Drama-rama

I just hate women.

Hypocritical, perhaps, as I am one myself. But, simply put, we are just bitches.

My pharmacy manager is currently causing a bunch of drama because she has the habit of treating most of her techs (and students, like moi, occasionally) like they are pieces of shit. If someone does one thing differently than she does, it's "wrong" in her eyes and she is known to go off on them far past the point of being respectful.

She's only in the store in the first place because she wants to move on up the administrative chain, and she makes it pretty clear. She complains about her job constantly; she's flustered as soon as we're busy enough that no one is standing around doing nothing; she pages the front store for "register assistance" nearly every time we get even a small rush - and the patient is helped by the time the front store even gets back there. And she has a tendency to turn on you in a heartbeat and make you feel like a moron if you mess something up.

While she's nice to me because I know what I'm doing, I also have five years of pre-pharm/pharmacy school under my belt. A technician is not "stupid" simply because they don't know something that she or I have learned in school. One of our technicians, a really sweet girl, just started about 6 months ago with no previous experience. She has great customer service and already can handle typing in prescriptions and handling most minor insurance problems. This is progress, yes? How does my pharmacist expect her to know everything in a week when she's never even been in a pharmacy before?

It's easy to take for granted what you've learned in school and on the job, and it's easy for pharmacists to act like they're high and mighty and holier-than-thou. I will do everything I can to ensure that I will not be that kind of pharmacist. You can't run a pharmacy without your techs, and while you need to certainly put your foot down sometimes, you as pharmacist have NO right to treat your technicians like they are idiots simply because they don't have the knowledge that you do.

Our store is losing technicians because of her behavior, and I'm glad. My pharmacist needs to learn that there are repercussions for her actions.

-sigh-

I used to work for an optometrist. Served as a secretary of-sorts, and was the person who put a puff of air in your eye, which everyone hated. And the optometrist I worked for, while a nice guy whom the patients loved, didn't really know what he was doing in regards to prescribing medications. Thank goodness these people don't have DEA #s.

Called one up yesterday since we couldn't find her in our computer system - she was a new girl right out of school. Since she has no DEA #, I needed some sort of identifying number so Anthem could process the claim. So, I called them up and asked for the NPI number. I was put on hold, and then -

Office gal: "Sure, it's 12345678B."

Me: "No, that's not it, that's her license number. NPIs don't have letters. It should be 10 digits."

I was put on hold (again) for a minute or two, then:

Office: "Well, she isn't here, and we don't have it."

Me: "How do you process insurance claims if you don't have the NPI number?"

Office: "So..this can't wait until tomorrow?"

Me: "The patient is waiting. I can tell him that it will have to wait, but I doubt he'll be happy."

Back on hold.

They finally found it, but sheesh. I had my OD's NPI memorized, for crying out loud. I'm not sure how anything is getting done over there.

My roommate, a fellow intern, and I both worked extra hours at our respective stores, both part of the same retail chain, over Thanksgiving break. This was despite TPTB at our university scheduling four exams for us this week - because, let's face it, we need the money, and we're not going to get it next year once our rotations start.

While procrastinating last night, she told me about one of her patients, a woman who apparently has caused problems in her store before. She came in insisting that she was out of her Darvocet and clindamycin, and she needed refills! However, she had just gotten them filled and then picked them up a week or so before according to the records, so insurance wasn't going to pay (not that she was going to get the Darvocet regardless, even if she paid cash). The woman insisted that she did not pick up those medications and do you mean that you SOLD her MEDICATIONS to another PERSON? My roommate was given the task of searching the sign logs, which of course had just been filed away to the basement, for the woman's prescriptions. And, as always happens in these situations, they hadn't been signed for (whoops).

The pharmacist told the woman that the doctor would have be called about an override - luckily, instead of getting royally pissed off, the woman accepted this and went merrily on her way. That was it, until my roommate picked up the phone about an hour later. Same patient. She had a question about one of her medications.

"What is this for? It's P-R-O-P-O-X-Y-P-H-E-N-E..."