Yesterday, I had a patient come in with a prescription for Percocet 5/325 #120. The script looked good, so I went to the logbook to see if we had it. We hade plenty of Endocet (our normal brand), but before I told him that, I looked at his profile.
All he had ever gotten was Roxicet (which of course, we don’t have enough of.) He also had a note in his profile: “Watch out. Mean patient.”
So, I informed him that we didn’t have it. He didn’t seem surprised. “You never do,” he said. So why the F do you always come here?! He asked if I could call another pharmacy in our chain. Remembering the note in his profile, I said yes, when normally I would say no.
I got connected straight to the pharmacist. She asked who it was for, knowing I usually don’t call. I told her, and she knew the patient. “Even though we have it, tell him we don’t.” Whew, ok, I’ll send him packing.
“Can you call another pharmacy?”
By this point, I figured the guy shouldn’t be getting it, so when I called the next pharmacy, I turned my head and whispered, “Tell me you don’t have it.” The technician giggles, and says, “Oh, yeah, we don’t have it.” I thanked her and said goodbye.
He then asked me to call another pharmacy. “They usually have it,” he says. I just gritted my teeth and clenched my hands, and said, “Sure.”
As I waited for the third pharmacy to pick up, I looked at the script more closely, and the stupid doctor had written 1/26/04! (Like I said earlier, it looked ok, and it was in good condition, so it obviously wasn’t two years old.)
I wasn’t quite ready to confront the patient with this information, so I went ahead and asked if the other pharmacy had it, repeating my whisper. Well, this time I was put on hold, so I just faked it. While still on hold, I said, “Oh, you don’t have it either? Oh, well. Thanks anyway. Bye.”
So, I pretended at that point to just happen to notice the date. The patient was mad, but thankfully his anger was directed at the doctor, not me. Oh yeah, did I mention the doctor’s office was closed for the weekend?
I love (read: sometimes hate) working in a pharmacy.
