PharmCountry

Ok, do you think I jinxed myself this morning when I posted about a “normal day”? Because today was anything but.

I walked into the pharmacy at 10:30 (the pharmacy opens at 9am). I was pleasantly surprised to see that the counter was clear, so I commented on it. “Yeah, that’s because I haven’t done any prescriptions yet,” replied the pharmacist. “What?!” I gasped.

Just a little back story The pharmacy manager is on vacation this week, which means we get a bunch of “floater” pharmacists that don’t normally work at the store to come in. They keep the floater key/alarm passcode locked in the safe. The store manager and assistant managers are supposed make sure it stays there when not in use.

Ok, back to the story. So, they couldn’t find the key this morning. The manager on duty was frantically searching for it. Finally, about 10:00 they decided to get the “core” key (the one that doesn’t say do not copy, and theoretically isn’t supposed to be used) out of the store manager’s office.

So, the pharmacist gets in the pharmacy, turns everything on, checks voicemail, starts filling prescriptions for patients that are waiting, etc. Meanwhile, the manager is trying to find they key. They call the pharmacist that had it last, who said she gave it to the closing manager that night (Wednesday.) Wouldn’t you know that manager had left town and is unreachable?

When I walked in at 10:30, maybe 5 prescriptions had been done. I looked at the order. “Oh, no, only four totes Someone forgot to send part of the order.” (This later turned out to be wrong when I found out they had only done 47 scripts yesterday.)

When I look at the computer, there are 32 refills that need to be done. 32! We don’t do that many prescriptions on a whole Sunday. So, I start putting them through. One by one, the labels print out. Most of them sit there until late in the afternoon.

Around 11:00, in comes the flood of people. And of course they don’t just have one prescription; they have 2, or 3. (One even had 5, though we didn’t have two of them.) So, on we go. Antibiotic, antibiotic, antibiotic, vicodin, antibiotic. (The weather changes in DC have been brutal in the past week, I’m not surprised.)

One hiccup happened when someone came in with a script for percocet, which, along with other narcotics, is kept in a locked safe. Well, don’t you know, the core key doesn’t open the safe (like the regular pharmacy keys do.) Thankfully, by this point, they had managed to contact the manager who last had the key, and she said it was locked in her office, to which she has the only key.

So, the maintenance guy has to break into her office, and then into the file cabinet where the key is, and gets it to us just in time to finish the percocet without the guest having to wait. “Whew! At least we can fill narcotics now!” we said. (We didn’t do a single narcotic script the rest of the day. Go figure.)

Ok, so it’s now, what 12:30? Yeah. By this point the counter is filling up with waiters, mostly, again, antibiotics and pain relievers. (We haven’t even gotten to the refills that were still sitting on the printer.) A lady comes up asking for a prescription, which had been faxed in, and was in the middle of a stack of other faxes that are piled neatly by the computer, waiting to be typed in.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, we’ve been backed up today, and haven’t had a chance to work on it.”

“What! I stood there while my doctor faxed it three hours ago! I can’t believe this service. I’m going to a different pharmacy. Give me the prescription!” (like the “doctor” was actually the one using the fax machine. Most of them don’t even use a phone.)

“I’m sorry, I can’t give you the fax. Just give us a few minutes, and we’ll fill it.”

“Well…OK, but after this I’m never coming here again!” (I’m sure you can guess what I wanted to say at that point.)

So, a few minutes later, she leaves, prescription in hand. Things settle down into a steady, if quick, flow. We decided to order lunch from Panera, and the pharmacist treated. Around 1:30 (which is when the pharmacist’s lunch is supposed too start.) I went over to pick up our order, trying to find someone to pay attention to me, as always.

When I got back, there was another rush, so I sat the bag of food down, and went to help fill. By 2:00, all the waiters were finished, and I ate lunch first since I was so hungry (what a bad day to have not eaten breakfast.) When my lunch is over, we get another rush that lasts until 3:00. The pharmacist started her lunch about 3:15, so I started trying to clear the counter (or at least organize it).

I took in about six scripts while the pharmacist was at lunch, so I worked on them. Two people walked off because I told them their prescription wouldn’t be done for 45 minutes. The others grudgingly agreed to wait. (“I hope your pharmacist is a prompt one,” said one lady. Yeah, sure.)

When she came back from lunch, I started sorting the order, which was blissfully small. I finished it about 4pm (remember from this morning that it’s usually done by noon.) There was only one drug on order for a patient, so that was a big help; there are usually at least 4-5. They shorted us on one item, but I called and straightened it out. (They have great customer service. I guess it helps that we’re a 1,000+ store client for them.)

The flow settled back in. I mostly told people 25-30 minutes wait, not too much more than our usual 15-20 minutes. Around 6:00, I finally get around to filling out the invoices. After that, I work on more of the refills that were still on the printer. A little before seven, I reached down to get another label, and didn’t feel anything. Hallelujah!

After that, it was a pretty normal evening. We got the trash taken out, shredder emptied, supplies stocked. We ended up doing 105 prescriptions (our previous record was 101, a normal day usually between 70-80, at least during cold season.)

Oh yeah, did I mention I had only gotten like 2 hours of sleep the night before? Well, at least tomorrow’s Saturday. I’ll be able to sleep in. (Oh wait, I forgot, I have something to do. Dangit!)

Well, this is my first real ‘personal’ post (see the post two below this one). I leave for work in about 30 minutes, so I thought I’d give you a glimpse of what an average day for me at work is:

I walk in to work at 10:30, sign in on the timeclock (and then re-sign in because the buttons are so small I always miss one.), head back to the pharmacy (I work in a big-box store.) and put my things away.

“Hi, Pharmacist, how’s it going?” I ask. “Same old, same old. We have 5(to 10) waiters, the first one of which was supposed to be done 10 minutes ago.”

So the first 30 minutes (at least) are just spent getting caught up. Then I tackle the order, which involves:

1. taking the plastic ties off of the totes (I always miss one, so I’ll have to go back for the scissors again.)
2. placing the little yellow stickers on all of the bottles (they’re always falling off that long strip of paper they come on)
3. Putting the drugs away (except for the ones we have on order for people), and
4. Doing all this while trying to answer the phone, fill prescriptions, tell people where the toothpaste is and why I can’t sell them claritin-d without their ID.

Ok, so it’s probably now about noon. I’ll spend the next hour and a half filling prescriptions, including the ones that we ordered (either we owe people some medicine, or some doctor wrote for a med we’ve never heard of.)

Around 1:30, it will start to quiet down (hopefully), since that’s when the pharmacist goes on lunch. I’ll field the occasional “Why does the pharmacist always go on lunch when I bring my 10 prescriptions in?” To which I wish I could reply, “Because your the idiot that keeps coming at 1:30 even though you know that’s when they’re always at lunch!”

Most of that 1/2 hour is spent cleaning up, straightening up the filling counter, shredding all the excess paper (and there’s a lot of it), and preparing whatever prescriptions do come in. The pharmacist comes back. I should go to lunch now, but I don’t because there’s too much to do.

I still have to fill out the invoices from the order (and pray that I don’t have to call because they sent us something wrong), check the bins for prescriptions that were never picked up, all while replying to questions like, “Where’s the thermometers?” with “Down that aisle you just came down on the left hanging above the cold medicine. Nope, too far come back. No, closer to me. No, on the left – your other left. They’re right in front of you! Oh, fine, I’ll come show you.”

My lunch usually rolls around about 3 or 3:30. Finally some respite! (uh, no, not really.) I usually spend at least part of the lunch working (even though I’m not supposed to) because it will invariably get busy (no matter how slow it was when I started my lunch). A quick bite to eat, and then I’m “back” to work.

More filling, more stupid questions, more “Now, don’t drink any alcohol or you’ll likely explode (or at least have a very sour stomach).”

About 6:30 or so I’ll start sending the order. I type it into the website they have (which is actually about the only thing at work that actually works like it’s supposed to – most of the time, anyway.) I hope and pray that everything is in stock, and they don’t switch a manufacturer on us (especially on something we owe on – that’s always a pain in the rear).

After that, it’s time to start cleaning; wiping down the counters, emptying the trash, making a mess with the shredder because it’s always overflowing, and filling supplies (vials, caps, printer paper, etc.)

By the time that’s done (hopefully), it’s usually 8:30. Time for me to go, but there’s probably some last minute thing that will keep me from catching my bus (that leaves at 8:38), so I’ll probably get home a little before 10 (or if I’m lucky and do catch the bus, a little after 9.)

Normally, I’d do this all again in 12 hours, but today’s Friday (and payday no less), so I get to shout “Freedom!” and then go pay all my bills. Oh well, c’est la vie.

I just want to say ‘Hi’ to everyone I met at the Washington DC blogger meetup last night. Thanks for linking to me, or clicking on someone else’s link. As you can see, it’s a work in progress, but I hope you like what I post in the future.

A double hi to two people:

Jamy, who sat across from me. I noticed at times we both looked like we had cricks in our necks from looking back and forth trying to follow all the conversations, but not always participating in them. I’m glad you survived your encounter with the bloupie. I kept trying to think of ways to save you, but I came up blank (sorry )

Ross, who sat to my right. You ordered the white pizza that smelled so good, and the dessert that all of the ladies had to try. I’m glad I was (sort of) able to help with your image replacement conundrum.

Also, Hi Janet, and the lady sitting next to her that works for National Geographic (I didn’t catch your name. oops…), and anyone else I missed. There were so many people there, I’m sure I did. I look forward to seeing you all next month.

Ok; If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted in a little while (ok, four months is probably considered a long while.) I wish I had some excuse (my hamster died, I won a zillion dollars), but, no. It was really just apathy. I guess it’s just too easy for a short break to become an extended break, which eventually leads to an outdated website.

And the worst thing is, this isn’t the first time this has happened, on this or the other blog I had, currently only available in archived form.

I think my main problem is that I’m so into the technical side of things (setting up the software, messing with code, graphic design, etc.) that I get kind of bored once the site is up and running.

The other problem with this site, was that it was becoming the “look what drug just went generic” blog. You can go to the FDA for that.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want this blog to be. I think at first, I wanted to be “the pharmacy news site that wasn’t owned by corporate America” blog. I think what I need it to be is the “blog run by a 20-something trying to make it through life” blog.

So, if you’re looking for a pharmacy news site, don’t look here. Look here, here, here, or here.

Will it work this time? Maybe. I don’t know. But, I’m going to give it at least one more shot.