http://www.whatpharmacistsdo.org/
Do You Ever Wonder
What Pharmacists
Even Do ?
All info on this website was obtained from high-quality peer-reviewed scientific literature. That’s just a fancy way of telling you that they’re facts.
A Pharmacist’s job is so simple it can be explained in 10 frames of a power point presentation ?
Filed under: General Problems
I guess I misunderstood due to the quotes used from my original post and then the directness of some of your statements such as the use of “you” and “your.” Regardless, a major issue facing chronic pain patients is profiling and conjecture.
The other day, my pharmacy was out of my MS con tin…I then went to Kroger to see if they would fill just this one time..Of course they called me after dropping off script, asked me all kinds of questions about all my meds. Told me that since I took xanax they would not fill, I told them I do not take that anymore, so they picked another med I was taking..This had nothing to do with my pain meds, that I always fill correctly and also recently made a big change, cutting way back on my meds.. I had my chronic pain re evaluated, but I did not bother to tell them that was on my terms.. What is is any of their business what me and my Doctor do with my care..This was in Southern Indiana.. Here it is a week later and I am still without my meds.. I wish I could go off them totally because I am sick of this stigma they throw at you because you suffer from Chronic Pain. First place the very profession that deny my meds are the ones who gave me this pain via an Epidural Injection..
If you were on time with your pain med, not sure why they needed to know about the other meds that a simple call to the physician couldn’t have handled. I am an RPh licensed in IN (much further north) It’s not unusual to be taking xanax for anxiety, a common occurance of chronic pain. A red flag is when its a narcotic, xanax and Soma…alot of ‘pill mills’ will order that because the combo seems to enhance the ‘high’ the abusers get. If you werent taking the xanax anymore, they should have picked up on that on the INSPECT report from when it was last filled and if there had been some time since that last fill. I’ve been in the business (in various areas of pharmacy) for 28 yrs. I seen many an INSPECT report and that usually gives me an pretty good idea if the patient is a problem or not. Not sure what that particular Kroger’s problem was.
Rut ro … the title alone is going to piss a few people off! Come on pharms and techs, don’t disappoint … defend your position!
We don’t need to ‘defend’ ourselves. We are pharmacists. We are intelligent. We are educated. And we are the Keepers of the Drugs. We are experienced in dealing with all sorts of drug issues and we can tell when some ‘chronic pain patient’ we never saw before is trying to scam us. I do not doubt your pain (yes, withdrawal hurts) but its not my problem that you ate your 30 day supply of ‘norcos’ in a week. Its not my problem that you dropped your pills in the toilet. Its not my problem that your purse got stolen (again) and your pills were in there. Or you left them on the bus. Or they fell out of your canoe when you were paddling up the creek. We can tell the good ones from the bad ones. The good ones get filled. The bad ones can try their luck at walgreen.
Its been a while since I’ve responded to one of steve’s little rants. He tends to beat the proverbial dead horse more than most and as a result the responses tend to get repetitive as well. The best advice for legitimate patients: find a friendly, local, independent pharmacist. You’d be amazed at how much they will be willing to help you. But leave your excuses at home because we can smell bullshit a mile away.
However, when the big box chains have pretty much run out or bought out all the independents in the town you live in there isnt any choice
Dear “Keeper of drugs”
I don’t even know what “norco’s” are. Never accidentally dropped prescription drugs in a toilet, my purse has never been stolen, I have never ridden a bus and I can only dream of paddling a canoe.
You don’t know me or anything about me. You don’t even know if I am a chronic pain patient. Just because I advocate does not make me a patient. But based on a two sentence post you have successfully illustrated EXACTLY the problem. Based on a two sentence post I am in pain not because of multiple failed back surgeries or a horrific nearly fatal multiple vehicle collision, but I am in pain because “withdrawal hurts.”
Your post does not portray an intelligent, educated professional but rather clearly describes a foolish, harassing and discriminatory attitude. If this is what you have to say to someone you don’t know from Adam, I can only imagine how you treat patients who are unaware of your prejudices.
Thank you for your rather wordy response to my two sentence post. I have successfully exposed the fundamental problem here.
Sincerely
I loved what Amy Rebecca said. You put the nail on the head. These pharmacies are grasping at anything to make an excuse. I don’t know anyone that has pain who tries to fill any earlier than 27 days and that reasonable. I don’t know any legitimate patients that loses their meds, or their dog ate them.. whatever.. . Patients have lives too! They travel, go our state and try to have functional lives. Isn’t that why they take pain meds? so they can function? It seems pharmacists think these people are not allowed to do anything except sit home and suffer withdraws.. By the way?? can kill some people!!
So the way see it now days? Pharmacists are NO where near acting like a healthcare provider because they don’t care! Mearly a pill counter is what most of them are. If they cared? They would call the doctor and fill the damn prescription! and act more professional.. Why don’t the pharmacists start complaining to the DEA? Tell them that they don’t want to be the drug police?? Stand up for their profession and talk about how many people they are causing to suffer for bullshit reasons ? Speak up.. the patients are., Then the pharmacists are going to look very bad when all this comes out into the light.
wow… based on your 2 sentences, I thought I was agreeing with you. (and I enjoyed your Scooby Doo impression). I do find it interesting that you thought I was referring to you personally and not just commenting on the situation as it exists.
but none of that changes the truth. I’ve been doing this a long time and I have never encountered a single time when an honest person could not fill an honest prescription. its the ones that are too soon, doctor shopping, pharmacy hopping, meds got stolen, going on vacation, and the doctor said I could take more who cry about not getting their drugs. and still, none of that is my problem.
Bullshit. Yes.
A mile away sure.
But when it is coming out of your mouth, you have no clue.
Right now, you think you own the sandbox.
Bully people.
Deprive people of their meds for pain.
Since there ARE 100 million people in America in pain, and
About 6 million pill addicts, when you refuse a pain patient and their Rx, you have a 94% chance of being wrong.
So
I’m glad you smell BS from so far away.
But it’s coming right off your keyboard- right in front of you.
Duped by DEA pressure, you have suddenly begun to smell shit that has been going on for 15 years. Why so late?
“The best advice for legitimate patients: find a friendly, local, independent pharmacist. You’d be amazed at how much they will be willing to help you. ”
There is no such thing. And, even though now I do go to a small local pharmacy, it’s still not without issues. Especially when you are prescribed opioids. I have been to many pharmacies over the past few years with all of this ridiculousness that has been going on. And NOT because I’m “shopping” or because my condition is not “legitimate”. It’s both because of the lack of stock and, worse, the condescending attitude of both pharmacists & techs,(which, by the way, I hold a license as a tech, but am too ill to actually work as one.) I’ve been rudely asked by both a pharmacist and a tech why I take the prescribed medications, which violates my right to privacy. I’ve had techs ask me why my doctor prescribed the dosage they gave me because it was above the “usual” dosage. Again, NONE of your business! I’m not a clone of every other patient that walks in the door, and even if I had the exact same illness as 100 other patients, and we all have the exact same medication, we don’t require the exact same dosage. The bottom line is if you don’t believe me, call my doctor about my prescribed meds and quit harassing me. Although my doctor is quite sick of the bs waste of time phone calls every month for the exact same reason. I’m tired of being looked at as if I’m too young to be sick, or I don’t LOOK sick, etc.. And, my poor boyfriend, God help him, he has long hair, so immediately, he’s just a drug addict. Never mind the fact he walks with a cane, or the 7 failed surgeries he had on his spine that makes his back look like a road map. These people have no idea how long we’ve been taking the same medication, and that, after time, pain increases with age, and your medication becomes less effective, and dosages and strengths need increasing. Honestly, I wish that just one of these judgmental people had to walk in my painful shoes just once to know what it feels like to have insult added to injury when all you want to do is attempt to go on with what’s left of your crappy life with some semblance of dignity. Truthfully, many of us would prefer to eat a bullet than to have to endure this mistreatment on top of our pain, but for many of us, it’s just not a realistic option.
In my state of Montana they do several other things:
They decide who does and doesn’t get their pain medications based on how they appear. (overly friendly initially, then agitated while they wait for their medications to be filled? They must be a drug seeker and must be told no)
They count the number of red flags that you might have, and if you have too many red flags you don’t get what your physician has prescribed for you, after an exhaustive a valuation of your needs.
And the last thing that some pharmacist do in my state, is they play doctor.
Some pharmacists tell the patient that if the prescription came from a different doctor they would fill it.
Or if the prescription for these pain pills is coming in decreasing doses, they’ll fill it.
And of course without an understanding of the medical process his patients are going through pharmacists judge the patient and “decide” if the prescription is legitimate, without the benefit of evidence.
Oh, there’s a couple more things they do, and don’t do.
Sometimes they actually fail to count the pills.and, sometimes they don’t get enough pills in stock to actually serve the patient, then they short the patient, which requires the patient to return to the doctor to get another prescription because they’re not allowed to actually do math.
Mark S Ibsen MD
Urgent Care Plus
39 Neill Ave
Helena Mt 59601
406-513-1052
“The healing begins when you walk through the door”