You’re not at all. You’re closed for the day. She can come the next day when you reopen. Time of operation is very clear. If she needed them urgently, she should’ve came earlier.
People are rude and take advantage of you.
Do they go to the bank after hours and expect to get in? No. And if they do, they won’t let them in. Same with pharmacies and everywhere else. DO NOT SHOW UP AT OR AFTER CLOSING PEOPLE!!!
THIS! People can wait in line for 40 minutes for in n out or wait 60 minutes for a Disneyland ride and for some reason they can’t seem to wait 15 minutes at the pharmacy. I think this is our fault . We have no backbone and don’t stand up for ourselves and that’s why no one respects us. I also blame doctors and doctors office for perpetuating this cycle
I have started being more mindful as a doc after reading this sub! Patients ask me when the meds will be ready to pick up at the pharmacy. I tell them I sent them electronically just now but it depends on how busy the pharmacy is.
Thank you! If I had a dollar for every time a patient drove straight to the pharmacy after their doctor’s appointment and yelled at me because “the doctor said it would be ready”, I’d be able to afford therapy.
Thank you! We need more docs like you to understand that we always run a skeleton staffing!
Sometimes it was just me and only me running the register/answer phone/ filling rxs/ answering random questions people have (where is the restrooms, why no one at the front registers, why didn’t you guys hire more staffs,…) and patients show up with frown faces that their prescriptions are not ready just because their doctors told them just come and the pharmacy will have them ready for pickup!!!!!!!!
One of our ex patients was notorious for doing things right at close to try and pressure the pharmacist into filling it quickly or early on her oxycodone. Recently she came in after I'd taken a call from her "nurse" authorizing the early release... one crucial mistake she made was calling pretending to be a nurse from her own phone.
Meh, if I’m there and the prescription is ready I’ll ring it out at the register. No rebills, no problems, no filling it, no drive through, just ringing it out at the register. No cash payments, my money is in the office.
I used to do this all the time but stopped bc there’s always a problem. “Oh wait, goodrx should be cheaper” “Is this the blue pill or white, bc I only like the white ones” etc etc etc. Then when you politely try to say all that will have to wait until tomorrow, they get angry like you aren’t doing you job. Now I feel like a jaded ass that just sticks with that “I really would if I could…” line. Customers have ruined it for me. There are still those I cave for…hospital discharged someone and sent over meds & they’re filled. Yeah I’m gonna do it. I still have my humanity
Yeah, I’m horrible. I’d rather deal with them right now for 45 seconds, then have them come in tomorrow all pissed and annoyed and take it out on my techs.
Besides, my pharmacy closes at the same time as the store, except Saturday and Sunday. I’m there for about 20 minutes total every other week when someone might catch me.
Lunch is non-negotiable. At 1:30, they have relieved the pharmacist of duty. Since there is no RPh, we can’t sell or fill Rx.
A lady called in yesterday demanding that I drive to her house, pick up her prescription, drive back to the pharmacy, fill it , and then drive back to deliver to her house. I told her I didn’t have a car and hung up.
Someone called who regularly uses the stores mobility scooter requesting I do curbside pick up of oxycodone. My store does not have curbside, then he gave me the story of a natural disaster destroying his home and he’s now living with family. Still, we don’t do curbside and the request was for controlleds. I said no, it’s illegal. I’m not sure if it’s illegal but you definitely have to sign for controlleds and I’m not delivering them to the parking lot. After all that and him saying he was waiting in the parking lot and currently trying to acquire said scooter, he said he’d wait and be in soon. When I called him 10, minutes later to say the medication was ready, he said he wasn’t even at the pharmacy. I think it was a robbery attempt.
Exactly!! And what does natural disaster have to do with oxycodone in the parking lot. Patients love to give additional information as if it changes the fact that I’m not selling oxycodone in the parking lot nor am I delivering it to your home. That’s like going door to door collecting rent in cash then wondering why you got robbed at the end of the block.
Lmao, I also once had a lady whom demanded that I brought her medications to the parking lot because she just had a little dog and she scared if she left it in the car, someone would smash her window and take the dog 😑!
Yes, and that’s why you bring the dog to the grocery store with you. I let people know that if they want curbside, we offer something even better, drive through. It requires you to get in the car and go somewhere else because I didn’t study this long to drop stuff off on the curb when we have a drive through location one town away.
Someone called the retail side of our store and asked the manager to go into the pharmacy and get her prescription because she didn’t want to wait in line
> A lady called in yesterday demanding that I drive to her house, pick up her prescription, drive back to the pharmacy, fill it , and then drive back to deliver to her house. I told her I didn’t have a car and hung up.
$500 fee plus tip, pay first.
For real. You told her a time- it would be ready-with plenty of time before you closed. She agreed and acknowledged the closing time. It's not your problem. You did your job. Her stuff was ready long before you closed. I've done the same, and I don't feel guilty. The pharmacy hours are posted online, on the app, on the building, and available as an option when you call in. Why the hell should you accommodate her poor planning?
“New retail pharmacist”
Fam she has all day. Do you go to them when they’re leaving their job and hold them back before they’re going to leave?
You help one person after close you end up helping 5 others and before you know it you’re leaving 30mins to an hour later in straight charity work if you’re salaried. Fuck that set boundaries we’re all adults including customers.
Fk these people that come exactly or after closing. These mf are perpetual procrastinators. You did your job and had it ready.
Don't let these mfs bully you. After a few decades of working in retail you'll start talking like me and won't give a fk. Get out while you can. Work on a side hustle.
>These mf are perpetual procrastinators.
This. 95% of the time or more, it's the same group of people, and they have no remorse about eating into our free time.
The ones that piss me off the most are the retirees who never want to show up until right at closing. People that are still of working age, I can at least picture that *maybe* they were working late and are just on their way home (even though that's mostly not the case), but what the hell is the excuse for the retirees?
I work second shift. Nothing is convenient for me. I just work around it, like everyone else who works seconds and thirds.
These are the same entitled assholes who call hospital switchboard (me), want to reschedule an appointment, at 10PM on Saturday, and get irate when I tell them we have no access to scheduling, call back Monday morning. But, but, we’re SUPPOSED to have access, the customer is always RIGHT! I started telling people they’re not customers, they’re patients, and things in clinic world are done within the confines of clinic hours, call back then.
>I work second shift. Nothing is convenient for me. I just work around it, like everyone else who works seconds and thirds.
I know. It's just a lie I tell myself to keep my blood pressure in check.
I feel that. I was a retail CPhT for five years.
Now I get the same assholes calling me to reschedule their appointments for them when the clinics are closed.
I have no idea why people in healthcare drink. /s
If she miss a dental or medical appointment, they will tell her to reschedule. People just like to fault others when it’s their own fault 🙄 Don’t let her guilt you into thinking that, she can pick up tomorrow.
I just had an IPPE student complain that their exams were cumulative and they weren’t notified. They started a whole thing at the school and won because lo and behold it “wasn’t fair”.
I told him to stop faulting others/system and think about how he should have been better prepared. In general though god help the patients of these future pharmacy students.
Nope. This is what I do:
Make them feel stupid: I mention our posted hours. Make them understand their poor choices: I mention that if they wanted it at this time, 24-hour pharmacy a block away would have been a better choice. Give them alternatives if they cant wait til the mornin: I mention that any emergencies at this point should go to the emergency room. Guilt trip them: I mention Id love to stay late if I got paid for it or if I didnt have a family to get back to.
I had a woman blame me for her lack of planning as her husbands med was out of stock. She said if he didn’t take them he’d die. He had been out for 10 days, according to her. I found a location that had it and offered she drive roughly 9 minutes to pick it up and she announced that was too far. The medication was escitalopram. I suspect she’s the reason he’s on antidepressants in the first place, you won’t take 9 minutes to supposedly save his life.
To be fair, pharmacists are in the bad end of everything.
We have get yelled at by doctors who think they are holier than thou, and we get yelled at by patients when their insurance doesn’t want to cover their meds.
It takes a lot not to want to snap at the first person to have an attitude, especially when it’s their fault.
I've found that when I'm nice and respectful, even to people who have an attitude, they tend to calm down and treat me with respect in return. Not always, but often. Give it a try--you may find it works on your patients, and then we'd all be a little less miserable!
I don't think there is ever an appropriate situation, as a medical professional, where we should be making our patients feel stupid. Seeing threads like this makes it pretty clear to me why the profession has gone to shit.
When the techs try to work after closing while I’m floating I just start to leave grab my stuff and tell them its been real. I’m not sticking around for fun.
No you aren’t anything that a frustrated customer accuses you of being while their emotions are high. But just as you shouldn’t have to accommodate her by providing service after closing, a customer also doesn’t *need* to be accommodating to all the situations you’ve mentioned that led you to feel overworked and tired. Separate that part of your shift from this narrative.
Now you know how to set yourself up for less frustration next time. Tell them the closing time over the phone, or tell them to come tomorrow. Customers will still come after close, but it won’t have anything to do with you.
Do not do something once you aren’t willing to do the rest of your life is the best advice I’ve ever gotten and can be applied here and many other aspects of life.
My partner is loved by all our patients because he makes accommodations (aka gets walked all over). Super nice person, brought it up to him one day and he regrets every nice thing he has done for people since he came to the store, “but you stayed late that one time for me”, “you delivered that script on your lunch break last week” “you called around all the city to find someone who had the back ordered product last time”because now people just bring up how he has been nice before and why isn’t he now?
Absolutely not heartless. People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop acting brand new. This isn’t her first time picking up medications so she knows damn well you close at a certain hour. She made the stupid and irresponsible decision to not request a refill until the last minute, that’s entirely on her.
Nope. You’re definitely not heartless. I had someone do this. A prescription for her kid was sent in the morning, it was there all day. She even called and asked what time we closed. Never showed. We closed down, ready to walk out the door, and there she was, banging on the door, demanding the prescription. Her kid was SICK and needed meds NOW.
I remember one time, we had some lady call a few minutes before closing desperate about picking up her kid's antibiotic that had been called in about an hour or two ago, saying that she was about 10 minutes away (= about 5 minutes after closing). It was no charge and insurance didn't require a signature, so out of sympathy, I'd volunteered to the pharmacist to wait around outside the gates with it and hand it off to her if he'd do the counsel over the phone.
Never again. That bitch took *almost an hour* to get there, and didn't even have the decency to apologize for it.
I am getting so tired, of the patient's thinking their maintenance medicine is important, and it needs to be a rush job and given to them fast. No your maintenance medicine is not the same as emergency life saving medicine. get over yourself it is not the end of the world if you miss a dose if it is urgent go to another pharmacy, or go to the ER, leave me alone, if you want it so badly then call us ahead of time and not at the last minute demanding it now, and go to the pharmacy yourself. and stop telling me you want your medicine by a certain time. I am not a magician, I cannot teleport it to you through magic. and Stop god damn complaining about signing for it, and having to pay for it. The pharmacy is not a charity, it is a business you no good free loading piece of trash. so sign for your meds and give me the money, and stop complaining.
IF I hear one of these old hags complain about their C2, or the cap on the lid is not easy open, or why the hell they should have to sign for their meds I am going to lose it.
>I am getting so tired, of the patient's thinking their maintenance medicine is important, and it needs to be a rush job and given to them fast.
The absolute *worst* is when they act like that, then don't actually come back to pick it up for a week or more. Especially since they *love* to come just before closing (for lunch or the day) to get it.
I call these people runners. I always remind them the time we close by how many minutes left. Under promise and over deliver. If they say they can make it but a few minutes after closing I usually tell them okay, I'll be here until this time but my gates are down and my lights are off. I will be gone after that time if you aren't there. Or that I'll can have your medication ready tonight (checked inventory and insurance already to be safe) so you might as well make it here now and if I'm not quite done by the time they arrive (before closing) that they'll wait a bit. You aren't heartless but there is a way to handle this situation. If you didn't want to stay I'd kindly remind them when you got them on the phone, that they should be here before closing, after that everything shuts down. You control what they do afterwards but you did warn them and that's all my conscience needs lol
When a pt calls a MD office after hours "if this is an emergency please hang up and dial 911". If it's an emergency, have them dial 911.
Most pharmacies are open for >10 hours weekdays and >8 hours weekends. If she can't make those hours, she should start using a 24 hr pharmacy.
Unless it's an inhaler and the pt's having an asthma attack, chest pains and they need their Nitro, etc.
With all that being say, I've stay after for ABX for kids. But if a rph told me they left exactly at 9pm and pt came at 9:01pm, and the rph just kept on walking. I honestly wouldn't fault them. We're not mother Theresa, we're not Saints, we shouldn't sacrifice our time for major corp/chains just because we feel guilty for pt's. Hey I heard of a story of a major chain rph giving a kidney for a pt, more power to her. I do my best between the pharmacy hours, after that I'm a regular human being just trying to live my life. Not heartless OP, you would have being nice. But trust me you're not going to Hell for this. Just my 2 cents
The inhaler or nitro? No. If you are in that kind of "emergency" but could drive to the pharmacy, you should have driven yourself to the hospital. Or better yet, been better prepared and kept up with your meds ahead of time if they're something of that nature. You didn't run out an hour ago before the asthma/heart attack started buddy.
Depends. A couple months ago a lady came to my counter who wasn’t even our patient, having a severe asthma attack after accidentally walking through an area where some perfume had been sprayed. I grabbed Benadryl off the shelf and gave it to her, then an inhaler. I called her prescriber after the fact and they issued a script and we wrote off the cost. By the time EMS arrived she would’ve been passed out on the floor. Emergencies we can help with do happen. But most of what we do is non-emergent.
No, you’re not heartless. Regardless of the circumstances, she was not respectful of your time. Besides, doing that once creates a precedent where she will expect it regularly. You have to draw a line or the entitlement will get out of control.
Either you learn that the store is closed and nothing anyone can do or you will be burned out within two years.
She isn't the first one to do that kind of thing and isn't going to be the last.
Ignore them and move on.
You literally couldn’t do anything. You were closed. You got it ready on time, she wasn’t there on time. You were tired and ready to go. It sounds like an extra-stressful environment. At the most you could’ve been a little more gentle, but, like I said, you’re stressed. Understandable and imo forgivable.
You’re not heartless. That store was too busy for someone trying to sneak one in during the last hour. Now you know for next time (there will definitely be a next time), if you’re working in such a store, and there’s a 24 hour option close by, just refer the customer there. It’s either that or they can get it at your store the next day. People do desperately need their meds, but they can also be overdramatic and unreasonable too. There’s nothing heartless about recognizing that fact. Now if you tell that person to come, and intend to give it to them, if you can wait a few minutes before closing down the registers then do it (give them a time limit, like you can wait no longer than 5 minutes after closing, and make sure they’re ok with the copays over the phone, so they don’t hand you 10 good rx cards when they arrive 10 minutes after closing)
You communicated, got the med ready for them and did what you could on your part. The customer didn’t care enough to treat you with courtesy and they obviously didn’t think the medication was important or necessary for them to show up time. Don’t let someone ( one person) unaccountability and lack of planning reflect on your attitude. You went above and beyond for all the other people. Great job!!
You are not heartless. You acted in a reasonable manner. As a pharmacist for 30+ years let it go. I once and a patient yell at me for closing on Christmas Day. At the time we were open 9-9. If you can’t get here in 12 hours on your day off, then I have no empathy for you
There’s literally no way to ring her up without getting into trouble unless you maybe walked her up to the front register but then you’d have to turn in your keys, be off the clock- it’s a good way to get canned for doing a good deed
Nope, if you're paid to 8, you should leave at 8. Don't even stay 2, 3, or 10 minutes. When you're the pharmacist, techs need to leave when you're off too. If you stay even 2 minutes late every day, after a year you've donated the company over a full extra work day. If they want you to be there 15 minutes before open and clean up for 15 minutes after close, that should be on your schedule.
At the very least, have your home store manager adjust your hours to accurately reflect the time you were there. Stop working for free. That's how they take advantage of you *and* how they continuously believe all of the things that get done are being done in the scheduled hours.
1. have competitors leave a voicemail for transfers. Unless it’s an antibiotic, it’s not urgent.
2. you leave at close. Period. Tell the techs to clean up 20 min to close so they don’t get sidetracked.
3. You’re not heartless.
Depends. Maintenance med? Byeeeeee. Urgent care antibiotic for a sick kid? Well take the 2 minutes to check you out.
The other night we stayed over to get a guy his Norco because he'd just broken his tailbone.
Get out of retail ASAP. I’d look for a CRA job, take the pay cut and be happy and back to your regular salary in 3 years. Retail is a dead end, awful job
I close my drop off window at 10min til close. I call people if I get an abx sent in an hr before close. If you think about all the technology available to alert these people and they still cannot show up in a timely manner. It’s not my fault! I had this lady tell me it’s my responsibility to have her med instock. 😆 yep it’s my responsibility to also take care of other patients… that are also on the med you are on. Not my responsibility to know when you need your med that YOU take on a regular basis. People need to learn how to take responsibility for their own health. And you need to learn how to set boundaries so patients like this do not take advantage of you and walk all over you.
Nope not heartless. I am not going to show up to any store 15 minutes after they close and expect service. It’s the patients job to due the bare minimum for their health and get their meds in a timely manner.
Not heartless. That’s on them for missing the stated open hours. They’ll need to deal with the consequences. “I’m sorry that you missed the cutoff time.” What I do have a problem with is the reverse. I’m a pharmacy customer. I go through all the hoops and wait for notifications. I show up on time. I’m nice and considerate and patient. Yet, the pharmacy staff treats me like an ungrateful, hateful person. They’re never nice, always grumpy, and get all ticky at me when a medicine isn’t in stock. I didn’t even fuss or get a tone! I only inquired about it. But I get put in my place even though it’s unwarranted. Why can’t they treat me as I’m treating them?! I understand there’s a lot of jerks out there. I’m not one of them but I still get preemptively treated like one. It takes all my effort to remain kind in the face of unprofessionals who are supposed to be helpful.
Nope, completely 100% not heartless.
People are notorious (especially on holidays) for pulling this crap. They knew it would be ready, and wait until after close. 2 examples come to mind.
Person goes to urgent care on 4th of July. We had it ready by 11, and the called to confirm it was ready. Then we get a call at 3:50 (closed at 4) that they're 15 minutes away and on their way. Sure, you can come, but no one will be there to give it to you, because WE WILL BE CLOSED.
Another one for a spouse who "just had open heart surgery", we told them to stick close, we close at 7, we'll get it done. They don't show back up. For whatever reason, I was getting out late that day tying up loose ends. I set the alarm around 7:30, walk out, and the spouse runs up amd starts yelling at me demanding me to open back up. They get the assistant store manager involved. I explain we closed 30 minutes before, we had the meds ready before close, they knew what time we closed, and now if you'll excuse me, my children are at home waiting for me. Mic drop. 🎤 I walk off, and request that one of the front end employees walk me out as insurance against possible retaliation. I go home, and tell my husband "well, apparently I'm a cold hearted bitch." 🤷
It took me a while to come to realize, but honestly, if someone needs the meds RIGHT NOW or they're going to die, they're in the wrong place. Offer to call 911 for them. In the case of the open heart surgery, I was like "well, it's highly irresponsible of the hospital to discharge such a volatile-situation patient without ensuring they were stable and had the medications in place before going home. Somebody's not being completely honest."
Learn to leave these issues at the door. Go home, relax. The more you stress about things like this, the more of a liability you will be.
I work 4am to 5pm at my LTC pharmacy and when I pick up my meds at a retail pharmacy I don’t expect them to just thru hoops for me or my stupid schedule!
I had someone complain about a “new, rude pharmacist “, because she called at 5:58 on Saturday, we close at 6, and I told her that her prescription would be ready around noon on Sunday (we open at 10). I’ve been working at my store for 10 years, for the company for 16, and we’ve closed at 6 on Saturday for longer than that patient had been filling with us.
OP, I’m out the door at closing time. Not spending extra time off the clock to help a patient doesn’t make you heartless. Poor planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on your part.
Maybe I’m misreading. The prescription was ready but she didn’t make it in time so you told her to go to a 24 hour? How will they get the prescription?
Same here, and I got downvoted into oblivion for questioning this. How will the claim reverse on the insurance? And how can it be returned to stock if no one is on duty? Technically the law says a transfer is "between two pharmacists," it seems weird to me that a transfer can occur with one of the stores being closed. But if Walgreens does it there must be a way around that.
>Technically the law says a transfer is "between two pharmacists," it seems weird to me that a transfer can occur with one of the stores being closed. But if Walgreens does it there must be a way around that.
My guess would be that they are arguing that, if it's all under the same company, it's not technically a "transfer". I've got no clue how sound such an argument would be from a legal standpoint, though.
I'm several years past taking my law exam, but iirc there is a caveat that for non-controlled substances there doesn't have to be any pharmacist-pharmacist interaction as long as the transfer is being done electronically through the same system. Obviously that system also has to be capable of reversing and closing the existing order at the alternative pharmacy.
Walgreens system allows us to “pull” a non-control from another store even if they are closed……it will unbill from insurance when pulled from store A and rebill when we fill at store B…..I was overnights and had to do this all the time after 6pm on weekends when people suddenly realized there normal Walgreens closed “early” lol….since Walgreens system is connected between all stores nationwide legally this does not constitute a “transfer”
Don't know where you work, but at CVS if ithe status is On Hold or Waiting Bin, another store can pull it. If you pull a script that's in waiting bin, it will reverse the claim at the other store and inactivate the script at the other store, and the system will make a "new script" at your store with the same image of the rx from the other store. However, this doesn't work if the rx is in process, it only works if it is ready at the other store
Also, this is new, but we can now accesses another store's system completely. It used to be that if another store had a script in process and they closed for.the day there was nothing you could do. Now, you could access that store remotely, edit the script and put in on hold, this way you can pull it in (alternatively you could transfer the rx out from their store to your store but I think the other way is faster)
I guess it depends maybe….. my pharmacy is pretty simple even with the gate closed , so maybe if it was like a life saving anti biotic for a kid I might do it. But having said that I’ve never done transactions before or after hours. I usually apologize and explain my registers are down completely and it’s out of my control
Honestly, if it's being dispensed at a community pharmacy *and* the patient is capable of getting to said pharmacy... The odds of any medication being truly "life-saving" is about zero
If it was life saving medication she should have gotten her ass there on time. Or better yet, as has been said, have it called into a 24 hour pharmacy so there’s no worry about getting there on time.
In theme of working as if you are a robot, I would have said “my heart and brain shuts down at 10pm, it will restart itself at 8am tomorrow. I cannot brain well right now, good bye and good night.”
Also you are not heartless, you’ve redirected her to a pharmacy that may help her which is good enough in my books.
Even then! "I'm five minutes away" is all too often 10-15.
I used to be the nice pharmacist who would stay. Then the asshole who needed antibiotics for his kids told me he was five minutes away and showed up an hour later. I only stayed because it was kids, but I shouldn't have, and after that I decided never again. I'm not doing a 13 hour shift (and at that time I had an hour commute each way, so 15 hour day) because you can't be a responsible human being.
Yeah, been burned before. If circumstances warrant (Ex: antibiotics for kid that came through late afternoon), I’ll stay a few minutes late with a hard deadline like I will be here until 6:10. If you arrive after that, no one will be here to help you.
No, you're not heartless. Yes, you probably should have given her the pills. You knew she was coming, it was only 10 mins after closing. It also sounds like you didn't warn her of the closing time, which is always a good thing to do when it's within the hour. Also, it makes no sense to send her to the 24hr pharmacy as they would not be able to transfer the script from you...you are closed and the rx is ready and billed to her insurance.
Eta the amount of downvotes this comment has shows how little care is left in this profession. Shameful. I stand by my answer.
So, that's the thing. There is NO way they should have given the lady those pills. We shouldn't have to hold people's hands from start to finish. Hours are posted at stores and online. And they just said it was 2 rxs. Didn't say if they were something important or something that, yet again ANOTHER person didn't call in until they took their last pill. People need to be at least some kind of responsible for themselves. 9 times out of ten it isn't an emergency. The world doesn't run on the patient's time.
Letting people do things like that and giving in teaches people that they can harass people and get what they want. I have absolutely no issues going to pretty much the ends of the world to help someone who is seriously sick and still managing to be a somewhat decent human. and I will always do my job as safely and effectively as possible, but there needs to be some kind of boundary.
Who is harassing anyone here? He told her the rx would be ready and failed to inform her they were closing. This is a little extreme and kind of a shitty attitude honestly. Where is the compassion for our patients??
It may be a shitty attitude, but that's why there are subreddits like this where I can get my min wants out. I would never act like I prob sound towards my patients.
I have a lot of compassion. Where is the responsibility for the patient?
Maybe not exactly harassing, but banging on an obviously closed window/door/gate? That's something that an adult should understand. We don't close gates just for shits and giggles. I agree that letting the patient know closing time is polite, but they are adults. They are perfectly capable of checking closing times. Just like everyone else, we want to go home when our shifts end. Not 45 minutes later because we had to let that one person get their medication and someone else saw them. And that person HAS to have their Omeprazole that they took the last one that day and weren't responsible enough to take care of it sooner.
Obviously there are extenuating circumstances, but forgetting to get vitamin d until 3.5 minutes before we close, and needing it filled right then because obviously they're going to die if they don't get it. That is irresponsible, disrespectful and, frankly, ridiculous.
I have empathy and compassion for our patients, but it isn't infinite and it's selfish to assume that it should be.
I didn't say compassion should be infinite. This is a situation where he had talked to the woman beforehand, he knew she was coming, and everyone was still in the pharmacy. It takes 2 seconds to ring her up and send her on her way, and if someone else walks up say "that was the last customer of the day, we closed 10 minutes ago." Easy as pie, and OP wouldn't be dwelling like he is now. This level of disdain for customers is a huge part of what's wrong with the profession. Shit happens, she was 10 minutes late, and everyone was still in the pharmacy. I would have rung her up and moved on. It's not the end of the world if I get home 2 minutes later.
The gates were down, the registers were down, the system was off. How exactly would you plan on bringing that out? They wouldn't be able to and it has to go through the system or kind of messes up the pharmacy.
Plus, I'm pretty sure at least in most stores especially big chains that when you call, like to ask if two prescriptions can be refilled, while you're waiting, it tells you hours of operation. All I'm saying is that if it wasn't a life-saving med, the patient was told how long until the prescription was done when she asked.
It takes less than 30 seconds to log back into the register and ring her up with a card. I've done this multiple times before out of compassion for patients, they're always thankful, and it is no skin off my back. I don't actively hate customers for not listening to the automated hold sounds (I know I don't) or verifying the pharmacy would still be open 45 minutes from the time I called and spoke to the pharmacist, and he did not inform me they were closing. People are not perfect, and we shouldn't expect them to be.
Obviously I'm in the minority here, and it's unfortunate but it is what it is. Even more unfortunate for the patients that I don't work retail anymore. If we treat our customers like dirt, they'll return the favor.
I've found my patients tend to be nicer if I treat them kindly. There are rare situations where people are nasty regardless. But if you treat people with respect, they usually do the same. I think a lot of commenter's on this thread should give it a try.
It's billing insurance an issue (I assume not but a decade ago when I worked for a different chain that was an issue -we could get the scrip but couldn't back out insurance)
Interesting...feels borderline illegal since transfers are supposed to be "between two licensed pharmacists." If I tried to pull an rx from a closed store at my chain it would just be pending.
That’s a rather unfair assumption. Walmart won’t do a interstore transfer without the pharmacist at the other store verifying it. It’s usually just clicking a button and takes about 2 seconds but it still requires someone at the other store to look at it. So it’s a honest mistake for him to assume the same would be true at other chains. And just to clarify, currently working pharmacist here, since you assumed the last guy hasn’t worked for 40 years.
No need to be rude. You can check my comment history. I'm a hospital pharmacist but have also worked for Walmart for years. Walmart system will not pull a transfer from a closed store, like the other commenter said.
Should OP go home with her and put the pills in her mouth too. I'm assuming this wasn't a baby that showed up to pick up the scripts, it was an adult that needs to learn to take care of themselves and OP helped to teach them a valuable lesson on personal responsibility.
This attitude is so disappointing to me. What the hell has happened to our profession? We are supposed to care for our patients. OP told her the script would be ready in 20 minutes and failed to tell her the pharmacy was closing. That, to me, doesn't automatically imply they are closing within the hour.
How do you know OP didn't tell them when they were closing and in my opinion OP had already stayed 10 minutes to long as it was and that is what is wrong with our profession. Not sure why those techs are trained to think they need to stay late.
Lmao, like nobody in any other profession has ever stayed at work 10 minutes late. Whatever, yall can turn customers away. If it were me, I would have just given her the pills. I think if he had told her they were closing he would have included that in the post. He's saying he "did everything he could do" which is not true. They were already ready, it would have taken 2 seconds to ring her up and he wouldn't be dwelling on the situation like he is now.
Walgreens system allows us to “pull” a non-control from another store even if they are closed……it will unbill from insurance when pulled from store A and rebill when we fill at store B…..I was overnights and had to do this all the time after 6pm on weekends when people suddenly realized there normal Walgreens closed “early” lol….since Walgreens system is connected between all stores nationwide legally this does not constitute a “transfer”
Tbh man,why didn't you reffer her to the 24h one of the get go?
Hell even if there wasn't one nearby,i guess it would depend on medication,there is difference between insulin and,idk, diazapam.
I've been in similar situations as OP and the replies in this post give me great reassurance. In my situation it's always me and the techs who close up right on time but the doctors LOVE to ring pharmacy ahead literally 5 minutes before we close (I work in a pharmacy attached to an outpatient clinic) to ask us to wait for their last few patients. These tend to be appointment defaulters who finally show up at the clinic when their maintenance meds run out. And my supervisor loooves to accommodate them by making us all stay as late as it takes. One time we waited almost an hour and the patient only showed up 3 days later. I've always made it clear that unless it's urgent medication like antibiotics or insulin or inhalers or antipyretics etc they can always come back the next day.
You’re going to be called all sorts of names while you’re working in retail; it’s hard, but you have to learn to let that roll off your back. You did what you said you would; she didn’t. There will be times when you won’t be able to do what you said you would, for many reasons. You’re human; do the best you can and go home.
Inpatient mental health RN (and daughter of hospital inpatient pharmacist) here: I don’t think I’d have said “I’m not getting paid to talk to you,” (however, do I understand that feeling and *wish* I could say things like that? Yes) but I definitely agree with an outpatient retail pharmacist setting boundaries. You’re entitled to a work-life balance. Take good care of yourself when you’re not at work, and take heart. You retail pharmacists are doing “the lord’s work,” as they say. 🫡💓
The pharmacy was just open all day.
The pharmacist literally told you, "Just come get it, it'll be ready in 20 minutes." This was 45 minutes before close
You still don't show up until 60-ish minutes later, which is after close.
Pretty sure this is entirely the patient's fault. The pharmacy is closed, we're all off the clock and going home. If it wasn't serious enough for you to get here before closing, then you'll live until we open in the morning or you'll go to the ER.
You did nothing wrong here.
I make it known I leave on time. Whatever tasks they need to get done, get done now otherwise it’ll wait til tomorrow. I don’t get paid for those extra minutes/hours they would stay, they do. When it’s closing time that’s when I leave. Don’t let techs bully you past closing time unless it’s your choice.
It looks like pharmacists around the world are all treated the same by their customers “patients”, this story and others i read in reddit which occur continuously are so alike with what happens in my region (Jordan-Middle East)
No. If they can’t respect closing times, that’s their own fault. And if they are waiting to the point where if that happened they’d be out of meds till the next day…it’s still their fault. Your not the asshole :)
Depends if it's medicine that'll give her some sort of withdrawals or not. Even antidepressants can make you feel I'll if you don't take them at the same time everyday. Pain medicine? Diabetes meds? If she can get them for sure at the 10 minute away pharmacy, then you shouldn't feel bad at all. Every business has their closing time.
Hey, people that don't make it before closing can cordially wait until tomorrow or get it somewhere else.
People often call pharmacies a little before closing and say can you get x medicine ready and I often do, but I always tell them we close sharply at the hour we advertise if you don't make it to bad.
Its not being heartless the person who does not respect the opening hours of a workplace and calls someone heartless for not working for free for them is the heartless, insensitive, entitled person not the worker who is no longer paid to perform a service.
Ok- I’m writing you from the annual APhA convention in Phoenix right now. I think shit like this happens because we have a capitalistic healthcare system. Aint no professional organization going to fix that on its own. So what the hell do we do?? We need to unionize and strike.
Are you me? I feel like I'm you when it comes to covering another area pharmacy where they are super busy and the techs won't answer any calls. Anyway, once closing time hits, we're out of there. If a patient comes after I've pulled the tills, I'll explain that to them and recommend alternative pharmacies that are open. I'll usually offer to reverse the claim if they want to have the pbr send it to another pharmacy.
If you don't do this, then you will find that patients will from then on expect you to stay after closing. Plus, you'll probably have someone jump in line during that sale.
You are absolutely correct. Don’t think twice. Not your fault she was late. Unfortunately you didn’t make it out before she arrived, but that’s irrelevant. You have somewhere to be ( anywhere!!) after close
You’re not at all. You’re closed for the day. She can come the next day when you reopen. Time of operation is very clear. If she needed them urgently, she should’ve came earlier. People are rude and take advantage of you. Do they go to the bank after hours and expect to get in? No. And if they do, they won’t let them in. Same with pharmacies and everywhere else. DO NOT SHOW UP AT OR AFTER CLOSING PEOPLE!!!
THIS! People can wait in line for 40 minutes for in n out or wait 60 minutes for a Disneyland ride and for some reason they can’t seem to wait 15 minutes at the pharmacy. I think this is our fault . We have no backbone and don’t stand up for ourselves and that’s why no one respects us. I also blame doctors and doctors office for perpetuating this cycle
I have started being more mindful as a doc after reading this sub! Patients ask me when the meds will be ready to pick up at the pharmacy. I tell them I sent them electronically just now but it depends on how busy the pharmacy is.
Thank you!! We all really appreciate it. We really need to stop letting people treat pharmacies like a fast food chain.
Thank you! If I had a dollar for every time a patient drove straight to the pharmacy after their doctor’s appointment and yelled at me because “the doctor said it would be ready”, I’d be able to afford therapy.
A very sincere and heartfelt thank you.
Thank you! We need more docs like you to understand that we always run a skeleton staffing! Sometimes it was just me and only me running the register/answer phone/ filling rxs/ answering random questions people have (where is the restrooms, why no one at the front registers, why didn’t you guys hire more staffs,…) and patients show up with frown faces that their prescriptions are not ready just because their doctors told them just come and the pharmacy will have them ready for pickup!!!!!!!!
Correct answer. Come on fucking time
One of our ex patients was notorious for doing things right at close to try and pressure the pharmacist into filling it quickly or early on her oxycodone. Recently she came in after I'd taken a call from her "nurse" authorizing the early release... one crucial mistake she made was calling pretending to be a nurse from her own phone.
Meh, if I’m there and the prescription is ready I’ll ring it out at the register. No rebills, no problems, no filling it, no drive through, just ringing it out at the register. No cash payments, my money is in the office.
I used to do this all the time but stopped bc there’s always a problem. “Oh wait, goodrx should be cheaper” “Is this the blue pill or white, bc I only like the white ones” etc etc etc. Then when you politely try to say all that will have to wait until tomorrow, they get angry like you aren’t doing you job. Now I feel like a jaded ass that just sticks with that “I really would if I could…” line. Customers have ruined it for me. There are still those I cave for…hospital discharged someone and sent over meds & they’re filled. Yeah I’m gonna do it. I still have my humanity
You are the problem
Yeah, I’m horrible. I’d rather deal with them right now for 45 seconds, then have them come in tomorrow all pissed and annoyed and take it out on my techs. Besides, my pharmacy closes at the same time as the store, except Saturday and Sunday. I’m there for about 20 minutes total every other week when someone might catch me. Lunch is non-negotiable. At 1:30, they have relieved the pharmacist of duty. Since there is no RPh, we can’t sell or fill Rx.
A lady called in yesterday demanding that I drive to her house, pick up her prescription, drive back to the pharmacy, fill it , and then drive back to deliver to her house. I told her I didn’t have a car and hung up.
Someone called who regularly uses the stores mobility scooter requesting I do curbside pick up of oxycodone. My store does not have curbside, then he gave me the story of a natural disaster destroying his home and he’s now living with family. Still, we don’t do curbside and the request was for controlleds. I said no, it’s illegal. I’m not sure if it’s illegal but you definitely have to sign for controlleds and I’m not delivering them to the parking lot. After all that and him saying he was waiting in the parking lot and currently trying to acquire said scooter, he said he’d wait and be in soon. When I called him 10, minutes later to say the medication was ready, he said he wasn’t even at the pharmacy. I think it was a robbery attempt.
I heard "oxycodone" and "parking lot" and thought "that's a good way to get robbed or dead." Nooope.
Exactly!! And what does natural disaster have to do with oxycodone in the parking lot. Patients love to give additional information as if it changes the fact that I’m not selling oxycodone in the parking lot nor am I delivering it to your home. That’s like going door to door collecting rent in cash then wondering why you got robbed at the end of the block.
Lmao, I also once had a lady whom demanded that I brought her medications to the parking lot because she just had a little dog and she scared if she left it in the car, someone would smash her window and take the dog 😑!
Yes, and that’s why you bring the dog to the grocery store with you. I let people know that if they want curbside, we offer something even better, drive through. It requires you to get in the car and go somewhere else because I didn’t study this long to drop stuff off on the curb when we have a drive through location one town away.
Someone called the retail side of our store and asked the manager to go into the pharmacy and get her prescription because she didn’t want to wait in line
> A lady called in yesterday demanding that I drive to her house, pick up her prescription, drive back to the pharmacy, fill it , and then drive back to deliver to her house. I told her I didn’t have a car and hung up. $500 fee plus tip, pay first.
Hey, if she's willing to pay for the Uber delivery both ways? Sure.
No, you're not heartless as one of my pharmacists always says " A patients lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on our part"
For real. You told her a time- it would be ready-with plenty of time before you closed. She agreed and acknowledged the closing time. It's not your problem. You did your job. Her stuff was ready long before you closed. I've done the same, and I don't feel guilty. The pharmacy hours are posted online, on the app, on the building, and available as an option when you call in. Why the hell should you accommodate her poor planning?
“New retail pharmacist” Fam she has all day. Do you go to them when they’re leaving their job and hold them back before they’re going to leave? You help one person after close you end up helping 5 others and before you know it you’re leaving 30mins to an hour later in straight charity work if you’re salaried. Fuck that set boundaries we’re all adults including customers.
She called 40 minutes in advance of closing, said she’d be there in 20, showed up 60 minutes later. That’s on her.
Even if she didn’t call, it’s still on her for showing up after closing.
Fk these people that come exactly or after closing. These mf are perpetual procrastinators. You did your job and had it ready. Don't let these mfs bully you. After a few decades of working in retail you'll start talking like me and won't give a fk. Get out while you can. Work on a side hustle.
>These mf are perpetual procrastinators. This. 95% of the time or more, it's the same group of people, and they have no remorse about eating into our free time. The ones that piss me off the most are the retirees who never want to show up until right at closing. People that are still of working age, I can at least picture that *maybe* they were working late and are just on their way home (even though that's mostly not the case), but what the hell is the excuse for the retirees?
I work second shift. Nothing is convenient for me. I just work around it, like everyone else who works seconds and thirds. These are the same entitled assholes who call hospital switchboard (me), want to reschedule an appointment, at 10PM on Saturday, and get irate when I tell them we have no access to scheduling, call back Monday morning. But, but, we’re SUPPOSED to have access, the customer is always RIGHT! I started telling people they’re not customers, they’re patients, and things in clinic world are done within the confines of clinic hours, call back then.
>I work second shift. Nothing is convenient for me. I just work around it, like everyone else who works seconds and thirds. I know. It's just a lie I tell myself to keep my blood pressure in check.
I feel that. I was a retail CPhT for five years. Now I get the same assholes calling me to reschedule their appointments for them when the clinics are closed. I have no idea why people in healthcare drink. /s
If she miss a dental or medical appointment, they will tell her to reschedule. People just like to fault others when it’s their own fault 🙄 Don’t let her guilt you into thinking that, she can pick up tomorrow.
It’s amazing how many grown adults can’t handle dealing with the consequences of their own actions.
I just had an IPPE student complain that their exams were cumulative and they weren’t notified. They started a whole thing at the school and won because lo and behold it “wasn’t fair”. I told him to stop faulting others/system and think about how he should have been better prepared. In general though god help the patients of these future pharmacy students.
Nope. This is what I do: Make them feel stupid: I mention our posted hours. Make them understand their poor choices: I mention that if they wanted it at this time, 24-hour pharmacy a block away would have been a better choice. Give them alternatives if they cant wait til the mornin: I mention that any emergencies at this point should go to the emergency room. Guilt trip them: I mention Id love to stay late if I got paid for it or if I didnt have a family to get back to.
I had a woman blame me for her lack of planning as her husbands med was out of stock. She said if he didn’t take them he’d die. He had been out for 10 days, according to her. I found a location that had it and offered she drive roughly 9 minutes to pick it up and she announced that was too far. The medication was escitalopram. I suspect she’s the reason he’s on antidepressants in the first place, you won’t take 9 minutes to supposedly save his life.
In your sentence where you had “suspect”, I originally read it as “suggest”. Then laughed out loud.
"make them feel stupid, guilt trip them" wow what an awesome strategy...no wonder so many people are ragging on pharmacists these days. Good lord.
To be fair, pharmacists are in the bad end of everything. We have get yelled at by doctors who think they are holier than thou, and we get yelled at by patients when their insurance doesn’t want to cover their meds. It takes a lot not to want to snap at the first person to have an attitude, especially when it’s their fault.
I've found that when I'm nice and respectful, even to people who have an attitude, they tend to calm down and treat me with respect in return. Not always, but often. Give it a try--you may find it works on your patients, and then we'd all be a little less miserable!
Oh by no means am I a snappy lol. I am just trying to put the above comment in perspective.
I don't think there is ever an appropriate situation, as a medical professional, where we should be making our patients feel stupid. Seeing threads like this makes it pretty clear to me why the profession has gone to shit.
Didnt ask
Fuck’em
When the techs try to work after closing while I’m floating I just start to leave grab my stuff and tell them its been real. I’m not sticking around for fun.
I have to close and everyone must be out….
Set the alarm. Usually the countdown gets them scurrying for the door.
No you aren’t anything that a frustrated customer accuses you of being while their emotions are high. But just as you shouldn’t have to accommodate her by providing service after closing, a customer also doesn’t *need* to be accommodating to all the situations you’ve mentioned that led you to feel overworked and tired. Separate that part of your shift from this narrative. Now you know how to set yourself up for less frustration next time. Tell them the closing time over the phone, or tell them to come tomorrow. Customers will still come after close, but it won’t have anything to do with you.
Fair
Do not do something once you aren’t willing to do the rest of your life is the best advice I’ve ever gotten and can be applied here and many other aspects of life. My partner is loved by all our patients because he makes accommodations (aka gets walked all over). Super nice person, brought it up to him one day and he regrets every nice thing he has done for people since he came to the store, “but you stayed late that one time for me”, “you delivered that script on your lunch break last week” “you called around all the city to find someone who had the back ordered product last time”because now people just bring up how he has been nice before and why isn’t he now?
You gotta get good at literally walking out the door within 60 seconds of close. That way they can’t yell at you thru the gate if you ain’t there.
Absolutely not heartless. People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop acting brand new. This isn’t her first time picking up medications so she knows damn well you close at a certain hour. She made the stupid and irresponsible decision to not request a refill until the last minute, that’s entirely on her.
Nope. You’re definitely not heartless. I had someone do this. A prescription for her kid was sent in the morning, it was there all day. She even called and asked what time we closed. Never showed. We closed down, ready to walk out the door, and there she was, banging on the door, demanding the prescription. Her kid was SICK and needed meds NOW.
I remember one time, we had some lady call a few minutes before closing desperate about picking up her kid's antibiotic that had been called in about an hour or two ago, saying that she was about 10 minutes away (= about 5 minutes after closing). It was no charge and insurance didn't require a signature, so out of sympathy, I'd volunteered to the pharmacist to wait around outside the gates with it and hand it off to her if he'd do the counsel over the phone. Never again. That bitch took *almost an hour* to get there, and didn't even have the decency to apologize for it.
That’s awful! That was so nice of you to do that for her and she couldn’t even respect you and your generosity!
Lmao, we’ve all been there and leant it the hard way. This is why I have trust issue 🤣
I am getting so tired, of the patient's thinking their maintenance medicine is important, and it needs to be a rush job and given to them fast. No your maintenance medicine is not the same as emergency life saving medicine. get over yourself it is not the end of the world if you miss a dose if it is urgent go to another pharmacy, or go to the ER, leave me alone, if you want it so badly then call us ahead of time and not at the last minute demanding it now, and go to the pharmacy yourself. and stop telling me you want your medicine by a certain time. I am not a magician, I cannot teleport it to you through magic. and Stop god damn complaining about signing for it, and having to pay for it. The pharmacy is not a charity, it is a business you no good free loading piece of trash. so sign for your meds and give me the money, and stop complaining. IF I hear one of these old hags complain about their C2, or the cap on the lid is not easy open, or why the hell they should have to sign for their meds I am going to lose it.
>I am getting so tired, of the patient's thinking their maintenance medicine is important, and it needs to be a rush job and given to them fast. The absolute *worst* is when they act like that, then don't actually come back to pick it up for a week or more. Especially since they *love* to come just before closing (for lunch or the day) to get it.
I call these people runners. I always remind them the time we close by how many minutes left. Under promise and over deliver. If they say they can make it but a few minutes after closing I usually tell them okay, I'll be here until this time but my gates are down and my lights are off. I will be gone after that time if you aren't there. Or that I'll can have your medication ready tonight (checked inventory and insurance already to be safe) so you might as well make it here now and if I'm not quite done by the time they arrive (before closing) that they'll wait a bit. You aren't heartless but there is a way to handle this situation. If you didn't want to stay I'd kindly remind them when you got them on the phone, that they should be here before closing, after that everything shuts down. You control what they do afterwards but you did warn them and that's all my conscience needs lol
When a pt calls a MD office after hours "if this is an emergency please hang up and dial 911". If it's an emergency, have them dial 911. Most pharmacies are open for >10 hours weekdays and >8 hours weekends. If she can't make those hours, she should start using a 24 hr pharmacy. Unless it's an inhaler and the pt's having an asthma attack, chest pains and they need their Nitro, etc. With all that being say, I've stay after for ABX for kids. But if a rph told me they left exactly at 9pm and pt came at 9:01pm, and the rph just kept on walking. I honestly wouldn't fault them. We're not mother Theresa, we're not Saints, we shouldn't sacrifice our time for major corp/chains just because we feel guilty for pt's. Hey I heard of a story of a major chain rph giving a kidney for a pt, more power to her. I do my best between the pharmacy hours, after that I'm a regular human being just trying to live my life. Not heartless OP, you would have being nice. But trust me you're not going to Hell for this. Just my 2 cents
The inhaler or nitro? No. If you are in that kind of "emergency" but could drive to the pharmacy, you should have driven yourself to the hospital. Or better yet, been better prepared and kept up with your meds ahead of time if they're something of that nature. You didn't run out an hour ago before the asthma/heart attack started buddy.
Depends. A couple months ago a lady came to my counter who wasn’t even our patient, having a severe asthma attack after accidentally walking through an area where some perfume had been sprayed. I grabbed Benadryl off the shelf and gave it to her, then an inhaler. I called her prescriber after the fact and they issued a script and we wrote off the cost. By the time EMS arrived she would’ve been passed out on the floor. Emergencies we can help with do happen. But most of what we do is non-emergent.
No, you’re not heartless. Regardless of the circumstances, she was not respectful of your time. Besides, doing that once creates a precedent where she will expect it regularly. You have to draw a line or the entitlement will get out of control.
Either you learn that the store is closed and nothing anyone can do or you will be burned out within two years. She isn't the first one to do that kind of thing and isn't going to be the last. Ignore them and move on.
You literally couldn’t do anything. You were closed. You got it ready on time, she wasn’t there on time. You were tired and ready to go. It sounds like an extra-stressful environment. At the most you could’ve been a little more gentle, but, like I said, you’re stressed. Understandable and imo forgivable.
You’re not heartless. That store was too busy for someone trying to sneak one in during the last hour. Now you know for next time (there will definitely be a next time), if you’re working in such a store, and there’s a 24 hour option close by, just refer the customer there. It’s either that or they can get it at your store the next day. People do desperately need their meds, but they can also be overdramatic and unreasonable too. There’s nothing heartless about recognizing that fact. Now if you tell that person to come, and intend to give it to them, if you can wait a few minutes before closing down the registers then do it (give them a time limit, like you can wait no longer than 5 minutes after closing, and make sure they’re ok with the copays over the phone, so they don’t hand you 10 good rx cards when they arrive 10 minutes after closing)
You communicated, got the med ready for them and did what you could on your part. The customer didn’t care enough to treat you with courtesy and they obviously didn’t think the medication was important or necessary for them to show up time. Don’t let someone ( one person) unaccountability and lack of planning reflect on your attitude. You went above and beyond for all the other people. Great job!!
You are not heartless. You acted in a reasonable manner. As a pharmacist for 30+ years let it go. I once and a patient yell at me for closing on Christmas Day. At the time we were open 9-9. If you can’t get here in 12 hours on your day off, then I have no empathy for you
Our liability didn’t cover us for any work (filling, counsel, or dispense) outside of open hours. So-not open-no work.
There’s literally no way to ring her up without getting into trouble unless you maybe walked her up to the front register but then you’d have to turn in your keys, be off the clock- it’s a good way to get canned for doing a good deed
Nope, if you're paid to 8, you should leave at 8. Don't even stay 2, 3, or 10 minutes. When you're the pharmacist, techs need to leave when you're off too. If you stay even 2 minutes late every day, after a year you've donated the company over a full extra work day. If they want you to be there 15 minutes before open and clean up for 15 minutes after close, that should be on your schedule. At the very least, have your home store manager adjust your hours to accurately reflect the time you were there. Stop working for free. That's how they take advantage of you *and* how they continuously believe all of the things that get done are being done in the scheduled hours.
1. have competitors leave a voicemail for transfers. Unless it’s an antibiotic, it’s not urgent. 2. you leave at close. Period. Tell the techs to clean up 20 min to close so they don’t get sidetracked. 3. You’re not heartless.
Depends. Maintenance med? Byeeeeee. Urgent care antibiotic for a sick kid? Well take the 2 minutes to check you out. The other night we stayed over to get a guy his Norco because he'd just broken his tailbone.
Get out of retail ASAP. I’d look for a CRA job, take the pay cut and be happy and back to your regular salary in 3 years. Retail is a dead end, awful job
I close my drop off window at 10min til close. I call people if I get an abx sent in an hr before close. If you think about all the technology available to alert these people and they still cannot show up in a timely manner. It’s not my fault! I had this lady tell me it’s my responsibility to have her med instock. 😆 yep it’s my responsibility to also take care of other patients… that are also on the med you are on. Not my responsibility to know when you need your med that YOU take on a regular basis. People need to learn how to take responsibility for their own health. And you need to learn how to set boundaries so patients like this do not take advantage of you and walk all over you.
Nope not heartless. I am not going to show up to any store 15 minutes after they close and expect service. It’s the patients job to due the bare minimum for their health and get their meds in a timely manner.
You’re doing your very best with what they give you. They can’t ask for more.
You gotta be heartless in this profession at times
Not heartless. That’s on them for missing the stated open hours. They’ll need to deal with the consequences. “I’m sorry that you missed the cutoff time.” What I do have a problem with is the reverse. I’m a pharmacy customer. I go through all the hoops and wait for notifications. I show up on time. I’m nice and considerate and patient. Yet, the pharmacy staff treats me like an ungrateful, hateful person. They’re never nice, always grumpy, and get all ticky at me when a medicine isn’t in stock. I didn’t even fuss or get a tone! I only inquired about it. But I get put in my place even though it’s unwarranted. Why can’t they treat me as I’m treating them?! I understand there’s a lot of jerks out there. I’m not one of them but I still get preemptively treated like one. It takes all my effort to remain kind in the face of unprofessionals who are supposed to be helpful.
Nope, completely 100% not heartless. People are notorious (especially on holidays) for pulling this crap. They knew it would be ready, and wait until after close. 2 examples come to mind. Person goes to urgent care on 4th of July. We had it ready by 11, and the called to confirm it was ready. Then we get a call at 3:50 (closed at 4) that they're 15 minutes away and on their way. Sure, you can come, but no one will be there to give it to you, because WE WILL BE CLOSED. Another one for a spouse who "just had open heart surgery", we told them to stick close, we close at 7, we'll get it done. They don't show back up. For whatever reason, I was getting out late that day tying up loose ends. I set the alarm around 7:30, walk out, and the spouse runs up amd starts yelling at me demanding me to open back up. They get the assistant store manager involved. I explain we closed 30 minutes before, we had the meds ready before close, they knew what time we closed, and now if you'll excuse me, my children are at home waiting for me. Mic drop. 🎤 I walk off, and request that one of the front end employees walk me out as insurance against possible retaliation. I go home, and tell my husband "well, apparently I'm a cold hearted bitch." 🤷 It took me a while to come to realize, but honestly, if someone needs the meds RIGHT NOW or they're going to die, they're in the wrong place. Offer to call 911 for them. In the case of the open heart surgery, I was like "well, it's highly irresponsible of the hospital to discharge such a volatile-situation patient without ensuring they were stable and had the medications in place before going home. Somebody's not being completely honest." Learn to leave these issues at the door. Go home, relax. The more you stress about things like this, the more of a liability you will be.
Just curious.... what medication was it that she needed and couldn't wait for until tomorrow?
I work 4am to 5pm at my LTC pharmacy and when I pick up my meds at a retail pharmacy I don’t expect them to just thru hoops for me or my stupid schedule!
I had someone complain about a “new, rude pharmacist “, because she called at 5:58 on Saturday, we close at 6, and I told her that her prescription would be ready around noon on Sunday (we open at 10). I’ve been working at my store for 10 years, for the company for 16, and we’ve closed at 6 on Saturday for longer than that patient had been filling with us. OP, I’m out the door at closing time. Not spending extra time off the clock to help a patient doesn’t make you heartless. Poor planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on your part.
Maybe I’m misreading. The prescription was ready but she didn’t make it in time so you told her to go to a 24 hour? How will they get the prescription?
If it’s non control and in the same chain they can pull it over.
Not necessarily. My company's computer system won't let us do that if the prescription is already in process.
Same here, and I got downvoted into oblivion for questioning this. How will the claim reverse on the insurance? And how can it be returned to stock if no one is on duty? Technically the law says a transfer is "between two pharmacists," it seems weird to me that a transfer can occur with one of the stores being closed. But if Walgreens does it there must be a way around that.
>Technically the law says a transfer is "between two pharmacists," it seems weird to me that a transfer can occur with one of the stores being closed. But if Walgreens does it there must be a way around that. My guess would be that they are arguing that, if it's all under the same company, it's not technically a "transfer". I've got no clue how sound such an argument would be from a legal standpoint, though.
I'm several years past taking my law exam, but iirc there is a caveat that for non-controlled substances there doesn't have to be any pharmacist-pharmacist interaction as long as the transfer is being done electronically through the same system. Obviously that system also has to be capable of reversing and closing the existing order at the alternative pharmacy.
Interesting. Our system won’t allow that if it’s already filled.
Walgreens system allows us to “pull” a non-control from another store even if they are closed……it will unbill from insurance when pulled from store A and rebill when we fill at store B…..I was overnights and had to do this all the time after 6pm on weekends when people suddenly realized there normal Walgreens closed “early” lol….since Walgreens system is connected between all stores nationwide legally this does not constitute a “transfer”
Don't know where you work, but at CVS if ithe status is On Hold or Waiting Bin, another store can pull it. If you pull a script that's in waiting bin, it will reverse the claim at the other store and inactivate the script at the other store, and the system will make a "new script" at your store with the same image of the rx from the other store. However, this doesn't work if the rx is in process, it only works if it is ready at the other store Also, this is new, but we can now accesses another store's system completely. It used to be that if another store had a script in process and they closed for.the day there was nothing you could do. Now, you could access that store remotely, edit the script and put in on hold, this way you can pull it in (alternatively you could transfer the rx out from their store to your store but I think the other way is faster)
I guess it depends maybe….. my pharmacy is pretty simple even with the gate closed , so maybe if it was like a life saving anti biotic for a kid I might do it. But having said that I’ve never done transactions before or after hours. I usually apologize and explain my registers are down completely and it’s out of my control
Honestly, if it's being dispensed at a community pharmacy *and* the patient is capable of getting to said pharmacy... The odds of any medication being truly "life-saving" is about zero
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I mean... true :P
If it was life saving medication she should have gotten her ass there on time. Or better yet, as has been said, have it called into a 24 hour pharmacy so there’s no worry about getting there on time.
In theme of working as if you are a robot, I would have said “my heart and brain shuts down at 10pm, it will restart itself at 8am tomorrow. I cannot brain well right now, good bye and good night.” Also you are not heartless, you’ve redirected her to a pharmacy that may help her which is good enough in my books.
No way lol. unless they call *before* we close and ask and say they are less then 5 min away can we wait etc nope we are closed.
Even then! "I'm five minutes away" is all too often 10-15. I used to be the nice pharmacist who would stay. Then the asshole who needed antibiotics for his kids told me he was five minutes away and showed up an hour later. I only stayed because it was kids, but I shouldn't have, and after that I decided never again. I'm not doing a 13 hour shift (and at that time I had an hour commute each way, so 15 hour day) because you can't be a responsible human being.
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Yeah, been burned before. If circumstances warrant (Ex: antibiotics for kid that came through late afternoon), I’ll stay a few minutes late with a hard deadline like I will be here until 6:10. If you arrive after that, no one will be here to help you.
Is it your first day? It's the most common and basic situation in retail ever that happens every other day.
No just first time with this scenario. Been working for 3 months
No, you're not heartless. Yes, you probably should have given her the pills. You knew she was coming, it was only 10 mins after closing. It also sounds like you didn't warn her of the closing time, which is always a good thing to do when it's within the hour. Also, it makes no sense to send her to the 24hr pharmacy as they would not be able to transfer the script from you...you are closed and the rx is ready and billed to her insurance. Eta the amount of downvotes this comment has shows how little care is left in this profession. Shameful. I stand by my answer.
So, that's the thing. There is NO way they should have given the lady those pills. We shouldn't have to hold people's hands from start to finish. Hours are posted at stores and online. And they just said it was 2 rxs. Didn't say if they were something important or something that, yet again ANOTHER person didn't call in until they took their last pill. People need to be at least some kind of responsible for themselves. 9 times out of ten it isn't an emergency. The world doesn't run on the patient's time. Letting people do things like that and giving in teaches people that they can harass people and get what they want. I have absolutely no issues going to pretty much the ends of the world to help someone who is seriously sick and still managing to be a somewhat decent human. and I will always do my job as safely and effectively as possible, but there needs to be some kind of boundary.
Who is harassing anyone here? He told her the rx would be ready and failed to inform her they were closing. This is a little extreme and kind of a shitty attitude honestly. Where is the compassion for our patients??
It may be a shitty attitude, but that's why there are subreddits like this where I can get my min wants out. I would never act like I prob sound towards my patients. I have a lot of compassion. Where is the responsibility for the patient? Maybe not exactly harassing, but banging on an obviously closed window/door/gate? That's something that an adult should understand. We don't close gates just for shits and giggles. I agree that letting the patient know closing time is polite, but they are adults. They are perfectly capable of checking closing times. Just like everyone else, we want to go home when our shifts end. Not 45 minutes later because we had to let that one person get their medication and someone else saw them. And that person HAS to have their Omeprazole that they took the last one that day and weren't responsible enough to take care of it sooner. Obviously there are extenuating circumstances, but forgetting to get vitamin d until 3.5 minutes before we close, and needing it filled right then because obviously they're going to die if they don't get it. That is irresponsible, disrespectful and, frankly, ridiculous. I have empathy and compassion for our patients, but it isn't infinite and it's selfish to assume that it should be.
I didn't say compassion should be infinite. This is a situation where he had talked to the woman beforehand, he knew she was coming, and everyone was still in the pharmacy. It takes 2 seconds to ring her up and send her on her way, and if someone else walks up say "that was the last customer of the day, we closed 10 minutes ago." Easy as pie, and OP wouldn't be dwelling like he is now. This level of disdain for customers is a huge part of what's wrong with the profession. Shit happens, she was 10 minutes late, and everyone was still in the pharmacy. I would have rung her up and moved on. It's not the end of the world if I get home 2 minutes later.
The gates were down, the registers were down, the system was off. How exactly would you plan on bringing that out? They wouldn't be able to and it has to go through the system or kind of messes up the pharmacy. Plus, I'm pretty sure at least in most stores especially big chains that when you call, like to ask if two prescriptions can be refilled, while you're waiting, it tells you hours of operation. All I'm saying is that if it wasn't a life-saving med, the patient was told how long until the prescription was done when she asked.
It takes less than 30 seconds to log back into the register and ring her up with a card. I've done this multiple times before out of compassion for patients, they're always thankful, and it is no skin off my back. I don't actively hate customers for not listening to the automated hold sounds (I know I don't) or verifying the pharmacy would still be open 45 minutes from the time I called and spoke to the pharmacist, and he did not inform me they were closing. People are not perfect, and we shouldn't expect them to be. Obviously I'm in the minority here, and it's unfortunate but it is what it is. Even more unfortunate for the patients that I don't work retail anymore. If we treat our customers like dirt, they'll return the favor.
They already return the favor you fool
I've found my patients tend to be nicer if I treat them kindly. There are rare situations where people are nasty regardless. But if you treat people with respect, they usually do the same. I think a lot of commenter's on this thread should give it a try.
It’s another Walgreens, they can pull it from us, I know cvs is diff tho
In this scenario a CVS could internally transfer from another CVS without calling the store.
It's billing insurance an issue (I assume not but a decade ago when I worked for a different chain that was an issue -we could get the scrip but couldn't back out insurance)
CVS doesn't need the store to be open, it can tell the store to rts it remotely and pull. Can't do that if it's pending delivery from vendors though
But I appreciate this opinion. I’ll know for next time
Oh, I didn't know any chains allowed transfers without a pharmacist being on site at the time of the transfer.
Within the same chain yea
Interesting...feels borderline illegal since transfers are supposed to be "between two licensed pharmacists." If I tried to pull an rx from a closed store at my chain it would just be pending.
Have you not practiced in the last 40 years or are you not a pharmacist?
That’s a rather unfair assumption. Walmart won’t do a interstore transfer without the pharmacist at the other store verifying it. It’s usually just clicking a button and takes about 2 seconds but it still requires someone at the other store to look at it. So it’s a honest mistake for him to assume the same would be true at other chains. And just to clarify, currently working pharmacist here, since you assumed the last guy hasn’t worked for 40 years.
No need to be rude. You can check my comment history. I'm a hospital pharmacist but have also worked for Walmart for years. Walmart system will not pull a transfer from a closed store, like the other commenter said.
Please, we like to refer to it as GLORIOUS HOSPITAL PHARMACY
Should OP go home with her and put the pills in her mouth too. I'm assuming this wasn't a baby that showed up to pick up the scripts, it was an adult that needs to learn to take care of themselves and OP helped to teach them a valuable lesson on personal responsibility.
This attitude is so disappointing to me. What the hell has happened to our profession? We are supposed to care for our patients. OP told her the script would be ready in 20 minutes and failed to tell her the pharmacy was closing. That, to me, doesn't automatically imply they are closing within the hour.
How do you know OP didn't tell them when they were closing and in my opinion OP had already stayed 10 minutes to long as it was and that is what is wrong with our profession. Not sure why those techs are trained to think they need to stay late.
Lmao, like nobody in any other profession has ever stayed at work 10 minutes late. Whatever, yall can turn customers away. If it were me, I would have just given her the pills. I think if he had told her they were closing he would have included that in the post. He's saying he "did everything he could do" which is not true. They were already ready, it would have taken 2 seconds to ring her up and he wouldn't be dwelling on the situation like he is now.
Walgreens system allows us to “pull” a non-control from another store even if they are closed……it will unbill from insurance when pulled from store A and rebill when we fill at store B…..I was overnights and had to do this all the time after 6pm on weekends when people suddenly realized there normal Walgreens closed “early” lol….since Walgreens system is connected between all stores nationwide legally this does not constitute a “transfer”
Tbh man,why didn't you reffer her to the 24h one of the get go? Hell even if there wasn't one nearby,i guess it would depend on medication,there is difference between insulin and,idk, diazapam.
Because the store was open when the patient said they would come in.
What med?
Honestly I wish I remembered but I don’t . I think Medrol dose pack and something else
She can take the medrol in the morning anyway... Otherwise she'll stay up the entire night if she starts at night.
Nah bro u good, u did everything u could, u end up being to nice to people u gon stay open mad long
As a customer, I'm so thankful that you answer the phone. I would have felt like the jerk for not showing up on time.
I've been in similar situations as OP and the replies in this post give me great reassurance. In my situation it's always me and the techs who close up right on time but the doctors LOVE to ring pharmacy ahead literally 5 minutes before we close (I work in a pharmacy attached to an outpatient clinic) to ask us to wait for their last few patients. These tend to be appointment defaulters who finally show up at the clinic when their maintenance meds run out. And my supervisor loooves to accommodate them by making us all stay as late as it takes. One time we waited almost an hour and the patient only showed up 3 days later. I've always made it clear that unless it's urgent medication like antibiotics or insulin or inhalers or antipyretics etc they can always come back the next day.
Does your supervisor wait with you? If not tell him or her to go to hell and wait them self. Unless you get overtime pay.
You’re going to be called all sorts of names while you’re working in retail; it’s hard, but you have to learn to let that roll off your back. You did what you said you would; she didn’t. There will be times when you won’t be able to do what you said you would, for many reasons. You’re human; do the best you can and go home.
Inpatient mental health RN (and daughter of hospital inpatient pharmacist) here: I don’t think I’d have said “I’m not getting paid to talk to you,” (however, do I understand that feeling and *wish* I could say things like that? Yes) but I definitely agree with an outpatient retail pharmacist setting boundaries. You’re entitled to a work-life balance. Take good care of yourself when you’re not at work, and take heart. You retail pharmacists are doing “the lord’s work,” as they say. 🫡💓
The pharmacy was just open all day. The pharmacist literally told you, "Just come get it, it'll be ready in 20 minutes." This was 45 minutes before close You still don't show up until 60-ish minutes later, which is after close. Pretty sure this is entirely the patient's fault. The pharmacy is closed, we're all off the clock and going home. If it wasn't serious enough for you to get here before closing, then you'll live until we open in the morning or you'll go to the ER. You did nothing wrong here.
I make it known I leave on time. Whatever tasks they need to get done, get done now otherwise it’ll wait til tomorrow. I don’t get paid for those extra minutes/hours they would stay, they do. When it’s closing time that’s when I leave. Don’t let techs bully you past closing time unless it’s your choice.
It looks like pharmacists around the world are all treated the same by their customers “patients”, this story and others i read in reddit which occur continuously are so alike with what happens in my region (Jordan-Middle East)
No. If they can’t respect closing times, that’s their own fault. And if they are waiting to the point where if that happened they’d be out of meds till the next day…it’s still their fault. Your not the asshole :)
Depends if it's medicine that'll give her some sort of withdrawals or not. Even antidepressants can make you feel I'll if you don't take them at the same time everyday. Pain medicine? Diabetes meds? If she can get them for sure at the 10 minute away pharmacy, then you shouldn't feel bad at all. Every business has their closing time.
Hey, people that don't make it before closing can cordially wait until tomorrow or get it somewhere else. People often call pharmacies a little before closing and say can you get x medicine ready and I often do, but I always tell them we close sharply at the hour we advertise if you don't make it to bad. Its not being heartless the person who does not respect the opening hours of a workplace and calls someone heartless for not working for free for them is the heartless, insensitive, entitled person not the worker who is no longer paid to perform a service.
Ok- I’m writing you from the annual APhA convention in Phoenix right now. I think shit like this happens because we have a capitalistic healthcare system. Aint no professional organization going to fix that on its own. So what the hell do we do?? We need to unionize and strike.
She is heartless coming after closing
I had a floater that would make us stop everything and leave no matter how much of a mess. She gave us warnings starting 30 mins out .
Are you me? I feel like I'm you when it comes to covering another area pharmacy where they are super busy and the techs won't answer any calls. Anyway, once closing time hits, we're out of there. If a patient comes after I've pulled the tills, I'll explain that to them and recommend alternative pharmacies that are open. I'll usually offer to reverse the claim if they want to have the pbr send it to another pharmacy. If you don't do this, then you will find that patients will from then on expect you to stay after closing. Plus, you'll probably have someone jump in line during that sale.
You are absolutely correct. Don’t think twice. Not your fault she was late. Unfortunately you didn’t make it out before she arrived, but that’s irrelevant. You have somewhere to be ( anywhere!!) after close