Did a pharmacist discriminate against me?!
Question: Ive been prescribed a controlled substance and I've been taking the same medication for 10 years. I was feeling real bad and couldn't get out to get my prescription so I sent my husband. He said the tech told him to come back in an hour. He did and they told him it wouldn't be ready until the next day. He went back the next day as instructed and they told him I should have a couple of pills left and to wait until I run out. I went up there furious. The pharmacy manager had put in my notes not to give me my prescription until I run out and I should have some pills. She wouldn't give me my meds so I asked for it back and went to another pharmacy they filled it with no problem. Another occasion, the doctor wrote my prescription on a pad that didn't have the DEA number. She told me to go back and get it from them. She could have called the doc's office. I don't want to take my meds anymore because they are making me feel like i'm shady. I hate to get my prescription filled now.
Answers: Ive been prescribed a controlled substance and I've been taking the same medication for 10 years. I was feeling real bad and couldn't get out to get my prescription so I sent my husband. He said the tech told him to come back in an hour. He did and they told him it wouldn't be ready until the next day. He went back the next day as instructed and they told him I should have a couple of pills left and to wait until I run out. I went up there furious. The pharmacy manager had put in my notes not to give me my prescription until I run out and I should have some pills. She wouldn't give me my meds so I asked for it back and went to another pharmacy they filled it with no problem. Another occasion, the doctor wrote my prescription on a pad that didn't have the DEA number. She told me to go back and get it from them. She could have called the doc's office. I don't want to take my meds anymore because they are making me feel like i'm shady. I hate to get my prescription filled now.
I'd like to comment quickly on the previous answers.
The Better Business Bureau will be utterly worthless. If there is indeed a problem your State Board of Pharmacy is the one to contact.
Pharmacists sometimes question prescriptions because if they are illegal and we fill them anyway......we go to jail. We aren't trying to be arrogant police, just stay out of the pokey.
Now to your questions and comments. Starting at the top and working down.
The tech told your husband it would take an hour? I'd find a new pharmacy based on that alone. Also to make your hubby wait an hour just to be told to come back tomorrow is an outrage.
As for the manager not refilling the prescription early, it might have been because the doctor gave specific instructions to not fill it early. You might want to check that out first with your doctor. That would explain why another pharmacy filled it (they didn't have instructions from the doctor). I have no way of knowing if that is the case, but it is a strong possibilty.
As for making you take the prescription back to get the DEA number, that seems unreasonable also. HOWEVER, depending on the medication (which you didn't mention), your state laws might not allow the pharmacist to make alterations to the prescription. Again, you should check things out.
My overall judgement would be to find a new pharmacy. It seems there is too much bad blood built up already. As for a lawsuit.......forget it. The pharmacy has done nothing illegal nor have they made a mistake based on your information.
Best of luck on managing things. Ten years of chronic pain is no picnic.
Look. You must understand. Our society thinks that there is a class of people that can take Drugs with no problem and a class that can't. In other words, "No one is ever gonna question a 80 year old woman when she gets her 90 80mg Oxycontin's filled."
Have a 25 year old male with long hair go in and they will question it. And the thing is with these people, you can be a regular customer every month and they still give you dung.
I think they think they are the Police or trying to be like doctors . Just a way of showing authority and arrogance and people love doing it more and more these days. Just common and choke it up as another person striving in life to be the perfected moronic imbecile.
There all over aren't they?
I'd call the Better Business Bureau and see if this pharmacy has had other complaints. What they did was absolutely wrong.
I have an HMO. They give me enough pills for 30 days. I can refill as early as 4 days before the 30 are up. Unless you weren't giving them enough time, or if you are using more than one doctor, they are completely out of line. It seems like they think you're abusing your meds.
As long as you know you're not abusing your meds, you could have a lawsuit against them, if it's worth all that trouble to you.
You'd need to talk to a lawyer. I wish you the very best of luck.
You CANNOT stop taking your meds. Another thing you can do is talk to your doctor about this. He can call the pharmacy and get this straightened out. Good luck, Sweetie. Lynn