Who?

ME: What should we discuss to begin 2024?

MICE ELF: Do Indiana University bookstores sell "Hoosier Daddy" T-shirts? 

ME: Why is this relevant?

MICE ELF: It's nor worse than the South Carolina jokes out there. 

ME: But the relevance to pharmacy today? 

CP: It's an honest question because I was ruminating earlier about Who's Your Doctor so you can see where the inference was drawn by MICE ELF. 

ME: True. So we are discussing Who's Your Daddy, I mean Doctor? 

CP: Yes. The real question to answer is this: Are you a patient of the PROVIDER? or of the OFFICE? 

MICE ELF: Context? 

CP: A patient comes to the counter and we explain we have faxed her refill requests multiple times. She asks to which provider we are sending it and we tell her Peter Gozinya. She says "I've never heard of him". 

ME: <snickers> 

CP: . . . and we explain it's another provider in Dr. Zoffis, probably the CNP who signed off on her previous refill request. She will ask: "why did THEY call it in? I've never seen them" and I'll reply with "are you ever not home? Who answers your phone or takes your messages? Same concept".

MICE ELF: Or, as often happens, she will respond with "I switched providers last year! I don't know why you'd send it there". 

CP: When we send refill requests, they go to the person who approved them last. Now, the wrinkle we all are expecting: what happens if the provider either 

a. leaves the practice to practice elsewhere or

b. dies?

ME: Do you follow the provider to their new location? If so, you are a patient of the PROVIDER. 

MICE ELF: If you do not move with them, or they died, do you remain a patient of the "PRACTICE"?

ME: <sarcastically> Jeez, CP. Why is this knotting your knickers today?

CP: Because of the refill requests we send that are returned to us with notes like these: 

"not our patient" - really? because she was last month. 

"provider not at this location" - really? because this is the e-script I received from this location last month.

ME: Okay. Then I suppose I shall follow up with the obvious final question.

MICE ELF: Which is?

ME: Whose responsibility is it to know where the patient is being seen?

ME, MICE ELF, CP: THE PATIENTS'!

<and they all laughed and laughed until they burst into tears>