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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Penicillin Shenanigans

I get to work and the pharmacist I am relieving shows me a prescription that was left on the voicemail. It was for penicillin VK 500mg, three times daily for 10 days. He said the person that left the message didn't sound like they knew what they were talking about. The doctor name and phone number left on it were the tip off. The doctor name is not listed anywhere in out database. The phone number is a residential number and no one answers when you call. Fishy because if a doctor leaves his/her personal number with a prescription he/she will answer when you call with a question right after he/she left the message. When the lady called to find out if her prescription was ready the pharmacist told her we could not reach the doctor and we didn't have him listed so we needed his info before we could fill the prescription.

A little bit later I get a call from a lady that wants me to call the CVS in Michigan that she usually gets prescriptions filled because her doctor called in a penicillin prescription. I get the store number and her name and number and call to get the prescription. Guess what story I hear from CVS....penicillin rx, didn't sound like the person on voicemail knew what they were talking about, doctor name was the same as a clothing designer, phone number not working, etc. I also like that designer's clothing but coincidentally there is a specialist with that name who is not on call for anything because she is works with hormones and you just don't get emergencies for that. I checked with the hospital she works at. So I called the patient back to figure out what the hell is going on.

I told her we could not get hold of the doctor because she is not on call this weekend and is a specialist who would not be calling this in anyway. So the lady tells me that they must have written down the wrong doctor name because this was her family doctor. I told her to page the doctor and have her call me since we had questions about the prescription. She wanted to argue because the other pharmacy gave me the prescription so she wanted me to transfer it back I told her I would gladly transfer it back if she thought the pharmacy would fill it when she got home. After I transferred it back I figured she was done with us.

So I was telling the story to a pharmacist at another store and coincidentally he had the same penicillin rx called in under a different name and doc but they all had the same birth date. Give me a break. No one is going to fill a prescription left on the voicemail where the person does not know what they are talking about and the doctor (or their office number) is nowhere to be found.

The lady shows up at my pharmacy. She tells me who she is and demands to know why she can't get her penicillin. Of course, there are a l-o-t of people standing in line waiting because it is Saturday night and there is just a technician and myself to battle the mayhem. She wants a showdown at the McDruggie's Corrall and I am about to shoot her down again.

She tells me that she has a "sinus infection" because she is congested and has a runny nose. So I tell her the exact same thing I told her on the phone. The she tries to play the lawsuit card "I have fluid in my ears and what if my head explodes?" Frankly, I would love to see a fluid induced head explosion in real life but I just don't think it would be that spectacular and the store manager on duty never wants to hear "Wet clean-up by the pharmacy..." because it could involve many different bodily fluids or products, usually vomit. I told her to page the "doctor" and have her call us back or go to the emergency room if it is that bad but penicillin is not going to clear up congestion and fluid anyway but the OTC products she had purchased would over the next few days if she followed the package instructions.

I didn't hear anything from her or about penicillin for the rest of the week. Maybe she finally got the message: pharmacists are not stupid, go to a doctor instead of trying to call in your own prescriptions.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some people....geez. So stupid she wasn't even calling in a narc. I dunno, if I were you I'd have been blatantly honest with her. "Stop calling in your own scripts and go to the damn clinic!"

Anonymous said...

Now that's a new one...I'v heard some pretty crazy crap that goes on in retail pharmacy..but never have I heard people trying to call in their own prescriptions.

Anonymous said...

PCN is the wrong drug for sinusitis anyways! Resistance from beta-lactamase producing M. catarrhalis and H. influenzae (2 of the most 3 common sinusitis causing bacteria) call for a beta-lactamase inhibitor, augmentin is the drug of choice here.

Well, I think that proves I'm ready for my ID exam next week... time to go drink!

Big 'N Tasty RPH said...

Usually phony phone-ins are for narcotics or Viagra but the scammers are smart enough to have the md's DEA number and office phone number but we still catch many of them. I even had this queeny souding gay guy try to call in Viagra at 3am and said he was the doctor. I laughed at him on the phone and told him we could not fill it because he was not a doctor. He was trying to use a physicians name that I know personally. He even tied to scream at me but I told him to go wallow in his K-hole and don't call back. Some people are so f**king stupid...

Big 'N Tasty RPH said...

K-hole:

noun

state of being in which a person is totally FUBAR because they have done way too much "Special K" (or loosely pertaining to other street drugs) and have no grasp on reality and unable to produce an erection to be pleasured by another person(s) who are in the same state of being thus needing to procure Viagra/Levitra/Cialis, or God forbid, Muse/Caverject penis injections and pester the healthcare professional on duty in the hopes of procuring aforementioned sexual helpers

MDB said...

I've know people to call in scripts for themselves but they were MDs or dentists and it was for things they actually needed. I love the time I had some idiot calling in for the watson hydrocodone/APAP 5/500 and telling me he was the local dentist, correct DEA number but the wrong office number. I didn't even have to call the number as said dentist lives across the street from me and has for the last 20 years. I'm good friends with him and his wife as are my parents. I told the guy to take a hike and called the dentist and told them someone was trying to call in a fake script on them and gave them "the patient's name" so they could let the other pharmacies around know. The idiot was a patient they just turned away for narcs as he's a known addict and the other town dentist told him to get out and never come back.

If a town only has one or two dentists the pharmacy usually knows who is calling in, especially when each dentist maybe has 2-3 others working for them. My neighbor has himself, 2 assistants and his wife acting as secretary, I know all of them so don't try and lie and tell me your the dentist I'm not stupid.

I also remember someone calling in a script for an antibiotic and when I asked for the prescribing info the person told me (I'm assuming a female, abeit with a really gravely voice) that the information was privat and could not be given to me. That makes real sense that a doc calls in an ABX script and won't tell me who he/she is and the rest of their info, that's not "HIPPA" protected information, though that idiot seemed to think it was.

I have also got to say I feel real sorry for who ever is using Muse. I had to ask one of my professors as that was mentioned once and no one had any clue what it was, or at least the people around me didn't. If want an erection that badly your willing to inject yourself there with something you have got to be out of your mind, one word comes to mind "OUCH!"

Anonymous said...

I'm not a pharmacy student, but don't they usually prescribe Zithromax for sinus infections? I could be wrong anyways.. after all, I'm just a tech

Anonymous said...

What is it with these halfwits?... I have had the same problem in the past, but this time is a crap-cleaner LPN calling scripts for her friends and her own child. I busted her calling from a local university student clinic for a amoxicillin for her kid and threw a freaking fit when i refused to fill it. I just told her--Your child doesn't go to XYZ university and he is not a student there...please take him to his pediatrician. Sure enough...calls stopped and she now brings rxs from her pediatrician.