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You know what bothers me more than it should? Customers who can't be bothered to call their own doctors to get their prescriptions refilled. There. I said it!



What it is, see, is that someone will call my pharmacy looking for a refill. I bring up their prescription info on my computer... oops! No refills left. I tell the patient I cannot refill their prescription because it has run out. They more often than not say: "You'll call my doctor for me, right?" or similar. MAYBE 1 in 100 people will say "OH! Well, looks like I have to call my doctor for more refills! I'll do that right now. Thanks you, bye." Those other 99 people will take no responsibility for their own medication.



The thing is, it isn't really a "problem" for me to do it. Don't get me wrong. If you ask me to call your doctor for refills, I will. The issue is this: people think that if we at the pharmacy call requesting a refill that their prescription will be renewed instantaneously. This is NOT the case! It's not as though your doctor is waiting by his phone for me to request your refills! I rarely ever speak directly to a person! More often than not I send a faxed request, most other times I leave a message on a voice mail, then your doctor calls back with your refills when they have time! NOT right away! I DON'T have some magical direct line to your doctor's ear!



Look you and I know most people out there are IDIOTS. Yes. But life isn't like this:

"RST pharmacy can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Mary Smith and I'd like my enalapril refilled please."

"Certainly Ms. Smith. Oh, but I see you're out of refills on that prescription."

"Will you call my doctor for me?"

"Asolutely I will!"

"Thank you, bye."

...

"Dr. Jones's office can I help you?"

"Yeah, hi, I'm calling from RST Pharmacy and Ms Mary Smith needs a refill on her enalapril!!"

"Holy crap!! I'lll get Dr Jones right away!"

..

"Dr. Jones here. I was in the middle of seeing a sick young girl, so this better be good."

"Hi, Doctor Jones this is RST Pharmacy calling. Your patient Mary Smith needs refills on her enalapril!"

"Jesus Christ! Thank god the nurse interrupted and important blood draw there is no way this could have possibly been put off an hour or two! Of course, I'll call that in RIGHT AWAY! Enalapril 20mg 1 tab po qd, dispense #30 with 11 refills!"

"Thank you so much, Dr Jones! I know that there couldn't possibly have been anything you or I were doing which could have been more important than THIS!"

"Absolutely!"

"Have a good day, Dr Jones."

"You, too."



And then we all dance in a field of daisies singing "tra-la-la".



I'm doing other stuff when you call, the doctor is doing other stuff as well. Have me call isn't going to make a difference in that respect. What gets me most is when people ask me to call, I send the fax usually in the next 15 minutes, then the customer calls back less than 1 hour later, not believing I contacted their doctor because the refill hasn't been called in yet. Look, if you're not going to believe me, then call the freaking doctor YOURSELF! But you know, what? They STILL don't, and they demand I call their doctor AGAIN! Which I don't. I'm not in the business of harrassing people. I know the doctor will call. Over 1 hour for a call back is not unreasonable. It usually gets done within 24 hours. If 48 to 72 hours go by without a callback THEN I'll resend the refill request.



And these people will call me ALL DAY LONG asking whether or not their doctor has called back. Seriously. I have one or two customers that if they're looking for something will call in every 90 minutes on the dot. Yeah, that's not a waste of my time at all, jerk. After the second or third call, I'll usually ask them if they called their doctor themselves to stress the importance of their refill renewal directly. They ALWAYS say "no." Yes, why fix the situation with one call to your doctor when you can be calling me ten times a day? Makes perfect sense.



Why am I not an alcoholic again?