Big Problem at Pharmacy---Advice Please

[shinty]

I don't understand why you are "stuck" with this pharmacy. If it's simply the pharmacy listed on your agreement with your doctor, I think you can change it if you tell them BEFORE you use another pharmacy. If that isn't the case then I'm sorry........
Sean

[AnnieK]

Have you considered getting your medications through the mail? I have never done it but I know that my insurance sends information about it often.
Merry Christmas!
Annie K

[Pharmacist.steve]

Mail order is not - IMO - the best idea.. all drugs have a required storage temp of mid 50's to mid 80's ... some even the mid 70's. Everyone (manufacturer, *********r, pharmacy) is required to maintain storage temp.. that is until the pharmacy drops them into the postal/shipper service.. then all bets are off. There has been some tests on certain drugs and in the heat of summer.. they have lost 50% of their potency. Also if meds get lost in the mail, stolen off your front porch or mailbox or don't show up on time.. you are going to do ??? If something is wrong with your meds - we are all human and make mistakes - you are going to have to deal with a "faceless" virtual pharmacy... via telephone or email... that is 100's or 1000's of miles away. Complain to the board of Pharmacy in your state - no matter which state they operate in - and you are going to end up dealing with a huge exchange of letters/email and probably get little resolved. Other than those and some other issues... mail order is on par with your local pharmacy.

[Lil E]

I've found that that 25 days is the general time whether you are insured or not, I'm not, but some pharmacists think they're god. Definitely fill out the complaints Steve has recommended its the only way to get anywhere.

[alex44]

I totally agree - what if your exact fill day is a holiday? IMHO, every cp'er should have a small reserve to compensate for situations like this. Its getting harder but can be done.
Happy holidays - hope this finds you well
Alex44

[southernlady]

There are ways to complain about the behavior of a pharmacist that will get their attention and fast. Use social media like Facebook to get to the corporate office and get results.

Just three days ago, I finally was able to pick up a prescription that my doctor had called in the Friday before New Year's but due to it being a controlled substance and the timing, it was Tues after New Years before the original issue was cleared up. Then it took almost a week for them to get the medication.

Anyway, my husband complained on their wall:

I was sitting in the waiting area with my wife at the Kroger Pharmacy (and gave the address) I happened to overhear a conversation between the registered pharmacist with the initials "M H" and a customer over the telephone. The pharmacist was very rude, curt, and abrupt with the caller on the telephone stating that the request being made "constituted insurance fraud which was a Class "C" Felony.

After the pharmacist had concluded the conversation, the pharmacist was bragging to the coworkers behind the pharmacy counter "Were you the person who hung up on me last week?" She jokingly stated to the coworkers, "Probably".

Is this how Kroger shows how much they value their customers?

Both my wife and myself will be moving ALL of our prescriptions to another pharmacy as a result of this incident.

He got a response on their wall within mins and less than 4 hours after he posted that, the pharmacist in question called him to apologize.

While she was correct about the fact that what the woman wanted to do was not legal, she was very unprofessional in how she talked to the woman and in her behavior after she got off the phone and that was what got her in trouble.

There are too many options for most people to tolerate rude behavior. If you can, "vote" with your feet and money, companies pay attention. And social media is a powerful tool used wisely.

Liz

[Pharmacist.steve]

Many chain pharmacies only allow their Rx dept to order C-II drugs once a week.. and if there is a higher than normal demand for a particular drug... it is not unusual to be "out of stock" for one week+... throw in a holiday and it could be longer. In regards to the "rude Pharmacist" you apparently only heard one side of the conversation and only one conversation that could have been a "serial call" from the same person... want their Rx filled early or wanting the RPh to do something that is ILLEGAL and after having told the patient NO.. several times before over the last day or two and they keep calling about it... your fuse tends to get rather short. It is not unusual for a impatient patient to call the store every 30 minutes wanting to know if the doctor has called back to authorize a refill on their Rx. even though... you have told them that the doc calls in refills at the end of the day, or the pharmacy computer system will call them or text/email them when the order has been filled.... and they continue to call every 30 minutes. At some point in time, you get tired of telling them ... how things happen and keep calling and asking the same question.
A pharmacist - in Ohio , under a new law , was just sentenced to two years in prison because he filled a legal Rx from a prescriber that the person ended up overdosing and dying. IMO.. if this type of law spreads to other states... legit patients trying to get controlled substances Rxs filled... may find a much harder time getting them filled. When we don't know when the bureaucrats are going to come after us.. somewhere down the pike ....for a patient overdosing from what otherwise appears to be a valid prescription for a controlled substances. You might want to read a couple of these Pharmacist blogs

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to hear the other side of the story.... warning... they are not always PG rated...

A one-sided conversation overheard from a "snapshot in time" doesn't really reflect the reality of the entire interaction.

I temp in a long term care pharmacy and our phone auto answer phone system plainly states IF YOUR ARE A PRESCRIBER... press ONE... if you want to talk to ORDER ENTRY/TRIAGE press TWO... The majority of calls that I get - as a pharmacist - are nursing home staff that press ONE and want me to answer a question about .. if a Rx is coming on the day's run... or some other administrative question - nothing to do with a medication issue about a patient... at the time .. I may be the only Pharmacist on staff and have 2-3 techs in triage and 3-4 techs in order entry.. I don't have time... but there is plenty of ancillary staff to take care of their problem...but I have to waste my time taking time to transferring the call to order entry or triage. We wear wireless telephone headsets and may a couple of hundred feet from my desk... and no way of transferring the call.. meaning I have to walk all the way back to my desk to transfer the call. There are some days... I have to bite my tongue to keep them from telling the caller .. to listen to the instructions .. WHEN YOU CALL BACK ... and hang up...
In reality... some patient/customers deserves such response from the Rx dept staff...
From the Kroger RPhs that I have talked to and know... Krogers could care less even if the customers becomes hostile and their demands are against the law... they want the customer's wants/needs always to be met. Which basically means that Krogers are breaking their out policies and procedures and they could care less if the RPH breaks the law.. because the RPH will be the one getting a fine, or license suspended or taken away... Kroger's itself will have no consequences
Recently ( Dec 9th) CVS... had a NATIONWIDE NINE HOURS pharmacy dept computer system unplanned shutdown... there was both faxed/email/verbal edict coming down from corporate HQ.. telling RPHs to continue to fill Rxs .. without having any access to the the customer electronic prescriptions records and threats that Rx dept would be fired if they didn't... of course doing so by the RX dept staff would be against at least 3-4 state/fed laws.
If someone would have been harmed by a medication error because they didn't have access to patient's medication records.. CVS would not have any liability or consequences... because it is against the company's policy and procedures to break a fed/state law.
In the future, perhaps, you should hold your caustic public - internet - comments unless you know the whole story.

[southernlady]

Trouble was, it wasn't her first time being rude while we were around...it was the last time tho.

Liz

[puddykat]

Certainly glad I stopped here; learned alot! Thanks for all the info. One thing I don't understand is one of you had a contract with your pharmacy? What for/why? Have never heard of that before...I'm from WI. I always try to stay on top of my meds, when to order so I don't run out. One is a pain med, written script, once a month. We live in country, don't get to that town too often so they mail it to me. Usually works out that rest of my scripts need refilling about same time. Some have zero refills, pharmacy takes care of that for me too, have drive thru window. SO drops off written script first, does errands, comes back and they are all ready. Drive thru is really nice as we both have lots of medical problems.
Have never had a problem with this pharmacy, people very nice....only minor problem is they may not have enough of a med on hand, we have to go back......big deal.

We've never had them mailed to us.......only meds we've had mailed is our kitty's meds which is about every 6 months.
Hope the person who's having all the problems gets them figured out quickly. kat

[alex44]

Southern lady has the right idea - i used Twitter on the company;s feed I had also complained to the BBB - one day after several tweets I got a call from the presidents office - I got what was promised. I will not name the company - only that it was cable tv.
Good luck - complain on twitter and the BBB may be of help due to poor cusomer service.
Blessings
A.