Why I Get Paid So Goddamned Much

***Patient Dialogue

***Pharmacist Dialogue

"Yes, I'm calling to get a refill of my blood pressure medicine." 

I could have just done what the woman wanted and filled her blood pressure medicine. One more prescription to get credit for and one more sale in the cash register. That's what I'm here for you know, just to put pills in a bottle.

Instead my super-spidey pharmacy sense kicked in.

"Well, I see we haven't filled these for you since October, has everything been going alright with your medicine?"

"Oh yes, it seems to work just fine, it's just that I don't need it that often"

Yes. This was definitely going to be a case for super-pharmacist.

"Hmmmmmm......well, blood pressure is usually a type of condition that's treated all the time....."

One of the reasons I make so damn much is because I know stuff like that.

"Well sometimes it gets up over 150 you know. And I'm scared I'm gonna have a stroke or something."

"I see, well do you have a blood pressure machine at home?"

I will point out again, I could have just filled her pills. That's all she was looking for. If I had just put some pills in a bottle I would have had a happy customer.

"Uh-huh. I usually measure it once a week or so, and most of the time it's OK, but sometimes it gets up to 150 or so."

"Well it's normal for a person's blood pressure to go up and down over the course of a day. The problem is when it goes up and stays up"

"Really?"

I'll also point out, that I was putting other people's pills in their bottles the entire time this conversation was going on.

"Oh sure, your doctor probably told you something like that when he wrote the prescription."

 I needed to find out where the doctor was in this mess.

"He said he wasn't sure if I was gonna need 'em or not, but honey, he went over everything so fast, I can't remember half of what he said." 

So now I knew the doctor's role. He started the process and then was nowhere to be found when the next time he was needed. I was on my own here. So was she. That's why I now became her honey.

"I tell you what."

"OK...."

I could hear the happy anticipation in her voice that someone in a white coat was actually going to give helpful guidance. I could have told her to hop-up and down-on one foot and cluck like a chicken at that point and she happily would have.

"Take your blood pressure a couple times a day here for the next few days. Mix it up.....sometimes in the morning, afternoon, sometimes in the evening, after eating, before eating, you get the idea, right?"

"Oh sure"

"Keep track of it in a notebook or something, then call me back in a few days and we'll figure out what to do about these high blood pressure pills"

She called me back today and has better blood pressure readings than I do. THAT'S WHY I MAKE SO GODDAMN MUCH. Not because my blood pressure's higher than hers, but because I can figure out when it's best not to make a sale.


Source:

DrugMonkey. Your Pharmacist May Hate You: You Wanna Know Why I Get Paid So Goddamned Much? I'll Tell You Why I Get Paid So Goddamned Much [Internet]. 2008 July 21 [cited 2012 July 17]. Available from: http://drugmonkey.blogspot.com/2008/07/you-wanna-know-why-i-get-paid-so.htm

Have you ever notice the person with white coat, doing a ward round in the morning, checking patient condition with no stethoscope around their neck neither in the pocket is a pharmacist?   

Do you ever realize who's the person spending lot times with you, listening you mumbling and ensure you are taking your medicine in the right dose and time is a pharmacist?

Don't you know the person that give consultation regarding the medicines intake when you are about to discard from the hospital?

*BECAUSE YOU EXPECT THAT PERSON IS A DOCTOR*

don't you?