Knife Girl - Part II

Do you remember my posting entitled "You call that a knife?...Now that's a knife!"? Well, that all took place at my pharmacy in Las Vegas. Last week in the pharmacy here, a hispanic man came in to pick up a prescription for someone. I looked up at him from behind the counter and immediately recognized him. Though he speaks very little English, I knew he recognized me as well by the way he kept staring. Who was this man? He was the man that stabbed his wife in the arm in that posting. I checked to see who he was picking up a prescription for, and it was his wife. I wondered why she'd be getting a prescription in Utah when she lived in Nevada. Oh, that's right. She has Utah Medicaid. Anyway, I guess that means she went back to him, and they're still married. Isn't that true love? Your husband stabs you in the arm, and you work through it. Such an example to us all!

I'm Sick of This Place

Usually threatening to take your business elsewhere is of real concern to any retail establishment. In my pharmacy, if you threaten to leave and never return, it's cause for much rejoicing. On Friday, I had a cranky customer go on and on about how this was the worst pharmacy and that from now on she's going somewhere else. Now, I know she didn't really mean it. I get four or five of these threats daily, but generally these people don't follow through (as we wish they would). This type of customer thinks that if they say they'll go to another pharmacy, we'll just do anything and everything in our power to make them happy and keep them coming back to us. This is not so. This woman found that out firsthand. She angrily stated she wasn't coming back because she was sick of our pharmacy and sick of all our mistakes. (She was mad on Friday because Medicaid wasn't paying for Allegra.) Anyway, she was in the process of picking up some prescriptions we had ready for her when I said, "Oh, I couldn't help but overhear what you said. I'd like to be helpful, so do you want me to just hand you back your prescription now, or can I call it into another pharmacy for you so you can get these somewhere else?" She responded (in a much less hostile tone, I might add), "Oh...oh...no. That's okay. I'll pick these up here." We didn't fulfill the extra demand she was making, and all was well anyway after that. I really hope she doesn't come back though.

You Guys Are Expensive

A girl called me last week to ask for a price on generic Ambien 10mg tablets. I told her the price, and then she asked if I could transfer it from Lin's. I said I would, and I told her that it could only be transferred one time (since it's a controlled substance), so she'd have to pick up her remaining refills at our pharmacy. I transferred the prescription to our pharmacy, and an hour later she called back to say she only wanted 15 tablets instead of 30 because they were so expensive. She asked, "Why is your guyses Ambien so expensive? I'm just wondering 'cause I can get it for so much cheaper everywhere else." I responded, "Well, if Lin's was cheaper, then why did you want me to transfer it here?" (I already knew the answer to this question. She wanted me to transfer it because Lin's wouldn't fill it since she had gotten Ambien at another pharmacy for a 30-day supply just 10 days earlier. She didn't tell me that, however. I just asked her that question to have a little fun.) She replied, "Well, I mean, Lin's was more than you guys, but like I've gotten it cheaper at Discount RX, Stapley's, Walgreens, Costco, Albertson's..." The rest of the story is really uneventful. She ended up just getting her 15 tablets, but not until several days later, because it was too soon to fill. You see, pharmacies talk to each other. A pharmacy passed some info on to Lin's, and they passed it on to us. I also thought it was funny that she didn't realize how much she sounded like a druggie with her little "you guys are expensive" rant.

Did you know...

...that there are 70-year-old women in Utah that use the f-word frequently and forcefully? Fun eh?

Answer Truthfully: Do I Look THAT stupid?

A young man of latin heritage brought a prescription for an antibiotic to the pharmacy today dated 2/8/07. For those of you unfamiliar with prescription law in the state of Utah, I will inform. Prescriptions expire one year from the date written (unless it's a controlled substance), so this prescription had been expired for well over a year. Anway, my technician said to the man, "We can't fill this. It's expired." He just smiled, took the prescription back, and left. He returned approximately 30 minutes later and handed the same worn-looking prescription to the same technician. This time the date read 2/8/09. Magic!!! My technician brought it over to me asking what we should do. I had her tell him again that we could not fill it and that it's against the law to alter a prescription. Just to be nice, I said I could call the doctor to verify the date or see if we could change the date to fill it today. Another magical thing happened. The patient called the doctor himself on his cell phone and was able to get the doctor immediately on the phone, as I only had enough magical powers to be able to leave a message. There was a small problem, however. We said we couldn't talk to a doctor on his cell phone and that the doctor would need to call the pharmacy directly. Then, just like magic, the cell phone snapped shut, and the doctor was no longer on the other end of the cell phone. He said he wanted the prescription back again, but this time I decided to add a little decoration to it. I stamped our pharmacy info on it a couple of times and wrote: EXPIRED - Written 2/8/07. I also highlighted that part. THEN we gave it back. Good luck amigo!

Note: I wish I'd taken a picture of the prescription after the date had been changed, because the saddest part is that it wasn't even a good alteration job. It looked like a 4-year-old tried to change the date. That makes it a little more crazy and unbelievably stupid.