"Fill All of Them"

That's what she said when I answered the phone. We get that a lot. And when the patient has two or three current medications, that's not a problem.

This lady, however, takes a lot of different medications.

"Which medications do you need?" I ask. I'm trying to save both of us time.

"I need all of them," she says.

When people do this, I pull up their profile and ask them if they need a medication on their profile that we last filled five years ago or something. It gets my point across.

"So on your profile I see you had Diflucan back in 2010. Do you want me to see if I can get that refilled?"

"No," she says.

"So when you say 'all of them,' you don't really mean all of them. What DID you need NOW?" I ask.

"The ones that I need," she says.

I look at her profile on the computer. "Well," I tell her, "I can only see two drugs that you might need, but they're out of refills. We'll have to contact the doctor on the amiodarone and Crestor."

"But what about my potassium and Lasix?" she asks.

"We just filled those about ten days ago. They're too early."

"Well just fill them all," she says, again. "I also need my Effexor."

"We don't have Effexor on your profile," I shoot back.

"Well you should. I need it."

"You must be getting it somewhere else," I say. "Wagmart, maybe?" I ask.

"No, I get it from you. Always have."

"Does it say 'Goofmart Pharmacy' on the label on the bottle?"

"No, it says 'Wagmart.' I always get it from you."

At this point it's getting comical. I say, "Ok, but you called Goofmart. We're NOT Wagmart."

"Well just fill them all," she says, one more time.

"Ok, we will fill what we can," I say.

<click>

PEOPLE: If you're going to call the pharmacy for a medication refill, be prepared with THREE things:

1. The Rx number for the medication that is from THIS pharmacy
2. Make sure the Rx you want is due for refill
3. The Rx you want has refills available

Otherwise you're wasting everyone's time!