The pharmacy area was designed like an assembly line:
a space for patients to drop off their prescriptions,
a computer terminal for entering the information into
the system, a filling area, a verification area, and
a dispensing area. Even the telephone lines are divided:
one line for patients, another for physicians calling
in a prescription.
What isn't mentioned is that from midnight until 8am,
there's only one person to cover five spaces and two
phone lines. For most of that time – say 1am
until 6:30am – that's not a problem. The computers
can be shut down for their nightly back-up routine,
and there's time to take out the garbage and vacuum
the floors. It's really only between midnight and 1am,
or between 7am and 8am, that all hell breaks loose.
The telephones get ignored first – even the
ones that proclaim the caller is a doctor. This doesn't
always sit well with the MDs. Emergency room physicians
usually understand and relate to the situation. But
there was one doctor who wanted to report me to the
state board for the combined sins of keeping him waiting
for 10 minutes before I answered the phone and then
asking him to repeat the spelling of the patient's
name. I spent the next 20 minutes giggling to myself,
and repeating the old punch line, "That's God –
he thinks he's a doctor."
But the other night, with about eight people waiting,
it was different. I guess they understood the situation,
and instead of getting mad at me, they bonded, and
made friends with each other. They would have sent
out for a pizza, but there are no all-night pizzerias
in the neighborhood. As I rang up the final sale, I
felt as if I had lost a friend.
Choose your career:
MedHunters is the world's biggest healthcare job board.
Our job directory has 17,877 jobs with 2,472 hospitals
and other direct employers.
We want you to find your next job on MedHunters. Need
Help? Call us at 1-888-884-8242, email us at info@medhunters.com
or sign up now.
Would you like to share your story about a touching,
funny, or memorable event that happened to you on the
job? Do you have your own story of being a patient? Email
us today at submissions@medhunters.com.
Article published on Nov 30
05 12:59AM.
