PHARMACIST STEVE

 I read your article in Drug Topics titled ‘when valid prescriptions are refused’. I would like to explain a situation that happened today with a pharmacist and get your professional advice. The pharmacist called my mother this afternoon and said he refused to fill her prescription because he requires a code, which is for the reason she is taking the medication. He expressed that he believes she is misusing the medication. The medication he refused to fill is her pain medication. She has been on this medication for over 10 years and will have to be on this medication for the rest of her life. She suffers from chronic pain due to Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. She has had several surgeries in the last 20+ years, she has both hips replaced and a knee replacement that required several follow up surgeries due to complications from the RSD. She has been on a pain medication since this all began. She sees a pain management doctor once a month and has for 20+ years. That is the doctor that has prescribed the pain medication. She is also required by Comp to see a psychiatrist biweekly. Who is aware of the medication she takes. The pharmacy, that the said pharmacist is employed, has been my mother’s pharmacy since they opened their doors for business. The pharmacist has only been there since April of last year. He has prescribed this same prescription monthly without the said code he is now requiring. I believe this is his retaliation because my mother filed a complaint against him with the manager of the store in which the pharmacy is located. She made a legitimate complaint that the pharmacist has made several remarks about the medication she is on. He said she doesn’t need to be on it, she’s the only one in town who takes it. She should just get off it. Well then it progressed to him not having the prescription when it was to be filled. He would say he has to order it and she he to wait. It’s a controlled substance, she doesn’t have time to wait. She gets enough for a one month supply. Then she goes to her pain management doctor and he sends in a new prescription. It is usually within a few short days of when her previous months prescription is ending. He then said it was her responsibility to call the pharmacy ahead of time to ensure they have the medication on time. Which she did, even though I thought that was absurd. It took him shorting her pills one month before I finally pushed my mother to complain to someone. So now the bottom line is he will not fill her prescription and odds of another pharmacy carrying this particular medication is slim to none. Her prescription is to be filled in 5 days but we are in NY and if you’ve seen the weather we are in the middle of a blizzard. The pharmacist said he tried to call the doctors office and they said they don’t provide those “codes” anymore because that’s violating the patients privacy. It gets me that he specifically waited to today to call my mother and tell her this. Since I know he talked to the doctors office before toady. Since the doctors office is closed today because of the severe weather conditions. Is this right? After all these years he can just refuse? Or does he have a personal vendetta against my mother? Would should she do? Besides change pharmacies, as I’ve recommended several times. She is old school and prefers to stay where she knows. 

One of the big things that Pharmacists are suppose to do is to keep a doctor from prescribing for disease issues that are “outside of their scope of practice”.  Certain healthcare providers are suppose to limit the type of pts they treat and/or prescriptions they write for.  A pharmacist is not going to fill a prescription, written by a Dentist, for birth control pills.

But some pharmacists seem to have little/no concern about them staying within their scope of practice and/or they don’t understand what their scope of practice is.

One of the basics of the practice of medicine is the starting, changing, stopping a pt’s medication/therapy. So in this particular case with a Pharmacist telling pt that she DOESN’T NEED TO BE ON THE PARTICULAR MEDICATION AND SHOULD JUST GET OFF IT.

Since pharmacists don’t have prescriptive authority… is this pharmacist exceeding his scope of practice ?

Filed under: General Problems