Am I alone here, or do people seem a lot less concerned about the quality of their work these days? (Just re-read that line and am feeling like every cranky old man for whom things will never be the same as they were in some idyllic undefined past!)
Allow me to illustrate the point with a couple of incidents that have arrived over time at my pharmacy.
Now, I do visit the pharmacy with great regularity, sometimes with greater regularity than I would like, but more about that later. Early in my experience of living with HIV, I had to take a prophylaxis of Zithromax which came in the form of a grand total of eight pills counted into a standard pharmacy pill bottle. Imagine my surprise the day that I got home and discovered that the bottle contained only seven pills. What?! Can't count to eight? What level of confidence do I now have that you have counted to sixty for a couple of my other medications?
Another incident when I discovered that the bottle containing one of my anti-hypertension medications (hey, triple therapy isn't just for HIV anymore) had two different kinds of pills in it. Yes, the adorable ones with the little heart on one side, but also some others, similar shape, same colour, but different size. Yes, I took them back and had the pharmacy fix this, their error, and yes, I felt my blood boiling up when they told me what a good job I had done monitoring my own meds (see previous rant!).
Maybe if they had paid attention in the first place, these errors wouldn't have happened!
Of course, the extra 'insult to injury' moment comes when they propose to me to automate the renewal of my medication: they would just prepare things in advance for the renewal date. I had to weigh this in my head with the errors above, and with the numerous times that I have had to come back to the pharmacy because they were a few pills short of being able to fill my prescription for one or more drugs. If they can't anticipate the renewal of my prescriptions for ordering purposes and they can't always count to the desired number, why would I trust them to take on the role of renewing my prescriptions without any intervention on my part?
4 comments:
My current pet peeve is people who look shocked and start searching deep in their bags for money when the cashier says the amount owed. It's as if they had no idea that being at the cash register with stuff might lead to a commercial transaction, requiring money. As to the pantomime that happens when the cashier asks if they have a store card - well - then they start searching all over again!
I should add that in my case, only minor inconvenience and time delay results. For you, messing with the correct drug dosage might well have consequences.
I'm totally stealing this problem for a future rant! Thanks!
(I was beginning to question my curmudgeonly nature, worried that I wouldn't find 30 rants!)
LOL! The "you mean I have to pay?" reaction gets me every time. Even tho she's been waiting for the cashier to sort out her problem. Then, hinting to find the exact amount, placing every coin on the counter so the cashier needs nails to pick them up. You can call me sexist, but it's usually women. Men -- god bless their impatient little dicks -- always seem to have their bills in hand AND WILL TAKE CHANGE!
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