Dumbest Toy of the Week

Really? 

Now for something in really bad taste, here's a BENDABLE Jesus toy. It's sold by a website called Stupid.com. No surprises there.

"Get Bendy with Jesus and rejoice in his ambidexterity. This Bendable Jesus of Nazareth Toy is fun for all ages since he likes to cling to things in your car, at your desk, in your room and so many other places. He guides you to do things as he would, with great buoyancy. The king of all kings comes adorned in a red and white robe. He wears his signature sandals and his curly hair. We hear he makes wine out of water and can make one loaf of bread into several. He's pretty much the coolest guy in the entire universe and it's not just because he's Bendable. If we put Gumby and our Bendable Jesus in a boxing match, it's obvious who'll be walking on water. Get your own personal Jesus and let all bask in the glory of his majesty."

Oh, that's just awful. Awful! 

If you're feeling extra religious, a BENDABLE Mary toy is available as well.

Cool Gadget: License Plate Flipper

You're not James Bond. You're not even a spy of any kind. But you're also tired of getting tired of getting those bills in the mail from speed trap cameras every time you're in a hurry. NOW you can end that problem. All you need is the License Plate Flipper!

Imagine driving down the road. You see the sign which says "Speed Enforcement Zone." Hit the switch and presto, you're license plate flips. If it takes a picture of your car, it records the wrong license plate number and you'll never get a ticket!

Or better yet, remember that annoying neighbor? The one you've asked to please stop his dog from barking at 2am in the morning? Get a photo of HIS license plate and print it in color on your flipped side. Then he'll get the ticket, not you!

OR EVEN BETTER, choose a phrase of your choice, such as when someone is tailgating you on the road. Hit the switch and they see "BACK OFF JERK" or something a little more spicy.

I gotta get me one of these... the LICENSE PLATE FLIPPER!

Check out the Video!

Happy Valentine's Day

Imagine NOT having to recharge your cell phone

All you need is $1,100. Chicken feed, right?

Apparently a company in China is selling a battery which produces power from the decay of Tritium and supposedly is perfectly safe for human use and supposedly has a twenty year life. Sorry Duracell, you lose. Of course, thinking back to all the times I've bought AA batteries for the Xbox remote for Boy # 1, I'm sure I've already spent in excess of $1,100. Actually Duracell, you won.

Interesting idea. Some of you rich folk out there go buy some so the price will come down. Thanks.

Here's the LINK.

Reduce the Inventory or YOU WILL DIE

"Reduce the Inventory or YOU WILL DIE." Seems harsh, doesn't it? No, Corporate hasn't really said that yet, but they might some day.

At my company, Corporate muckity-mucks and pencil-pushing accountants who have NEVER stepped inside a pharmacy are once again singing the mantra of reduced inventory. Your inventory is too high, you must reduce. They chant this over and over again but no one steps back to really look at this from a logical viewpoint. Honestly, they're brainwashed or something.

Ok, look, I'm not some stupid idiot. Before pharmacy, I worked in retail and I have a business degree and an MBA. I know all about Japanese inventory models and I see the value of reduced inventory IN MANUFACTURING. Unfortunately, no one at Corporate has bothered to see the difference between AMBULATORY PHARMACY and MANUFACTURING. You simply can't run a pharmacy the same way you run a production line in Detroit. What makes low inventory work in Detroit is that they get part deliveries up to four times a day. Most pharmacies get inventory delivery only five times a week. That's a big difference. Why does no one at Corporate get this? I've brought this up with upper management and they just look at me like I have bananas growing out of my ears.

The simplest way to put this is the hospital model: NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would expect the pharmacy of a hospital to NOT stock a high percentage of all medicines available to treat their patients. Can you imagine a hospital telling a patient, "I'm sorry, we don't have your med in stock. We can order it for you-- have it here tomorrow by 11:30am."  I'm NOT talking about a medicine like Anascorp ($25,000 a dose)  for a rare condition like a scorpion bite. I'm talking about standard drugs.

I have a patient on Aggrenox that gets it EVERY SINGLE MONTH. Because the muckity-mucks have their hands on our computer ordering system, the computer will not automatically generate an order for more until it gets a negative on hand quantity. So EVERY MONTH this poor lady has to wait a day to get her medication. There are several people in the same situation with various other drugs. We do our best to order ahead of time for our patients but some slip through the cracks and they don't get seamless drug therapy and that pisses me off. It's completely unnecessary.  

MOREOVER, we LOSE BUSINESS with this narrow-minded view. Consider eyeball and ear solutions and suspensions of every kind. They don't cost much to keep on the shelf, but if we order a variety of them after a month the computer says REDUCE YOUR INVENTORY and send them back. So then someone does come in for the med, we don't have it, and we end up losing the sale, the patient, and all future business from them by not having the med they need WHEN they need it... WHICH IS NOW, NOT TOMORROW! 

So, Corporate muckity-mucks, add that into your spreadsheets... the LOST BUSINESS when we don't have something in stock and all the future business from that patient. I'll bet it adds up to a lot more than the measly bucks you save by turning us into a car manufacturing plant.

A Plea to Hospital Doctors/Prescribers

I don't know what the Board of Pharmacy requirements are for various states, but they can't be that different from mine. In my state, a prescription is only valid if the prescriber's information is clearly on the prescription, including name, address, phone number, etc.

You'd be surprised, though, how many prescriptions we get from discharged patients with incomplete information. Missing names, missing instructions, one doctor listed on the top of the Rx and signed by someone else, no phone number... it goes on and on. And EVERY time, we have to call the hospital to get the rest of the information, and that usually involves 2-3 phone calls to eventually reach someone who can answer the question. And 90% of the time this occurs during a busy time in the pharmacy and the patient's representative has the actual patient waiting in the car in the parking lot and are always in a hurry to get the patient home (perhaps they should have taken the patient home first, but that's another story). So there we are unable to fill the prescription right away. In some cases, I've had to give back a prescription because it's not legal and I can't fill it.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, I implore you... if you're a prescriber in a hospital and you're writing scripts for your discharging patients, PLEASE take a few moments to fill them out correctly. Give us some idea who you are. A scribble doesn't do it. If it's a controlled substance, PRINT your name and put your DEA # on it. We're outside the hospital, not the hospital pharmacy.  We don't know you're particular scribble. We can't read your mind. Please fill out the prescription completely so we don't have to track you down or bother your nurses to find out what the hell you're prescribing or who you are. Don't do this for us, do it for YOUR patients! They're out in the parking lot and they really want to go home.

Sunday, Start it with a Laugh