In Praise of Pharmacists
Apr. 29th, 2005 08:50 amOK, so, an admission of bias from the get-go: since ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beckyfeld is a pharmacist, I tend to think of all pharmacists as being kind, highly competent, friendly folk. But in this case, I come to praise a pharmacist who happens not to be related to me.
Here's the deal. I had a prescription on which I had run out of refills. So I called the doctor's office and asked them to call in a new prescription so that I could pick it up last night (I'll need it during the yom tov and cannot be guaranteed of being able to pick it up today, what with all the rest of the stuff that has to happen before Shabbat/Y"T start). And (after being put on hold twice and giving my name to 3 different people), I gave my office phone number to the person at the doctor's office in case there might be a delay in getting the prescription called in. This was about 11:30 AM.
At about 1:30, I figured I'd call over to the pharmacy and see if it had been called in. No dice. (Of course, there was also the problem of the fact that whoever was the first person I spoke to at the pharmacy was not overly competent. We had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: Good afternoon. I'm calling to find out if my doctor has called in my prescription yet.
Them: Can I have your last name.
Me: [gives last name] [starts to spell last name, due to multiple experiences with people thinking they know what I said and being woefully wrong]
Them: No, I asked for your last name.
Me: That is my last name.)
So I decided I'd call back in a half hour or so, hoping that (a) the doctor's office might've called in the prescription by then and (b) that I'd get a different person on the phone at the pharmacy.
I called back around 2:15 and got a different person on the phone. She thought it was weird that the doctor's office still hadn't called in the prescription and offered to call herself, see if she could speed things along, and she told me to call back in about half an hour. Remembering my mother's advice from long ago, I asked for the woman's name so that I could speak to her directly (her name is Melissa. The pharmacy chick, not my mother. My mother's name, as many (includingdancingdeer and lucretia_borgia) can attest, is "Ima." (AKA lcNlc)). So I called Melissa back at 2:50 and asked for the status. Still no dice. Apparently, the doctor was unavailable, and they had to check something with him (because, apparently, there's some magic he has to do in order for my insurance to be happy, or somesuch). I apologetically explained to Melissa (in general "I'm going out of town" terms) about the yom tov-related time pressure and told her I was leaving my office at 4. She thought it best if I called again before I left the office. At 3:50, I called again. Still no prescription. Melissa said she'd have one of her interns call the doctor's office again and badger them (especially since it was coming up on 4, and there was a good chance that the doctor's office was going to be closing in not horribly long). I then got my act together and left my office, heading home in the method that would take me past the pharmacy, just in case. I called mabfan and warned him that there was a chance I'd have to ask him to pick up the prescription today (Friday), as I wouldn't have time to before we had to get going for yom tov.
At 4:30-ish, I emerged from the subway and my cell phone beeped, telling me I had voicemail. When I picked up the message, it wasmabfan letting me know that the pharmacy had called and -- hooray! -- my prescription was ready to be picked up. So I stopped at the pharmacy and picked it up. I asked the clerk at the desk if Melissa was around, and Melissa heard me ask for her and looked up from what she was doing. I praised her, pharmacists in general, the field of pharmacy, and all that good stuff. The other pharmacy patron in queue was nodding her head along with my assertions that one can always depend on pharmacists. And then, pills clutched in my hand, I went off to do the rest of the stuff I needed to do.
(And, apropos of absolutely nothing, today is the 5th day of the Omer)
beckyfeld is a pharmacist, I tend to think of all pharmacists as being kind, highly competent, friendly folk. But in this case, I come to praise a pharmacist who happens not to be related to me.Here's the deal. I had a prescription on which I had run out of refills. So I called the doctor's office and asked them to call in a new prescription so that I could pick it up last night (I'll need it during the yom tov and cannot be guaranteed of being able to pick it up today, what with all the rest of the stuff that has to happen before Shabbat/Y"T start). And (after being put on hold twice and giving my name to 3 different people), I gave my office phone number to the person at the doctor's office in case there might be a delay in getting the prescription called in. This was about 11:30 AM.
At about 1:30, I figured I'd call over to the pharmacy and see if it had been called in. No dice. (Of course, there was also the problem of the fact that whoever was the first person I spoke to at the pharmacy was not overly competent. We had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: Good afternoon. I'm calling to find out if my doctor has called in my prescription yet.
Them: Can I have your last name.
Me: [gives last name] [starts to spell last name, due to multiple experiences with people thinking they know what I said and being woefully wrong]
Them: No, I asked for your last name.
Me: That is my last name.)
So I decided I'd call back in a half hour or so, hoping that (a) the doctor's office might've called in the prescription by then and (b) that I'd get a different person on the phone at the pharmacy.
I called back around 2:15 and got a different person on the phone. She thought it was weird that the doctor's office still hadn't called in the prescription and offered to call herself, see if she could speed things along, and she told me to call back in about half an hour. Remembering my mother's advice from long ago, I asked for the woman's name so that I could speak to her directly (her name is Melissa. The pharmacy chick, not my mother. My mother's name, as many (including
dancingdeer and lucretia_borgia) can attest, is "Ima." (AKA lcNlc)). So I called Melissa back at 2:50 and asked for the status. Still no dice. Apparently, the doctor was unavailable, and they had to check something with him (because, apparently, there's some magic he has to do in order for my insurance to be happy, or somesuch). I apologetically explained to Melissa (in general "I'm going out of town" terms) about the yom tov-related time pressure and told her I was leaving my office at 4. She thought it best if I called again before I left the office. At 3:50, I called again. Still no prescription. Melissa said she'd have one of her interns call the doctor's office again and badger them (especially since it was coming up on 4, and there was a good chance that the doctor's office was going to be closing in not horribly long). I then got my act together and left my office, heading home in the method that would take me past the pharmacy, just in case. I called mabfan and warned him that there was a chance I'd have to ask him to pick up the prescription today (Friday), as I wouldn't have time to before we had to get going for yom tov.At 4:30-ish, I emerged from the subway and my cell phone beeped, telling me I had voicemail. When I picked up the message, it was
mabfan letting me know that the pharmacy had called and -- hooray! -- my prescription was ready to be picked up. So I stopped at the pharmacy and picked it up. I asked the clerk at the desk if Melissa was around, and Melissa heard me ask for her and looked up from what she was doing. I praised her, pharmacists in general, the field of pharmacy, and all that good stuff. The other pharmacy patron in queue was nodding her head along with my assertions that one can always depend on pharmacists. And then, pills clutched in my hand, I went off to do the rest of the stuff I needed to do.(And, apropos of absolutely nothing, today is the 5th day of the Omer)
