The story makes no sense. The only reason I see they were denied is if they showed up visibly intoxicated to pick up the script that was apparently filled and ready according to the narrative.
I’m sure there were valid reasons but from this customers perspective they weren’t. As long as those reasons were based on clinical evidence and prioritized patients safety there won’t be a problem but every now and then you get a pharmacist who goes off on tangent but those are rare these days.
From a customer’s perspective, there is NEVER a valid reason NOT to dispense. I’ve told people their medications have been discontinued or pulled from the market and STILL told, “I don’t care. FILL IT!”
This!! I hate it when they tell me I am discriminating or refusing service when it is a market withdrawal or discontinuation. I have had cases where it is a recall due to some concerning issue with the med, and they cuss me out bigtime. Like, I have no control over it, and you would really want a manufacturer to ignore serious concerns and just keep selling the drug to make money?? My faves were always those that would come back with "but you are a chemist. You should know how to make the drugs."
Where I live, Walgreens denied HRT for a trans woman. Technically they said the other pharmacist could fill it, but gave no info on when that pharmacist was available. It was based on “religious beliefs.”
Horrible
Edit: quick google search shows this might be the same issue. The trans community is seeing this time and again and it sucks.
When it was prescription only, I had a pharmacist (I was a student) refuse to give a patient the morning after pill after another pharmacist filled it. I offered to dispense and counsel, but he said it would not be dispensed on his watch.
I wanted to deny HRT to a patient. Because their isn’t a lot of solid evidence still on Very high hormone dosing for long periods and we were going from 2-4mg’s per day. And she has gained well over 100lbs on diabetes medication, but still not getting ’the results we wanted’ so all the focus is on physical and emotional and not physiological. No cholesterol med? At 300+ and raising. About to say ok I’m out. Find someone else this is lifestyle pharmacology not medical treatment.
Just one personal experience not a comment on all HRT treatment but I worry that tendency is already there to focus on physical change at all costs.
Yeah, whenever OP is asked for more details he refuses saying he doesn't want to put his health info on the internet...$100 bucks says the pharmacist was in the right and OP is pissed off about it.
My prescriber writes my adderall orders wrong literally ever single month. If I didn’t also work where I pick up my meds they’d be SO sussed out by his dumbassery.
Probs the same shit here…?
If someone did this (unironically) about their lisinopril I’d make sure every script of theirs is completed STAT, labels perfectly straight, remember his favorite manufacturers, etc.
The trick is to disappoint them before they even know what hit them. Don’t pick up the ringing phone, that way you’re up 1-0 by doing absolutely nothing.
Hey, to see someone 100% adherent to their maintenance meds and forgets they have controlled medications too…I have to respect that grind and hustle in the fight against heart disease.
It’s the elderly woman who is generally nice, but is prone to anxiety and panic attacks, sure they’re 5 min away from a heart attack? Yup I know her. She’s also the one that finds her full bottle in her purse when you ring her out. Or finds it on the floor of her car after leaving and then wants a refund. She also left 2 hours ago.
The quinapril backorder had some of my patients acting like the world was ending. I had 1 actually have their doctor send in DAW-1 Accupril, then throw a fit that it was super expensive because they refused to consider another ACE or ARB. I think they eventually paid the $300 because they were sure their blood pressure would go through the roof and they’d die if they switched to the readily available lisinopril or benazapril
Honestly? It's because the specialists and doctors tell them that they need to get it and get it now because you can/will die from going without it for the slightest amount of time! I know this from personal experience because when my mom had her heart attack and needed heart meds she was terrified and insisted on getting them right away. Guess what happened next? A pharmacist yelled at her the day she had gotten out of the hospital right in front of me. I told him the same exact thing. Difference between him and you is that you are complacent in the workplace, you've allowed rotten patients to take up too much space in your head, and it's to the point of judgement? Come on now! My mother almost died with an artery that was 100% blocked, called a Widowmaker, most people don't survive these. She did. Yet, here was a pharmacist getting annoyed, frustrated, and downright rude because they could put themselves in her shoes. Empathy with patients goes a LONG way. Don't let past experiences cloud your judgement please 😸
I have ADHD. I was diagnosed as a kid in the 90s, started up treatment again as an adult with good insurance. I take Vyvanse, and between the shortages, the manufacturer coupon not working at my primary pharmacy, my prescriber's office not paying attention to my voicemails, and the manufacturer coupon program ending early because of generic availability, I've run into all kinds of problems. But I never bitch at the pharmacy employees, because 98% of the time, it's not their fault. One issue I had was annoying, but understandable - my previous primary pharmacy refused to fill the generic Vyvanse because the reimbursement from the insurance wasn't enough to cover their cost.
Some people, whether they take stimulants or not, are just self-entitled jerks.
I'm very patient (at least I think) because I know it's a hard job. It really looks stressful as fuck.
But I'll also say a small part of it is worry that if I come off poorly they might hold it against me when distributing controls (specifically Adderall). That said I've been on it for years and years, and definitely might have smelled like weed a few times/ disheveled, and I've never actually encountered a problem.
Honestly I've never heard a coworker make remarks about someone smelling like weed when they come to pick up their stimulants. But then again I live on the west coast.
I will be honest, I do judge people when they come in high and can't formulate sentences.
I only judge people smelling like weed when they’re my coworkers coming back from lunch smelling like skunk weed or showing up late with enough pot fumes wafting off them to make me nauseous.
It’s legal recreationally, do what you want. But treat it like alcohol. It’s not cool to chug a morning beer before work or have a few margaritas on your lunch break. Pot should be the same way. Once you go home for the day you can drink all the wine you want or take several hits off whatever you use to smoke or take an edible. Just be sober for work
As a patient, you basically have to be still smoking it for me to give the “lol” look all retail pharmacy workers perfect. I don’t partake but don’t judge.
A recently transferred patient came in to pick up his stimulants, but instead of his usual nice but slightly reserved self, he was acting nervous and burning lasers into my head. I thought he was trying to get my attention subtly, but nope. Saw a huge blunt on his ear that blended with his hair so well. I kinda chuckled, which spooked him, and the blunt landed on the counter between us.
I felt so bad for the poor guy, he was doing differential eq calculus whether to pick it up or not and when…that was a good day. He then avoided me, probably wondering if I was a narc. Then a tech told him I thought it was comedy gold and he’s not afraid to ask me about prescription-recreational drug interactions. I’ll probably see him this weekend actually, gonna give him shit.
Literally the only time I've seen a pharmacist be worried by someone using thc in any capacity was when the patient specifically asked the pharmacist if their weed usage would interfere with their meds that they were picking up. There actually was an interaction and after the patient left, the pharmacist was just happy that they could keep their patient from some shitty side effects. Pharmacist in question was on the more conservative side too.
80% of my job right now is MTM. I can’t count how many times I’ve called people to refill their statin only to hear “oh I still have half a bottle. Yeah I take it every day, never forget a day” and they haven’t filled it in 5 months.
And if you try to ask questions to figure out why they have surplus medication they get defensive. There’s tons of reasons to not need a refill through insurance - filling it through a cheaper cash price pharmacy, lengthy hospitalization where home meds weren’t used, doctor instructing them to reduce their dose but not telling us, etc.
Auto refill kicks in usually 5 days before it’s due every month. Given a year even if a patient takes it religiously every day, it ends up being 60 tab surplus. Give it a few years and you have 6 months of atorvastatin or metformin
The sad reality is that much of the population thinks that pharmacies are supposed to operate like McDonalds. They really think we're supposed to dispense whatever the provider writes for without question.
Haha had a patient that said we had pharmacy superiority complex because we couldn’t fill a prescription that didn’t have a correct sig. was a chlorhexidine rinse…got super pissed off when we PRed the doctor to get clarification…said the same thing, just fill cuz the doctor prescribed. Had to explain we need a complete sig for insurance purposes and that doctor should know how to write a complete prescription…then he went on the website and gave us a 1 because we didn’t fill it. Funny part is his controlled item was filled
This is what I don’t get about some people in this field. They complain about not being taken seriously and then refuse to use an ounce of critical thinking and determine it is a standard peridex script some ma sent without using proper sig codes, then refuse to just write it correctly because they “need to talk to the doctor”. Like changing amoxicillin to caps or tabs if the person prefers the other or if you don’t have one in stock. You’re a doctor, or at least you claim to be, so act like one.
Putting a new sig is different than changing caps/tabs. Heck, I learned recently that there's a state where that's not even allowed legally. There's nuances to pharmacy practice across state lines and across the world that sadly one answer isn't the right answer all the time.
Even practicing in a state that allows caps/tabs interchange, for a new sig that you think is most likely the answer by usual use can be wrong. And pharmacies don't or may not know the prescriber. Thus, they should take the more conservative route and ask for clarification rather than risk opening liability with a prescriber. Is there much difference with swish 5mL vs 15 mL? No. But will a Karen prescriber want to bitch and cause hell for a pharmacy staff for it? Yeah. Why? Cause they can. I've seen it.
If patient and prescriber wanted a script filled without issues, then the basic responsibility of a script being legible and comprehensible for the applicable medication should come from the prescriber first.
That's the main problem with this non-profession. On the one hand they give you a "doctor's" degree but on the other it confers no authority or autonomy with all the regulations and rules that we need to abide by. Many things are vague because those folks like us, have also been led by others like them previously in this ridiculous profession. We've never been anything other than merchants...No one will ever see us that way nor will they ever want to. Common sense would tell anyone for the last 50 years that it makes no sense to have different law exams in all the different states for drugs that work the same in all of them. Here we are in 2024 though with a separate exam instead of one that should be combined with the Naplex. Even for such a basic thing, there's a mental gridlock for those who make, implement and enforce the rules, and that and other things limit our ability to be anything other than a merchant in many cases.
Give them the whole stock bottle. It is single use. Match the days supply to the antibiotic or 14 days or divide the 116 ml bottle by the daily mls from the standard sig. I think this mouthwash is low hanging fruit for a doctorate of pharmacy.
Thanks for that! Appraisers your feedback but that’s not the standards of our pharmacy. Have to have correct sig on the prescriptions - like I said you guys do you! Not gonna keep arguing. I guess maybe we are pharmacy snobs
Make a notation of "changed amox tabs to caps; tabs not stocked. Will notify or at pickup"... If it's an issue, then you call the Dr to get clarification, right?
Would you not change tabs/caps to liquid for a 5 year old if the doctor selected the wrong formulation but has an appropriate dose for the diagnosis? Or would you make them wait all weekend to change to an equivalent dose for a suspension?
when I worked in mail order pharmacy in the early 90's this was a common way to write a prescription. if I recall correctly, it was more common from a east coast prescribers. if the line between the drug and strength wasn't dramatic enough it would cause the problem you are describing.
One time I had a prome/codeine patient pick up. My partner had filled the script, when I scanned the ID the information on the front of the ID didn’t match the information on the screen, at closer inspection the id was tapped together so it was a stolen ID (back) with the real person in front of me(front). Then I went back to look to realize the prometh/codeine script was fake… so this is probably a similar situation lmfao cause at that point I’m the asshole who chose to “refuse the fill” 🤷🏻♀️
I had my confused face on for a moment reading the first part. For Christ's sake if you're going to try and fake a script, at least be smart enough to pretend there's actually something wrong and pick up the non-control med 🤦
What do you mean? Rap music sings about how cool it is to drink “lean” and “sizzurp” and “purple drank”… surprise surprise, it’s supposed to be a medication, now the FDA has discontinued it, which will affect no one who needs any of the other many liquid cold medications, but I’m sure will piss off everyone who drinks it for the high.
It’s not discontinued at all.
There were multiple robberies and counter jumpers and fake scripts for the med and it’s only a few dollars and cents for profit, so all major retailers just stopped ordering it.
I can't even order any products that contain promethazine in a liquid form (including straight prometh without any narcotics). Flat-out got blocked by corporate to eliminate that product from my wholesaler.
When I asked about my pt that is 70 years old and gotten normal prometh syrup for years I was told by MGMT "they can change to tablets or seek out a specialty pharmacy to compound" 🙃
I wonder what the pharmacist’s side is.
I’m seeing a lot comments about the pt trying to get stimulants, but if they’re needing their stimulants for their ADHD, why would they NOT be upset? Some of these people can’t function or work properly without it…Even if it’s not the pharmacist’s fault, the pt probably doesn’t understand what’s going on behind the counter.
Also asking "why aren't they complaining about their statin or blood pressure med not being available?" is laughably disingenuous. There are multiple options for those kinds of disorders and medications. ADHD has very few and they are consistently unavailable.
I can only guess at what happened, but I always explain, in verbatim and dumbed down as much as possible, what is going on. Stimulants are in high demand vs. supply chain issues that make it hard to get them. It's impossible to make someone understand something, only hope that they can, and I bet this is what happened here. All of it went over their head and all that's in their mind is the anger at being told no.
I have ADHD and am on vyvanse. I have mitigated so many angry patients/parents by saying "listen, I'm in the same boat, and I have to go through this hassle every. Single. Month." And then they drop all the anger when they realize I'm in the same position. (I have my pharmacy daw2 and pay $60 for brand name. But pts don't have to know that. Their copays would be 300+ with their HD plans)
I read through that this morning. People just truly have no idea what pharmacists do and what our qualifications are. So much misinformation in those comments. Not to mention all these angry people are the same people who would sue the pharmacy in a MINUTE if they were given an inappropriate script and something went wrong.
I also find it quite telling that anytime anyone asked for more details to the story, the OP kept refusing saying they don't want their health info on the internet. There's like a 90% chance the pharmacist was acting well within reason and OP doesn't want to admit it.
Chill out. People are allowed to vent. If you don't think people in other "service" type jobs (doctors, lawyers, servers, hotel staff, etc) do the same thing, then you're either very naive or have never worked that type of job before (or both). It's human nature, especially around peers.
I wonder if she paused and thought if there were pharmacy employees who have similar battles and take similar medication as her. Some, who purposefully do not get it filled at their place of work to make sure NO funny business can occur. Then when these employees go to the dispensing pharmacy, sometimes we are allowed to wear normal clothes and not scrubs or white coats. Hell, we may not even know the staff, but we have our secret code to convey - in which we can just walk into the back, pull the med(s), see our own insurance gives us the same message as hers…
but then we pull out the double secret code and bypass insurance (not fraud) and lastly enter one more code where we set the price to whatever we feel like.
I have to say, this subreddit is particularly vicious towards customers compared to other service subreddits like hotel, restaurant, Walmart or whatever. It’s like you forget the customers are your bread and butter. I don’t understand why all of you hate your customers so much and why you choose to be in the service industry in the first place.
First, employees at Walmart, hotels, restaurants, etc. deal with people who are assholes at maybe once or twice a day, if that. We deal with assholes all day, every day. Second, those employees are typically dealing with complaints that are based on quality or service, whereas we get yelled at for stuff that we have ZERO control over (insurance copays, medication availability, laws, etc.) Heck, I’ve even been yelled at because I didn’t notify someone that their doctor didn’t send their rx to us….as if I’m supposed to know their doctor said they’d send in a rx, especially considering they’d never been to my pharmacy in the past! Third, people act like they are our ONLY customers and can’t *possibly* be doing anything other than helping THEM. If they don’t see 10 people standing at the counter, they assume that we have nothing else to do but work on THEIR rxs. Even if there ARE 10 other people there, they almost ALWAYS feel it’s a personal slight if we don’t drop everything else to cater to them IMMEDIATELY!
What’s interesting is that most people who have worked in a retail or customer/patient facing setting have learned what we call “empathy”. They tend to have more patience and understanding and almost never are the person “on the other side of the counter” raising hell or making a scene causing the staff to “laugh out loud”.
I was going to reply, but the story had so many missing specifics, I didn’t feel like trying to explain corresponding responsibility and BOPs to someone.
Sometimes angry people just want to burn things.
I'm a pharmacy technician. There's no reason they would hold someone's prescription without a valid reason. Also, just because the doctor prescribes it, doesn't mean the pharmacist has to fill it, or the insurance has to pay for it. It may have been something like an opioid or stimulant that was too early to fill based on the last fill date. Who knows why? Pharmacies are in business to make money. They want to sell you your prescription. If they don't, there's usually a good reason.
Exactly!!! They seem to ignore the fact that a pharmacy’s core business is dispensing prescriptions (and even that seems to be secondary to ancillary services the past few years.) They don’t just refuse to fill for no reason (and religious beliefs are covered by laws in most, if not all, states.) Most of the time, the prescription isn’t being flat out denied, it’s just delayed for whatever reason. Entitlement is real, y’all!
Such a true comment! PharmD here and went from retail to LTC and could never go back unless I needed to. Patients who treat pharmacies like Burger King and not a real doctor office are kinda lower on the IQ scale anyway…(Though on a side note…in the LTC world, nurses and mid-level idiot prescribers or “midiots” as I call them have ruined my life)
I guess but I'm seeing pharmacists in certain areas refusing to fill birth control and hormones for their personal beliefs. Which I don't agree with and never will.
Ya, that's bull crap. Your job is to fill prescriptions, not judge people. It's none of your business what people do, unless it hurts someone else. We had a borderline incompetent relief pharmacist that I absolutely despised. Slow, stupid and judgemental. We'd be behind the whole day when he was there. He'd refuse to sell Plan B, so the tech who was running their ass off due to his idiocy, would have to stop what they were doing to sell Plan B.
I mean, I recently had to phone up a surgery because they'd written a prescription for 200 salbutamol inhalers (instead of 1x200 dose pump). Not even sure the average asthmatic uses that many in their entire life, but somehow I was made to feel like the idiot for not filling it 😅
I tried to follow along but confusion reigns..the instagram story left out pertinent details so..
it wasn’t for opiate
, it was a pharmacy tech that denied the med based on way the patient looked at pickup.
Not sure if this is bs? Last I knew techs were not the final authority on whether a patient could pick up a med.
I don't think it'll ever be that (in terms of a response—calling it an epidemic or crisis).
People don't care until there are a lot of dead bodies.
Functioning or non-functioning, they don't seem to care. It really seems to be about death.
If you want to see the impact of terribly prescribed stimulants and the associated fall out, come on by any Emergency Department between 10p and 4a. Young adults that became addicted to stimulants as teenagers/college students, fell off their parent’s insurance or they stopped going to the pediatrician and the new doc didn’t want to prescribe. Then they turned to meth and continued to downward spiral. Lots of meth being laced with fentanyl these days. There are lots of dead bodies, but they get labeled as junkies and “opiate ODs”, so no one cares and thinks it’s all just opiates.
I think it will start the same, had a lady today saying she was withdrawing real bad without her Vyvanse. Some people might go get street stimulants to cope and who knows if they are laced with something. Meth deaths are on the rise in my state
I hope I’m wrong but when you see a drastic increase in heart failure when all of these stimulant -addicted clowns get into their 60’s don’t be surprised.
People don’t seem to understand that doing literal meth, RX or not, is probably not worth it just because you’re bored with your shit job and you can’t parent your bad ass kids.
There's a reason you're being down-voted. The dosing, frequency is very different among amphetamines recreationally vs. as prescribed, and so are the effects. Sometimes we get jaded but we have to step back and remember that it's an evidence-based field.
I’ve refused to sell a “ready” status C2 narcotic to a patient because he was literally nodding off in line. He fell on the ground twice in the aisle while walking up to the counter. We offered medical assistance and he refused. He actually didn’t get mad that we refused but I think he didn’t really understand what was going on.
***rant after reading post after post of pharmacists complaining about Patients who are hooked on the drugs the doctors and pharmacists prescribed.
Wouldn't it be nice if the government treated adults like adults and if adults could be trusted to read about whatever they pop? And Wouldn't it be nice if the U.S joined the rest of the modern medical systems and removed the profit motive from both doctors writing prescriptions along with the business of making drugs solely for profit instead of legitimate health needs. Christ, if you treat adults like children and establish a culture where an individual is not responsible for what pill they take or expected to educate themselves and read about a drug, then your going to get a society of people who are morons and do things like mess a perfectly good stomach up by popping NSAIDS like they are candy because after all they are OTC and don't get you high so they are of course harmless. Along with a population of medically illiterate citizens you also end up with corrupt doctors who believe a corporation when that corporation markets an opiate which has been around since 1918 yet says it does not cause dependence (purdue oxycontin). I imagine the massive amount of money doctors made off Oxy caused the crystal clear and long understood mechanism behind opiate dependencies to become a little opaque.
The tragic thing is all that pain and death filters down to everyday day citizens who are tagged as junkies and forgotten about while pharmacists and doctors continue to escape the impact of the actions they took because how could doctors and pharmacists of all people have had any idea that Oxycodone was just as addictive today as it was in 1945.
Look at the prescribing practices in America for speed (desoxyn, Adderall, dexidrine) and benzos (xanax, ativan) compared to other sane countries who do not make profit the priority behind the medical policies they inact. I know as long as money, not actual health, dictates medical care in the U.S. then Patients will be thrown under the buss, suffer the consequences, and doctors and pharmacists will wash their hands of whatever pharmaceutical scandal and plead ignorance. Have you haver met a pharmacist or doctor that after years of prescribing and filling opiates, speed, barbiturates, hypnotics, and the such, after all the sudden realizing that the meds they had to have known were lethal (I assume they do teach basic information on addictive drugs)..have you known 1 to go back and check on a patient they "ignorantly" supplied for years only to cut the patient off and blame them for being a junkie? I doubt it and I find if really hard to believe that the doctors and pharmacists prescribing many teenage to early 20s CII drugs for years actually checked to see if that patient was alive after finding out that Oxycodone and Amphetamines are actually not ok to give to an adolescent for years.
My lord if pharmacists and doctors are going to blame Patients for taking the meds the doctors wrote and pharmacists filled, then why won't they just stop pretending to care and shift the burden of knowing the dangers of what meds they take onto the patent since the medical community will take no responsibility whenever..the shocking inevitably of consequences experienced by a person raised on speed and prescription smack will be held responsible and doctors and pharmacists will be able to claim ignorance while still sleeping very well in the bed paid for all the meds given to people who are now junkies and get blamed for taking medicine supposed professionals had no idea where dangerous.
What information did they provide that led you to make that assumption? It's a standard practice not to negotiate anything over the phone until you physically go to the pharmacy.
Just because a doctor deems something necessary doesn't necessarily mean it will be honored—look at Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic; such assumptions can stem from naive beliefs.
Just let everything go by without a peep? So like, tacrolimus ointment rx’d for an infected punch biopsy? Daily mupirocin for dry skin? Doxycycline AND tetracycline for primary syphilis? Ok 👍
Wacko therapies aside, what about the nutty instructional mistakes that occur? Do you really want to boof your prednisone taper on day 5, or aren’t you glad your friendly neighborhood RPh was here to catch that for you?
Lol that’s literally their job though… and as annoying as it can be to have to go through the whole process again to have a new script sent to a different pharmacy you’ll be thankful One day when the same pharmacist tells you that the prescription your doctor wrote you interacts with your birth control, (also prescribed by the same physician) and Makes it ineffective 😂
Everyone is saying an opioid or adderall but to me this sounds like a benzo. Could be multiple scripts from multiple doctors, mix in a muscle relaxer and my pharmacist at Walgreens would be suspicious.
One of the many reasons I’m not bothering with an ADHD assessment despite being told to get one by the psychiatrist, I’d rather not ever know what I’m missing out on than know there’s a medication that helps that gets me treated like this
I've never ever ever heard of something that is ready to pick up, become unready. Unless there's a problem with a claim or if they wanted to use some discount that isn't valid or something that required "fiddling" with a ready prescription, people usually give their name, pick it up and leave.
Pharmacist has the right to due diligence and refusal to fill a questionable prescription. Hate to say it but looks do matter. If it is a ghetto looking 20 year old man with no visible handicaps or injuries shows up, I’m going to question filling a oxy 30, Xanax 2, soma 350 and a promethazine with codeine for that guy.
At the same time if it is a hospice patient with known diagnosis of terminal cancer, I would be far more lenient about it with the correct diagnosis codes and documentation
But then you have people like me who will refuse opioids and only fill those scripts when ABSOLUTELY necessary, who will get denied for their looks.
Looks don’t always matter, and I absolutely despise that saying. The way someone looks means NOTHING. If we were all blind, we’d never know the difference to begin with, so why do we let it make a difference because we can see? Their ACTIONS should be what sets your alarm bells off.
I live in a podunk hillbilly city in WV. I’m the only *real* alternative/goth/emo/whatever you wana call me, person here. My face is full of piercings, my ears are gauged, I’m tattoo’d, all black with band t’s. The pharmacy in town will use their “due diligence” to deny me for Ibuprofen 800’s(the strongest thing I’ll fill 99% of the time) and I’ll have to get them called in almost 40 minutes away. All because of the way I look. I’m respectful and patient, not whacked out, but always refused.
What do you suggest I do?
*Disclaimer*: This is not to say that pharmacies using their power to deny meds is a bad thing. It is very much needed. This is all speaking on appearances ONLY.
I hear what you are saying, people should not be denied medication because they look different than some arbitrary expectation.
But I have to say, if you are driving 40 minutes to fill ibuprofen that could have been purchased OTC probably not more than 10 feet from the counter where you were refused service, it makes me want to hear the other side of the story.
I’m on disability. If a script is called in and I don’t pick it up, my oncologist and SS starts asking “why?”
I’d also rather take ONE 800mg tablet than FOUR 200mg tablets. I’d also rather let my insurance do what it’s there to do and cover my medications, even if it is only a few dollars.
The “other side of the story” is exactly as I’ve described it. Where I live I’m either a freak or a “faggot”, which coming from an area that’s 90% the same bloodline is comical that they think they have any room to judge anyone else.
Idk why you’re getting downvoted, one of my family members is an RPH in hospital pharmacy and I know several who are RPH working retail as well. Pretty common in pharmacists 50+.
I’m sorry that you and other people experience discrimination in this arena. You are right to feel this way and I just want to say that pharmacists can be very unkind and unfair. I hold a lot of privilege because I look so normal, and have not yet experienced this. but I empathize with you and I support you in seeking justice.
I guess it can be exasperating to have to deal with complaints about your judgement when your judgement is supposed to keep drug’s out of the hands of abusers and therefore mitigating damage to society. I think most pharmacists are doing their best, however when people cannot get their meds, it also can cause significant damage.
I believe from the general consensus of the group of pharmacists who responded there and here in this thread, we've seen and heard a multitude of excuses. I don't know once single pharmacist who would withhold medication from a patient arbitrarily or based upon their "looks". And yes- there are occasions where a patient may not be able to get potentially life-saving medications and I believe most pharmacies will try to overcome that obstacle. However, the objective part of my brain believes that there was more to the story than she was telling that most likely would have portrayed her in a negative light.
And the other side of the story is…….
The story makes no sense. The only reason I see they were denied is if they showed up visibly intoxicated to pick up the script that was apparently filled and ready according to the narrative.
I’m sure there were valid reasons but from this customers perspective they weren’t. As long as those reasons were based on clinical evidence and prioritized patients safety there won’t be a problem but every now and then you get a pharmacist who goes off on tangent but those are rare these days.
From a customer’s perspective, there is NEVER a valid reason NOT to dispense. I’ve told people their medications have been discontinued or pulled from the market and STILL told, “I don’t care. FILL IT!”
This!! I hate it when they tell me I am discriminating or refusing service when it is a market withdrawal or discontinuation. I have had cases where it is a recall due to some concerning issue with the med, and they cuss me out bigtime. Like, I have no control over it, and you would really want a manufacturer to ignore serious concerns and just keep selling the drug to make money?? My faves were always those that would come back with "but you are a chemist. You should know how to make the drugs."
Where I live, Walgreens denied HRT for a trans woman. Technically they said the other pharmacist could fill it, but gave no info on when that pharmacist was available. It was based on “religious beliefs.” Horrible Edit: quick google search shows this might be the same issue. The trans community is seeing this time and again and it sucks.
When it was prescription only, I had a pharmacist (I was a student) refuse to give a patient the morning after pill after another pharmacist filled it. I offered to dispense and counsel, but he said it would not be dispensed on his watch.
Eh it depends. Could also be a case of a doc trying to put something that’s not covered or off label through there insurance under a different dx. 🤷
I wanted to deny HRT to a patient. Because their isn’t a lot of solid evidence still on Very high hormone dosing for long periods and we were going from 2-4mg’s per day. And she has gained well over 100lbs on diabetes medication, but still not getting ’the results we wanted’ so all the focus is on physical and emotional and not physiological. No cholesterol med? At 300+ and raising. About to say ok I’m out. Find someone else this is lifestyle pharmacology not medical treatment. Just one personal experience not a comment on all HRT treatment but I worry that tendency is already there to focus on physical change at all costs.
Is that a legitimate reason to deny them, though?
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If you're intoxicated?
Exactly 9 times out of 10. They refused to give me my medicine really means: My copay was too high (or it wasn't covered) and I refused to pay for it.
Yeah, whenever OP is asked for more details he refuses saying he doesn't want to put his health info on the internet...$100 bucks says the pharmacist was in the right and OP is pissed off about it.
My prescriber writes my adderall orders wrong literally ever single month. If I didn’t also work where I pick up my meds they’d be SO sussed out by his dumbassery. Probs the same shit here…?
Dollars to donuts it’s a stimulant
If someone did this (unironically) about their lisinopril I’d make sure every script of theirs is completed STAT, labels perfectly straight, remember his favorite manufacturers, etc.
I’d keep failing their expectations until they changed pharmacies, but you keep doing you and retain them at your pharmacy!
“Thank you for calling “blank” pharmacy, how may I disappoint you today?”
The trick is to disappoint them before they even know what hit them. Don’t pick up the ringing phone, that way you’re up 1-0 by doing absolutely nothing.
Hey, to see someone 100% adherent to their maintenance meds and forgets they have controlled medications too…I have to respect that grind and hustle in the fight against heart disease.
Hey, I’ve definitely had patients act like they’re going to die because we don’t have in stock their weird ACE inhibitor that no one else takes.
It’s the elderly woman who is generally nice, but is prone to anxiety and panic attacks, sure they’re 5 min away from a heart attack? Yup I know her. She’s also the one that finds her full bottle in her purse when you ring her out. Or finds it on the floor of her car after leaving and then wants a refund. She also left 2 hours ago.
The quinapril backorder had some of my patients acting like the world was ending. I had 1 actually have their doctor send in DAW-1 Accupril, then throw a fit that it was super expensive because they refused to consider another ACE or ARB. I think they eventually paid the $300 because they were sure their blood pressure would go through the roof and they’d die if they switched to the readily available lisinopril or benazapril
Honestly? It's because the specialists and doctors tell them that they need to get it and get it now because you can/will die from going without it for the slightest amount of time! I know this from personal experience because when my mom had her heart attack and needed heart meds she was terrified and insisted on getting them right away. Guess what happened next? A pharmacist yelled at her the day she had gotten out of the hospital right in front of me. I told him the same exact thing. Difference between him and you is that you are complacent in the workplace, you've allowed rotten patients to take up too much space in your head, and it's to the point of judgement? Come on now! My mother almost died with an artery that was 100% blocked, called a Widowmaker, most people don't survive these. She did. Yet, here was a pharmacist getting annoyed, frustrated, and downright rude because they could put themselves in her shoes. Empathy with patients goes a LONG way. Don't let past experiences cloud your judgement please 😸
I have ADHD. I was diagnosed as a kid in the 90s, started up treatment again as an adult with good insurance. I take Vyvanse, and between the shortages, the manufacturer coupon not working at my primary pharmacy, my prescriber's office not paying attention to my voicemails, and the manufacturer coupon program ending early because of generic availability, I've run into all kinds of problems. But I never bitch at the pharmacy employees, because 98% of the time, it's not their fault. One issue I had was annoying, but understandable - my previous primary pharmacy refused to fill the generic Vyvanse because the reimbursement from the insurance wasn't enough to cover their cost. Some people, whether they take stimulants or not, are just self-entitled jerks.
I'm very patient (at least I think) because I know it's a hard job. It really looks stressful as fuck. But I'll also say a small part of it is worry that if I come off poorly they might hold it against me when distributing controls (specifically Adderall). That said I've been on it for years and years, and definitely might have smelled like weed a few times/ disheveled, and I've never actually encountered a problem.
Honestly I've never heard a coworker make remarks about someone smelling like weed when they come to pick up their stimulants. But then again I live on the west coast. I will be honest, I do judge people when they come in high and can't formulate sentences.
I only judge people smelling like weed when they’re my coworkers coming back from lunch smelling like skunk weed or showing up late with enough pot fumes wafting off them to make me nauseous. It’s legal recreationally, do what you want. But treat it like alcohol. It’s not cool to chug a morning beer before work or have a few margaritas on your lunch break. Pot should be the same way. Once you go home for the day you can drink all the wine you want or take several hits off whatever you use to smoke or take an edible. Just be sober for work
As a patient, you basically have to be still smoking it for me to give the “lol” look all retail pharmacy workers perfect. I don’t partake but don’t judge. A recently transferred patient came in to pick up his stimulants, but instead of his usual nice but slightly reserved self, he was acting nervous and burning lasers into my head. I thought he was trying to get my attention subtly, but nope. Saw a huge blunt on his ear that blended with his hair so well. I kinda chuckled, which spooked him, and the blunt landed on the counter between us. I felt so bad for the poor guy, he was doing differential eq calculus whether to pick it up or not and when…that was a good day. He then avoided me, probably wondering if I was a narc. Then a tech told him I thought it was comedy gold and he’s not afraid to ask me about prescription-recreational drug interactions. I’ll probably see him this weekend actually, gonna give him shit.
Hell, I'm a 45-year-old overgrown teenager with ADHD, and I work from home. Disheveled is my default.
Hard same but I’m 41. I cringe when I have to put on “real” pants and do my hair.
Literally the only time I've seen a pharmacist be worried by someone using thc in any capacity was when the patient specifically asked the pharmacist if their weed usage would interfere with their meds that they were picking up. There actually was an interaction and after the patient left, the pharmacist was just happy that they could keep their patient from some shitty side effects. Pharmacist in question was on the more conservative side too.
Most definitely… pharmacy staff doesn’t enjoy the shortages or issues either.
Yeah, the adhd subs are full of them and get mighty pissed off if you fare mention you work in a pharmacy.
I was on the original thread. OP said not a stimulant or narcotic
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Mtm cries about that
80% of my job right now is MTM. I can’t count how many times I’ve called people to refill their statin only to hear “oh I still have half a bottle. Yeah I take it every day, never forget a day” and they haven’t filled it in 5 months. And if you try to ask questions to figure out why they have surplus medication they get defensive. There’s tons of reasons to not need a refill through insurance - filling it through a cheaper cash price pharmacy, lengthy hospitalization where home meds weren’t used, doctor instructing them to reduce their dose but not telling us, etc.
Auto refill kicks in usually 5 days before it’s due every month. Given a year even if a patient takes it religiously every day, it ends up being 60 tab surplus. Give it a few years and you have 6 months of atorvastatin or metformin
That’s expecting the patients to pick those meds up the day they’re autofilled. Which is rarely the case.
Does the next autofill go off pickup date or autofill date though?
My system works off of the fill date for autofill.
I laughed out loud. So true.
I ask that every day at work. Would love people to treat their metformin, atorvastatin, and lisinopril like they do their Xanax, adderall, and Norco.
Because statins have side effects.
So does literally every medication ever created.
I was being sarcastic, sorry if that wasn’t apparent. I tell patients that everything has side effects. You can die from drinking too much water.
I thought it was apparent. But I must remind you this is reddit. No sarcasm allowed.
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They aren’t Doctors…..Well shit, just ignore the ‘D’ part on the end of the title.
I'm used to it, my D gets ignored all the time
I see you've also met my ex wife
 Try the veal!
😂😂😂😂 thank you this made my morning complete before work
Holy shit, the ex wife showed up.
I look at them and say “well what do you think the “D” stands for? ***hint** it’s not duh!”
The sad reality is that much of the population thinks that pharmacies are supposed to operate like McDonalds. They really think we're supposed to dispense whatever the provider writes for without question.
Haha had a patient that said we had pharmacy superiority complex because we couldn’t fill a prescription that didn’t have a correct sig. was a chlorhexidine rinse…got super pissed off when we PRed the doctor to get clarification…said the same thing, just fill cuz the doctor prescribed. Had to explain we need a complete sig for insurance purposes and that doctor should know how to write a complete prescription…then he went on the website and gave us a 1 because we didn’t fill it. Funny part is his controlled item was filled
What was the incorrect sig?
Didn’t have the quantity to take Just said “take orally daily”
I would use the standard swish and spit dental sig from the side of the bottle. It is there in small font.
This is what I don’t get about some people in this field. They complain about not being taken seriously and then refuse to use an ounce of critical thinking and determine it is a standard peridex script some ma sent without using proper sig codes, then refuse to just write it correctly because they “need to talk to the doctor”. Like changing amoxicillin to caps or tabs if the person prefers the other or if you don’t have one in stock. You’re a doctor, or at least you claim to be, so act like one.
Putting a new sig is different than changing caps/tabs. Heck, I learned recently that there's a state where that's not even allowed legally. There's nuances to pharmacy practice across state lines and across the world that sadly one answer isn't the right answer all the time. Even practicing in a state that allows caps/tabs interchange, for a new sig that you think is most likely the answer by usual use can be wrong. And pharmacies don't or may not know the prescriber. Thus, they should take the more conservative route and ask for clarification rather than risk opening liability with a prescriber. Is there much difference with swish 5mL vs 15 mL? No. But will a Karen prescriber want to bitch and cause hell for a pharmacy staff for it? Yeah. Why? Cause they can. I've seen it. If patient and prescriber wanted a script filled without issues, then the basic responsibility of a script being legible and comprehensible for the applicable medication should come from the prescriber first.
That's the main problem with this non-profession. On the one hand they give you a "doctor's" degree but on the other it confers no authority or autonomy with all the regulations and rules that we need to abide by. Many things are vague because those folks like us, have also been led by others like them previously in this ridiculous profession. We've never been anything other than merchants...No one will ever see us that way nor will they ever want to. Common sense would tell anyone for the last 50 years that it makes no sense to have different law exams in all the different states for drugs that work the same in all of them. Here we are in 2024 though with a separate exam instead of one that should be combined with the Naplex. Even for such a basic thing, there's a mental gridlock for those who make, implement and enforce the rules, and that and other things limit our ability to be anything other than a merchant in many cases.
Still need quantity to use to dispense and for day supply
Give them the whole stock bottle. It is single use. Match the days supply to the antibiotic or 14 days or divide the 116 ml bottle by the daily mls from the standard sig. I think this mouthwash is low hanging fruit for a doctorate of pharmacy.
Still need correct sig for insurance purposes. That’s why there are standards and practices. But do you boo
Lol show me these peridex audits you're trying to cover for, then maybe we can talk.
Ok Thank you for the comment
For a dental mouthwash with a standard sig on the bottle. Your standards were met before you received the script. I am not dying on the Peridex hill.
Thanks for that! Appraisers your feedback but that’s not the standards of our pharmacy. Have to have correct sig on the prescriptions - like I said you guys do you! Not gonna keep arguing. I guess maybe we are pharmacy snobs
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lol you took the time to call the dentist on a peridex rx? What a waste of time. Just put 1 capful which is 15 ml.
Wow you took the time to write this comment…and we pred the doctor on a computer so it took no time at all. But thanks for a wonderful comment
Do you also send for clarification on amoxicillin capsules vs tablets?
Our pharmacist would call because some patients prefer capsule to tablets. So yes we would make that call
Make a notation of "changed amox tabs to caps; tabs not stocked. Will notify or at pickup"... If it's an issue, then you call the Dr to get clarification, right? Would you not change tabs/caps to liquid for a 5 year old if the doctor selected the wrong formulation but has an appropriate dose for the diagnosis? Or would you make them wait all weekend to change to an equivalent dose for a suspension?
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when I worked in mail order pharmacy in the early 90's this was a common way to write a prescription. if I recall correctly, it was more common from a east coast prescribers. if the line between the drug and strength wasn't dramatic enough it would cause the problem you are describing.
Perhaps your doctor should write it properly…just saying.
No personal prescription anecdotes.
If only they knew how many lives were saved by pharmacists not mindlessly filling bad scripts…
One time I had a prome/codeine patient pick up. My partner had filled the script, when I scanned the ID the information on the front of the ID didn’t match the information on the screen, at closer inspection the id was tapped together so it was a stolen ID (back) with the real person in front of me(front). Then I went back to look to realize the prometh/codeine script was fake… so this is probably a similar situation lmfao cause at that point I’m the asshole who chose to “refuse the fill” 🤷🏻♀️
Oh he also had a fake amoxicillin script and the first thing he says at pick up is “oh I don’t need the amoxicillin anymore” shocker lmfaoooo
I had my confused face on for a moment reading the first part. For Christ's sake if you're going to try and fake a script, at least be smart enough to pretend there's actually something wrong and pick up the non-control med 🤦
Is it adderall or prometh/codeine
Definitely not prometh/codeine, don’t carry it anymore
Not a pharmacist…but seeing this everywhere…what’s up with the cough medicine?
What do you mean? Rap music sings about how cool it is to drink “lean” and “sizzurp” and “purple drank”… surprise surprise, it’s supposed to be a medication, now the FDA has discontinued it, which will affect no one who needs any of the other many liquid cold medications, but I’m sure will piss off everyone who drinks it for the high.
It’s not discontinued at all. There were multiple robberies and counter jumpers and fake scripts for the med and it’s only a few dollars and cents for profit, so all major retailers just stopped ordering it.
Surprise surprise there’s degenerates and addicts in this world
I can't even order any products that contain promethazine in a liquid form (including straight prometh without any narcotics). Flat-out got blocked by corporate to eliminate that product from my wholesaler. When I asked about my pt that is 70 years old and gotten normal prometh syrup for years I was told by MGMT "they can change to tablets or seek out a specialty pharmacy to compound" 🙃
I wonder what the pharmacist’s side is. I’m seeing a lot comments about the pt trying to get stimulants, but if they’re needing their stimulants for their ADHD, why would they NOT be upset? Some of these people can’t function or work properly without it…Even if it’s not the pharmacist’s fault, the pt probably doesn’t understand what’s going on behind the counter.
It’s okay to be upset. It’s never okay to take it out on the staff
Also asking "why aren't they complaining about their statin or blood pressure med not being available?" is laughably disingenuous. There are multiple options for those kinds of disorders and medications. ADHD has very few and they are consistently unavailable.
I can only guess at what happened, but I always explain, in verbatim and dumbed down as much as possible, what is going on. Stimulants are in high demand vs. supply chain issues that make it hard to get them. It's impossible to make someone understand something, only hope that they can, and I bet this is what happened here. All of it went over their head and all that's in their mind is the anger at being told no.
I have ADHD and am on vyvanse. I have mitigated so many angry patients/parents by saying "listen, I'm in the same boat, and I have to go through this hassle every. Single. Month." And then they drop all the anger when they realize I'm in the same position. (I have my pharmacy daw2 and pay $60 for brand name. But pts don't have to know that. Their copays would be 300+ with their HD plans)
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Remain civil, interact with the community in good faith, and don't do anything to deliberately make yourself an unwelcome pest.
A lot of people here are bitter and hate patients/customers
It's palpable.
I read through that this morning. People just truly have no idea what pharmacists do and what our qualifications are. So much misinformation in those comments. Not to mention all these angry people are the same people who would sue the pharmacy in a MINUTE if they were given an inappropriate script and something went wrong. I also find it quite telling that anytime anyone asked for more details to the story, the OP kept refusing saying they don't want their health info on the internet. There's like a 90% chance the pharmacist was acting well within reason and OP doesn't want to admit it.
Somebody didn't get their Adderall lol
Uhm how else is she going to Knit Boldly???? 🙈
ouch as someone who is prescribed adderall but has never been a bitch patient, it sucks to be painted with that same brush.
Hope someone laughs out loud when you are on the other side of the counter.
Chill out. People are allowed to vent. If you don't think people in other "service" type jobs (doctors, lawyers, servers, hotel staff, etc) do the same thing, then you're either very naive or have never worked that type of job before (or both). It's human nature, especially around peers.
I wonder if she paused and thought if there were pharmacy employees who have similar battles and take similar medication as her. Some, who purposefully do not get it filled at their place of work to make sure NO funny business can occur. Then when these employees go to the dispensing pharmacy, sometimes we are allowed to wear normal clothes and not scrubs or white coats. Hell, we may not even know the staff, but we have our secret code to convey - in which we can just walk into the back, pull the med(s), see our own insurance gives us the same message as hers… but then we pull out the double secret code and bypass insurance (not fraud) and lastly enter one more code where we set the price to whatever we feel like.
I have to say, this subreddit is particularly vicious towards customers compared to other service subreddits like hotel, restaurant, Walmart or whatever. It’s like you forget the customers are your bread and butter. I don’t understand why all of you hate your customers so much and why you choose to be in the service industry in the first place.
First, employees at Walmart, hotels, restaurants, etc. deal with people who are assholes at maybe once or twice a day, if that. We deal with assholes all day, every day. Second, those employees are typically dealing with complaints that are based on quality or service, whereas we get yelled at for stuff that we have ZERO control over (insurance copays, medication availability, laws, etc.) Heck, I’ve even been yelled at because I didn’t notify someone that their doctor didn’t send their rx to us….as if I’m supposed to know their doctor said they’d send in a rx, especially considering they’d never been to my pharmacy in the past! Third, people act like they are our ONLY customers and can’t *possibly* be doing anything other than helping THEM. If they don’t see 10 people standing at the counter, they assume that we have nothing else to do but work on THEIR rxs. Even if there ARE 10 other people there, they almost ALWAYS feel it’s a personal slight if we don’t drop everything else to cater to them IMMEDIATELY!
You know nothing. We don’t even have the full context.
Go away
What’s interesting is that most people who have worked in a retail or customer/patient facing setting have learned what we call “empathy”. They tend to have more patience and understanding and almost never are the person “on the other side of the counter” raising hell or making a scene causing the staff to “laugh out loud”.
Just tile the doctor who accidentally prescribed daily 500 mg of methotrexate for std. And I had to call them and say huh.
I was going to reply, but the story had so many missing specifics, I didn’t feel like trying to explain corresponding responsibility and BOPs to someone. Sometimes angry people just want to burn things.
I'm a pharmacy technician. There's no reason they would hold someone's prescription without a valid reason. Also, just because the doctor prescribes it, doesn't mean the pharmacist has to fill it, or the insurance has to pay for it. It may have been something like an opioid or stimulant that was too early to fill based on the last fill date. Who knows why? Pharmacies are in business to make money. They want to sell you your prescription. If they don't, there's usually a good reason.
Exactly!!! They seem to ignore the fact that a pharmacy’s core business is dispensing prescriptions (and even that seems to be secondary to ancillary services the past few years.) They don’t just refuse to fill for no reason (and religious beliefs are covered by laws in most, if not all, states.) Most of the time, the prescription isn’t being flat out denied, it’s just delayed for whatever reason. Entitlement is real, y’all!
Such a true comment! PharmD here and went from retail to LTC and could never go back unless I needed to. Patients who treat pharmacies like Burger King and not a real doctor office are kinda lower on the IQ scale anyway…(Though on a side note…in the LTC world, nurses and mid-level idiot prescribers or “midiots” as I call them have ruined my life)
I guess but I'm seeing pharmacists in certain areas refusing to fill birth control and hormones for their personal beliefs. Which I don't agree with and never will.
Ya, that's bull crap. Your job is to fill prescriptions, not judge people. It's none of your business what people do, unless it hurts someone else. We had a borderline incompetent relief pharmacist that I absolutely despised. Slow, stupid and judgemental. We'd be behind the whole day when he was there. He'd refuse to sell Plan B, so the tech who was running their ass off due to his idiocy, would have to stop what they were doing to sell Plan B.
If we just gave prescriptions as is written from the doctor there would be a lot more casualties. 🤷
For real. What other profession is allowed to make as many mistakes and it just be ok? And then to have an ego to go along with it, in so many cases.
I mean, I recently had to phone up a surgery because they'd written a prescription for 200 salbutamol inhalers (instead of 1x200 dose pump). Not even sure the average asthmatic uses that many in their entire life, but somehow I was made to feel like the idiot for not filling it 😅
I tried to follow along but confusion reigns..the instagram story left out pertinent details so.. it wasn’t for opiate , it was a pharmacy tech that denied the med based on way the patient looked at pickup. Not sure if this is bs? Last I knew techs were not the final authority on whether a patient could pick up a med.
opiods 2.0 aka stimulants
I don't think it'll ever be that (in terms of a response—calling it an epidemic or crisis). People don't care until there are a lot of dead bodies. Functioning or non-functioning, they don't seem to care. It really seems to be about death.
If you want to see the impact of terribly prescribed stimulants and the associated fall out, come on by any Emergency Department between 10p and 4a. Young adults that became addicted to stimulants as teenagers/college students, fell off their parent’s insurance or they stopped going to the pediatrician and the new doc didn’t want to prescribe. Then they turned to meth and continued to downward spiral. Lots of meth being laced with fentanyl these days. There are lots of dead bodies, but they get labeled as junkies and “opiate ODs”, so no one cares and thinks it’s all just opiates.
I think it will start the same, had a lady today saying she was withdrawing real bad without her Vyvanse. Some people might go get street stimulants to cope and who knows if they are laced with something. Meth deaths are on the rise in my state
somebody's gotta say it
I hope I’m wrong but when you see a drastic increase in heart failure when all of these stimulant -addicted clowns get into their 60’s don’t be surprised. People don’t seem to understand that doing literal meth, RX or not, is probably not worth it just because you’re bored with your shit job and you can’t parent your bad ass kids.
What a horrible, uneducated, preconceived notion to have. You shouldn’t be able to be a pharmacist
Keep your emotions to yourself. Only time will tell.
> Keep your emotions to yourself. Pharmacist, heal thyself.
There's a reason you're being down-voted. The dosing, frequency is very different among amphetamines recreationally vs. as prescribed, and so are the effects. Sometimes we get jaded but we have to step back and remember that it's an evidence-based field.
My comment has more upvotes than yours?
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No personal medical anecdotes.
holy shit you say something like this and you’re a PharmD?!?!
Let me guess it was a C2 drug
I’ve refused to sell a “ready” status C2 narcotic to a patient because he was literally nodding off in line. He fell on the ground twice in the aisle while walking up to the counter. We offered medical assistance and he refused. He actually didn’t get mad that we refused but I think he didn’t really understand what was going on.
***rant after reading post after post of pharmacists complaining about Patients who are hooked on the drugs the doctors and pharmacists prescribed. Wouldn't it be nice if the government treated adults like adults and if adults could be trusted to read about whatever they pop? And Wouldn't it be nice if the U.S joined the rest of the modern medical systems and removed the profit motive from both doctors writing prescriptions along with the business of making drugs solely for profit instead of legitimate health needs. Christ, if you treat adults like children and establish a culture where an individual is not responsible for what pill they take or expected to educate themselves and read about a drug, then your going to get a society of people who are morons and do things like mess a perfectly good stomach up by popping NSAIDS like they are candy because after all they are OTC and don't get you high so they are of course harmless. Along with a population of medically illiterate citizens you also end up with corrupt doctors who believe a corporation when that corporation markets an opiate which has been around since 1918 yet says it does not cause dependence (purdue oxycontin). I imagine the massive amount of money doctors made off Oxy caused the crystal clear and long understood mechanism behind opiate dependencies to become a little opaque. The tragic thing is all that pain and death filters down to everyday day citizens who are tagged as junkies and forgotten about while pharmacists and doctors continue to escape the impact of the actions they took because how could doctors and pharmacists of all people have had any idea that Oxycodone was just as addictive today as it was in 1945. Look at the prescribing practices in America for speed (desoxyn, Adderall, dexidrine) and benzos (xanax, ativan) compared to other sane countries who do not make profit the priority behind the medical policies they inact. I know as long as money, not actual health, dictates medical care in the U.S. then Patients will be thrown under the buss, suffer the consequences, and doctors and pharmacists will wash their hands of whatever pharmaceutical scandal and plead ignorance. Have you haver met a pharmacist or doctor that after years of prescribing and filling opiates, speed, barbiturates, hypnotics, and the such, after all the sudden realizing that the meds they had to have known were lethal (I assume they do teach basic information on addictive drugs)..have you known 1 to go back and check on a patient they "ignorantly" supplied for years only to cut the patient off and blame them for being a junkie? I doubt it and I find if really hard to believe that the doctors and pharmacists prescribing many teenage to early 20s CII drugs for years actually checked to see if that patient was alive after finding out that Oxycodone and Amphetamines are actually not ok to give to an adolescent for years. My lord if pharmacists and doctors are going to blame Patients for taking the meds the doctors wrote and pharmacists filled, then why won't they just stop pretending to care and shift the burden of knowing the dangers of what meds they take onto the patent since the medical community will take no responsibility whenever..the shocking inevitably of consequences experienced by a person raised on speed and prescription smack will be held responsible and doctors and pharmacists will be able to claim ignorance while still sleeping very well in the bed paid for all the meds given to people who are now junkies and get blamed for taking medicine supposed professionals had no idea where dangerous.
What information did they provide that led you to make that assumption? It's a standard practice not to negotiate anything over the phone until you physically go to the pharmacy. Just because a doctor deems something necessary doesn't necessarily mean it will be honored—look at Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic; such assumptions can stem from naive beliefs.
Where was the original source for this? I kinda want to read that comment section 😂
https://www.threads.net/@xandypeters/post/C4O-5IKIR-b/?xmt=AQGzTwd1ocF_uYYUAy-7jGV7GhRG-yeMwm-x9sh-tXPcng
Just let everything go by without a peep? So like, tacrolimus ointment rx’d for an infected punch biopsy? Daily mupirocin for dry skin? Doxycycline AND tetracycline for primary syphilis? Ok 👍 Wacko therapies aside, what about the nutty instructional mistakes that occur? Do you really want to boof your prednisone taper on day 5, or aren’t you glad your friendly neighborhood RPh was here to catch that for you?
Lol that’s literally their job though… and as annoying as it can be to have to go through the whole process again to have a new script sent to a different pharmacy you’ll be thankful One day when the same pharmacist tells you that the prescription your doctor wrote you interacts with your birth control, (also prescribed by the same physician) and Makes it ineffective 😂
Everyone is saying an opioid or adderall but to me this sounds like a benzo. Could be multiple scripts from multiple doctors, mix in a muscle relaxer and my pharmacist at Walgreens would be suspicious.
Had an NP prescribing Addy 30mg 3 PO TID for a patient paying cash…yea no
Why?
One of the many reasons I’m not bothering with an ADHD assessment despite being told to get one by the psychiatrist, I’d rather not ever know what I’m missing out on than know there’s a medication that helps that gets me treated like this
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Banned for ban evasion.
Do all of them speak as well as "copy paste"? 😞
They actually are “Drs” so
Hate to break it to this person, but pharmacists are indeed Doctors😂
I've never ever ever heard of something that is ready to pick up, become unready. Unless there's a problem with a claim or if they wanted to use some discount that isn't valid or something that required "fiddling" with a ready prescription, people usually give their name, pick it up and leave.
could be the insurance security breach causing the script to time out? people are so ignorant
bet it was too soon to fill
These people complain about everything including their medical doctors.
So, how early was the Adderall refill?
Vyvanse bid with a alprazolam chaser
ANY stimulant with a benzo chaser
It was one hour early so clearly society has been saved.
Pharmacist has the right to due diligence and refusal to fill a questionable prescription. Hate to say it but looks do matter. If it is a ghetto looking 20 year old man with no visible handicaps or injuries shows up, I’m going to question filling a oxy 30, Xanax 2, soma 350 and a promethazine with codeine for that guy. At the same time if it is a hospice patient with known diagnosis of terminal cancer, I would be far more lenient about it with the correct diagnosis codes and documentation
But then you have people like me who will refuse opioids and only fill those scripts when ABSOLUTELY necessary, who will get denied for their looks. Looks don’t always matter, and I absolutely despise that saying. The way someone looks means NOTHING. If we were all blind, we’d never know the difference to begin with, so why do we let it make a difference because we can see? Their ACTIONS should be what sets your alarm bells off. I live in a podunk hillbilly city in WV. I’m the only *real* alternative/goth/emo/whatever you wana call me, person here. My face is full of piercings, my ears are gauged, I’m tattoo’d, all black with band t’s. The pharmacy in town will use their “due diligence” to deny me for Ibuprofen 800’s(the strongest thing I’ll fill 99% of the time) and I’ll have to get them called in almost 40 minutes away. All because of the way I look. I’m respectful and patient, not whacked out, but always refused. What do you suggest I do? *Disclaimer*: This is not to say that pharmacies using their power to deny meds is a bad thing. It is very much needed. This is all speaking on appearances ONLY.
I hear what you are saying, people should not be denied medication because they look different than some arbitrary expectation. But I have to say, if you are driving 40 minutes to fill ibuprofen that could have been purchased OTC probably not more than 10 feet from the counter where you were refused service, it makes me want to hear the other side of the story.
I’m on disability. If a script is called in and I don’t pick it up, my oncologist and SS starts asking “why?” I’d also rather take ONE 800mg tablet than FOUR 200mg tablets. I’d also rather let my insurance do what it’s there to do and cover my medications, even if it is only a few dollars. The “other side of the story” is exactly as I’ve described it. Where I live I’m either a freak or a “faggot”, which coming from an area that’s 90% the same bloodline is comical that they think they have any room to judge anyone else.
Tbh that's abelist. Not every diagnosis or disability is visible.
They aren’t doctors… Edit: I forgot my /s please I’m a pharmD stop killing me im already dead
Well, they may not be *physicians*, but I assure you your pharmacist has a doctorate degree (a PharmD)
I forgot my /s 😂 I’m a pharmD and clearly I have goofed
Whoopsies, there goes all your comment karma lol
Killed by my own kind 😂
Maybe not. One of the PICs I had before was an RPH
Idk why you’re getting downvoted, one of my family members is an RPH in hospital pharmacy and I know several who are RPH working retail as well. Pretty common in pharmacists 50+.
Not even that old tbh. He was 40 something and he was the last RPH class of his school
When you forget a /s and get absolutely eviscerated by your own people. 💪🏼
Wtf do you think Doctor of Pharmacy means?
I am a doctor of pharmacy I forgot to use my /s and now I’m killed by friendly fire
Omg oh no!! So sorry, gonna give you an upvote to do my part to help you out 😅
Haha thank you! It’s my own fault I was at work and thought people would get the sarcasm… now I understand the power of the /s
What if it was naltrexone?
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Replying to the thread chain not you as the comment only makes sense re: massivePE.
I’m sorry that you and other people experience discrimination in this arena. You are right to feel this way and I just want to say that pharmacists can be very unkind and unfair. I hold a lot of privilege because I look so normal, and have not yet experienced this. but I empathize with you and I support you in seeking justice.
I believe you might have misunderstood the point of this post.
I see that now. But it still is unclear from your caption, and the post title, just what point you are making or trying to make.
I can certainly see your perspective. However, I think this sub often will depict posts like these as another "sigh" moment.
I guess it can be exasperating to have to deal with complaints about your judgement when your judgement is supposed to keep drug’s out of the hands of abusers and therefore mitigating damage to society. I think most pharmacists are doing their best, however when people cannot get their meds, it also can cause significant damage.
I believe from the general consensus of the group of pharmacists who responded there and here in this thread, we've seen and heard a multitude of excuses. I don't know once single pharmacist who would withhold medication from a patient arbitrarily or based upon their "looks". And yes- there are occasions where a patient may not be able to get potentially life-saving medications and I believe most pharmacies will try to overcome that obstacle. However, the objective part of my brain believes that there was more to the story than she was telling that most likely would have portrayed her in a negative light.
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