I got so into praising my pharmacy that I forgot to insult my doctors.
My BF has 3 prescriptions (Synthroid, Advair, Singulair). After 5 years of treatment, his thyroid levels are still not normal - or even levelly abnormal. For some reason, our doctors office (doctors keeping moving on to bigger and better things so we just see whomever is available), keep changing the dosage every month. I would think that it would make sense to give it a few months try to see how it works. But, I’m not a doctor. Of course I would also think that by now, they’d send him to a fucking endocrinologist but again, I’m not a doctor (although I am blessed with a PPO so I don’t ever have to deal with this shit*).
Anyway, my BF always gives about 1 week notice that his prescription is about to run out. The doctor waits a minimum of 3 days before telling him they want him to get his blood drawn again. They usually tell him this via the answering machine because they refuse to call his long distance work number. He doesn’t get the message until after 10pm. This usually happens on a Friday night so he can’t get his blood drawn until Monday. Then, they have to wait for the results and then wait for someone to read them and make a decision. Sometimes, they will keep the same dose and sometimes they change it.
If they would just decide quickly that they want his blood drawn (or better yet set up a standing order for it to be done every month), then he could get his pills on time. If they would call his cell phone (or remember to call me at work, home, or cell) then I could pick up the blood orders and he can get the bloodwork done over the weekend. The blood lab at the hospital will have the results ready to read on Monday.
Why do they have to make this so fucking difficult? My BF explained to them that he works over 90 minutes away and told them that they are to allow me or his mother to pick up his paperwork, and to make decisions about appointments and shit. The geography of his job does not allow him to do this stuff himself. If we know an answer from them is forthcoming, the pharmacy and I will call repeatedly to get the results. As soon as they have something, they call the house and leave a message :mad: I can’t wait until we sell this fucking condo and move to Rhode Island. Then my BF can take over his own medical stuff. Of course, this would require getting a new pharmacy. I could always drive the almost 2 hours to get my pills 
*I love my PPO. When I had a herniated disk, I told my GP - it’s not a pulled muscle. Who do you think is a good specialist? She gave me a name and I called him. Less than 3 weeks later I had an MRI and less than 5 months later, I had surgery. When they couldn’t regulate my reflux, I called the GI doctor and got my esophagus scoped. Not having to get referrals is a godsend.
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
And, when I’ve waited two hours for you to fill the one prescription you ensured me would be ready in 15 minutes, why the fuck do you think I’m going to believe you when you tell me it will be “just a few minutes” for the others? For fuck’s sake, people!
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I worked my way through college in pharmacies, and this is not an exaggeration:
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
And, when I’ve waited two hours for you to fill the one prescription you ensured me would be ready in 15 minutes, why the fuck do you think I’m going to believe you when you tell me it will be “just a few minutes” for the others? For fuck’s sake, people!
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I worked my way through college in pharmacies, and this is not an exaggeration. Some states have laws that a pharmacist can only fill 150 prescriptions per day. We were filling 300-500 per day at mine.
Reposted to fix link and to note that at my pharmacy we had a big problem with our local clinic Drs doing exactly this. They would only ever give one refill on something like thyroid or diabetes meds, then they would take a week to return our calls, and then they had the nerve to bitch about the volume of refill requests they recieved. Grrr.
Oh my fucking god, that story is so true it’s unbelievable. This happens to me 30 times a day. I read this story out loud to everybody I could track down and convince to sit still for 3 minutes. Thank you, SusanStoHelit.
-foxy
[QUOTE=SCSimmons]
Scary situation … Both of those failures would be a violations of procedures at the PBM I work for. Which doesn’t mean they never happen, of course. 
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The health plan that I work for just dumped the PBM Walgreens (not the drugstore) for this problem (among others). If there was a problem with a prescription their mail order service wouldn’t call the patient or the dr’s office or even us at the health plan. And they wouldn’t send out any of the drugs until all of them were filled. Everything was just on hold indefinitely.
[QUOTE=ladyfoxfyre]
Oh my fucking god, that story is so true it’s unbelievable. This happens to me 30 times a day. I read this story out loud to everybody I could track down and convince to sit still for 3 minutes. Thank you, SusanStoHelit.
-foxy
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My pleasure. 
[QUOTE=Gleena]
There’s a difference in AU as opposed to the US, though.
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In the US, you normally aren’t handed your prescription back - it stays at the pharmacy. If you want to use it somewhere else, the pharmacy (chemist) you’re at has to call the pharmacy where you had it filled and get it transferred. Here, you’re responsible for your own prescription - keeping it with you - unless the medication is controlled somehow. Took me ages to get used to that.
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Insurance in the US is a factor. Unlike Medicare here, where most things are $28AUD or less unless its not on the PDF, in the US your private health insurance sometimes dictates what you can and cannot have at what price, how often they will pay for it, how you must have it dispensed, etc. This can vary from insurer to insurer. Some require it to be dispensed by mail from their own inhouse pharmacy, for example.
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Here - and YMMV, but in inner Sydney anyway - if you want a prescription for something, even if you are on the drug long term, you must go to the doctor and get it when it runs out. If you can talk a doctor into issuing it without you being there, they will send you the prescription, not the pharmacy. In the US is it possible to fax your doctor yourself, or for your pharmacy to fax your doctor and request a refill without you having to actually go to the doctor - this is common in my experience. (My asthma medicine, for example. I would get a script for three months, I could get the pharmacy to call/fax my doc and get another three month script, but then I had to go back or the doc wouldn’t authorise another one.) Sometimes insurance requires - apparently - that prescriptions be issued for one fill only. This means much in the way of calling and faxing back and forth. And it is as irritating as it sounds.
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Pharmacies in the US tend to be, in my experience, very much busier than pharmacies here, waiting times of over an hour are common. If I wait 10 min to get a prescription filled here, I wonder what’s going on!
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
G
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Certainly clarified things for me. Funny, I never realised what a good system we have, overall.
Consider me pleasantly surprised.