Let Me Introduce Myself

I am a retail pharmacist working for a large chain. I graduated from Purdue University in 1984, which, if you do the math, means I have been doing this for 29 years.  I have worked in hospital pharmacy, a small clinic pharmacy, a small local chain pharmacy, and finally a large chain pharmacy, where I "floated"for the first five years. Since floating means that I worked in lots of different stores, I have experienced many different practice settings, from busy (1000 prescriptions a day), to not so busy (200 prescriptions per day) , from city to rural, from high income to low income.

The reason I started this blog is to help educate patients on how to make things easier on yourself (and me !)

when you use a retail pharmacy. No matter what store I work in, no matter who my patients are, certain problems come up again and again. Most of these problems are avoidable.

Your pharmacist is smart, intellectual, usually an introvert, highly self motivated, hyper-responsible, introspective, caring, giving, humble, friendly, a worrier, a problem solver, meticulous, detailed, 

able to multi-task, organized, picky, and a conflict-avoider. On top of this, most of  us have a keen

sense of humor which we have developed to relieve the stress of the environment in which we practice.

We are often your best advocate when it comes to getting through some of the problems that come up with your medical care. You don't need an appointment to talk to us. We are available 24-7 , and you can call any of us, whether you are a patient of ours or not, and we will try to help you. You can walk up to the

window and talk to us face to face. We don't charge you anything to tap into our expertise. Believe it or not, this is what we most love to do. This is what we signed on for. What we got from our employers is a whole 

different story. 

We see the Big Picture between your primary care doctor, your specialist, your dentist, your eye doctor, and your insurance company. We can often help you weave this web of confusion together by contacting the right person and by interceding on your behalf. 

Believe it or not, we care about you, and we want to help you. We just need your respect, your patience, and some information to go by. Don't make the mistake of assuming that we are what our employers say  we are. We can do a lot to help you, but what we do takes time to do safely and properly.

That's all for today. Time to go in and work the evening shift!

BP