AmeliaTek Medication Compliance

Pharmdgurl over at MySpace “lit up the room” with her real-world post about working in a busy pharmacy. It’s being circulated across the Internet and getting a lot of attention – which is good. It almost sounds like a storyboard for a TV sitcom pilot: Take a pill and chill!

Unfortunately her cynical description of hectic pharmacy is more like Reality TV than a comedy. That’s really what it’s like in the trenches! And the madness goes on all day every day! (Update: Phamgurl has locked her blog behind a password, but a copy of her post still exists here)

Try to imagine you’re the frazzled pharmacist in this scene at a busy local drugstore as Pharmdgurl described it. You’ll see why the unofficial logo of today’s pharmacy is the phone (and the old mortar and pestle is soooo yesterday!)

You come to the counter. I am on the phone with a drunk dude who wants the phone number to the grocery s tore next door. After I instruct him on the virtues of 411, you tell me your doctor was to phone in your prescription to me. Your doctor hasn’t, and you’re unwilling to wait until he does. Being in a generous mood, I call your doctors office and am put on hold for 5 minutes, then informed that your prescription was phoned in to my competitor on the other side of town. Phoning the competitor, I am immediately put on hold for 5 minutes before speaking to a clerk, who puts me back on hold to wait for the pharmacist. Your prescription is then transferred to me, and now I have to get the 2 phone calls that have been put on hold while this was being done. Now I return to the counter to ask if we’ve ever filled prescriptions for you before. For some reason, you think that for “you” means for “your cousin” and you answer my question with a yes, whereupon I go to the computer and see you are not on file.

The phone rings.

……you have insurance and spend the next 5 minutes looking for your card. You give up and expect me to be able to file your claim anyway. I call my competitor and am immediately put on hold. Upon reaching a human, I ask them what insurance they have on file for you. I get the
information and file your claim, which is rejected because you changed jobs 6 months ago.

The phone rings.

Sounds like funny stuff, but it’s actually all true and that’s just a small snippet of a day in the life of a pharmacist. But in spite of all the confusion and hassles, pharmacists aren’t allowed to make mistakes. Any mistake could be life-threatening or a lawsuit waiting to happen. That’s why pharmacists are expected to get everything right, every time, 100% of the time! It’s a wonder that more mistakes aren’t made with all those distractions.

But the consumer also carries certain responsibilities. Did she ask questions? Did she listen carefully? Did she understand everything? Would she even know if she missed anything? In Pharmgurl’s version of the story, Ms. Consumer was only interested in saving a buck or two, even if it meant trying to trick the pharmacist.

We know from experience what it’s really like in the pharmacy, and we also know very well that ALL patients need help managing their end of the bargain. Many simply don’t realize that they have a compliance problem or they may even deny it. Effective Medication Therapy Management (defining link coming soon) is vital, and it will only become more so as our population ages.

If consumers have strong, effective tools to help them manage, they’ll be better able to age in place and stay independent as long as possible. That is the single most important driving force that inspired us to develop OnCellRx.com and OnTimeRx.com. If regular people can use their cell phones and PDAs to help manage their medications, it helps everyone.