Pharmacist loyalty??
We had a very odd call today. Usually I answer the phone first, so I always get to put people on hold or screen calls for the pharmacists. Today’s odd call went something like this.
Me: Good morning, Thanks for calling Pharmacy X this is JustATech.
Them : Can I speak to pharmacist M, please?
Me: She’s not here today, may I take a message?
Them: (indignantly) Well someone yesterday told me that Pharmacist M would be there today!! I needed to talk to her.
Me: I can take a message and have her call you back. She’ll be here Monday.
Them: No.. I really needed to talk to HER. She is the Asthma specialist..I really need to talk to her.
Me: Well, while our other pharmacists don’t have the specialized asthma training, I am sure they would be more than capable of answering your questions. Can I put you on hold for Pharmacist V?
Them: *sigh* I guess…
Pharmacist V answers the call and promptly rolls her eyes at me and keeps saying yes… yes… mhmmm ok.
Turns out that the patient will be leaving the country for a few months and needed her epinephrine injector refilled (and make SURE it has the longest availabe expiry date on it s’il vous plait!!!) and for us to call her doctor for a refill on her blood pressure medication. If she had just asked one of the others in the pharmacy on Wednesday for these things, we could have ordered the product and faxed the doctor and had a reply before the weekend. We had to place a same day order for the injector (the ones we have on the shelf expire in less than a month.. don’t get me started on returning expiries!!). It’s not likely that we will have heard back from the doctor about the BP meds today, either. Let’s hope she isn’t leaving this weekend.
I realize that I am just a technician, but both of these things are duties that I could have handled with the very first phone call the patient had made to our pharmacy days ago while looking for pharmacist M. The question had nothing to do with asthma, nor was it something that a pharmacist needed to answer… let alone one pharmacist in particular. Being loyal to one pharmacist or another is understandable, if a patient has built up a rapport with that particular person. We had many many customers follow M to our location from her previous store. She is a joy to deal with and always goes above and beyond for everyone, and never has a bad thing to say. As a matter of fact.. all the people I work with go above and beyond. The specialized training does give a definite edge to M when dealing with asthma patients, but every one of us who works there will make sure that if we don’t know the answers to questions, we will find out.
After that.. I got a call from the s/o to please come drive him to the hospital, and sat around in a waiting room most of the afternoon. If anyone out there has more information about fancy treatments for optic neuritis besides corticosteroids….. drop me a line…. specialized opthalmic pharmacists only, please!!<insert tongue in cheek>.