Preferred pharmacy

Do you have a preferred pharmacy?  Do you have one particular place that your doctor sends your prescriptions to so your trusty pharmacists can review them for problems or interactions? If not, please consider doing so...for your sake and my sanity. This is a story that happened to me this past week. Please follow the logic (rather, lack of logic) that the patient had. Just having one pharmacy could have solved this whole mess, saved an hour of my time, and could have saved him a lot of frustration...

It was around 6pm. A very nice, older man walked into the pharmacy. He asked, "Did the doctor send in four prescriptions for my wife this morning." After searching the computer, his wife had never been to our pharmacy and we had no prescriptions. Unhappy that the doctor didn't send the prescriptions in, he left disheartened.

A few minutes later I pick up the phone to hear him on the other line. "It turns out that my doctor sent the prescriptions to Kostco but the pharmacist won't call you to transfer the prescriptions. He said that you need to call him to get the prescriptions...and they close at 7pm."
"Ok, do you know Kostco's phone number so I can call them?"
"No I don't"
"But you were just talking to them, correct?"
"Yes, but I don't have their phone number. You need to call them before they close at 7pm."

After searching the directory for Kostco's phone number, I called and transferred over the two prescriptions the doctor had sent them. I billed the insurance plan on file. To my surprise I received a rejected insurance claim saying "refill too soon." Hmmm....if Kostco doesn't have this prescription filled anymore, then who does?

I called the insurance plan to find out that Write-Aid had filled the same medicine last night in a small West Virgina town 45 minutes away. I called Write-Aid and asked their pharmacist, "Do you have anything filled for Marsha Apple?"
"Why yes we do. I have four prescriptions ready. They asked us to transfer them from Jiant pharmacy in Virginia yesterday."
I said, "Wait, you have four prescriptions ready that you already had to transfer in? I just called Kostco and they only had two new prescriptions sent in today. That's funny because Mr. Apple told me he was originally expecting four too."
"All I know is that they called us yesterday to transfer them. And your pharmacy is in the same town in Virginia right."
"Yep. I just don't understand people sometimes...."
"Yeah, that's retail for you."

I called Mr. Apple back and asked him if he knew the same prescriptions were already filled at a Write-Aid in West Virginia. He angrily stated, "Of course I did. I told them that I didn't want them filled anymore though. Can you just transfer those over to your pharmacy now?"

After calling back Write-Aid to transfer the medications, I was speechless from this ring of phone calls. Mr. Apple could have just told me that Write-Aid had the prescriptions all along...all four of them.....Four pharmacies had to handle these prescriptions - Kostco, Write-Aid, Jiant, and my pharmacy. With so many places I can only imagine the confusion the doctor must have been in after talking to this patient trying to figure out where these prescriptions should go.

Please, please, please, go to one pharmacy. I don't care which pharmacy you go to but choose only one (or one chain).   At every office visit, make sure that same pharmacy is listed as the "pharmacy of preference." And always always always bring your most current prescription insurance card with you...it is not always the same as your medical card....


Continually amazed at what people do,
    Your Pharmacist