Moved

CPP: What did you find particularly annoying last week?

CP: Dr. Zoffis. 

CPP: Care to elaborate?

CP: I'm tired of their shenanigans. 

CPP: Care to elaborate?

CP: Patients call all the time, as do offices, to say "we watched them send it. we sent it last week. we sent it wesentit wesentitwesentit!". 

CPP: Yes. And?

CP: And what happens? We receive a refill too soon rejection at best or, the office says "can't you just call and transfer it from the other pharmacy?" making it our job to do their job since they failed the first time(s). 

CPP: What's also annoying is when patients are IN the office and specify they want their prescriptions sent to my pharmacy. They put it on the app at checkin, review with the receptionist, verify with the nurse, and confirm with the prescriber. Yet they still manage to send it to the wrong place, if it's sent at all. 

CP: Right. Well you know how we received those Sharpie-fied refill request denials from Dr. Zoffis? 

CPP: The ones that say "not our patient" or "patient died" or "no longer our patient"? 

CP: Yes. Those. Well now I've been seeing a new one: "moved office location. update your records". 

CPP: I can see why that would be bad. 

CP: How about no? 

CPP: Pushing more work onto us. 

CP: From now on, when the office sends it to the wrong pharmacy, I'm telling them that, no, I cannot do that. When I move, I fill out a change of address form alerting the post office of my new location. It is not their responsibility to inform the senders of MY mail my new address. 

CPP: It's even worse when you have providers that have multiple office locations listed but the only one from which we receive e-scripts is the "home address" of the e-rx software. 

CP: Yeah, good luck trying to discern which of the 11 offices she is working today. Maybe its #7, maybe it's #46 and #2. Maybe she's off today. Who knows. No one has even heard of her at most of the offices because she travels. 

CPP: Providers should be forced to sign in at their prescribing location when they first login to their e-scripts for the day. If they leave for another location, they need to again login to the new place. Easy. 

CP: You mean like we do when we work multiple stores?

CPP: Genius, right? 

CP: But I am not playing Where's Waldo all day. 

CPP: Let's remind people of something here, or rather ask a key question: Are you a patient of the DOCTOR? or a patient of the OFFICE?
CP: If the doctor leaves a practice for a new one, do you, as the patient, follow them making you THEIR patient? If so, then I need to know the new location to send your refill. 

CPP: Which will likely update anyway as we will continue to send requests to the DOCTOR on your file. 

CP: But, If your doctor dies/leaves and you continue to see a provider in the same office, then you are a patient of that OFFICE. 

CPP: Which means when we send refill requests, the OFFICE shouldn't send us nasty notes about "not our patient" or "doctor no longer at this location/office/practice" or any other form or quick dismissal. 

CP: Especially when the office policies "require that your pharmacy contact us for refills". 

CPP: Easier said than done when we don't know WHERE to send them. 

CP: Or TO WHOM! 

CPP: I thought e-scripts were going to make everything easier? 

CP: It certainly made it easier for Dr. Zoffis to lay blame everywhere else and shirk many responsibilities. 

Pets

CP: I don't believe animals should be allowed in stores. 

CPP: I bet the people with service animals would have a few words about that. 

CP: I'm fine with the real, honest, working service animals; not these made up "emotional support" guinea pigs and alligators and pipsqueak rat-like dogs people bring in to stores. 

CPP: Yeah, the line has been erased. 
CP: And no one says anything because we can't offer "poor customer service" or be perceived as "intolerant". I do have pets. They stay at home. 

CPP: Why the anti-pet rhetoric today? 

CP: I was thinking we should get a pharmacy phriend; a pet. 

CPP: You confuse me. 

CP: Well, it started as a post about what would make the best pharmacy pet and I ME, MICE ELF, and I were discussing it, we thought of a better topic. 

CPP: Oh do tell. 

CP: Pharmacy Mascot!

CPP: Uh-huh. 

CP: What would make the best animal representative for our profession?

CPP: I don't know. 

ME: ME! Pick ME! 

MICE ELF: I have one! Ooh! OOH!

CPP: Why can I hear the voices in your head?

CP: <shrugs> 

CPP: Okay. What did you decide? 

CP: The perfect animal would be the duck-billed platypus. 

CPP: Since you put a lot of thought into this, why is the Platypus the perfect spirit animal for pharmacy?

CP: We are simultaneously two things at once, like the DBP: we are both salaried and hourly, respected and disrespected as professionals; retail workers yet professional license holders. No one believes we exist. 

CPP: I don't think Travis Kelce will make another "two things at once" commercial based on your description of pharmacy and the platypus. 

CP: Could be fun. I think I'm going to make Pharmacy Platypus Pins. #ThePlatypusIsThePharmacySpiritAnimal 

Where Did They Go

CP: Let's play a game of where did they go?

ME: Why?

CP: I have this hatred of Outcomes and MTMs in general. 

MICE ELF: Why? Are you saying these aren't helpful? 

CP: Another post for another time but I'm saying they're a waste of time for us to fight to keep the money the insurances paid us and that it is improbable the 90 days supplies and phone calls from MTMs make patients take their medication correctly. 

ME: Thanks for the clarification. 

CP: Where do these medications go? People always say "I take these EVERY DAY! I never miss a dose. I never take more than I am supposed to take", yet here we are, 120 days in to a 90 days supply and you still have plenty of loaves and fishes to go around a few more times. 

MICE ELF: Where DO they go? 

CP: I had a guy this week looking for his one refill; no, not that one, the other one he can't remember. 

CP: Your two other medications are past due. 

Maybe It's Meth, Eh?: No I don't. I just picked them up. 

CP: If by <spits word> "just" you mean 99 days ago, then yes, you "just" picked up your 90 days supply 99 days ago. Which means you should have run out <checks math, does air calculations for dramatic effect> 9 days ago? 

MIME: I still have at least month left. 

CP: You take them every day. 

MIME: Yes. 

CP: Never miss a dose? 

MICE ELF: <they don't call him never-misses-the-mark-michaels> 

ME: <let's see who gets that reference> 

CP: Stop, you two!

MIME: Never miss a dose and it's still once a day. 

ME: I guess you're asking "where do they go" in a rhetorical sense?

CP: NO! I really want to know where they go! How do they make these supplies last so long? Outcomes tells us patients are more compliant if they receive 4x90 days supplies per year, right?

MICE ELF: So they say. 

CP: But just because we FILLED THEM, it does not mean the patients TAKE THEM! As evidenced by our MIME up above. 

ME: You could also ask: "How do they make them last so long?'

MICE ELF: <sings "marijuana in your brain. . . "

ME: Stop. No one will get that one. 

CP: Ho DO they last so long? Four fills of 90 days should last 360 days. EVERYONE tells us patients are more compliant yet all I see are patients requesting to be taken off of automatic refills and being habitually late when they call the refills in themselves. 

ME: I have the solution. 

MICE ELF: An Epi-Fanny? 

ME: You mean epiphany? 

MICE ELF: Tomato -To-mah-to. 

CP: Let's hear it. 

ME: We start a service like DoorDash or Uber and send an employee to each patient's house to ensure they take their doses of medication. 

CP: Don't let the PBMs hear that. They'll make us do that to collect our own DIR fees. Each visit nets us tenths pennies on the dollar.

ME: Call it DrugDash?

MICE ELF: Either way, patient responsibility is not OUR responsibility. Just like you can't mandate personal hygiene or car maintenance, you can't mandate personal prescription compliance AND have NOT be the end users' responsibility. 

CP: You can give a person an education, but you can't make him use it. You can give a person medication. . .