I'll be good for you...

...if you're nice to us, that is.

On this lovely Saturday, as I sit in Franchise Cafe finishing up the shitload of assignments I've let pile up for this rotation, I viewed a customer become upset with a cashier because their stupid sandwich wasn't made correctly.  That made me sit back and think about the real similarities between food service and pharmacy, which I'm sure we're all aware of.  I think I've made some mentions to this effect before, but I couldn't help but think of my favorite mantra:

This is not Burger King - you cannot have it your way.

So yeah, at Franchise Cafe you can technically have it your way, but to all you patients out there...be careful about you you piss off...you could end up with a Spit Special, as my fiance likes to call it.  In a pharmacy, you really can't have it your way 99% of the time.  You're out of your #120 Vicodin after 7 days?  Nope, sorry, no early refill...you can't have it your way, and I'm not falling for the 'but my pills fell in my toilet' excuse.  You're completely out of your Xanax and it's a Friday night, can you have some to get you through the weekend?  Hell no, you can't have it your way.

Here is a prime example of a pharmacy-type Spit Special:  You're dropping of a prescription with a write date of three months ago and you get pissed because we tell you that you have to wait 20 minutes and you need it right this second.  'It's just some pills in a bottle, 20 minutes is ridiculous!'  No, sir, you can't have it your way, and I will make sure it takes at least 20 minutes to fill it.  Oops!  Typed the sig wrong, need to redo it.  Your insurance is expired, do you have another card?  Give me about 5 minutes to rebill that, sir.  By the time you're out of there, it's at least 30 minutes by design.  I may be cynical, but if you'd dropped off that prescription and had us hold it until you needed it, it would have been done as soon as you called us to fill it.

Recently, I was reading the Pharmacy Chick's blog, and she makes a very valid point:  "How long will this take?" and "when should I come back for this?" will elicit two totally different responses.  The person accepting the prescription or refill will respond more favorably to the latter.  Asking how long it will take to fill the prescription makes patients come off as impatient and ungrateful.  Most of the time, patients asking this question seem perturbed an in a hurry, like our time is not as valuable as theirs is.  And when we tell them it will be about 20 minutes, they usually roll their eyes or sigh.  Sorry, you should have called ahead for your 8 refills or dropped off your new prescription with the intention of waiting a little bit.  For those who bring in a buttload of refills and give me shit for having to wait a little longer than normal due to the amount, I put stickers that say "For refills, call 24 hours ahead!" on every single bag receipt.  My hope is that the patient will get the subtle hint, but usually they don't.  If I wait on them at the cash register and they complain about the wait time, I very politely say, "Well, next time you need your refills, you can always call the night before!  And if you don't want to use our automated system, dial the phone number and press zero...that way, you'll be connected directly with someone at the pharmacy!"

Part of Pharmacy Chick's message in her last post is that "you get in what you put out."  I totally agree with her.  If you form a great relationship with your pharmacy staff, they will be totally receptive to you.  Trust me - we can tell when you're genuinely in a pinch versus just being a d-bag.  And it's important to form a great relationship with everyone that works behind the counter, not just the pharmacist.  The technicians make the pharmacy world go round.  Without them, if pharmacists were solely relied on to input, fill, call insurance companies, and deal with customers in addition to what their real duties are (ie visual verification, taking verbal prescriptions, catching drug interactions/duplicate therapies, anomalies between what a patient was just prescribed versus what they'd had before [this is in no way an exhaustive list]), every pharmacy would be in chaos.

Be nice to your pharmacy staff...or else you might end up with the pharmacy's version of a Spit Special.

PS:  Worked with Floater Pharmy this week!  To my dismay, I've left my Little Notebook o' Quotes at home.  I will be posting some gems when I get the chance!