vyvanse prescription has been delayed for 3 weeks now. i am a patient, yet severely ADHD soul, so I figure “oh it’s probably just delayed because they’re out of stock” and go about my business since I had about a week left (thanks to me completely forgetting to take it like 30% of the time).
wake up this morning and realize I am taking the last one I have. Not good, I think, because next week is especially busy at work. So I take an early lunch break at 9:30 and drive out to Walgreens to see if maybe, somehow, I’ve just completely missed the “your prescription’s ready” call and texts.
Pharmacist asks me what I’m looking for. “My vyvanse prescription, it was placed on the 24th. My name is ABC and DOB is…”
Tappity-tap-tap on their computer. They glance up and narrow their eyes at me like I’m asking them to hack into the NSA’s secure amphetamine database. Tappity-tap-tap.
“You’re picking up a vyvanse prescription?? For whom??”
Uh, myself…? Here’s my license.
“Hm…I’m not finding it, let me ask the head pharmacist to take a look.”
30 minutes go by. The Head Pharmacist finally comes out and asks for my license for the second time. “The other pharmacist literally copied it down on the clipboard before they went to find you.” I say as I fish it out of my wallet. They blink and look at the clipboard.
“Oh…huh. You’re right they did.”
Now I’m somewhat irritated as I hand them my license again. He looks at it, realizes it is exactly the same as what the sheet says, and hands it back to me.
“So umm…it looks like the generic lisdexamfetamine is backordered which is why we haven’t filled it yet.”
This wouldn’t be a shock except for the fact that I don’t get the fucking generic. So immediately my response is “Well, my insurance covers the brandname 100% and I don’t even get the generic so…are you saying the brand-name is also backordered and you cannot fill it??”
“No, we can fill it if you want the brand name medication!!”
“So why did y’all not fill it for 3 weeks if literally every other time I’ve filled this prescription through you, I’ve received the brand name medication??”
“…Because the generic is back-ordered sir…”
??? What the fuck are you talking about. It sounds like you just tossed my prescription into the “backordered” pile whenever it came in and didn’t realize it wasn’t actually a backordered medication until I came in. Thank you for wasting my entire hour lunch-break!!
I’m sure theres a lot of technical medical stuff you get to learn as a pharmacist(unless the US just has that as a complete non-licensed position or some wack shit) but it feels like for the user-end there ought to be a pretty big focus on just basic administrative competence and efficiency.
All pharmacies Ive dealt with are total shit shows on the admin side. They give off “bad workplace” vibes like a bar thats had an “always hiring” sign taped in the window for 10 years.
But then on the other hand a lot of them also sell fake ass scam treatments like homeopathy. If anyone, youd expect someone trained in pharmacology would know better.
So what is their role or training exactly?
I think they are security guards for chemicals.
This is called a Pharmacy Technician, and it will be like 80% of the staff in the pharmacy. From my experience, you’ll have one maybe two licensed pharmacists on duty (depending on how large/busy the location is,) and everyone else will be pharmacy technicians. There is a certification process for it, but it does not require any sort of formal pharmacology or medical training and is mostly treated as a retail position as opposed to a medical one.
Good god thats horrifying, although slightly less so than when I got shown a news piece about how Sterile Processing Technicians in at least some places in the US are treated as literally just the equivalent of dishwashers, so they pick people off the street to get bare minimum training in rendering surgical equipment safe.
Yes, speaking for myself I was hired to be a retail pharmacy technician from within the store, where I had originally been hired to sell cigarettes. I went ahead and did the optional certification process out of some misguided desire for legitimacy, but many forgo this because you have to pay certification fees and such.
At this point I have not worked there in almost 10 years, thank goodness, so some things may have changed but I suspect not much.