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.