Difference between patient’s expectation and reality…

I worked at one of the big box stores Sat-Sun-Mon… RPH will ill… It amazes me how some people work under the premise  that their expectations must be met… I had a pt call in a refill at 13:27 and told me that he would be there in 30 minutes to pick it up… well the pharmacy closes at 13:30 for lunch for 30 minutes… so I informed him that we closed in 3 minutes for our meal break and that we would fill his Rx when we returned from lunch…

That did not seem to alter his expectations… when I return.. there he was waiting…  don’t know if he thought that I was lying to him… or that I would stop what I was doing or delay going to lunch… to get his refill ready before I went to lunch.

In trying to make Rx service “convenient”  are we putting forth the wrong impression. Multi-points of access and no “numbering system” or some system to let who is next in line..

The person sitting at the drive thru… no one else there… do they automatically believe that they are “next in line”… they don’t see the six others in front of them at the register..

How many other places do you go … where you are given some sort of waiting time or where you stand in the line waiting?

Another pt they had… apparently… her SOP is to call up and ask to have all of her – and her husband’s – Rxs refilled… no numbers … no drug names.. it becomes a guessing game and of course… once she gets to the register… not everything that h/she wanted was filled .. or something they didn’t want was filled… I suggested to her that she make a list of  of the medications, days supply and last filled… so that the pharmacy can provider her better/faster service when she comes in… and the pharmacy staff no longer has to play the “guessing game” of what “refill all of my Rxs”   really means.

Unless some of these people like the attention… ” personal service needy” or just don’t know how their wants/needs are really causing them to experience poorer service. Pt education may be just more than trying to get them to understand how to take their medication…

How much better could you do your job.. if all your patients works with you and not against you?

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