The Goofs of Goofmart

I have a lady that gets Xanax and Ultram for her dog. She’s been a problem patient for us before and I have long suspected she’s taking the dog’s meds, which, if true, is just atrocious. But I don’t have proof of course. 

Friday

The lady dropped off a script for Oxycodone for herself that had instructed us not to fill it until the next day, Saturday. She also had new prescriptions for her dog; Xanax and Ultram. I filled those. She paid and left.

Saturday

She comes in and picks up her Oxycodone. She's acting goofy. Really goofy. Her speech is slurred, both eyes red, and although I'm not exactly sure, but I think she left her cart filled with a few groceries after paying for the Oxycodone and just walked out.

Sunday

She comes in and asks for her Oxycodone. Again, she was extremely loopy. I told her she picked up the Oxycodone yesterday. 

“No, I gave you the script yesterday! Don’t you remember? It said do not fill until SATURDAY! IT’S SATURDAY! So I’m here to get it!”

“Today is Sunday. I filled it yesterday. You came by yesterday and picked it up.”

I had to show her that it was Sunday using my iPhone. She still wasn't convinced she picked up her med, so then I had to print out a verification page on the computer with her signature showing that she picked up the Oxycodone.

People! Please don't take your dog's medication.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 from The Crazy RxMan

I'd Really Like to Know

At some point in time, it happened.

I don't know if it was a gradual thing, or if it just happens suddenly. It's a curiosity, to be sure. 

I'm talking about when upper management, specifically regional pharmacy managers, buy into the whole management culture that pharmacy is no longer about patient care but instead it's just a business.

I've kidded for years about a secret ceremony where they pass around the Kool Aid and swear allegiance to the almighty dollar. 

But more and more I wonder, what is it, really? At what point does a normal, reasonable person say to themselves, "Patient safety doesn't concern me anymore. I'm in this for company profit."

In the trenches of retail pharmacy, we've been dealt quite a blow. When I first started with Goofmart, tech hours were dolled out based on script count. This was before vaccinations, Medication Therapy Management, Mirixa, Outcomes, Warfarin logs, monthly C2 counts, Medicare B rules, GoodRx nonsense, and other tasks/responsibilities that stretch the pharmacist thinner and thinner. And, I might add, that at Goofmart Pharmacy we were given many more technician hours for the same amount of work than we are today. And we used to get a bonus.

Today we're just expected to do more with less help and I haven't seen a bonus check in years.

As of right now, my pharmacy has LESS tech hours than ten years ago despite the fact we do MORE scripts than ever before AND have all the added responsibilities I mentioned.

This places a serious burden on patient safety. 

And I wonder, what is it? Why aren't the regional pharmacy managers and pharmacy director pushing for more technician hours? Do they seriously no longer care about patient safety? Is there a big bonus that those of us on the front line don't know about?

I don't buy into the idea that the company is struggling and that the "do more with less" is necessary just to survive. Pharmacy did just fine for 150 years without pharmacists giving immunizations. Immunizations are gravy. Whatever upper management is telling us, I just don't believe it. 

I'd really like to know what's more important than patient safety.

I'd really like to know.

It Should Bother You

Recently a lady came by to get her meds. 

She’s on Medicaid. Medicaid is for people who can’t afford their medication. The taxpayer (that's you and me) fund her medications.

In her purse sitting on top is a pack of smokes and a pile of “scratchers.” For those of you who don't know, "scratchers" are lottery tickets. They cost a dollar or two each, and she had a lot of them.

No matter how you want to look at this, what it boils down to is that she somehow has money to blow on lottery tickets but not for medication.

If this doesn’t bother you, it should. 

The Day of Laughter

Twitter has Absolutely NO Sense of Humor

What crime did I commit? Humor. On Twitter, you're not allowed to be funny if you're Conservative. Oh, you can say anything you want about Trump and his family, but don't you dare try to be funny if the target of your joke is a Liberal or Leftist.

I removed the tweet. But that doesn't change the FACT that it's still funny:

I've been on Twitter a number of years. I've seen things in my Twitter feed that would just astound you in terms of vulgarity and inappropriateness. Just recently I saw a tweet which showed a video of boy, maybe nine or ten years old, pulling down his pants and penetrating a chicken with his penis. I couldn't hit the complain and block buttons fast enough, but it occurred to me that if I was seeing this tweet, plenty of other people were too and complaining about it as well. Why wasn't it taken off faster?

I removed my offensive tweet, but I don't apologize for it being funny. If you've got a problem with that, I invite you to unfollow me or mute me or block me. I really don't care. I'm going to continue to be funny.

As for Twitter... lighten up. Seriously.

When you're a teenager...

1983 seems like ancient history...

Sunday, Funny Sunday