Rant Time

Pharmacy technicians receive an inordinate amount of abuse from patients and doctors. I've seen them get cussed out and blamed for making co-pays too high for the elderly, poor, young, and upper middle class. Most grocery store and big chain pharmacies are unimaginably busy. And no one says thank you to the pharmacy tech. So I usually take their side when patients complain about their pharmacy.

But this is not a rant if I do not complain. I'm tired of calling or faxing a prescription to a pharmacy, only to have the pharmacy technician say that it was not called/faxed. The patient usually calls our office complaining, we call the pharmacy....It just takes up extra time. And the pharmacy tech has to check the phone/fax line anyway. It turns into a sloppy he said/she said that leaves patients having less faith in both aspects of the health care system.

Of course, most of us docs don't get around to taking care of all daily correspondence (faxes, refill requests, referrals, etc.) every day. Can't blame the pharmacy for extra calls when we don't do our jobs.