Be Nice!

One of the hardest pills to swallow when dealing with patients is putting up with the verbal abuse. Actually, the patients are not the only people who feel free to let loose on us on a regular basis. Nurses and receptionists, doctors, insurance help desks, insurance reps, our store managers, our corporate managers, and , my favorite,  other pharmacists, feel free to lambast us at will. One of my happy go home songs is REM'S Bang and Blame (..."you bang on me, beat on me, hit on me, let go on me....you let go on me...."). Think the lyrics are a little extreme? Walk a mile in my Merrells.

I'm going to be completely truthful here, because this is my blog, and because I am not allowed to say what I think anywhere else. I've been doing this a long time, so keep in mind these are the status quo, not isolated occurences:

1. Nurses and doctors are never wrong and can never say they are sorry. Period. I can count on one hand the times one of them has actually admitted to causing the patient and us extra grief and work.
They order the wrong medication, the wrong strength, something the patient is allergic to ? They call us (or usually the patient calls us or them, or we relay the message). Guess what they tell the patient?
"Take that back to the drug store and have them refund your money" . We can't sell it , so it goes in salvage. Never ever has the doctor's office offered to pay for their own screw up. Or the gas, time, and aggravation the patient had to put up with because of their error.

One of our doctors, who we thought we had a good relationship with, called us and chewed us out for trying to cheat her patient because we gave her the brand name drug instead of the generic. When we pulled the hard copy, it turned out that her nurse had called it in as Dispense as Written, Brand Name Only.  Guess who never could admit it was her office's fault or say sorry, and guess who we don't give a shit about helping any more than we have to.

When we screw up, we admit it and take it in the face. It's wrong to lie and say you didn't make a mistake when you did. Not only is this dangerous, but it is immoral and stupid. There are pharmacists who lie about errors, and in my opinion they are a pathetic excuses for healthcare professionals.

2. Most insurance help desk reps that I have dealt with are pretty nice. They have a thankless job, too, and I'm sure they get yelled at all the time.  They usually are polite and try to help. The reps who are trouble are the ones who tell you it's a software problem, or who otherwise try to pass the buck by acting like we are incompetent.  When they get high handed and mean, we hang up and call back and try to get a nice one. And maybe we slam the phone down when we hang up on the mean one. 

3. When Medicare D first came in, it was confusing for everybody. We tried to help people figure out what to do , because most of these patients are elderly and on a ton of medications . My pharmacy manager actually had an insurance salesman tell a little old lady to switch pharmacists, because he had the guts to call the rep and ask him to help the lady pick a different plan , because the one he put her on did not cover some of her medications. That rep was a complete ass. He yelled at my pharmacy manager on the phone and was extremely rude.  He was willing to take the lady's  money, but he did not want to help her select a Medicare D plan that gave her the best coverage for her medications.

4. I had a pharmacist call and chew me out first thing on a Sunday morning because he had called and talked to "Mary" on Saturday and transferred a prescription for us to fill, but when the patient got there Saturday night we did not have any record of it. Actually he yelled at my tech for a few minutes before I told her to give me the phone. First of all, I had to tell him 4 times that there was no Mary at my store, Mary works at Mr. Happy Drug down the street.  Since he continued to be shitty, I told him that yes, I remembered his patient because he yelled at me in drivethru for 10 minutes right at close, and then proceeded to come into the store and bang on my window and yell at me after I had closed for the night. So, I was  late gettting off work, I got yelled at, and now Mr Know It All Rph was yelling at me.  I let him have it and he fell all over himself apologizing. Too little , too late, my friend.

5. Our store managers have a high school education, or at most a Bachelors in business or another field other than pharmacy. The pharmacists go to school for 5 years, sometimes 6 years,  and have a ton of experience and  knowledge. The chain stores put the store managers in charge of the pharmacists, so they feel free to yell at us and say whatever they want to us because corporate backs them up and throws the pharmacists under the bus.

6. And now, the patients. . Do you know who treats us the best (other than the drug abusers, who are sweet and fake until they don't get their way.)? The people who have nothing. The poor people, the little old ladies that cart their buddies or their neighbors around and sometimes buy their medication for them. The people who are going thru hell because a family member is fighting cancer. The people with a child who has cystic fibrosis, or who is fed through a tube, or who will never be able to be out of bed or their wheelchair. The guy who is paralyzed from the waist down, pays cash for everything, and  who always has a smile and tells us to have a nice night.

Do you know who treats us the worst? The pillars of society that have a sense of entitlement and feel they should never have to wait , that they should be taken care of first, that we should bend the rules to make things easier for them. The people with religious symbols and sayings on their cars and checks and t-shirts that yell at us every time things don't go their way. If you can't even be nice to a store clerk, it seems to me that you are witnessing for the other team. You are not invisible, and we don't forget who treats us badly. Ever. What would Jesus do? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be screaming at me in drive thru.

BP