Top ten secrets you should know about visiting your pharmacy:

  1. The antibiotic you're about to get probably isn't right for you. As stated in the Chicago Sun-Times article (http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/1152328,CST-NWS-health09.article) half of the prescriptions written for us when we go to the doctor for colds are … worthless. If you have a cold then you have a virus. An antibiotic does not work for a virus. Simple, huh? But you sure feel better getting that prescription don't you? Otherwise you'd think you spent a couple hours in the waiting room for nothing. But that's really what you did. Shame on the doc who is writing these things, increasing resistance in the bio world so that when we get one of those superbugs we won't have anything that works.
  2. When the doctor or nurse tells you what something costs … don't listen. They don't know what they're talking about.
  3. Despite the increasing use of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants or small handheld computers) for writing prescriptions, which could tell the prescriber if something will be covered by your insurance, doctors simply don't know if you'll be able to fill what they are writing for. It's a crapshoot. Much of the time you'll get to the pharmacy (and how often does it turn out to be 6PM on a Friday or Saturday?) only to discover that your insurance thinks the drug is too expensive and so requires a prior authorization before they'll pay. Oh well.
  4. Having a prescription written for Over-The-Counter merchandise does not mean it will be covered by your insurance. Duh. They could write a prescription for socks but do you think BlueCross would pay for it?
  5. If you abuse narcotics your pharmacist knows it. You don't lie as well as you think you do. Tip-offs include notifying us as to how much you hate taking these things, and coming in about five seconds before we close (chances are that one is a forgery). And do you really think we haven't heard the one about spilling the Vicodin into the toilet? Another one is acting like we're long lost buddies. I'm not your buddy and I doubt I want to be.
  6. HIPAA privacy guidelines really are important and your privacy rights are guarded, but … your rudeness isn't. Come in and behave like a spoiled five-year-old and believe me, everybody in town will know it.
  7. Over-The-Counter stuff is pretty much worthless, at least at the dosing allowed (and many are dangerous and worthless at more than allowed dosing). Sudafed PE? Give it up. Simethicone for gas? Nope. Hydrocortisone cream? Too weak. Saw Palmetto? A big negatory. Weight loss products? Please. Children's cold syrups? Dangerous and proven ineffective anyway. Adult cough syrups? Not really dangerous, but still ineffective: honey works better. Pretty much everything in a pharmacy that really worked could be stocked on one four-foot shelf.
  8. The six years of pharmacy school are wasted. All the studying about M of A's (Mechanism of actions … usually unknown anyway), organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, therapeutics, and all that, boil down to chasing prior authorizations and billing insurances. And ringing out customers at the cash register.
  9. Yes, sometimes pills drop onto the floor and yes we give them to you. Shocking, yes! Well, not really. Nothing is sterile you know.
  10. Pharmacist really can be trusted. I've never met a bunch of people more willing to help others at no expense to them than pharmacists. They'll give you free advice, free medicine (meaning they only charge you for the cost of the drugs, if that), a free medicine spoons. Who could ask for anything more (other than national health insurance)?
  11. Had to put this on in: Everyone—and I mean everyone—hates insurance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Does God Care About Football?

Today I finally received the answer to the question I’ve asked nearly all my life: Does God care about football? Richard John Mouw informs me [TU, Voices of Faith, 2/3/18¹] that “God cares much about how the game is played. And it is not simply about how the players treat each other.” Has Mr Mouw read the New Testament? I get that the Old Testament is quite football-worthy, what with all that smiting and so forth, but it sure seems that the NT becomes quite un-football-esque in places. But maybe that’s just me. It’s not as if Matthew 25, or the Sermon on the Mount comes down on the side of how we treat one another. Did not Jesus say it best when he offered us, "Do to others what you want them to do to you...and hit ‘em hard! Knock his block off. Role the replay!" No, he didn’t say exactly that, but one can imagine him saying it...if you pretend for a moment that you live in the universe of Richard John Mouw. I’d leave football out of the equation. No spectacle where
Read more
Bad bugs the new white meat? As reported by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times recently (Sun, Mar 15 th , "Pathogens in Our Pork), hog farms are now infected with the dangerous bug known as MRSA (pronounced " Mersa "). As estimated by the University of Minnesota, up to 39 percent of pigs on hog farms harbor the superbugs which are resistant to almost all forms of antibiotics. (More people die from MRSA in the United States than from HIV.) Why? Same reason as why doc's give out prescriptions to treat viral infections like colds and ear infections: mis -use of antibiotics. As Kristof writes, more antibiotics are given to livestock in North Carolina alone than goes to treat the entire U.S. population. This is all due to the tremendous leverage that the agribusinesses have on Washington politicoes . The citizenry is being plowed under for the sake of increasing the yield of hog, cow and chicken farmers. It's as if the Congress is doing as Marie Antoinette, s
Read more

Change? Who needs change?

  When the status quo works so well, I mean. That's the impression I get when I visit the government affairs section of APhA, the site for the American Pharmacists Association. On the docket for the Advocacy Agenda is … Single-payer insurance? No. Health care reform of any sort? Nope. How about controlled substance policy and medguide management? Well, of course. You know, the really important things. After all, we need to nip these medguides in the bud. In…the…bud! We're bud nippers at APhA, that's what we are (apologies to Barney Fife). Why doesn't APhA get it? Not sure. I suppose they might be afraid their members could be on the short end of the stick (again), but if that is so it seems to me that the smart course of action would be to get in on the ground floor and advocate for change that benefits pharmacy. And change is coming, sure as shootin'. APhA might also like the existing system. Nah. No one likes this system short of the insurance companies. So what
Read more