(aka, C-II day)
After the 3rd perco script in a row, I started calling today a C-II day. After the fourth, I jokingly said we just just keep the percocet out on the counter, and after the 5th, we started keeping it out.
And it wasn’t just percocet; there was also metadate, focalin, and Daytrana (more on that later). There was even one really spooky, “Scary Door” moment. A man came in with a script for 120 tabs of Percocet 10/650. The pharmacist, however, knew that it was about time for some of our regular patients, a husband and wife, to get their monthly supply (he gets 80, she gets 200.) If we had filled the 120 script, we wouldn’t have had enough to fill the 200+80, so we turned the script down (well, that, and the guy looked kind of shady.)
Not 30 seconds later, the wife brings in their scripts.
I told you it was spooky.
Then there was the Daytrana (ritalin in a patch) script. Monday, we had a mom call to see if we have Daytrana 10mg patches, #60 (the kid was to use 2 patches daily). Of course we didn’t have it, so we told her we’d have to order it. Long story short, we eventually agreed to order it without the script (our first mistake); the mom wanted to try a few more places before bringing the script to us.
When the Daytrana finally came in, the lady’s husband brought the script in, but he had a coupon card that is good for 40 free patches. Since the kid had never used the patches before, we asked him if he would like to just get 40 patches for free (and lose the rest) to see if they even work for the kid before they had to pay any money for it. Well, he thought that was a great idea, so we ran the script through and sent him on his way.
About 10 minutes later, I get a call from an angry lady (guess who) demanding to speak to the pharmacist, who was helping a patient out in the aisle. I put her on hold, but before the pharmacist had a chance to pick up, the lady had hung up and called back, screaming (and I quote): “Don’t you dare put me on hold again! I’ve been trying to get this straightened out for a week!” (Yeah, lady, 2 days equals a week in this country.)
She demanded to know why she would lose the remaining 20 patches, and we explained to her that on schedule II medications, we can’t give refills. We promised to contact the doctor’s office and let them know the situation (in fact, we already had), but she wouldn’t have it; she demanded (her word) to get the rest of them, even if she had to pay the $45 copay.
My response would have been, “Sorry, the medicine has already left the pharmacy.” The pharmacist’s response was, “Fine, whatever, just as long as I don’t have to deal with it anymore.” (to me, not to the mom.)
The husband was very apologetic when he came back. He gave us back the 10-pack, and we gave him another 30-pack (thankfully Daytrana is sealled with ultra-hi-tech holographic seal thingies) The situation left me wondering who the medicine was really for; the kid or the mom.
