I use mailorder prescription for some of my medicines..A clip of my recent conversation with them...
Tuesday:
"Oh dear, I am running out of my prednisone !!" .
.Frantic searching in the medical cabinet..
"Thank God, 2 more left ..Got to order for refills online"
Logging in , found the website ....oops!! NO MORE REFILLS ...PRESCRIPTION EXPIRED..
" Let me call their number and get a prescription .."
Dial 1-800-XXXXXX . Listen to the machine , following all the prompts ( that can be a different blog) ,keep on pressing 0 till you hear "Transferring to an operator".
" Hmmm...Ok, I can hold...."
After 15 minutes of scratching, massaging my hands, staring at the ceiling, talking to Suresh in my mobile phone...
"Hello..this is Mandy, How can I help you today?"
"Hi..My name is Shoba. I wanted to order some refills and found that it has expired.Can you please send a prescription request to my doc and get it"
"Sure....which medicines do you need?"
"Prednisone..Actually, I have only 2 left. It would really help if I can get it in the next few days. Maybe, you can send a request for my other drugs too to make things easier ..."
"I cant do much Ma'm . If we get the prescription by tomorrow, we can deliver it to you on thursday. "
"Can you send the request ASAP. I will talk to the doc's office and get it going".
"Sure..Give it 5 minutes"
"Thanks for your help".
Feeling euphoric inspite of the long wait to get to my precious Mandy..called the doc's office after half an hour..
"Hello..I am Dr.X's patient.blah blah blah...Just wanted to check if you got the prescription request from my pharmacy"
"No Shoba....I dont see anything here"
"Hmm..They said they will fax it to you by today.I have medicine just for 2 more days"
"We will send it to them as soon as we get it".
"Thanks"
Wednesday:
7:00AM :" Got to call the doc's office today...Should not forget"
9:30AM: "Hi..this is Shoba.I am Dr.X's patient...blah blah blah..So, did you get the prescription request.."
" I dont see anything here. Let me check with Laura"
"Shoba, No, we didn't get the request yet"
"Can you give me your fax number"
"Sure..It is 1-XXX-XXX . We will send the prescription as soon as the request comes in."
"thank you"
Dial 1-800-XXXXXX . Hold for 20 minutes..(Murphy's law---the more urgent the task is, the more time it takes to reach the operator)
Multitasking by writing my test routine while holding the phone...
"Damn it..why cant we have cordless phones at work..."
20 minutes later..
"Hi this is Cindy..How may I help you today?"
"Blah.blah blah...so, did u guys send the request"
"Let me see...sorry, my computer is very slow today..."
"Yes lady! I can understand..please give me a yes or no"
"OK..here it is! Yes, we did send a prescription request ..We are yet to receive the prescription.
"Did you send it to this fax number 1-xxx-xxx "
"No..I think we sent it to 1-yyy-xxxx..Ok, I will send one more request right now.
"Can I fax you the prescription. I can go and get it from my doc's office"
"No..I am sorry.It has to come from the doctor's office".
"Ok..thank you"
5:00PM: Reached home after a gruelling day at work..Voicemail from the doctor's office...
"Hi Shoba, this is Dr.Y . Dr.X is out of town. I need to talk to you regarding your prescription. Please give a call "
Ofcourse, they close at 5:00PM.SIGH!!
More to follow later...
Friday, March 24, 2006
MailOrder Prescription - 1
Posted by Survivor at 5:24 PM
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6 comments:
It's at times like this that you yearn for our motherland, don't you? The pharmacist will give you Prednisone to Calcium supplements without any questions!! At times, he also morphs into the doctor, studies your symptoms and prescribes antibiotics :)
Good luck to you .. hope you get your refills on time.
Oh !! Yes! I remember the time when I ran out of medicine and called the pharmacist a block away at 9:00PM .Since it was late in the night, to save me the trouble of going to his shop, he was nice enough to drop it at our house and also maintained my secret( for ordering it at the last moment) by not telling it to my dad !! Now, thats SERVICE !
I agree. Till you hit one of these problems you
feel the life is fine.
They pharamacist should be little bit more human (subjective) than being a simple Robot.
Heavy Price for having an option of suing them :(
I have had some really testing times with ordering medication for my father-in-law. Its really pathetic, but your account is nice!
From this aspect, India is really a bliss... Insurance of any form is a major disaster here in US. One thing is from the service point of view, which sucks from time to time as survivor rightly pointed out. The other aspect is about how much they charge. I still dont understand why hospitals charge exorbitantly high price for their services. If you get to look at the bills, you will see how much insurance provider is charged and how much he pays for it. I dont understand how a common man can get any health benefits in a system like this...
I second that completely.
A country which can afford 250 billion to fight a war cannot afford to give basic medical support. SAD is all I can say!
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