As a pharmacy tech, allow me to break this down....

"12/12/08: Walgreens failed to give me a script for antibiotics which was called in by my dr in the am.
It was actually filled at 1pm according to their printout."

Just because you called a doctor in the morning does not mean he's going to call in your script right away. Some of them actually wait until they have time to look up charts to make sure that they're not calling in anything that might interact with any health conditions or other medications you're on. Some of them also wait until they are done seeing patients. Then there's the very real possibility that the doctor forgets to call in the script and instead of admitting to his error, he'll lie to you by saying he did call in the script and once he gets off the phone with you, he'll then call the pharmacy to correct his error.


"I worked all day very sick, running a fever,etc. Could not leave until 5:25pm. drove 25 mi from work to pharmacy to pick up script that had been confirmed via phone earlier. after waiting in drive-thru & giving my debit card & ins card, was told to move & not hold up line while they called ins co. I went in & waited (there were 2 other customers in pharmacy the whole time I was inside)."

Just because you only see 2 other patients at the pharmacy does not mean there aren't other people who dropped off prescriptions and are shopping, dropped off prescriptions at the drive thru, were called in via the automated system or called in by a doctor. At my pharmacy, we can fill over 400 prescriptions a day but that does not mean you'll see over 400 people hanging around.


"I asked what problem was & was told they could not issue script without talking to ins. They left my debit card in the drive-thru drawer & found it & I claimed it while I waited.I explained how sick I was & tired from working all day, running a fever. Clerk said smartly that she was tired too. Finally she said my ins co was closed & I would have to wait until Mon. I said I would be in hospital with neumonia without medicine. She said she could do nothing. I angrily said I hated ins. cos, pharmacies & everyone & left. It was about 7:40 by then.I called the 800# on ins card.Got thru to person who informed me that the script was authorized, but not like my dr had written. it was for 2days with refills instead of 7 days. I requested him to stay on line while I went back inside. Finally I got my script at 8pm. I appologized for being rude earlier & stated it was only because I was so sick. Turns out I had the flu."

I just love insurance companies. Insurance companies often have two different numbers... one for pharmacy and one for patients. Considering that this was not taken care of right away makes me wonder if the pharmacy even had the correct insurance information on file. You'd be surprised at how many people change insurance companies or get new cards with new information and do not inform the pharmacy until a situation like this happens.

It also seems that your insurance is rather screwy. Sometimes insurance companies send through rejections that can be hard to figure out hence the need to call them in order to get it straightened out.

"Appologize."

I believe you are owed an apology if the pharmacy dropped the ball.

"Get competent workers in pharmacy."

Just because they had trouble filling your script, and it seems it was due to an insurance problem, does not mean they're incompetent.

"Remember customers pay staff salaries."

Yeah, ok.

"Be polite to customers."

I agree that folks should be polite but remember, that's a two way street.