MY LIFE - DECEMBER

Saturday, December 30, 2000

I almost learned what it was like to have a pharmacist just walk out on the store today. Elizabeth was this close to walking out because it was just getting to be too much at times. People were being stupid, people were everywhere, doctors were being rude, and just about anything that could go wrong was going wrong.

It wasn't a fun day.

For starters, a lot of people were trying to get prescriptions filled one last time under their current insurance coverage since a lot of plans change at the beginning of the year. The only problem with this is that most of the people had just had their prescriptions filled two weeks ago and insurances don't usually pay for early refills. They monitor the day supply. It makes the whole process stupid yet customers will continually do it. Then they can't understand why their medication wasn't filled and they plead with us to fill it.

I had three sheets of names that were too early to fill by various amounts of days that I was waiting to have come in. I wasn't going to call them because I was getting hammered trying to type prescriptions. People were also dropping off boatloads of scripts today and just making life more complicated than it needed to be. It was very hectic from around 11am until 4pm.

Elizabeth was just having a tough time too. Several doctors were giving her such a hard time on the phone and she was just getting really stressed out by all of it. She was really considering not coming into work tomorrow and she kind of hinted that she really just wanted to go home, which wasn't really an option if she wanted to keep her job, or so you'd think.

It was a frustrating day though. Very busy during just a few hours. It wasn't spread out like it usually is on the weekend and we quickly were overwhelmed with prescriptions. Even when Paul came in, we weren't able to get things caught up and we were all running around trying to keep everyone happy. It's impossible to do that though and I don't think customers ever realize just how much we're trying to keep things going.

That's the one thing that pisses me off about customers, the lack of understanding. They see us running around trying to get everything done, then they complain about our service. They complain about wait times. What do you want us to do? Use magic to fill scripts. Fact is, it's about 10 minutes to type, fill, and check a script when there's nothing going on. When there are people ahead of you, it's a little harder for us to meet that. The wait gets bumped up to 20 minutes and that can change if the pharmacist checking gets held up with something else.

My favorite is the people who come in with inhalers and things that are prepackaged and say in response to the wait time "all you have to do is put a new label on it." That's incorrect. First, we have to enter the prescription number in to process the refill. Then we finish the claim, then whoever's filling pulls the medication, puts the label on, scans it out, and passes it down to the pharmacist. It's easier than the pills, but it still takes a few minutes and that's if there's nothing going on.

But that never happens. We're always swamped. Early in the morning and late at night are our downtimes and sometimes even then it can get busy. We did over 600 scripts on Friday people. Our volume has been absurd lately. Our numbers are up at least 200 scripts a week from last year at this time and it seems like we get busier every week. Now we're going to be down one person because Betsy, our intern, is going to Lima to intern somewhere else. We probably have seen the last of her too.

Another thing about customers that amazes me is how many of them that don't realize we submit claims directly to their insurance company. What the insurance sends back is their price, not ours, so we aren't the ones to blame if the price is wrong. WE DON'T SET THE PRICES PEOPLE! Is that too hard a concept for many to figure out? Do I speak portugese when I explain this? No, but people still argue with us when there's nothing to argue about. There really needs to be something done to protect us from that. We should not be acting as agents for the patient to find out THEIR plan. Want to know why something wasn't covered? Call the insurance company, don't bitch to us.

It really should mandatory to work in retail for a week because most people have no clue. Work in a pharmacy for one week and then tell us we aren't doing the best that we can in our circumstances. It should be a requirement for all U.S. citizens. Maybe there should be a high school or college course where you spend X amount of time in a retail setting. I'm sure the appreciation for what we deal with would be much greater.

That won't happen and people will continue to bitch. It's the American way. You don't get what you want, you complain to somebody. I'm sure we'll see the day when a lawsuit will be brought against a retail chain because of "bad service." It's just a matter of time. If McDonald's can get sued because some dumb bitch spills a cup of hot coffee (marked "hot" I might add), then we'll get sued someday.

People really make me wonder sometimes.

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This sickness just will not go away. Everyday it's something new. The first days it was a sore throat and an achey body. Then I lost my voice for a day and had nothing but a sore throat. Now it seems to be going towards congestion, although it isn't that bad. My throat doesn't hurt as bad as it first did, but it's still hard for me to eat and I cannot taste anything. That drives me nuts, although water suddenly tastes as good as everything else.

I can't stand this though. I hate being sick and I hate it when I catch something serious. I get so crabby when I'm sick. It's not even funny. I stop talking and everyone thinks I've come down with a plague or something, which is probably close to the truth. But everyone worries about me when I'm not talking and thinks something's really wrong.

I'm so much more open at work. I don't think people realize that I'm really a quiet person for the most part. Especially when I'm in groups of people. I don't have anything to say and people forget that I'm in the room a lot of times. Then someone will look at me and say "oh, I forgot you were here."

Gee, thanks. Somehow, that doesn't seem make me feel better.

I just don't like being sick.

It's too hard for me to write like this. My concentration just isn't there right now.

Just imagine, I have to work tomorrow too. This ought to be good.