Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Uh, What Are We Refilling Here?

This is weird. And it's real. I promise I didn't photoshop this. The only thing I did was take out as much identifying stuff as I could find.

This is a fax I got from Walgreens, to refill meds. I get lots of these every day. I sign and fax them back. But this one caught my eye.

In the middle of the script, right after the patient's address, is the phrase "Give a dog treat always!"

I have no idea why it's there. The patient isn't a dog. She doesn't even have a dog.

Astounded, I called Walgreens. The pharmacist didn't know why it was there, either. He also doesn't have a dog.

(click to enlarge)

14 comments:

Rx Intern said...

That's slightly awesome, but slightly wrong at the same time. Maybe one of the pharmacists/techs/interns had a dog training class they were attending at some point, and were making some practice sheets...who knows!

KC in Fla said...

Well, this is just a guess mind you, but since I work at Walgreens and know a little about what we do...

I think that was put on the patient's profile ( probably after the address or name) to remind whoever waits on said customer to give them a treat for their pet. Obviously someone dropped the ball one time and got chewed out.

We have a customer like that as well. I had to go out on the floor one day and grab a box of Milk-Bones off the shelf- or face the wrath of both our customer and his slobbering pooch. ;-)

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Thank you, KC!

Maybe this sort of thing isn't that unusual in your world. I'd never seen it before, and was quite surprised.

KC in Fla said...

Your Welcome!
It's not something that you would see normally. Our system, because patients can log in to get refills, etc. has been modified in the last year or so. We no longer have a "Notes" section we can use to put stuff like this in. I'm guessing someone put something rather impolite there and got busted by a patient.

So anything like that or say " Double-count" "Brand names only" etc. has to be placed on the profile as this note was. A P.I.T.A., but there you go!

Anonymous said...

Also, on the bottom it is noted there's a translating service, and until I read the perfectly reasonable explanation from KC, I would've suggested that the automatic translation came upon something that was misinterpreted.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully your profession will never have to use a drive up window.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Wouldn't surprise me if we did. Everyone else is.

Anonymous said...

Yuck.
Fiorinal for migraines.

Seriously, don't you find that this drug is WAAAAAAAy abused?

In my experience, and mind you, I'm justa pharmacist, this drug creates a bunch of problems. Oh, goodness. The only patient I ever fired was a Fiorinal addict. Poor thing.

Perhaps the only thing worse is opiates for "migraines".

No?

Just--just be careful with that stuff. It's always middle-aged women, too, and they will make you miserable with the constant e-mails and phone calls and begging.

I warned you.

Anonymous said...

And, I love your blog.

Sincerely,
Ann

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Thank you Ann.

I agree with you, and don't use it that much. Sometimes I just don't have a choice, depending on a patient's insurance and other issues.

Jess said...

Stupid dog treats!!! It's 5 o'clock and I have 7 cars in each lane of drive through, and it never fails. People bitching to get their dog' treats. When people specifically ask, I tell them that we are out. It's like really, do you want good service with your prescription needs, or feed your dog, because you are too lazy too. We have some customers with crazy things in their address lines too. Sorry, apparently I work at WAG too. I can only imagine what you (the MD) have to deal with as well. I usually only have to deal with them for a few minutes.

Anonymous said...

I'm a CPhT with Walgreens. We sometimes put comments like this in the address field, because it shows up on the front of the label and because techs can edit it. There is a way to put comments on patients the "right" way, but these can only be edited by the pharmacists, and they only show up in the computers, not on the labels.

rxgirl said...

be careful with those "notes". one time we put a note on a customer's profile that she is a "b*tch" and she saw the label. boy, was that a fun day.

PharmD09 said...

I too work at Walgreens and the dog treats come in with our warehouse. We ran out of dog treats once and a customer said that if his dogs don't get treats in the drive-thru they get "mad". So he actually came inside, bought dog treats, handed us two treats, then went and pulled back through the drive-thru so his dogs could get the dog treats they "expected".

 
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