1.
Doctors are on call 24/7, including Friday nights, weekends, Christmas day, New Year, etc. They never get off and are there to wait for us to call for refills or questions anytime. If we fax the doctor office for your refill, they're supposed to refill it within 15 minutes or the pharmacy should to call them every 15 minutes until we get a respond.
Truth: Doctors are human and have a life too. That's why there're emergency rooms and urgent care clinics for people with true emergenies but couldn't reach their doctor in time. 2.
Anyone who needs a refill but doesn't have a prescription is entitled some free pills until s/he gets to see a doctor, whether it's for a pain killer, tranquilizer, birth control, emergency contraception, antibiotic, antidepressant, cholesterol.........
Truth: Believe it or not, patients have responsibilities, too. Everyone who claims that s/he takes good care of herself/himself should keep track of their doctor's appointments, number of refills, etc. All the information was printed on the label, the prescription number, no. of refills, and the expiration date. New technologies such as automatic refills and express pay also simplify the steps to get a prescription. If you decide to call in a prescription with no refill on Friday afternoon and find out that it hasn't been authorized on Sunday, you can only blame yourself.3.
Everything should be covered by the insurance, such as over-the-counter drugs, nutritional drinks, nebulizers, blood pressure or glucose machines, band-aids, diet aids, botox, smoking cessation products, and health food cook books.
Truth: If you or your employer pay a $1000 monthly preium for your health insurance, then all of the above will probably be covered.4.
Drive-thru is for customer convenience, so it's reasonable to ask for a 12-pack pepsi, box of ibuprofen, diapers, or to drop off the negatives.
Truth: If we have absolutely nothing to do, then yes, we can go out and get you a bottle of cough syrup, or something pharmacy-related. But diapers? films? diet coke?5.
Whenever there's a problem with a prescription it's the pharmacy's fault.
Truth: No, we don't get a raise by selling you the more expensive medication. Nor do we want to be yelled at. We don't get extra paid for calling doctors and holding for 15 minutes just to get the strength that was omitted on the prescription, or to change the antibiotic the patient allergic to. There are problems in the pharmacy that are not within our control
6.
Pharmacists set the copay.Truth: Your insurance company sets the copay. It's an agreement between your employer and the insurance company. It should be clearly spelled out in the contract and every plan is different. Do not call and ask for a price with insurance because we won't know until the prescription is processed. If we possibily know the all the prices of all drugs with all prescription plans, we are not pharmacists, we are psychics. 7.
Pharmacists know everything, such as which shampoo is best for your hair type, if the South Beach diet is better than the Atkins diet, or what is the difference between the baby foods.
Truth: We can't possible know every single drug in the world, just as a doctor wouldn't know all the disease state or a laywer wouldn't remember every law in a law book. We can try to look up the information but don't expect us to tell you a definite answer right top of our heads. We're not trained to diagnose, neither. So don't come in and show us your arm/leg/back/scalp and ask "what is it?" Go to see a doctor and get a diagnosis.
8.
You can return a medication whenever you decide to, even it's a month after it was picked up, for whatever reason.
Truth: The pharmacy cannot accept return of medications once it's out of the pharmacy. Once it's dispensed we have no control on its storage condition, and we don't know what has been done to it. We can't resell the drug and it has to go into trash. Not knowing the price is not an excuse - why would you pay for something if you didn't know how much it costs? Just tell us at the register that you don't want it and call the doctor for a cheaper substitution so you won't get charged and we can reuse the medication.
9.
Filling a prescription only takes 10 minutes or less because it's just count and slap the label on the bottle. While this can be true in some cases, there're other factors that affect the time to fill an rx.
Truth: I can fill an rx in 5 minutes provided that 1) the computer is not in "downtime", 2) the doctor fills in all the necessary information on the rx, 3) we have the medication in stock, 4) there's no interaction with other medications in the patient's profile, 5) the insurance covers this medication, 6) you're the only customer in the pharmacy (waiting or non-waiting). And chances for the above: 1) 99%, 2) 90%, 3) 95%, 4) 97%, 5) 90%, 6) 0%.
10. You can take advantage by yelling and screaming in the pharmacy, humiliating and intimidating the pharmacy personnel, or threaten to call the corporate and say you will take all your business to another store.Truth: This is the truth, although we'd rather you take your business somewhere else.
