One of Josiah’s meds is a controlled substance. Therefore, each month, a paper prescription must get from the doctor’s pen (in Mountain Grove) to the pharmacy (in Ozark) a few days before the current supply runs out. None of that convenient phone-in-your-refill-and-pick-it-up-tomorrow stuff.
The pharmacy is 22 minutes from home. Unlike Walgreens in Branson, where the employees were very friendly, professional, helpful, and fast, the employees at Walgreens in Ozark are stoic, unprofessional, seemingly inconvenienced by customers, and slower than molasses in January. So why do we use Ozark rather than Branson? Because we drive past the Ozark Walgreens four times a week without fail, and we never drive past its Branson counterpart.
Blue Cross (another story for another day) insurance will not allow the prescription to be filled less than 25 days after it was last filled.
The doctor (who must write the prescription) is only in on Tuesdays.
I have been told to call the doctor’s office “a few days before Josiah runs out” and request a new prescription. Then, the next Tuesday that the doctor is in, he will write it. The office will then mail the prescription to the pharmacy. No, they can’t fax it to the pharmacy. No, they can’t mail it to my house. No, they can’t set up a system where the doctor automatically writes it each month and his office mails it to the pharmacy. I must make the call every month. No, they won’t keep the mailing address of the pharmacy in Josiah’s chart, so yes, I have to read them the complete pharmacy’s mailing address each time I call. And no, the doctor won’t even write the prescription less than three-and-a-half weeks after he wrote the last one.
So, Josiah’s going to run out of his med on Wednesday, January 23. I, being a diligent mom, called the doctor’s office on Monday morning, January 14. I gave the nurse the med, the dosage, and the name and address of the pharmacy. Yes, she would see that the doctor got it tomorrow. I explained that my son would run out of this med in about a week and that it was important to get the new prescription to the pharmacy as soon as possible. She said (helpfully – NOT) that the doctor would be in and see her note tomorrow. That would have been Tuesday, January 15.
So I, ignorant and trusting mom that I am, ASSUMED that not only would the doctor see the note and write the prescription the next day (Tuesday, January 15), but that his office would also MAIL the holy slip of paper to the pharmacy on Tuesday or Wednesday (January 15 or 16). After which the prescription would arrive at the pharmacy on Wednesday January, 16; Thursday, January 17; or at the VERY latest, Friday, January 18. Giving the pharmacy (which is open 7 days a week) a minimum of two days to fill the prescription before I pulled up at the drive through on the way home from church on Sunday, January 20 (that would have been today) to pick it up.
But no.
Not only is there no prescription ready for Josiah; the pharmacy has not received anything from the doctor’s office.
Am I steamed? You bet.
Do I want to call the doctor’s office Monday morning and give them a piece of my mind? Yes, indeed. Although if I keep giving away pieces I may soon have none left.
If I learn tomorrow morning (January 21) that the doctor’s office hasn’t yet mailed the script to the pharmacy, and if I again request that they do so, it cannot possibly go into the mail until Tuesday, January 22, because Monday, January 21 happens to be a national holiday with no mail service.
If the doctor hasn’t even written the prescription yet, will he write it when he comes in to the office this Tuesday (January 22)? Who knows?
If he does write it on Tuesday, January 22, how, pray tell, will said piece of paper get from his office in Mountain Grove (an hour and 15 minutes past the pharmacy) to the pharmacy in time for it to be filled (if Walgreens has the med in stock; sometimes they don’t) in time for me to pick it up after church Wednesday night (AFTER Josiah has taken his final dose from the current bottle)? Yes, you guessed it. Yours Truly will have to do the three-hour round trip drive to Mountain Grove to pick up the piece of paper. And she truly does NOT want to do it on Wednesday, when she is SUPPOSED to be doing the weekly grocery shopping and enjoying a piano lesson!
Is she happy about this possibility? No way!
And why is it that when other people don’t do their jobs right, *I* get to endure the frustration and inconvenience? Why don’t THEY have to deal with it?
Maybe the Chinese have this one right. They don’t have pharmacies like we do. They have medicine stores. Just like we go buy a bottle of Tylenol for a headache, they can walk into a medicine store and buy whatever other medicine they might need. No prescription is required. When Scott needed some Zithromax (available in the US only by prescription) for some infection he had over there (maybe pneumonia; I can’t remember), his friend just went to the med store and bought a box of Zithromax. No prescription and no big deal. Infection gone quickly.
I am so fed up with the whole pharmacy mess that I could spit, but instead, I will go do the laundry.
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