All too often, and I am guilty of this myself, we persist to try explain to a customer on the phone the situation so they can fully comprehend it. In our minds, we are optimistic, we think “Yes, if I explain it very clearly and slowly, they will finally understand!”, however, this doesn’t happen.

These phone calls come from regular customers, strangers who pointed at the first pharmacy number in the phone book, and new customers who have never received a drug before. The topics range from anything to trying to explain why it is not out fault Pfizer stopped producing a drugs twenty years ago, or why that segment on the current affairs show about that drug that turned the lady blue is not relevant to them, and is reversible anyway (true story). The problem is that it’s in our nature to try make people understand. This is what we are told to do, counsel, educate, be a valuable asset to the community as a beacon of drug information – a lighthouse in the storm of pills, if you will.  What actually happens in a lot of cases…the customer does not care what you are saying, they just like talking out loud and are waiting for you to say “Oh yes, you’re right, I’m wrong, want a pack of free jellybeans?!” (more…)

Just trying to update Facebook to a Group page to handle the friend requests. Originally setup as Friend page, but it got a little more interest than anticipated, which is good, but needs some changes to be made. I’m not that great at Facebooking so this is a learning curve for me. I apologize if you receive any duplicate post notifications.

Instead of trying to come up with my own descriptions of drug recovery/rehab programs, I thought I’d borrow some I’ve come across, this is not original work, and you can google a phrase if you need the reference, but it’s food for thought, however, keep i in mind to speak to your General Practitioner, local health professional, or local health clinic for more information and to discuss your individual needs.

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I recently was involved in a discussion around whether the old style dispensaries should be changing to something with less barriers to the public, both from seeing what we do and with speaking to us. A chain in Australia experimented with that and I explain why it didn’t work. However, the practicality of dealing with people barking their drug orders to you, as well as the advent of robotic dispensing, things may change again.

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How many times have you wanted to call the doctor and say “Seriously dude, really? Is that what you wrote?” While I have avoid saying “dude” in my professional conversations, that about captures what goes through my mind. Doctor’s handwriting – this is an old and much discussed topic of frustration, but still worth a mention. Just because it’s frustrating, yes that’s one reason, and I like to complain, but also because the chance of an incorrect drug being selected also increases.

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“C’mon, can’t any of you give me some codeine!? Seriouly, I’ve got a prescription at home…C’MON!”

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Pharmacy News has posted an article which you should definitely check out. While I am not an avid civil libertarian, I think the innocent until proven guilty clause should apply, even to the Pharmacy Board of Australia’s guidelines.

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Some of the names, faces, and appliances have been changed to protect identities

It’s great to be helpful but you need to wonder if things have gone way too far in respect to the ‘above and beyond’ attitude pharmacies take to please their customers…and no, it’s not all about the money/keeping the customers. Some customers are more trouble than they’re (financially) worth to the store, but we keeping chugging along, doing our bit for the people that comes in and out of our store and eventually instill in us an obligation that must help them at all costs. (more…)

A Masseratti, now that would be nice…

Just some buddies from pharmacy around their ride…oh no, wait, that’s the cast of Entourage. My bad. (more…)

Ok, now, which catagory do you and your pharmacy fit into?

“Yeah, this bottle is brown and stuff. Did you totally check out my shelf behind, you could eat your dinner off it.” (more…)

I came across this article which mentions something we’ve read in similar studies and articles that state that pharmacists are the top, or in the top three usually, most trusted professions. I wonder if we still feel this to be the case for a couple reasons.

In a recent post I mention the move toward discount pharmacies. While this may have some positives for the public on their bottom line when visiting the pharmacy, there are somedraw backs I will discuss later, but for now I want to focus on the issue of trust. Going back a few years, I don’t really think you need to go back to far, lets say, maybe four or five years ago, the public did not have a clear concept on drug pricing. The pharmacy would charge what they charge and that was that. Now, for those in the pharmacy profession, I think we can agree  previously we were charging reasonable prices and this helped support what is effectively a small business for the owner and all the costs involved, as well as having many staff on hand so when a customer walked in wait was minimal. Secondly, there is an onus of responsibility on the pharmacist who has also dedicated much time and expense in becoming qualified, so in line with similar professions, monetary reimbursement is expected. In general, it was a fair system. (more…)

A couple of months ago it was ‘Ask Your Pharmacist’ week here in Australia. It occurred with little fanfare, but a nice sentiment nonetheless I suppose. Interesting to note that, as would be expected, Health Minister Nicola Roxon was the government’s representative on this campaign, though this comes at a somewhat tense time between the profession and the government, particularly Ms. Roxon. (more…)

For those in Australia, we are familiar with large chain pharmacy companies such as National Pharmacies, Chemmart, Chemplus, Amcal and so on. Now we have (relatively) newer ones such as Chemist Warehouse, United Discount Chemists, and Priceline. There seems to be a heading in a discount marketed direction, however the originals are still keeping their same banners and general ‘non-discount’ image. Do you feel this is hurting or helping the industry by marketing pharmacies as drug warehouses. These pharmacies are still providing the same counselling and professional services, but on observer may say the outfit of the store may be diminishing the professional reputation of pharmacies. (more…)