The answer is NO.
Let's analyze the day:
9am ~ I just opened and I have a crap load of reports and labels to print for the day. Plus all the Oxycodone addicts are lining up waiting for their "do not fill until [today's date]" prescriptions to magically appear. Now is not a good time.
11am ~ The fax machine has started spitting out physician scripts at an alarming rate. Sick people are waiting for their medications to be filled and the order has arrived. We have yesterday's orders to fill and waiters. Now is not a good time.
3pm ~ I have one tech on the phone trying to get a claim to go through and another tech still messing with today's order. I'm trying to hide in the corner to nibble on a sandwich. This is my first time today to have something to eat. Now is not a good time.
5pm ~ The dinner rush is here. All the people who were kind of enough to request their prescriptions the night before using our automated system are now on their way home from work. They're tired, crabby, and want service now because The Walking Dead is on tonight. Hurry up. Physician offices are trying to clear out their refill requests before leaving for the day and our fax machine is trying to keep up. Now is not a good time.
7pm ~ The last tech leaves and I'm alone. People are still picking up medication, plus now the "night people" show up -- people with fake scripts that I can't verify because the physicians are all cozy on their couches at home watching The Walking Dead. Arguments ensue because I refuse to fill without verification. More business cards disappear. Now is not a good time.
8pm ~ Now I get the onslaught of people coming from Urgent Care or discharged from hospitals with a pile of scripts... things they can actually wait for until the next day, but they're all worried because they just came from the hospital (oddly, some are with scripts dated two days ago) and they need it now. Now is not a good time.
9pm ~ I just closed the door. I want to go home. I'm tired. Now is not a good time.
You say physicians get a lunch and then, in the exact same sentence, acknowledge we use that mythical 'lunch time' to do prescriptions. In addition to these prescriptions, we also use this magical 'lunch time' to answer phone calls, check on labs, finish notes from the morning, work on Prior auths/diabetic shoe forms/FMLA papers and whatever random minutiae came up that day.
ReplyDeleteI know you don't get a dedicated lunch break. Neither do I. I just have a period of time in the middle of the day when I don't actually have patients scheduled(though it is not the least bit unusual for me to see a walk-in during 'lunch'
You Go Doc! I work 10 HR days as only provider in a walk in clinic so even a coffee "break" just means taking a sip in between every thing else that needs to get done!
DeleteIs the takeaway don't get your flu shot at the pharmacy? If so, that must be so frustrating that your employers do everything possible to promote the flu shot. Before reading your blog, I thought I was doing my pharmacist a favor by getting my flu shot there. I actually get them elsewhere now because the pharmacist jabs always hurt way more than at the docs!
ReplyDeleteSo when is a good time? It seems no matter when one calls in, or goes to pick up, is a good time. It's not the customer's fault that you are busy. I try to come in a day after I call in a refill. You make it sound like customers are unwelcome at all time, that questions are unwelcome, and yet the pharmacist is supposed to be part of one's healthcare team. SMH
ReplyDeleteFrom the very beginning, pharmacists expressed concerns to upper management about how they expect us to continue with the regular workload of filling prescriptions WITH the additional workload of providing immunizations. And we were told, from the very beginning, that additional technician help would be provided.
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't. And it turned out to be such a cash cow, management decided to change tactics. Now we're told that it's not any different than filling a prescription (and that noise you just heard was all the pharmacists and techs reading this that laughed out loud). It is, without a doubt, the most disruptive thing that can happen during the regular prescription filling process.
We recognize it is absolutely not the fault of the patient, and we try to be accommodating to the patient as much as possible. But when a person waits in line 15 minutes to get to the window after seeing us racing around the pharmacy like mad men, we shake our heads at the question, yes.
Until we actually get additional help, immunizations will continue to be a huge disruption to an already overwhelming workload on pharmacists and technicians everywhere. So no, there really isn't a good time to get a flu shot.
And I really have had people ask me if they can get a flu shot after I just closed the door to the pharmacy.
ReplyDeleteWho had the not quite brilliant idea for pharmacies to give flu shots anyway? I always got mine from my physician's office or (what was even better) when they came to my employer and did them en masse.
ReplyDeleteNo offense to your pharmacy or any other, but I have never understood why people choose to get flu shots at pharmacy's. If they are getting prescriptions filled then they have a doctor. Every time I see my doctor they ask if I want a flu shot. Why do people just not get their shots at their PCP.That would be the smart thing to do right?
ReplyDeleteTo neri- Your question makes sense for the most part, but it lets out one demographic. Many (I don't know how many) people are like me, on a maintenance medication that gets refilled often between dr visits. Unless I have a problem, I see my doctor once a year for a prescription renewal - but I see my pharmacist once a month for the refill. For me, it made sense to get my flu shot at the pharmacy (but I did do my best to do it at a (relatively) slow time!).
ReplyDeleteAlso in regards to Neri's question, there are yet others like me who go to the doctor pretty much never. Unless I am actively sick, I don't go in. And while it's quite convenient to get a flu shot at a doctor's appointment you were going to have anyway, it's much less convenient to try to set up an appointment just for the sake of getting a flu shot. At a pharmacy with a more manageable workload (not the super busy chain retail locations), it is typically more convenient to just walk in and have a flu shot done. And then there are the rural areas where the nearest pharmacy is much closer than the nearest doctor's office.
ReplyDeleteGetting a flu shot at a pharmacy just really is easier and more convenient for most people, and immunization rates have generally gone up since pharmacies started offering them. But yeah, a busy pharmacy is never going to be super excited to give a flu shot. They have a lot going on already. Try a smaller, less busy pharmacy, or better yet, go to a flu shot clinic.
I've been in/out of the hospital over the past two weeks, been under anesthesia three times and was on a few days of IV antibiotics b/f being switched to oral (among several other issues)! Everyday of both hospital stays I was asked if I wanted a flu and a pneumonia (I'm under 65 but have asthma) vaccine? I declined (daily) at the time because my PCP has always said getting a flu vaccine, specifically when things are already "unstable," isn't a good idea! I'm already scheduled to see my PCP in a few weeks as a follow up and to get at least the flu vaccine and to discuss the pneumonia vaccine! Was my reasoning for declining the vaccines most recently valid or would there truly have been no harm? Thanks, Crazy!
ReplyDeleteAt my clinic, if you are one of our patients, you walk in and ask for a flu shot. The float nurse(who does that, random lab draws, Rx line, extra help when one doctor's nurse is busy and needs help for a few minutes, etc) gives it to you. The end.
ReplyDeleteI apologize to everyone that doesn't see their doc monthly. I guess I didn't think of the people that only see their PCP once a year. I am constantly at the doctor's.
ReplyDelete