Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Dear Doctor...


Dear Doctor,

If you've had several calls from different pharmacies about your handwriting, MAYBE it is time you slow down when penning a new script, or have someone else write it for you.

Dear Doctor,

Calling in a new script just before you leave for the day and saying "Give our office a call if you have any questions" just before you hang up doesn't really help, does it?

Dear Doctor,

Telling the patient "I just sent the e-Script over, it will be ready when you get there" isn't something you really know, is it?

Dear Doctor,

Printing out the cash price of some med at CostLow warehouse and telling the patient WE will match that price isn't really professional, is it? Should I tell the same patient YOU will match a competitor's price?

Dear Doctor,

Coming to the pharmacy to ask us to fill a prescription for you or a family member AND then not even knowing how the med should be prescribed... that really isn't such a good idea, is it?

Dear Doctor,

Leaving a voicemail on our phone system as fast as you can because you're in such a hurry to get to the golf course, well that isn't such a good idea either, is it?

Dear Doctor,

Making it nearly impossible to reach you for clarification of a medication YOU prescribed isn't really that helpful for the patient, is it?

Dear Doctor,

Using the e-Script system to send over "prescriptions" that the patient will see and not get because it is a reminder to them to get the OTC version isn't really nice to us, is it?

Dear Doctor,

Refusing to authorize a refill on a maintenance medication for a high blood pressure or diabetic patient puts us in a position to loan them medication. That's putting the burden of care on us, and it's just not right, is it?

Dear Doctor,

Telling the patient you never received our fax request when we have a confirmation in our hand is pretty lame, don't you think? Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Dear Doctor, 

Calling in several prescriptions on the voicemail takes us a lot of time to go through, especially when you're rattling them off as fast as you can. That's not very respectful of the pharmacy or the patient, is it?

Dear Doctor, 

Writing a seven day supply of a pain medication for a patient when you know you're going to be out of your office for a week starting in six days isn't really cool, now is it?

Dear Doctor,

Writing "take as directed" on a prescription ~ isn't that way too lazy, doc?

Dear Doctor, 

Writing "1 BID x 7 days" and then "quantity sufficient" on a new prescription? Really? You can't handle basic math?

Dear Doctor, 

When you're writing instructions on a prescription that wouldn't fit on a billboard, let alone a tiny label we need to stick on a bottle, did you do any thinking about that ahead of time?

Dear Doctor,

You squeezed in six prescriptions on a standard size prescription pad. Are you really that short on paper, doc? Or are you really just trying to make us miserable over here?

Dear Doctor, 

If you don't really know how the medication should be given to the patient, should you really be prescribing it? Seriously.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Crazy,

This isn't on point to your current topic but I thought you might want to chime in. Over at the "ask a manager" blog, a brand new pharmacy tech wrote in about a senior tech touching her butt. She is afraid to make a scene. I thought a more senior Rph such as yourself could provide some useful insight in the comments.

http://www.askamanager.org/2014/10/i-dont-want-my-staff-to-know-how-young-i-am-an-ass-grabbing-coworker-and-more.html#comments

Pierre said...

In the same spirit:

Dear Doctor, prescribing 4X75mg pills instead of the usual 4X25mg usually given to the patient by mistake can be dangerous! (Happened to me as a patient, and I luckily picked up the mistake on time)

About Doctors who refuse to prescribe medication they are not knowledgeable enough about happens luckily. One of my doctors refuses to prescribe me one. (In her range of prescriptions) Sending me to someone who know the way to prescribe it.