It's the last (week)day of 2011. Things are chugging along fairly smoothly in the ol' pharmacy, until about 4:20 pm. And at that point things go completely, totally to hell. The phone starts ringing nonstop, because the whole world has discovered that:
a) they still have money in their flex spending accounts that needs to be used up before the new year, or
b) having met their deductible and having no copays, they really really want to squeeze in one more refill of their medications before the copays kick in again on January 1st.
Now, I'm not blaming anyone for wanting to save some money, but I do blame them for waiting until the VERY LAST minute to cheerily advise me that they'll be stopping by in 15 minutes. God, it's frustrating. And if they have no refills remaining (as is often the case) then they're stunned that I can't snap my fingers and make it happen. True, perhaps they haven't filled that prescription since 2009, but what's the big deal "I'm sure my doctor will OK it." And damned if some of them don't get on the horn to the doctor's office (apparently), because I start getting calls from exasperated nurses telling me to go ahead and fill so-and-so's acne medication one more time. The doctor's offices must be as sick of this as I am.
Also had one customer, getting on an overseas flight that afternoon, plop down a bunch of empty bottles and then proceed to get restless once 10 minutes had passed and we weren't finished. Only had a few tablets of one of his meds in stock -- it was a 'nonessential' so had no problems telling him he was SOL. In fact, even if it was an essential medication, I guess he would have been SOL.
The end result was standing-room-only in the pharmacy well past closing time. The Overtime Gods will not be happy.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.....!
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