I've received a couple of calls in the last few days from people asking me to identify some tablet that they found in their kid's room. I can definitely understand the parent's concern but it still makes me a little uncomfortable and I wonder if I am courting any HIPAA violations by doing so -- but I figure if it's a loose tablet and not in a labeled bottle then anyone should be able to pick it up and inquire as to its identity. In one case it turned out to be an Endocet. I don't try to get the parent too worked up ('you don't know who it belongs to or even if it belonged to the previous owner of your house/apartment' etc.) but of course I am not naive enough to suspect there won't be a bit of a confrontation. If it was my kid I would want to know.
People don't seem to be totally in the Christmas spirit this year. For the usual reasons, I suppose -- the economy, stress, fear of what's ahead. I sort of feel it too. Yesterday a customer was very pissed off at his insurance company who apparently told him he was active -- however, when we called them they found no record of him anywhere. As he huffed out I noticed he was wearing a large pin that said "I Celebrate CHRISTMAS." Great..... something else to be angry about.
Another guy was sitting waiting for his prescription and yelling into his cell phone (presumably to one of his employees), 'NOW GO MAKE ME SOME MONEY."
Another guy was signing for his prescription and picked up a stray pen on the counter that said (inexplicably) "The New York Times." Gee, he sneered, "people still read PRINT?"
Rather than assure him that people still did, I let it go.
Finally, a customer called and told us he was out of his narcotic pain medication and needed a refill. He had one tablet left. Oh, and he had NO way to get into the pharmacy to pick it up. There was NO one he could send to pick it up. Did we deliver? Well, no we don't. (Now, at this point we don't even have a refill request in to the doctor, much less a signed prescription ready to go.) Even if we get the prescription immediately and mail it, we're looking at several days, and it's a holiday weekend. WHY oh WHY do people do this? We try to help them out as much as possible, but there's just not a lot we can do in this situation. Add it to the stack of problems. I have no clue how it turned out.
Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone!!! -- hope you get some time off AND enjoy it!!
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4 comments:
Most of the time I get a call asking to identify a pill it's somebody who wants to make sure their drug dealer didn't cheat them. I get "i found it on the floor" or "i mixed my pills up, and oh, yes i go to your pharmacy" upfront, but then they refuse to provide me with their name and birthday. Then I get cussed out when I suggest they call the pharmacy they got their medicine from, because there is no reason why I need their info to be able to tell them if xanax comes in green color or if percocet has certain numbers on it. I do work in an area where >90% of population is on benefits and government aid.
You, too Frantic.
Pill ID on the internet is a wonderful thing.
Definitely the drug deal scenerio. I often wonder if the next sound I hear is going to be a gun shot when I say, "why no, that's not a hydrocodone it's a blood pressure med." If I hear traffic in the background my software will definitely be "down" at the moment.
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