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196 Comments
- yanksn6, on 09/16/2008, -2/+103#15 - "I'm not wearing any pants behind this counter."
- balibones, on 09/16/2008, -6/+60#14 - "Your like the tenth person today who filled a prescription for herpes medication".
- inactive, on 09/17/2008, -4/+5016. I replaced your birth control pills with placebos.
- FENWAYFREAK, on 09/16/2008, -2/+33I'm taking pills from this big bottle here, and I'm putting them in this small bottle HERE.
- Quicksilver4648, on 09/18/2008, -1/+21classy.
- phexerian, on 09/18/2008, -4/+24Look sweet cheeks, if you had any idea what it takes to get through pharmacy school, you would understand that pharmacists are highly educated and are doctors of their profession. It is about as difficult at this point in time to get into pharmacy school as some if not most medical schools. Our curriculum is ever so slightly less difficult than the medical school curriculum.
You may think we count pills all day. That's fine. Some of us do count pills quite often. Hell, sometimes we get to count out 30 prescriptions before we catch a physicians error. It usually doesn't take that long to see how your physician wanted to kill you that day. Just remember that when your pregnant wife gets a script for septra DS and we shall see what happens.
-Phex
-3rd Year PharmD Candidate - byrdgang, on 09/18/2008, -1/+17As a former pharmacy technician with quite a few years of experience, I'll share my comments:
"8. Generics are a close match for most brand names. But I'd be careful with blood thinners and thyroid drugs, since small differences can have big effects."
This is an irresponsible one. The research is a little murky on this, and the pharmacist who included this is simply irresponsible. This topic should not be mentioned to laymen without a lengthy introduction. Saying that "small differences can have big effects" will only scare patients. There's a lot more to this point than the pharmacist included.
"11. Avoid the lines. It gets busy Monday and Tuesday evenings, since many new prescriptions and refills come in after the weekend. "
Not necessarily true. It all depends on location. My pharmacy tended to not be busy on Tuesdays, but Mondays were always a nightmare. Thursdays and Wednesdays were almost always busy. Just call ahead of time to check on pharmacy traffic...besides, the pharmacy team will appreciate that you're avoiding busy times.
"1. Don't try to get anything past us. Prescriptions for painkillers or sleeping aids always get extra scrutiny. "
Not necessarily true either. Yes, they get extra scrutiny, but there isn't that much more scrutiny. My pharmacy routinely got fake prescriptions.
"7. A less-qualified pharmacy technician may have actually filled your prescription. "
So? A pharmacist is still required to sign off on everything, including verifying that the correct medication has been filled. If there's a problem, blame it on the pharmacist for not fully checking it out.
Here's something the pharmacist left out:
A. Medications fall on the floor all the time (the same floor on which many dirty sneakers walk). Please understand they are not thrown away. You'll still get the medication.
B. There are many ways to save on your prescription (e.g., coupons). Don't expect the pharmacist to go through the whole list or try his/her best to arrange the best price for you. It takes too much work to make sure you're getting the least expensive effective medication.
C. Many times when your insurance is giving you a headache, there's actually a solution, but don't expect the pharmacist to explain it to you. The solution is often in calling the insurance and covering a few things with the insurance representative. Do you really expect a pharmacist to spend up to an hour on the phone (many times longer) to solve your problem?
By the way, if I liked a patient, you can believe that I did EVERYTHING to help that person out. One time, I kept calling an insurance company for two months straight to get a medication covered. If I had to lie to the company, I would. Why? Great patient. If you think getting the pharmacist upset is a good idea, oh, you're losing in the end. - Wrangler76, on 09/18/2008, -0/+16Laugh if you want, but I know a lot of times high school kids worked as pharm techs (someone got them in) and they did make mistakes that the pharmacists had to catch. Screwing up a prescription order once in a while isn't exactly the same as screwing up a hamburger order.
- psykiv, on 09/18/2008, -0/+15#20. We know which one of your friends has erectile dysfunction problems.
- guinpen, on 09/18/2008, -1/+14it's the same thing and cheaper.. that's pretty well looking out for a customer
- donnie0darko0, on 09/18/2008, -0/+12I worked at a walgreens pharmacy with virtually no training, but you're very right, a trained chimp could do it... or a computer... wait.. a computer DID fill a lot of them... In any case, the pharmacist double checked every prescription before it went out
- sq2shooter, on 09/18/2008, -3/+14They forgot, 14 - I get paid a bonus by my employer for the amount of prescriptions I can switch to generic. So I am really not looking out for you but instead am trying to make more money for me and my company. (yea, in some cases we make more profit selling you a cheap generic than a branded drug)
- thegrantman, on 09/18/2008, -2/+12#18 We take a lot of drugs to make the day go by.
- dvsbastard, on 09/18/2008, -1/+10I had a theory that doctors intentionally scribbled prescriptions badly, so they would receive calls making them look important in front of patients...
My mechanic has neater and more legible writing than most doctors... - DrugDoc, on 09/18/2008, -0/+9I hear this all the time. This is *****. I know of NO ONE that gets paid an actual bonus based on the amount of scripts they change to generic. And brand name drugs are a waste. The generics are just as good and even the ones like warfarin and levothyroxine are fine. Its just when the doctor and figuring your dosage out, he might need to adjust for the fluctuations caused by the different manufacturer, which at most is 5% which is negligible for most things. I would never recommend someone get the brand, you'll pay more and there won't see a difference.
- MrOmniscient, on 09/17/2008, -7/+16"7. A less-qualified pharmacy technician may have actually filled your prescription."
Yeah... that matching up drug names and counting is real hard stuff. I wish there were some standards to keep them from training chimps to do it. - drmobutu, on 09/18/2008, -2/+11"Sure, we can give you a few vicodin, just to hold you over, no problem..."
- MixMastaKooz, on 09/18/2008, -1/+9#21 My roommate (who's a pharmacist. Not a tech, but a real pharmacist) says, "If you want the name brand for $100 over the generic which is $5, you're an idiot!."
- hungryduck, on 09/18/2008, -4/+12You're.
- roundy, on 09/18/2008, -0/+7spaceman84 is correct about technician pay. In the Chicago area, most non-pharmacy student technicians get about $9 to start. With certification and other internal promotions, they can reach about $11-$12. Only students in pharmacy school working as technicians get paid higher, up to $18+ for a 4th year student.
- CenturionMonkey, on 09/18/2008, -2/+9"LOL small condoms?"
- stormgren, on 09/18/2008, -1/+8Doctors have bad handwriting because they have to write similar notes over and over and over again. Their writing is actually really really consistent, it's just impossible to read.
- eurynome420, on 09/18/2008, -0/+7I am currently a pharmacy tech right now and everything you've said is totally true..... Especially with the favored patients and trying to do anything you can to get them their medications....
and just to add one.....
"4. Sometimes we can't read the doctor's handwriting either. E-prescribing can help, but as of 2006, fewer than 20 percent of prescriptions were being electronically transmitted. "
If we can't tell what the doctor wrote, we will call to verify, but we usually get the same doctors (from the same patients) because of the location of the pharmacy, so we get used to reading prescriptions. - muleskinner, on 09/18/2008, -0/+7Heres another for you.
When we drop pills on the floor, they don't get thrown away. - DrugDoc, on 09/18/2008, -1/+8I am a pharmacist and I find these hilarious, except for the fact that they are all pretty much exaggerations. My favorite one is "Yelling at me won't help you." Do people really believe if they yell at someone then they are going to get what they want?
- donnie0darko0, on 09/18/2008, -1/+8It's the patient's responsibility to ask questions. Most pharmacists are pretty knowledgeable. They have to be.
- spaceman84, on 09/18/2008, -0/+6At the major drug chains, Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, etc, technicians get paid as much as those neanderthals you find at McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Best Buy ($8 to $10/hour). I know, because I was a technician for six years before going to Albany College of Pharmacy to get a Pharm. D degree to be a pharmacist for $105k a year. Anyone with half a brain will find a job that pays far better than the major pharmacy chains are willing to pay (hospital pharmacies for example), so all of these retail pharmacies get the dregs of society who usually can't do basic arithmetic.
This is why Walgreens has transitioned to a bar code and scale system. They have to scan the prescription label, scan the bottle and only if the two "match" will the electronic scale allow them to weigh out the medication. They don't even trust their technicians to count the pills because it's less expensive to buy electronics than it is to pay enough to get employees who have a functioning brain. - dvsbastard, on 09/18/2008, -0/+5Hmmm, I'd say a fake prescription would be a good enough reason to deny a person...
We just called the issuing doctor, as 90% of the time they were self written on stolen pads and the doctor could quickly and easy clarify things for us... - spaceman84, on 09/18/2008, -0/+5That's complete *****. Most pharmacy chains only pay a bonus based on year over year revenue increase. Unless the doctor specifies that the brand name is medically necessary (and gets it approved by the insurance company), the prescription will be filled with a generic by default if there is one. It's the law.
- jleq, on 09/18/2008, -0/+5My father is a pharmacist, and we've talked about this subject in-depth. It's pretty easy to forge a prescription, and someone who *really* wants their hydrocodone is going to figure out how to get it with enough time and determination.
But yes, they do catch a lot of drug abusers, and they are usually just turned away from the pharmacy, only to try again somewhere else. A pharmacist doesn't have the time or the resources to act like a DEA agent on every single prescription for a controlled substance. - jiveturkeyblues, on 09/18/2008, -0/+5mentalness? yay? pills are good?
how old are you? - texanbrit, on 09/18/2008, -0/+5Except it is not the same thing. It might have the same active ingredients, but has different fillers and different release rates into your system. That might be fine with aspirin, but is not fine for all drug classes and all patients.
- spaceman84, on 09/18/2008, -1/+6You're supposed to call the prescriber, dumbass. Talk about incompetent.
- Fragger404, on 09/18/2008, -0/+5I easily catch three or four forgeries a week at my pharmacy that I can definitely prove are phony. I usually just tear those scripts up with the doctor's consent. I NEVER call the cops anymore since I had to show up to court seven times over a period of three years for just one case. The guy got off with probation after all that effort. What a waste of time.
@twertyto: Must have either had a dumbass as a pharmacist or a greedy *****. Pain meds have one of the highest profit margins in pharmacy, so depending on what it is, and if the pharmacy was a mom and pop place, it could mean hundreds of dollars everytime he walked in the door. I would never do that, but I've known some folks who were busted for turning a blind eye. - TriSight, on 09/18/2008, -0/+5Some people champion the fact that they scrutinize those scripts for pain killers, I for one say ***** off. That type of scrutiny is what makes people with real problems feel like criminals when they go in once or twice a month to get pain killers that they need for chronic pain. Maybe it's just me, but every time I have a pain script filled I feel like the person behind the counter is looking at me like a junkie since I am in there once or twice a month and I'm a fairly young person. I don't even like the way the pain killers make me feel, they make me sick to my stomach. A problem that would probably go away if they would legalize marijuana.
- elliotys, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4Considering my pharmacy fills over 300 scripts a day, half of which have issues, it would take an enormous amount of time to call each person. How bout since u fill 1 rx, u give us a call before u come in and it will both save us time.
- DrugDoc, on 09/18/2008, -1/+5Falsifying prescriptions cards and prescription bottle labels? I don't see how that would help him obtain "illegal narcotics".
- cosmicastaway, on 09/18/2008, -1/+5I work at a Hospital as a pharmacy tech, make about $16 per hour.
- mooseofshadows, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4That's why you should support a local, non-chain pharmacy if you can. They'll be on your side, because that's how they keep customers.
- chudson2, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4I don't see why its pleasurable to watch a opiate addict have their world fall apart. I think the normal response is that its sad. I'm not a fan of drug abusers they ruin it for the rest of patients and create an air suspicion around patients who really do have excruciating pain and need high doses. However you must be some sort of sadist to get pleasure from something like that.
- elliotys, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4If your mom is qualified then she should take the Naplex. Techs are good with insurance issues, but even with 20 years under their belts they don't know much about pharmacology, therapeutics, and kinetics, because there is no on the job training for that stuff.
- Fragger404, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4I own two drugstores and my lowest paid techs make around $15, and that's here in the south where wages generally run a little lower than the rest of the country. If you want good techs you've got to pony up the dough. CVS, Walgreens, and the like can have the "neanderthals" for $10 an hour.
Also, my lowest paid pharmacist gets around 130k/year plus full health benefits, 401k, a company car, and all their gas paid for. Once again, if you want the best you've got to pay them. - chudson2, on 09/18/2008, -1/+5Not grossly overpaid. A little overpaid. Most people in the health field are a little overpaid. Well except nurses.
- donnie0darko0, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4very good point. I think I was hired partially because of my military background, but not everyone is as easily verifiable... which reminds me- it is definitely the patient's responsibility to double check what they're taking. burger-joint responsibility or not, you are putting it into your own body. It would behoove you to educate yourself!
- chudson2, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4There are far easier places than the pharmacy to get painkillers. Its usually a friend who had surgery, or the grandma who never takes them but keeps getting them refilled.
- tms8707056, on 09/18/2008, -1/+5I'm pretty sure that doing "pharmacist level work" without actually being a pharmacist is against the law.
- statuescrumble, on 09/18/2008, -1/+5No way, judging by how hard it is to get into that field.
- mr100percent, on 09/18/2008, -0/+4I work at a major three-letter American pharmacy chain, and they started me off at $7/hour, now they have the starting at $7.50/hr. 5 years later, and I make $9.50/hr and got laid off.
BTW, that pharmacy also has the barcode matching-up system too. - jphandley, on 09/18/2008, -1/+5If you think it is so easy and overpaid get your ass out and try. Just counting by fives.. .yeah that's all there is to it. Except when we save your butt or your loved ones. Oh and remember when you talk to us... we don't charge for advice. Maybe we should start.
- DrugDoc, on 09/18/2008, -0/+3Yup, and I can personally guarantee that a pharmacy manager for them has never received a bonus based on that.
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