Note: "Philes" here is a play on "files" and is not meant to indicate any affinity I have for Big Pharma -- believe me, there is no love lost there (as those of you who've read my "Sicko" post know all too well)!
Grr... I just got back from a trip to the local [Corporate Pharmacy] after lingering for ten minutes in their "parked call" netherworld -- I'd tried phoning and was on hold for a ridiculously long time, with only the pseudo-apologetic automated voice periodically piping up to reassure me that my call would be "the next answered"; the staff were busy with other customers, etc.
Fortunately, I live just a few blocks away, so I tumbled into my a/c-free car and huffed through the 88-degree dusk down to [Corporate Pharmacy] (I'd have walked, but I had about 8 minutes before they closed). Upon arriving at the pick-up window, I asked the lone pharmacist if my doctor had phoned in refills on my blood pressure med; I'd called it in over the weekend, knowing this would give the doc's office all of Monday to fax over their permission. Well, I didn't know -- it wasn't there yet last night, hence my phone check-in tonight. Last night's dose was my last, so I was hoping for at least an "emergency" coupla-pills to tide me over til tomorrow.
Now, the problem wasn't that the pharmacist wouldn't give me two pills. He gave me three, and with minimal grumbling. The problem was that I'd been on hold for ten minutes, and the place was quiet as a tomb. If that place was overrun with customers a moment earlier (while I was on hold), damned if they hadn't vanished without a trace at the first whiff of my arrival.
Had he parked me, and then reparked me, and then reparked me, out of laziness?
This guy, an old coot, a relic who started out in the days when pharmacy graduates could only dream of making in ten years what today's fresh-faced grads can count on as soon as they toss their caps and gowns -- I'm talking about starting six-figure salaries inflated by massive demand -- this guy has given me trouble in the past. The only reason I was able to see through his lazy facts-fuzzing is because I'm a pharmacy tech myself; I knew full well that my particular insurance gave vacation overrides for maintenance meds -- he was trying to tell me it didn't, stone-faced and cranky to boot. I wasn't about to go off to England without my birth control, so I revealed my pharm-tech identity and blew his cover.
It's never pleasant or easy, speaking truth to "power." But I walked out of there with my BC.
My point is ... well, that this haggling-for-meds is just a tiny evil in light of our crumbling healthcare system. "Crumbling," of course, only when you consider patients' rights. (The whole deal just keeps getting better and better for Big Pharma and Big Insurance, it goes without saying, though it seems we really can't say it enough.) My "sub"-point is that cranky, bitter pharmacists are salt in the wound. Well, maybe not salt, but at the very least a hovering gnat.
Sigh. I don't blame the guy entirely. I wouldn't want his job for all the tea in China. Or all the whizz-bangs on a brand new Lexus SUV (with maybe two exceptions, all the pharmacists I've worked with have had whizz-bang SUVs). This is simply because I'd never have the time or energy to sit down and enjoy all the expensive doodads I could buy with my wads of cash. As far as I can tell, and especially during this nightmarish era of Medicare Part D, being a pharmacist sucks.
So, Gary-or-whatever-your-name-is at my local [Corporate Pharmacy], I'm not holding a grudge. Just don't try pulling any more fast ones, ok?
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