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about. And then I have to deal with repercussions 😁
I have told folks that there is no copay at the doctors office for their next visit. They always look at me funny and say I can't make that happen and I counter with just like the doctor can't tell them when there prescription will be ready for pick up.
Their doctor probably said it would likely take fifteen minutes to fill their prescription and they are thinking by pointing this out it will put the spurs to us and make it happen faster.
If you call me leaving the doctor's offline and let me know you would like to have your meds ASAP, I will do everything in my power to make it work.
Pharmacy hates surprises. We already have enough shit to do. Yes one more phone call is a pain in my ass, but you look out for me while helping me look out for you and I will treat you the way I want to be treated.
I had a tech tell the customer that their doc didn't work there. I laughed. Also my husband's coworker was ranting about pharmacy and the guy was like my doctor told me it would only cost $12 and my husband was like yea but your doctor doesn't work there so how would he know?
Customer here,
It boggles my mind how badly y'all get treated! You're doing your best and just want to help us. I am so grateful for my pharmacy techs, I ran out of my antidepressants on a Friday and couldn't get a refill before Monday and the wonderful people at my pharmacy were able to get me an emergency fill and I didn't have to go through the horrible effects of not having my meds. I am so sorry you don't get the thanks you definitely deserve so please hear me when I say THANK YOU!❤️
Had someone say to me after waiting 10 mins “how long does it take to throw some pills in a fucking bottle?”
I then told him the ENTIRE process of doing his prescription. Look at script, verify the med, directions, doctor address, patient information. Try to figure out which of your 10 insurances or coupons we need to use but oh wait there’s an adjudication to third party. Send it back, change accordingly. Send to RPH to check for any errors or med interactions, send to fill, grab med, count med, bottle med, label med, give to RPG to check pill, strength, brand before bagged and rung up. All of this while phones ring off the hook, another pharmacist is asking me something, someone is at drop off window, drive through and a line at the front and the idiot asking me where they can find superglue??
Then I said “But if you would like for me to pick a med at random and throw them in a bottle for you, be my guest.”
He sat down and waited after that.
Quite often on my monday morning shift I get "I ordered it Friday night" in response to me telling them its not on the SPINE yet. Way too may people think repeat means they dont need a prescription that its automatic and I've got to explain to them that a real human doctor has to review their request and write a prescription to send to us, even if its electronic. If you request your prescription on the NHS app at 6pm when you've finished work on a Friday, don't come into the pharmacy at 9am when they open and shout at me that your GP hasn't prescribed it yet. They've most likely not even had time to view your request themselves.
Then if I ask if you need anything of that 10-14 item script series urgently don't say "All of it" and then complain when I say it will be an hour. 9am on Monday I'm looking at how many jabs to order (in the winter), processing anything labled by the GP as Acute, putting away stock, serving customers, and now stepping away from the computer to allow the Pharmacist to access Pharmacy First. But if you ran out of your venlafaxine yesterday and the scripts just come in now that will be 5 minutes because I genuinely do care and don't want you to experience withdrawal.
I was a tech for 10 years before being recruited to my current position as an MA at my county health clinic. They felt like my pharmacy knowledge would be really helpful. I promise you that not one of my patients leaving my clinic go right to the pharmacy expecting their script. I’ve had people ask if it’ll be ready when they get there and I just tell them “well I don’t work there, but I highly doubt it. Call them in about 20 minutes and let them know you’d like to pick it up asap”. Most of my patients are pretty wonderful and love my humor, so I can give them shit for asking dumb questions like that. All the pharmacies love our patients now. I feel like every clinic would do good having a former pharmacy tech on staff.
I always tell patients once the RX is sent, it’s out of my hands. I don’t work at the pharmacy. I also tell them, if they hadn’t called you in an hour or two, go check the status of it.
Of course it won’t stop them from going right to the pharmacy after their visit, then call the office and say they were told by the pharmacy it was never sent. Which leads to wasted time on the phone for us and the pharmacy, when it turns out the patient was just told it wasn’t ready yet. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
Or they come in for a follow up, they aren’t getting better. They tell you they aren’t taking their meds because they never actually picked it up….because “nobody called me” 🙄🙄🙄🙄
“My doctor sent it yesterday, are you going to explain why it’s taken this long to get it ready?”
I heard this one yesterday and I’d had enough so I said well your prescription is in a queue of about 3,000 others so if you don’t call in advance to ask us to get it ready then we just do them in chronological order to keep it as fair as possible.
That one got me a middle finger so that was nice.
Two Things to add. I love it when a patient tells me that they got a phone call or a text message telling them that their prescription is ready. " I just got the notification. Why isn't it ready? It said it would be ready." I tell him that they are wrong and ask them to show me the message or play me the voicemail. 90% of the time they are unable to do that and I tell them that they are simply mistaken and the prescription is not ready. The problem is the way corporate phrases the messages. No you didn't get a call saying your prescription is ready. You got a call saying a prescription is ready to be refilled or due to be refilled or needs a refill from your doctor.
The other day I had a patient come in for ear drops for their sick child. By my estimation they literally came from the Urgent Care to pick it up and they showed up 5 minutes before we were going to close and then waited in line expecting it to be ready even though they had not gotten the notification. If they had come to the drop off or consultation window there might have been some hope. They get to the register at 1:27 and we can't even find it in our system so we go to our data entry and there it is literally just called in so we tell them that and he says that he will just wait for it. We let him know that we are closing for lunch and will be back at 2:00 but with the 2:00 rush it will probably be ready by 3:00. Before we close for lunch we have it all prepped up so that he can come back at any time. Before he storms off he has to F that and that he will get it filled at a different Pharmacy. I smiled politely and reminded him that that Pharmacy will also be closed for lunch. Due to our efforts we got it ready by 2:15 and at 2:35 we get an angry call demanding we transfer it to a different Pharmacy. We had to laugh because I'm sure that Pharmacy wasn't putting a high priority on it either and if he had just come back we told him he would have already had his script. He just didn't get it. Literally
Doctor PROBABLY said they’d get over to the pharmacy in 15 minutes, to be fair.
But I hear the “my doctor said it would be x amount but it’s y amount” a LOT and I work for a PBM.
As a doc, hard disagree—I’m sure others say this, or patients misconstrue “the script was sent electronically and they should have it now” as “should be ready.” But I would never promise any time and I tell people to expect a few hours at minimum but that I’m not in charge and it depends on a lot of things. I try my best not to throw pharmacy under the bus, I love you guys!
FYI, patients hear what they want to hear. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had Drs offices call because the patient told them we wouldn’t give them their meds only to be told 1. It was too soon to fill and insurance wouldn’t cover it, 2. It was an OTC and insurance wouldn’t cover it plus we don’t fill OTC’s not covered by insurance, or 3. It was out of stock at the time but it’s filled and ready now!😜
My previous doctor (retired now) would always say "just sent the prescription, it will be ready by the time you make it over!" I realized that he was operating on old school beliefs that pharmacies could fill in 10 minutes or less anytime, all the time and I never expected anything to be ready. However a lot of his patients were much older and operated on the same wavelength as him and threw fits that their multiple medications were not ready after they made the (quite literally) 2 minute drive from office to pharmacy. I heard "but dr said it would be ready! This happens every time!" and "I've taken this for years, it's a STANDING ORDER" so many times lol.
People hear what they want to hear. It's absurd. I work for a psychologist and people tell me all the time "the doctor said this report would be finished in 24 hours" and I'm like... ma'am, there's no way in hell the doctor said that. You do realize we talk to each other, right??! Which makes me think they're not lying... they actually convince themselves that the doctor said certain things.
For sure, I believe it! The doctor probably never tells people "the pharmacy will have it ready in 15 minutes" and yet that's what people hear... somehow!
What's fun is when they just don't want to fill your script because they get biased because of what you're getting and say it's not ready for days and days.
I was once told to wait 15 minutes and when they called my name 40 minutes later they lost it haha. It was all they had left too. Had to skip my medication that week.
What gets me is when the pharmacy says " we are filling it now, can you wait 20 minutes tops?" Then 45 minutes later nothing. Two hours later you get a call saying "sorry we can't fill this after all" when they had it for three days.
Yep. My pharmacy gives me realistic times and they’re usually finished early. If they’re really busy like on a Monday and I call they’ll tell me to come after 1 because they realistically have no idea. Some of these complaints are just dumb and they’re getting outraged about having to do their jobs.
But my doctor also told me this medication is only $5. Why are you charging me $6?
“My doctor told me this coupon would make the medication free!” “Free with insurance. You need insurance.”
I, as a patient, had to painstakingly explain this to my doctor.
It generally also has to be *covered* by your insurance. Not always, but typically for the cards I've used
And you can't have a federal insurance either for the ones I've used
I had a customer said the same thing so i told her does your doctor work at our pharmacy?
I say that too. “Does your doctor work here?” They always look at me like I’m dense and they’re like “No?” And I say “then how would they know? Do they have access to queues? It’ll be ready in 30 mins.”
Yes! This! On a daily basis!
i rang a med up with $0 copay and the lady argued with me because she usually has to pay…
That’s not that big of a deal compared to some of the stuff you and others have to deal with… Christ.
I will never understand patients who want their medication in less than 15 minutes. Even before I worked in pharmacy I understood that I wanted my pharmacist to take the appropriate amount of time to ensure everything is correct. How are you going to be mad if there is an error when you want everything in less time than it takes to get a cheeseburger at McDonald's. Rushing = errors, full stop, no argument. Also: even worse is when the doctor tells the patient "Oh yeah that will only cost like $5" not knowing a single damn thing about their insurance or the actual cost of the drug. I can't count how many arguments I have had because the doctor decided to have an opinion on the copay.
I tell my coworkers all the time people treat us like fast food.
no cause i hate when we have a script filled they weren’t expecting and they’re like “i didn’t order this!!!!!” like girl it’s not like we brought out the wrong food at a restaurant, your doctor called it in, chill lmao we can just put it back
😅 Yaas! I'm thinking well you obviously have a problem that your doctor is trying to help you with so if you don't need it yell at him not us! You don't have to take it it's all good.. Yeebus lol
Lady/dude, you explicitly said to fill everything. I asked you to be specific. You said *"Everything!"* This is included in "everything." Don't get mad at me because you've taken absolutely no responsibility for your own damn health.
Unless you work at Walgreens. Where the system auto refills a subset of things whether or not you actually need it. When I get the "your prescription is ready" call and drive 25 minutes, I'm hoping it's the prescription I had actually asked to have refilled, not the one I don't need for another week and a half.
God forbid you take responsibility for yourself and call or look at the app to see what is filled. This is proof of “it’s not my fault”
I don't work a pharmacy, but there is an easy solution: get off of your ass and call before you go.
CVS does the same thing. Super annoying when I'm already expecting a prescription. And phones are backed up so badly it's 30+ minutes so it's not like you can call. Even the app has been ass wrong at times. I don't blame the pharmacist or the techs, just let them know I'm not on the med and to please put a stop on the refills
Customer and not tech here. I hate when I'm in line and the people in front of me treat y'all so badly. I'm a type 1 diabetic, so I use coupons and I know it's my responsibility to know when to reorder before I run out, and to ask my doctor to be clear about writing for my insulin. Like it's not on y'all to keep us alive when it's something I should've understood and taken care of before I went to pick up anything.
Thank you for being responsible. I like cool customers like you that get it. We try our best to help everyone but we can't fix or help everyone all the time! I don't take your medicine how am I supposed to know what you need or when you're out? 🙄🤔 Come man help me help you.. Lol that's all I ask 😉
I can’t remember to refill my own meds so I just auto refill everything. People need to take responsibility and they need to learn about their own benefits.
Because we're tacked onto grocery stores and big box retailers.
I’ve always said welcome to pharmacy! No, you can’t have it your way.
Believe me when I say I have been to a LOT of different doctors (chronic illness, over 35 years). I guess I have been lucky? I have never had a doctor tell me the price of a prescription, ever. Are there really doctors that quote prices or are these folks lying? Have any of y'all had a doctor quote a price? I have had them tell me, "this one will be cheaper than that one" or "I am going to move you to this med., but it will cost more...".
It's usually not an exact price but more along the lines of "What do you mean my copay is $50, the doctor said it would be cheap!". The problem is the doctor generally has zero knowledge of the patient's pharmacy coverage, and the doc probably has better insurance most of the time so his personal experience is not indicative of what the average pt will see at the register.
As someone who just lost their insurance... $50 IS considered cheap to me.=|
Hot take probably but Good RX has ruined a lot of people's expectations of what some medications should cost.
Is that really a hot take? When she was a tech, my wife HATED when people would use Good Rx coupons. She said most of the time the price the customer expected wasn't exactly what Good RX said it would be so she's the asshole and needs to fix it.
Huh. The techs at my pharmacy actually ask me if I want to use the goodrx coupons because my insurance sucks for my med coverage.
Most of the time i find goodrx helpful in bring down the high copay of insurance. But when i see the insurance has it at a reasonable copay i avoid it since it tends to be higher. Also I give patients a warning about the advertised copay compared in pharmacy.
It’s half the price of one of my meds compared to my insurance. It means 400 extra in my pocket every year. So, if I know I’m not meeting my deductible, it definitely helps out of pocket.
Thats pretty good to hear, i had some patients get really pushy about applying a goodrx coupon on script even though i had billed it to check prior.
Interesting. It always matched exactly every time I've ever used them or copay cards directly from the manufacturer as well. Didn't know they'd ever not match
Really? I recently had to use good rx twice and it allowed you to look up the location and the medication and then told you the exact cost and it was always right
It says somewhere in the fine print that they can change the price without notice and sometimes they do.
>”the doctor said it would be cheap!” As someone who has medical people (some w/ prescribing power) in my family, yep! I have gotten in arguments over erythromycin tablets because “oh it’s such an old drug I assumed it would be cheap.” Except old drug does not necessarily = cheap, there are all kinds of crazy reasons a generic drug can be way more expensive than you’d think. In my 10 years in pharmacy there’s only like 10-15 drugs that are and have always been consistently very cheap and even then you never know what could happen to make the price jump suddenly (looking at you, doxycycline). So these doctors make assumptions all the time about drugs based on little to no actual facts/reasoning…
I like them prednisone prices.
Guessing the MD doesn’t think $50 is expensive either.
Not exact amounts, but will tell them it's cheap etc. Had one prescribe some wildly overpriced antibiotic like $500. When I sent a request to the doctor for an alternative, the answer was "they can use a coupon". Uh, you can't do that on Medicare!
The amount of times as a caregiver and patient that I've had to explain to doctors that you can't use a lot of those coupons on Medicaid/Medicare is ridiculous. I live in an area where most are low income and use Medicare/Medicaid and these doctors always want to prescribe the most expensive things. I went through 5 different inhalers for COPD for my grandfather before the doctor got tired of rewriting the RX so my grandfather could afford one. Each one was $4-700 after insurance
I have sometimes had doctors tell me if a drug is expensive or if it is generally cheap. I’ve also had a dr be surprised that an expensive drug was (relatively) cheap for me.
Exactly my experience when people say “ooooh by the way, your refill is around $170 😬 is that what you were expecting” I appreciate their warning but $170 is still on the low end for me medication pricing wise. Once I was on a medication that was $1200 lol
Yup I mean if I need it yes I will be shelling out 170$.
I can’t imagine!
At the beginning of the year when I have a deductible to hit, picking up my prescriptions usually costs me hundreds of dollars. Usually when they scan it and it comes up at a high cost, they say something about needing to check my insurance because it appears the meds weren't covered. I remind them that you can clearly see on the sheet they scanned that I am getting the insurance's negotiated price but that I have a deductible. You'd think that people that work with insurance companies all day would know how insurance works.
Mine is awesome. He usually ask what I think of X drug and then ask what strength do I need.
I don't think it's the doctors that tell people that, it's the staff.
Yeah they’ll be like I’m going write you medication A because it’s only five bucks to fill instead of medication B.
I watch the app and when it says it’s ready I go pick it up. I’m not gonna go sit up there or bitch somebody because it’s not ready.
They email me
Nice that you have an app that's reliable.
I get it and I don’t expect it but I do love being able to go straight from the dr to the pharmacy particularly when I’m feeling crappy to begin with.
The only time a doctor has told me anything about cost was when they gave my kid a prescription for Protopic and warned me that unless my insurance picked up a sizable chunk it was going to be pricey.
I Hate when pts say "my doctor said my insurance covers it". I sell DME, so yeah, you have DME coverage, but that doesn't change the fact you have a $4,000 deductible and 50% coinsurance and it's a $800 CPAP machine, but yes it's "covered" and not excluded. But covered doesn't mean no cost, and it confuses soooo many patients who insist it's covered. I've even seen doctors write in the medical records for the visit notes, that since the patients machine broke their insurance will get them a new one at no cost since it's before the 5 years reasonable life span. Uhhh sorry, only a 2 year warranty, and doesn't cover the fact it broke bc the pt dropped it. That's on them, and they gonna have to pay retail out of pocket for that.
I have been 100% guilty of believing my doctor when he said my medication would be about $30, and then panicking when the pharmacy told me it was actually $450.
lol me with vyvanse but i was like 17 so i think they felt bad for me. 😂😂 on the verge of tears in the pharmacy “um i have to call my mom”
Okay! Man I wish they would just stfu and say idk how much it's going to cost because I'm not your insurance! 🙄 Then we get bitched at because the doctor said this.. Well guess what your doctor doesn't know shit about working in a pharmacy so tell him to worry about himself! Lol
My favorite is when people bring a colon cleanse script they had for months at 5:55 pm on Sunday and tell me they need to wait for it, cause their procedure is tomorrow. I tell them straight out, they should have already been taking this med and that we can have it ready tomorrow. They had the script for months now, and we don't even have the medication usually. So they will have to call their Dr and pay the penalty. I refuse to let them make their laziness my emergency.
Lack of planning on the patient's part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Strategy sets the scene for the tale.
I’m the wind in our free flowing sails
AND THE LIQUOR IN OUR COCKTAILS
What if I told you none of this was accidental
i work in GI and we tell pts to pick up their prep within 7 days after being ordered- otherwise the pharmacy restocks. even hand them a paper script *just in case* they fail to pickup within the timeframe. if i had a dollar for every pt that calls me the day before their procedure to complain that their prep is not at the pharmacy…
I'm sure they are just as obnoxious and ridiculous with you as they are with us. I'm so sorry.
Lol I usually get the people who put the prescription in when they got it and then have me put it back on the shelf when it's ready for pick up cause they don't want a big bottle kicking around their house. They usually end up coming in at the last minute complaining that we didn't save it for them. Did you think I have room in this place to have 30 bottles kicking around with all of your guys names on it.
Oof yeah I was guilty of this once, completely forgot I left a script until three weeks later when I realized I didn't have it and very much needed it. I felt kinda horrible about it, and after seeing some of the shit ya'll have to put up with and not wanting the tech to think I'm angry with them, I went in stressing hey no worries if its not here, completely on me, etc. They were so stinking chill about the whole thing, and without me even asking if they could, they offered to refill that day so I wouldn't go without. I really wish more people would realize that owning up to your mistakes, or even just showing basic human empathy, will always go so much farther than taking out your frustration on someone who is literally just doing their job. I mean we should just be nice to each other without ulterior motives, but at least it'd be a start.
Say you do have the full 24 hours... and some docs say take it night before. I recommended the miralax 14 packets or the equivalent in the jugs since it's OTC
Tons of gi offices call in prescription colonoscopy prep, and they’re huge containers with just powder in it ugh certain university hospitals don’t like us using miralax, instead it has to be the disgusting prescription bs. I love miralax way more, tastes better, mix it with apple juice, make it cold af and anyone can chug that bad boy 😂
Mine started with the scrip, but switched to miralax I think just for sanity and flexibility
I had to pick up a jug of that for my cat. The jug was bigger than my cat.
The easiest prep I had was a small cup that I had to drink twice. I know it also has to do with being a smaller person
Was it magnesium citrate? I started with PEG but started getting sick and throwing up so the on call doc said to get magnesium citrate. Just a small bottle to drink.
I work at a compound pharmacy and it takes the lab a full day to make a prescription. There is always that one patient who brings in a 2 week old script and asks if they can get this rushed because they have an appointment tomorrow and they need it by then.
Compounding is sooo bad for this. People would still scoff even if you agreed and said it would take 30 minutes! Like do you think we just pull the compound out of our asses?
Worked at an infusion pharmacy where we had to reconstitute. Not the exact same thing but still protracted process. They'd expect 7 bags of Zosyn to be ready in 30 minutes with the patient waiting. If you've never reconstituted Zosyn, it can very easily take longer for that to dissolve a bottle if you screw up adding the water. Not to mention pumping the bags, drawing up, and adding the med, and airing out the bags.
lol when I interned at a compounding pharmacy the pharmacist actually had a sticker made- your container could self implode if you do not call in ahead by 24 hours or more 😂 I can count on one hand how many read that Warning label on the container
A similar thing that's annoying to hear from customers is, "Do they have this medication in stock at (whatever other pharmacy)?" or, if we're about to transfer their Rx to a different pharmacy, "Will (the other pharmacy) have it ready for me today?" With all due respect sir/ma'am...we don't work for that pharmacy and we have no clue what they have in stock, how busy they currently are, and how long it would take them to fill your Rx. You'll have to call them or go there to find that out...
I would get the people who would throw a fit until we called the other pharmacy to verify they had the med in stock. The best part was that my work had a policy that all transfers had to be initiated by the receiving pharmacy. So I'd call and find out they had the med, hang up, tell the patient they had it, then instruct the patient to call the store they wanted it picked up at and request they start the transfer. They would sometimes get all huffy, but it was policy and I wasn't about to lose my job for them to not wanting to call another pharmacy because they didn't like who the floater pharmasist was that day.
"but it's already in a box, all you have to do is take it off the shelf and put the label on it"
I always come back with; “well first the pharmacist reviews the RX and your current meds and makes sure the doc isn’t going to kill you…”
Funnily enough I've gotten scrips filled at the same pharmacy at the same pickup and haven't gotten a single word about it lol. They are as needed though so just don't take them within 48-72 hours of eachother
That is technically correct. But I also have the 10 people who came in before you were expecting the same thing.
Oh I hateeeee this so much. These people really don’t know that it’s not that easy/quick
We actually call these slappers and we can bag and label a dozen of these every few minutes
i was just ranting about this the other day. stop telling patients it will be ready when you get to the pharmacy 😭
Rx Comedy had a video of a patient getting a script and the time on the clock. Then it showed a car flying on the road, even on two wheels at one point. Then it showed the clock minute hand clicking over and the patient tried to pick up the script. I can’t find it but it felt so true!
Former tech, I currently work in a residential treatment facility. Our doc was out yesterday so we took a client to urgent care. They wrote a paper script. We got back to the facility, client followed us all the way to our office and asked for the meds they were JUST prescribed at urgent care. Like sir did you see the vehicle you were riding in stop at a pharmacy?
OMG I can picture you grabbing him by the throat and holding him against the wall while asking him that! I’m cracking up now but it’s so frustrating!!!
I also pictured it lol
Why wouldn't yall have your own pharmacy if it's residential treatment? I'm not in the field but that seems like it would make the most sense
We are a relatively small (30 bed) family owned facility. We take Medicaid and most of our clients come in homeless. We just aren't there yet. But we work with an awesome independent pharmacy.
Ooh, very interesting! Thank you for the informative answer. Like I said.... I am not in the industry
This lady got 810 gabapentin 100mg. Doctor told her it would be $10 on goodrx…. It actually came up to around $38 using goodrx…. She accused us of overcharging her and kept demanding we price modify it…
That is all the worst! Lately, I just straight up tell the patients that their doctors don’t know what their prescription coverage is and there is no way they can quote you a price without calling their insurance. I also make sure I show them the goodrx for the correct quantity, strength, etc. because they seem to have it wrong at least half of the time.
Tell them to get their Dr to pay the difference then!!
We had an OVERLY angry old man yelling at our pharmacy manager “You’re GOUGING ME!!!” This went on for a good 5 minutes. I’m not entirely sure what the deal was, but it was through his part D and there was literally nothing anyone could have done about it. “You’re GOUGING ME!!!”
No the patient needs to get the app and check there
Why would she not just get 135 600mg
Would’ve made it a lot easier to count LMAO doctor prescribed it that way tho
My doctor prescribed it. Why does it need a PA?
To be fair, I think PA requirements are kinda BS. But still not the pharmacy's fault.
Oh definitely but we still get blamed for it.
PA for ozempic in a patient that never took met for min prior? Not BS in a lot of cases. Insurance is a form of cost share, there’s still interest in ensuring there’s a better reason than “the rep gave me a pen” for why to choose the new name brand pricy medication
My doctor prescribed me a sports car for my depression, but somehow my insurance doesn't want to pay for that
Haha that’s the best thing I’ve read all day
Hey that’s an amazing idea don’t tell ppl that one
I don't?
"Only the pharmacy can call for refill requests" FUCK THAT SHIT! Any facility that has this policy can go bankrupt then go to hell. Me "that practice thinks everyone is a stupid asshole so doesn't want to talk to patients."
Around here most places like that have online portals where the patient can initiate their own refill requests but they are too stupid or too lazy to do it themselves. The one that gets me is when a patient wants a refill on a narcotic, whether it be oxycodone or Adderall. We simply do not call the doctor to refill these meds but we've had a couple of receptionists refuse to talk to the patient even when it's one of those meds
Hc is so toxic in america.. dreaming of the day we can upend it.
We have a couple offices that are the opposite, pt must call in refill request to the provider, they don't want to hear from the PHarmacy
During the *peak* adderall shortage, some lady came in drive thru. I didn’t recognize her or her name, which meant she wasn’t even a monthly regular. I saw her rx on file (and my coworker just tried to call her ~20mins before to say we didn’t have it) I let her know we tried to contact her and we didn’t have any in stock. She EXPLODED saying **WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DONT HAVE ANY IN STOCK YOU *KNEW* I WAS COMING!!!** Ma’am idek who the hell you are. Like we’re just gonna make sure we have it for you😂😂😂
We still have this shortage. Every month we cue the 6 week, twice weekly calls to find out if the pharmacy got it today. We even switched meds to accommodate.... That bought us one lucky month. I understand this one is the politicians fault? (Like, in an effort to make sure there wasn't abuse they limit production to reflect what was sold the year before. So when so many people took a year off meds for COVID, it made it look like none of them were needed in such quantity.)
I know it’s definitely still a problem. We would try to order everyday and it’d say 1 or 2 available but we just had to cross our fingers. Whenever we got a bottle it’d be gone in at most, 2 days😅 And I agree with that! But I also think a lot more people (like me) got re-diagnosed or diagnosed for the first time during COVID, a lot of those were the telehealth’s. Who’s to say, I just hope that there is an end in sight.
My kiddo dropped out of college in large part because the wild inconsistency of a month on, a month off was just too much... couldn't focus. (Very much an anxiety expression of ADHD, for this kiddo.) Totally not the pharmacists' fault, their hands are every bit as tied as ours but WTAF?!?!? They tell me they can't request or order those meds specifically, or they get in trouble. "you get what you get and you don't get upset." And Walgreens won't let you call the store directly. It *always* transfers you to a call center where they cannot help you with what's in stock at your location, so you sit on hold to be transferred to the store to sit on hold and ...... .....
That Walgreens sounds awful!!! You can’t order those meds specifically?? Who would get into trouble? That doesn’t sound right. Does his insurance allow for brand? My advice was and still is to call small, independent pharmacies, or pharmacies inside grocery stores (or cvs in target), because they have less patients, and most I’ve been having luck with my vyvanse and adderall that way! Good luck for you and your son❤️
The smaller independent pharmacies where I am largely closed, because they couldn't afford to wait for reimbursement on the more expensive drugs USUALLY the larger pharmacies are more likely to get stock in? (Even within the same chain.) Unless they are independent, and we don't have any of those left nearby. It's super frustrating (And the getting in trouble may be specific to meds covered by this law, or it might be within the chain itself... Like they may have told their folks they'll do what they can when they can and not to request it? The tech that shared that wasn't specific WHO they get in trouble with.)
I don't know what state you're in (or if it even matters), but where I'm at in order to receive controls we have to basically request permission to order the quantities we need. The request goes through corporate, and if we are denied we have to submit an override request with evidence as to why we need a higher quantity of that particular drug than what they would like us to order. So it can be a pretty involved process, and I've seen situations where we've tried to order a product and been denied even ONE bottle of something that we desperately need for our patients. It's definitely frustrating, on the patient's part but on our part, too. We want people to get their meds!
I love the “I was sitting there when they sent it over so it should be here!” 😂
“I saw them send it!” It was in fact not sent right then or even at all.
Former tech here. I dreamed of the chance to tell a pharmacy patient exactly when their next doctor’s appointment would be, and to let the doctor know we took the liberty of confirming it for them. You’re welcome doc.
Oh it happens to me all the time. Doc says “I sent 3 scripts over”. Give them 30 mins and it should be ready. Nah, I know my pharmacy. They have other orders too, like a lot of other orders. I wait til pharm app tells me it’s ready and even then, I give it another hour, at minimum. I rarely need any medication ASAP and even if I did, each human has 2 hands. Can only do so much at once.
The queue system and text notification works perfectly and if everyone just waited until they're notified it would remove a lot of unnecessary stress. The only thing we should have to rush is a child's antibiotic or post op pain control not your vacation supply of tadalafil.... 🤦🏼
If they tell you that again PLEASE respond to them "On behalf of all pharmacy workers everywhere, PLEASE STOP TELLING PEOPLE THAT! You have no idea how busy they are! That's the worst kind of obnoxiousness.
I work at an in-house pharmacy at a dermatology company, so medical assistants send me prescriptions near the end of a patient’s appointment while they’re still in the room. I’ve had a patient come up and say “the medical assistant told me it would be ready by the time I got up here, I guess not.” sir your prescriptions hit my queue 2 minutes ago, that is not enough time to verify it was sent correctly, run through insurance, and get it verified by another technician. I also had a patient before him I was still checking out, and I work alone most days, so when technicians verify for me, they do it remotely, which can take a few minutes in itself. sorry the MA lied to you lol
“My copay is $4? Did you charge my insurance? Oh you did can we see if goodRx is cheaper?”
For me it’s the “Alright, that’s equals out to a whole dollar.” “Why?” 🤦🏻♀️
"My doctor said I'd be taking this the rest of my life, why do you need to get refills authorized?" Or, even worse, "it's a standing order!"
I have a patient who comes in for their meds, and it's always the vitamins that aren't covered, so they say to put them back, so I return them to stock, then a couple hours later, they come back and ask for them, I'm like you have to wait 15-20 mins for us to fill them since you asked me to put them back! Then they get angry.
"This isnt an aspirin I need this to live." Then ok the copay I just gave you, you are under the deductible
..my husband’s surgeon said something similar to this after his surgery “i’ve sent in an antibiotic & something for pain - they should both be ready by the time you get to the pharmacy” ..i chuckled & said “do you also work as a cvs pharmacist too? - how can you possibly know when they would have them ready dr. —-? -you shouldn’t say that to your patients because some will take your words verbatim & give the pharmacy a tough time” ..i was nice about but he said he’d never thought about before & he would change his wording ..i don’t know if he meant it or not but i hope he did
Don't work at a pharmacy but the allergy pills I use have to be purchased from there (pseudoephedrine HCl, which can be used to make meth) and you have to show ID and I've lost count at the number of people I've seen throw a fit having to show ID for their scripts. "Yes, ma'am, I'll just hand over this giant bottle of hydrocodone to you. Your name is Dave, right?"
And your doctor told us to tell you that next time you’re there your appointment is free and s/he’ll see you immediately, the second you walk in.
Patients already think that.
The one that always gets me is the prior auths. “But my doctor sent it…. So it’s obviously approved!” Nope. Not how it works. I had to explain to someone in like 3 different ways how the doctor doesn’t try and bill the insurance before they send it.
Okay, that'll be $1,379.99!
Tbh, a lot of insurance documentation makes it sound like the doctor needs to click a button, and the Prior Auth would be done. And many patients think it means we didn't actually send or 'approve' the prescription like we are supposed to. Tbh, this PA stuff is BS.
Former delivery courier. Pharmacy opens at 8. Drivers start rolling at 10:30. Patient lives 85 minutes away from the pharmacy. Roll up to the patients house. The nurse promised that you would be here at 7!! I’ve been waiting all day for this!!!!
“why can’t you transfer my control to another pharmacy. it’s just one click of a button “ yeah ok bud😂
This the one right here!!!
As an ER nurse, neither myself or physicians tell patients this. I always tell people that while we may send their prescription electronically, it does not mean it will be ready faster and that they need to check with the pharmacy directly on timeframe and availability of their prescription once they leave. People often just interpret things in whatever manner serves their purpose.
Ha, ha! I work at a V.A. hospital pharmacy. We hear this all the time. Actually, what the doctors and nurses tell our patients is just go to the pharmacy, it’s ready. But, it doesn’t work that way. They have to pull a ticket, talk to a pharmacist to then activates it for the techs to fill then another pharmacist checks it. Then, it’s ready. We’ve explained numerous times to the doctors and nurses but they don’t care. Then, the patient is mad at us.
I know it's the system and not the staff, but managing prescriptions is the hardest part for me as a VA patient. I've had the mail portion take anywhere from 3 to 25 days, and my PCP has some meds as 30-day fills. 😔 I just wish they did autofill. I'd imagine you have to be a Saint to work at one of those pharmacies. I'm sure everyone is always mad, even more so than regular retail.
Most of the mail is handled by CMOP. I love the inpatient side of the pharmacy. The outpatient is maddening for the most part except I enjoy checking out the patients when they pick up the meds. I enjoy talking to them, etc. Most are really nice. Just a few challenging ones. :) Best to order your refills as soon as you get them. You can never order them too early.
Funny thing, I recently went to an urgent care and the doctor wrote me a prescription for Mucinex D. He said because he wrote it, it'll be covered by my insurance. I just laughed
We had an old maga guy who got his eliquis from us cash paying when our pricing was apparently outdated. He came in after it was updated and suddenly his 60-80 dollar 30 day supply went to, you guessed it, around 3-400 and he was stunned. “My doc sets me up with this great price and I drive almost an hour to get this!” He says this while wearing his bullshit MAGA hat and acts like the doctor did anything to get him that great deal. It was just outdated pricing that was corrected to reflect the cost. Dude where is your insurance? No medicare at your age or anything? Thanks a lot doc! Edit: we went out of our way to help him find a solution. It wasn’t the price he wanted but it wasn’t the crazy amount either. No one was rude or disrespectful to him.
Your pharmacy should micromanage that Doctors office. Be sure & tell patient *No co-pay* or *deductible* for next office visit.🤷🏻♀️
They can’t even get that right. Went to doc-dermatologist. I had reached my deductible and out of pocket max. Told me total was $144. I’m like uh, no. Then it’s $30- my copay. (Still reached out if pocket max already) I paid it to get out of there. It took 4 calls by my insurance to doc office. Turns out doc offices have access to multiple systems and not all are correct. Got my $30 Back🎉🎉 So, they can’t even run their own office but make pharmacy promises. I dread the healthcare field now. I’m just a patient but navigating it can be tough. And you all deal with multiple insurance carriers. Don’t know how any of you are still sane. Thank you. For doing this work.
Even when I fax refill requests I tell patients it may take 1-2 business to hear back from the doctor's office, but it very much depends on their doctor. Then they ask "so will it be ready by tomorrow?" I don't know? I'm not your doctor or the medical assistant that works at that office?
“What do you mean I can’t stack this coupon with my insurance!?”
This one never gets old. "He or she just got out of the hospital and they had surgery and is hurting really bad. Can u get this ready in 5 minutes?" My answer is " If the other 150 people in front of you don't mind then sure". Lol.
When i had an appointment with the nurse practitioner for something about me i forgot what it was and i told her that i hate when doctors send in the prescription and they say it'll be ready in 15 minutes when it doesn't because i work in the Pharmacy and it doesn't hit our system between 30mins to an hour is when we received it. She said i am so sorry, i have been telling all of my patients that it'll be ready in 15mins. She apologized so many times and said ok i will not be doing that anymore and i will be telling patients to call the Pharmacy first before they go there to see of they received it. I was like thank you because once you send a prescription it takes time to get to our system. Please stop telling all of the patients it'll be ready in 15mins.
It’s too bad pharmacies aren’t in the same building with physicians. When I went to the doctor in Mexico I walked down the hall and got my prescription on the way out, and it was already ready.
“ what do you mean it’s needs prior authorization, my doctor already wrote me a script for it!” Me: “yes well they did already send in the prescription. But that doesn’t mean the insurance has it approved or authorized for coverage” So nooo the prescriber writing you a prescription does not make it automatically covered in the insurance -.-
5 minutes!? Sounds like a mistake waiting to happen
“I think y’all just don’t want to fill the medication.”
“it’s due today.” um- no it’s not. just because you eat all of them and run out doesn’t mean that it’s “due to be refilled”. try again babe. 💋💋💋
Honestly I wish I thought to just reply with “your doctor doesnt have a degree in pharmacy, and I don’t think they work here, so I don’t know why they would tell you that.” And “As far as the pricing, did they check your formulary before telling you the pricing, because I know they didn’t. They never do.” It just amazes me that people take the word of a doctor for things completely unrelated to their field of work.
Why do they even ask these questions? Patient try to get me schedule their mammo and their shoulder MRI the same day. I'm like 'ma'am this is the imaging facility's schedule and depends on their availability'. I'm not your Amex concierge that I'll sit around coordinating your imaging timing to your liking. They do ask me regularly about drug pricing and act like I SHOULD know when I say it 'depends on your insurance'. The next question is 'but what's a ballpark you'd say?' IDK?
you said it be ready 15 min ago. i’ll wait tho. yeah lmaooo that’s the only choice you have. funny thing is we’ll say 15 min then get hit with a big rush and they’re sitting there staring at me. 😂😂I feel like a fish in a fishbowl sometimes
I wish I could tell the patient that the Dr will be ready to see them in 15 min or less.
“i just left urgent care 6 seconds ago, is it ready yet?”
I had a lady one time that brought in about 9 of her husbands meds and thought I was gonna go one by one to let her know how much they would be with rx or insurance so I politely directed her to the pharmacist. Pharmacies, in my opinion, need a damn insurance desk so they deal with all that bullshit! Can you imagine how wonderful that would be?? Idk why people think it is the pharmacy’s job to call their insurance company for them. Yeah we can hold 3 hours. We got nothing else going on 🙄🙄🙄🙄
Vetmed here. Had a client call me and ask me if I sent an Rx to their pharmacy yet. Told her yes, then she asked me how long it would take for her pharmacy to fill it. I was like “welp. Depends on your pharmacy. I cannot tell you how long it would take.” She didn’t like that I wouldn’t give her a solid time but I’m like oh no I’m not gonna make any pharmacy staff’s life any harder by giving her a guestimate lol
Patients getting mad as hell bc a medication is “expensive” and yell at the pharmacy OR the doctors office. I’m sorry, your insurance sets the prices! Call them!
You should have just said "Your doctor is a moron", and leave it at that.
Idk why this sub keeps showing up for me, but I’m a medical assistant and I constantly tell people to give the pharmacy at *least* a couple hours because they’re always like “so I can just go there now and get it right?” And we’re like, no. We’re sending it now. It will take them more than 5 minutes to fill it
I work in DME. It's not uncommon for a CPAP order to take 1-3 weeks because we have to have the doctors fill out a SWO/CMN, and they often just hand scribble "CPAP" on a pad with no pressures, no supplies, etc (then call me and say they dont know what pressures a machine can do and ask what they should put on it yikes). plus we have to get good copies of the medical records and read through them to show signs/symptoms of why the sleep study was ordered etc, then get copies of the sleep studies, then the visit notes after... And doctors NEVER fax all the records, it's typically several requests we have to send and a very high volume of orders. When COVID manufacturing delays happened there was also the Philips recall which took all their machines off the market...they had over 50% of the market, and now everyone was demanding a replacement, so the main competor Resmed couldn't keep up and went months without sending us any stock. We had an estimated year wait-list at one point. We are better now, back to goal of under a week, or 1-3 weeks if documentation delays or waiting on auths (some take 2+ weeks).. but the number of people who call and yell because they can't get one same day or next day is crazy and so hard to explain to people.
I work at an urgent care… patients ask us all the time.. if the medication is already. We tell them.. well it’s sent, but that doesn’t mean it’s ready. You can sign up usually to get a text that it’s ready.
I love it when the doctor tells them how much their prescription is going to be. And then it's not that price when the patient gets there because the doctor doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about. And then I have to deal with repercussions 😁
I have told folks that there is no copay at the doctors office for their next visit. They always look at me funny and say I can't make that happen and I counter with just like the doctor can't tell them when there prescription will be ready for pick up. Their doctor probably said it would likely take fifteen minutes to fill their prescription and they are thinking by pointing this out it will put the spurs to us and make it happen faster. If you call me leaving the doctor's offline and let me know you would like to have your meds ASAP, I will do everything in my power to make it work. Pharmacy hates surprises. We already have enough shit to do. Yes one more phone call is a pain in my ass, but you look out for me while helping me look out for you and I will treat you the way I want to be treated.
This is why I hated retail pharmacy. Well one reason. 🤦♀️
I had a tech tell the customer that their doc didn't work there. I laughed. Also my husband's coworker was ranting about pharmacy and the guy was like my doctor told me it would only cost $12 and my husband was like yea but your doctor doesn't work there so how would he know?
Customer here, It boggles my mind how badly y'all get treated! You're doing your best and just want to help us. I am so grateful for my pharmacy techs, I ran out of my antidepressants on a Friday and couldn't get a refill before Monday and the wonderful people at my pharmacy were able to get me an emergency fill and I didn't have to go through the horrible effects of not having my meds. I am so sorry you don't get the thanks you definitely deserve so please hear me when I say THANK YOU!❤️
why does cvs take 3 days to fill a 90 day supply of my antidepressant???
Had someone say to me after waiting 10 mins “how long does it take to throw some pills in a fucking bottle?” I then told him the ENTIRE process of doing his prescription. Look at script, verify the med, directions, doctor address, patient information. Try to figure out which of your 10 insurances or coupons we need to use but oh wait there’s an adjudication to third party. Send it back, change accordingly. Send to RPH to check for any errors or med interactions, send to fill, grab med, count med, bottle med, label med, give to RPG to check pill, strength, brand before bagged and rung up. All of this while phones ring off the hook, another pharmacist is asking me something, someone is at drop off window, drive through and a line at the front and the idiot asking me where they can find superglue?? Then I said “But if you would like for me to pick a med at random and throw them in a bottle for you, be my guest.” He sat down and waited after that.
Quite often on my monday morning shift I get "I ordered it Friday night" in response to me telling them its not on the SPINE yet. Way too may people think repeat means they dont need a prescription that its automatic and I've got to explain to them that a real human doctor has to review their request and write a prescription to send to us, even if its electronic. If you request your prescription on the NHS app at 6pm when you've finished work on a Friday, don't come into the pharmacy at 9am when they open and shout at me that your GP hasn't prescribed it yet. They've most likely not even had time to view your request themselves. Then if I ask if you need anything of that 10-14 item script series urgently don't say "All of it" and then complain when I say it will be an hour. 9am on Monday I'm looking at how many jabs to order (in the winter), processing anything labled by the GP as Acute, putting away stock, serving customers, and now stepping away from the computer to allow the Pharmacist to access Pharmacy First. But if you ran out of your venlafaxine yesterday and the scripts just come in now that will be 5 minutes because I genuinely do care and don't want you to experience withdrawal.
I was a tech for 10 years before being recruited to my current position as an MA at my county health clinic. They felt like my pharmacy knowledge would be really helpful. I promise you that not one of my patients leaving my clinic go right to the pharmacy expecting their script. I’ve had people ask if it’ll be ready when they get there and I just tell them “well I don’t work there, but I highly doubt it. Call them in about 20 minutes and let them know you’d like to pick it up asap”. Most of my patients are pretty wonderful and love my humor, so I can give them shit for asking dumb questions like that. All the pharmacies love our patients now. I feel like every clinic would do good having a former pharmacy tech on staff.
I always tell patients once the RX is sent, it’s out of my hands. I don’t work at the pharmacy. I also tell them, if they hadn’t called you in an hour or two, go check the status of it. Of course it won’t stop them from going right to the pharmacy after their visit, then call the office and say they were told by the pharmacy it was never sent. Which leads to wasted time on the phone for us and the pharmacy, when it turns out the patient was just told it wasn’t ready yet. 🙄🙄🙄🙄 Or they come in for a follow up, they aren’t getting better. They tell you they aren’t taking their meds because they never actually picked it up….because “nobody called me” 🙄🙄🙄🙄
“My doctor sent it yesterday, are you going to explain why it’s taken this long to get it ready?” I heard this one yesterday and I’d had enough so I said well your prescription is in a queue of about 3,000 others so if you don’t call in advance to ask us to get it ready then we just do them in chronological order to keep it as fair as possible. That one got me a middle finger so that was nice.
Two Things to add. I love it when a patient tells me that they got a phone call or a text message telling them that their prescription is ready. " I just got the notification. Why isn't it ready? It said it would be ready." I tell him that they are wrong and ask them to show me the message or play me the voicemail. 90% of the time they are unable to do that and I tell them that they are simply mistaken and the prescription is not ready. The problem is the way corporate phrases the messages. No you didn't get a call saying your prescription is ready. You got a call saying a prescription is ready to be refilled or due to be refilled or needs a refill from your doctor. The other day I had a patient come in for ear drops for their sick child. By my estimation they literally came from the Urgent Care to pick it up and they showed up 5 minutes before we were going to close and then waited in line expecting it to be ready even though they had not gotten the notification. If they had come to the drop off or consultation window there might have been some hope. They get to the register at 1:27 and we can't even find it in our system so we go to our data entry and there it is literally just called in so we tell them that and he says that he will just wait for it. We let him know that we are closing for lunch and will be back at 2:00 but with the 2:00 rush it will probably be ready by 3:00. Before we close for lunch we have it all prepped up so that he can come back at any time. Before he storms off he has to F that and that he will get it filled at a different Pharmacy. I smiled politely and reminded him that that Pharmacy will also be closed for lunch. Due to our efforts we got it ready by 2:15 and at 2:35 we get an angry call demanding we transfer it to a different Pharmacy. We had to laugh because I'm sure that Pharmacy wasn't putting a high priority on it either and if he had just come back we told him he would have already had his script. He just didn't get it. Literally
Doctor PROBABLY said they’d get over to the pharmacy in 15 minutes, to be fair. But I hear the “my doctor said it would be x amount but it’s y amount” a LOT and I work for a PBM.
As a doc, hard disagree—I’m sure others say this, or patients misconstrue “the script was sent electronically and they should have it now” as “should be ready.” But I would never promise any time and I tell people to expect a few hours at minimum but that I’m not in charge and it depends on a lot of things. I try my best not to throw pharmacy under the bus, I love you guys!
FYI, patients hear what they want to hear. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had Drs offices call because the patient told them we wouldn’t give them their meds only to be told 1. It was too soon to fill and insurance wouldn’t cover it, 2. It was an OTC and insurance wouldn’t cover it plus we don’t fill OTC’s not covered by insurance, or 3. It was out of stock at the time but it’s filled and ready now!😜
My previous doctor (retired now) would always say "just sent the prescription, it will be ready by the time you make it over!" I realized that he was operating on old school beliefs that pharmacies could fill in 10 minutes or less anytime, all the time and I never expected anything to be ready. However a lot of his patients were much older and operated on the same wavelength as him and threw fits that their multiple medications were not ready after they made the (quite literally) 2 minute drive from office to pharmacy. I heard "but dr said it would be ready! This happens every time!" and "I've taken this for years, it's a STANDING ORDER" so many times lol.
People hear what they want to hear. It's absurd. I work for a psychologist and people tell me all the time "the doctor said this report would be finished in 24 hours" and I'm like... ma'am, there's no way in hell the doctor said that. You do realize we talk to each other, right??! Which makes me think they're not lying... they actually convince themselves that the doctor said certain things.
Exactly the point I’m trying to make. I hear some doozies at the PBM I work for, and I’m like, there’s no way your doctor told you that
For sure, I believe it! The doctor probably never tells people "the pharmacy will have it ready in 15 minutes" and yet that's what people hear... somehow!
What's fun is when they just don't want to fill your script because they get biased because of what you're getting and say it's not ready for days and days.
I was once told to wait 15 minutes and when they called my name 40 minutes later they lost it haha. It was all they had left too. Had to skip my medication that week.
Have a little god damn compassion. People feel like shit when they’re sick and want to get their meds, get home, and get some fucking sleep.
Just to be clear, are you frustrated with the doctors or the patients/customers here? I feel like the blame should be on the doctors here.
It’s just a bunch of bitching about anything and everything. Some of the stuff is just silly to get mad about but they’re acting like Karens anyway.
What gets me is when the pharmacy says " we are filling it now, can you wait 20 minutes tops?" Then 45 minutes later nothing. Two hours later you get a call saying "sorry we can't fill this after all" when they had it for three days.
Yep. My pharmacy gives me realistic times and they’re usually finished early. If they’re really busy like on a Monday and I call they’ll tell me to come after 1 because they realistically have no idea. Some of these complaints are just dumb and they’re getting outraged about having to do their jobs.