Thursday, August 6, 2015

Somehow, it's ALWAYS my Fault

A lady appears at the counter. She's here to pick up her "Steroid Box" that the doctor called in for her. I assume she means a Medrol Dose Pack. I look on the shelf. Nothing. I look on the computer. Nothing. I sigh. This is never easy. I tell her that we don't have anything for her.

"No, my doctor said he'd call in a Steroid Box yesterday. Did you look under my name?"


No, why would I do that? Duh, I was looking up Minnie Mouse and Queen Elizabeth.


"I don't have anything here for you. Maybe the doctor called one of our competitors?" We have two pharmacies within walking distance.


"No, the doctor CALLED IT IN HERE." 



My tech repeats what I said and the lady leaves. I think I saw a trail of smoke blowing away from her ears.

One hour later her doctor's office called. It's one of the office staff. She tells me how she called in a Medrol Dose Pack yesterday and is perturbed we didn't fill it. I politely tell her that we don't have a prescription for the patient and I politely ask if maybe she called a competitor.


"No, I CALLED IT IN THERE." I think I saw smoke coming out of the phone.


So she gives me the script again over the phone. I type it in and send it off for adjudication. I get an instant reject... too soon, just filled yesterday. I look at our company-wide database. It wasn't filled at one of our locations. We have another location within a few miles and doctors constantly get us mixed up. But this lady's Steroid Box was not to be found in our system.


This means the office called a pharmacy, but not my pharmacy. That pharmacy filled it (that's how they make money, and oddly enough, we do too) and when I try to run the claim, it gets rejected. I call the insurance and explain the situation, but the lady with the Indian/British accent won't tell me where it was filled. That's their policy and screw you, have a nice day.


Hours pass and 150 prescriptions later the patient's son comes in to get the Steroid Box. I explain the situation to him. He smiles and he leaves. Fifteen minutes after that the doctor on call phones in to give me a verbal script over the phone... yep, you guessed it, a Steroid Box for my smokey lady. 


One more time I explain the situation. The doc is upset because I can't tell him where his own office called in the prescription. More smoke comes out of my phone. I tell him it is likely one of the two competitors close by. I even offer to give him the phone numbers. He thanks me but I can tell he still thinks it's somehow my fault.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

after about 20 years of that garbage i just started giving it back to the docs. i wasn't a freakin' miracle worker.

Anonymous said...

After about 6 months, I started throwing it back on the docs...

U escribe and it fails....and u don't notice....I will let patient know. U do that multiple times over weeks....I will let the patients know and U (again) when I need to call for it.

u f up a script....I will show the patient and let them know why it isn't ready: The DOCTOR who thinks you NEED this medication hasn't called back. No I don't know why they aren't calling back. No I don't know why they didn't just do it right the first time (hello, need a DEA # for adderall!)

Grant Co Rx said...

Similar experience here made me angry enough that I called the competition until I found it. I then called the nurse who CHEWED ME OUT SONETHING FIERCE and informed her that despite the fact that she "has our number memorized" it was at another pharmacy. And that since this was NOT my pharmacy's mistake, she could call the patient and let her know, and then call the other pharmacy to cancel that ex if necessary.

She sounded sheepish but never apologized.

Anonymous said...

Every.Damn.Day.

Anonymous said...

Charge cash and give pt a copy of reject so she can file a paper claim.....