A tale of two pharmacies
A tale of two pharmacies
drops in at local pharmacy
"I'm running out of my meds, can you refill them?"
"Sorry, you have to come closer to refill-day, so come back Saturday."
"Okay, I'll come back then."
...
"Okay, it's Saturday, here to refill my meds."
"... yeah, you're out of refills. We'll have to talk to your doctor."
"... but it's the weekend?"
"Oh, we'll sort it out on Monday."
...
"Okay, it's Monday, can you get in touch with my doc?"
"Sure! We'll fax that. Come back tomorrow and we'll have it sorted out."
"No, I'm on my last pill, it has to be refilled today."
"You know you're supposed to give us 48 hours notice, right?"
ಠ_ಠ
"Yes, I know. I tried."
"Okay, we'll fax them now. Come back this evening."
"Okay."
calls towards the end of the work day
"Hi, are my meds in yet?"
"What? We don't have any meds for you on file."
"No, my doctor faxed something?"
"No they didn't."
calls doctor
"We definitely faxed them. We'll fax them again."
phones pharmacy back
"Hi, are my meds in yet?"
"What? We don't have any meds for you on file."
"Can you check if you got faxed anything about my meds?"
"Oh, yes, we see that now, we got a fax. Can you come in Wednesday to pick them up?"
"No, I'm on my last pill."
sigh on phone
"You know you're supposed to give us 48 hours notice, right?"
"I tried."
"Okay, we'll get that ready for you, please hold."
...
"Sorry, we're all out of those. They've been all out for a while. It's on back-order, everybody's out."
stifles why-am-I-just-hearing-about-this-now-screaming-rage
"Uh, what do I do? I'm on my last pill."
"Okay, we've got a one week supply to give you. Can you come tomorrow?"
"I can come now."
"But we're closing in 15 minutes."
"I'm out walking the dog. I'm literally at your door."
".... Okay."
gets my one week supply
"Thanks. What do I do for next week? Will there be more then?"
"Oh no, it's really out-of-stock. But the half-dose pills aren't. We've got those, so you can just double-them. Call your doc and we'll get that sorted."
"Great."
...
frustrated and needing to get back to my life, I give it a few days. Bad mistake.
...
calling dr office
"Hi, they're out of my meds everywhere, can I get prescribed the halfsies instead?"
"Uh, your doctor has been prescribing those to a lot of people and nobody's complained yet."
"Well the pharmacy disagrees."
"The pharmacy is allowed to give you the halfsies sans scrip if they're out of the regular dose."
"I did not know that. Do they know that?"
"Whatever. They obviously don't want to without a scrip. Doc will be in tomorrow, we'll sort it out."
...
Calls pharmacy next day afternoon.
"So d'you have my meds?"
"What? We don't have any meds for you on file."
"No, I mean my doctor said they'd fax today."
"Yeah, they didn't. For what?"
"The halfsies. They also said you can do the substitution yourself when you're out-of-stock on something."
"Yeah, we can't do that, they're wrong."
"Fine. Okay, I'll call my doctor again about sending the fax."
calls doctor
"Did you send them that fax?"
"We sent them the fax again. We'll send it again again."
"Great, thanks."
at this point life intervenes, and I still have one pill for tomorrow morning - so wait until next day to call
"Hi, do you have my halfsies?"
"We can have them for you day after tomorrow."
"Day after tomorrow!? ... Sorry for raising my voice but I'm on my last pill, what happened?"
"Well, they're not in stock."
"What."
"But you can get them from other pharmacies."
"I was told they were in stock here."
"They're not."
"Fine. I'll call around."
thinks angrily about the last time this happened and scrip was lost in limbo between two pharmacies and had to get re-prescribed
Calls Other Pharmacy. On hold for 30 minutes.
"Hi, do you have these meds?"
"What? No, nobody has them."
"I mean the halfsies."
"Oh! Let me check."
on hold even longer
"Yep, we've got them. We'll call your pharmacy and get the scrip transferred."
"Great!"
gives this an hour to work out, calls my pharmacy
"Hi! Are my drugs transferred to Other Pharmacy?"
"We're just putting the scrip on hold and doing the paperwork, we'll get it sent to them in five, then call them."
"Great! I'll give them 20."
15 minutes later, call Other Pharmacy anticipating being stuck on hold for a long time.
phone picks up quickly! Yay!
"Hi! Have they transferred my scrip?"
"Let me check."
...
...
"Nope, they haven't. I'll give them a call right away. Can you call back in half an hour?"
"Okay."
(；￣д￣)
STAY TUNED FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION!
I have so many questions why do they have your scrip why do you not hold your scrip if they do not have why can't you just walk out to somewhere else i do not understand the US medical system at all.
FDA and DEA nonsense, both of whom are operating beyond their mandate.
Read about the supposed opiod crisis... When the increase in heroin/street drugs use didn't increase until after the DEA (or FDA, or whoever) limited supplies and access to pain meds like oxy, vicodin, tramadol, etc.
As a chronic pain patient, the feds can lick my sweaty redacted.
Not what's confusing me:
- i get medication prescribed, i receive an e-script (or paper) and go to any chemist i choose. Literally any chemist
They don't have it i go somewhere else. I don't like the way they smell i go somewhere else. The scrip is literally in my control at all times. I decide to go with a guy i give them the physical copy or the QR code on the e-script to scan. They give me a little basket with my drugs and any repeat scrips and a walkthrough on the drug if needed. I fuck off. The Pharmacy literally exists to fill an order, the controls are higher up.
Controlled substances can’t be transferred and require new Rx
Also it’s all electronic, no paper prescriptions anymore
I had a lot of these problems until i realized that my doctors office was affiliated with a different pharmacy than the one I had traditionally used. After switching to the doctors office pharmacy not only have I had zero issues they actually have a mail service even for the the restricted drugs. I haven't talked to a pharmacist in months now and it's perfect. Maybe your dr has a similar affiliation you can leverage.
People always talk shit about in-house pharmacies but there's absolutely a compelling business and integrated customer service angle to them and I don't give a fuck if its "unethical". It works, the pharmacy does my work for me and stays on top of me and my dr and obviously themself.
I have been on hold with Other Pharmacy for 20 minutes.
edit: they faxed to the wrong number.
edit2: still not faxing it.
I have finally received my meds.
I’m really glad to hear you’ve got your meds now. I’m sorry the past week has been such a fuck around.
For the love of god. I know why they use fax, but it is so damn frustrating in the age of texting and email.
They're both in the same chain of drug-stores "Shoppers Drug Mart" - yet somehow their fax system doesn't automatically say "oh, I want to fax to This Other Shoppers At This Other Address" and I overhear pharmacists reading out fax numbers at each other over the phone like goddamned cavemen.
You need to find a better pharmacy, preferably mom and pop, with delivery. Let them come to you for permanent easy return business. ADHD patients are a goldmine for honest and well-run pharmacists.
I have been through this multiple times with various meds. If I could get off them all, I would. Alas, thyroid malfunction is permanent.
It doesn't have to be like this though. People have to stop thinking their pharmacies can treat them like their bitch. It doesn't matter how tightly controlled stims are, mine arrive like clockwork and zero fuss on my part. They stress out more about what I need/want + getting them to me and getting to put it thru insurance and get paid $s
what do you mean thyroid malfunction is permanent? thyroid malfunction you got as a side effect of the drugs you are taking?
No, I just mean I have an underactive thyroid, and I'm stuck taking medication for it the rest of my life. As opposed to some of the other meds I take that I could conceivably stop under the right circumstances.
I've experienced this shit with Kaiser's in-house pharmacy (which is even more frustrating because the doctor is literally in the same fucking building but they're faxing them), but never with Walgreens or local pharmacies.
Go to a different pharmacy. Why on Earth are you dealing with these people?
They're three blocks from my house and open till 10pm, while all the independent ones are outside of my neighborhood and keep banker's hours.
This is still the last straw, so I'm switching to one of those.
I've been chasing my meds for over 2 weeks and have had a similar tale of woes. Completely out of stock here but also didn't find out until I had already faffed around for a few days too. I walked into my Dr's finally and said to receptionist please help as this is pointless. She assured me pharmacy team would get hold of me. They haven't. I've just given up at this point.
Do you have a Costco near you? They just... do all of this shit for me. Pills out of stock? They'll call around to other Costcos in the area to see if they have any and get it transfered, usually same day or next day at the latest. Worst case, they get mailed in from the main distro center. I haven't had an issue with my Vyvanse (generic now, and no issue either), or my Adderall and Ritalin before that.
That's what I was scared of. I knew if my meds ran out I would not be in the frame is mind needed to persist through this bullshit.
I've been reading the whole thing expecting the moment you've forget about it for a week and then come back obsessively, but every few lines you remember me that you are still on meds, and I can't wrap my mind around having ADHD and being able to focus on a task for so long. I hope my doctor calls me soon to start at least the diagnosis...
Because I'm on my meds. Which is why I was treating it as urgent. I knew I didn't stand a chance at navigating this BS if they let me get past my last pill.
Which med is in short supply? Plz don't say mine.... I'm on a 90 day refill and scared
I work in a pharmacy. Have for over a decade. There are always some sorts of supply issues, but recently it’s been getting worse. It’s not just the controlled substances that people depend on. It’s also inhalers and blood pressure meds and children’s antibiotics. Please believe me, the overwhelming majority of pharmacy technicians want to help you get your medication. It’s our job, why would we derive pleasure from saying “no”.
If nothing else, you saw a worst-case scenario and now you know how to navigate it going forward. You know now to call and ask if you have a refill on file a few days before you are due. If you have refills maybe you can ask the pharmacy to stage the Rx as a fill-by for the day you are due. If you don’t have refills on file you can ask the pharmacy to reach out to your MD ahead of time. Then you can call the MD office to give them a heads up that they will be receiving a request.
I hope this doesn’t come across as condescending! Not my intention I promise! Just an insider’s perspective. I don’t know how large of a pharmacy you’re going to, but some locations see 1000s of RXs each day. You definitely need to be proactive and your own best advocate.
I did try to be proactive. They told me not to, because controlled substance.
I don't think they're malicious. I just think they can't walk three steps without fucking up.
I'm searching for a new pharmacy.
When a shrink was excitedly adjusting some meds she gave out - always upward, only upward - I feared this very thing.
Look, I just needed a diagnosis so my GP could write me a "let CG write code where he writes code best in case that wasn't obvious you fucknut" note, and I don't need to cope through another few decades WITH pharma candy instead of like the preceding decades where I did without. I don't need these behavioural mods that are listed directly as side effects and I don't need the dosage RAISED in response. So I'm done.