Refills

ME: What are we debating today?
CP: Refills.
MYSELF: Bartender!
CP: No. For as long as we have been filling prescriptions, we have had to deal with the most convenient method of communicating to the patient the number of refills remaining on her prescription while also fitting it comfortably on the label.
ME: I'll set the stage. We have a prescription for a patient. The prescriber writes it as:
"Take 1 tablet by mouth once a day"
Dispense 90 tablets
With 3 refills.
CP: Which is fine, unless the patient only receives part of the whole, original 90 tablets. Let's say they only are allowed to fill for 30 days at a time.
MYSELF: Let's show how this would look using the traditional methods of putting refills on the label:

A. 3 refills remaining (tells us there are 3 full fills of 90, but doesn't account for the remaining 60 of the initial fill.)
B. 3+ refills remaining (nice. but doesn't tell us how many are left in the "+".)
C. 3.67 refills remaining (nice. a math problem for refills. except patients don't know they were originally prescribed 90, some suck at math, and others think it's a price.)
And the non-traditional method:
D. 330 tablets remaining (specific.)

CP: Here are my issues with each of these:
A. Simple and direct. However, as you said, "3 refills" doesn't account for the partial quantity filled. In fact, this label will show "3 refills" for the next 2 fills, until the patient dips into the 2nd set of 90 at which time their bottle will show "2 refills" for 3 consecutive fills. Confusing for the patient.
B. "+"? How many? Is it an even number of fills? Did the patient buy 7 as cash so the "+" means 23 tablets? I have always loathed this option. Is it like a B+ in math? You need that for the next option.
C. Math is hard. It's only helpful if the patient knows the original prescribed quantity. Otherwise, what does 3.14 refills mean? (And no, you cannot cash it in for pi.) This is especially inconvenient with e-scripts since the patient never knows how many were prescribed.
D. I think this is the most helpful, unless you are dispensing something on volume and the remaining quantity is in the ten thousands (think Mesalamine enemas).

ME: What do you think the consensus will be?
CP: There won't be one. When labels were entered on a typewriter, then on a dot matrix printer, then on the first computer programs, spacing was critical, and basic. However, now that our computers can adjust the characters to fit lengthy directions on the label, the refills should be the next, easiest section to adjust.
MYSELF: Personally, I like the last option. But I also prefer that e-scripts are sent to us using quantity and units as well so as to lessen confusion.
CP: And isn't that the point? If we are supposed to make things less confusing for the patients, why do we still use old methods that require slide rule to understand? What say you?