Rules for Offices

1. If a pharmacist is calling, you can bet it is for a valid reason. Treat it as such and listen to her.
2. Do not send an e-rx to cancel an e-rx.
3. Do not leave a voicemail to cancel an e-rx.
4. Not all faxes are refill requests. Read them before trashing them or sending them back with a signature.
5. Identify yourself. Name, rank, serial number. That way I know how to escalate my call to the proper party if required.
6. Enunciation. It has 5 syllables. You must be able to say that word so I can understand it before calling in any prescriptions to me. If I can't understand it, I didn't receive it.
7. Proofread. It's most likely the prescriber who entered the e-rx. Do him the proper courtesy of a read through before hitting "send". You'll make him look good and me love you long time.
8. Don't tell people prices and don't let your prescribers tell people prices.
9. Don't tell people "it will be there when you get to the pharmacy". People will hear that as "it will be READY" and get mad at us when it isn't.
10. When I say there is a problem with the electronic prescription I just received, do not read it to me. It didn't come across blurry. It wasn't hard to read. If I wanted it read to me, I'd call Morgan Freeman because that man can narrate. I want the incomprehensible mumbo jumbo you entered to become a coherent, intelligible script so get me the person who can fix it.
11. Talk to your prescribers. Tell them what mistakes they are making. If they don't know we are calling asking you to fix their mistakes, they will continue making the same mistakes. This means I have to keep calling you. This becomes frustrating for us both.
12. Don't leave me a voicemail when I had to leave you a voicemail because I needed clarification. More often than not you will not completely answer my question, necessitating further calls from me to you. This becomes frustrating for us both.
13. When we call on the same mistake each month, fix it in the system. Your prescribers are lazy and simply approve what the patient had last time. Too bad we called and no one fixed it. Don't know who is more at fault, you for not fixing it or the prescriber for blindly approving error-filled fills month after month. This becomes frustrating for us both.
14. Whatever you are chewing, sucking, or masticating, spit it out before talking to me. I'm not going to play the "guess what I have in my mouth" game with you.
15. If I ask you for information, believe that I need it. Just because your prescribers do not know or understand the rules and laws that apply to them and did not properly train you, their staff, on them, does not mean that I don't need a DEA#, CTP#, or NPI#. Which leads me to...
16. Do not tell me I am the only pharmacy/pharmacist that "bothers" you with these trivial nuisances. Pretty certain I am not the only pharmacist in the country who worked hard for a license and would like to retain it for its awesome money-earning potential.
17. Finally...if I tell you it isn't here, if I tell you I didn't receive it, if I tell you it's not on my voicemail, it's not on my fax machine (yes, I checked the paper tray), it's not in my e-script queue, it's not yet been received anywhere in my system, keep in mind we have a patient waiting. Give me the prescription now. Give it as a verbal or resend the e-script. I don't care. We can argue later about where it went and why your screen confirms it was sent. I have you on the phone right now with a patient waiting. Give it to me, then research it. I'll probably have to call another pharmacy to have them reverse it anyway.