"Don't Call Us, We'll Call You"
Dr. Jeffrey Fudin's blog, PainDr, recently hosted an article written by him and and his recent guest poster Dr. Ernest Dole, who spoke out about Walgreens Good Faith Dispensing Policy in, 'Is Walgreens Opiate Policy Deceptive'?
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If you were one of the many legitimate patients who attempted to fill your medications at a Walgreens pharmacy and had a problem of any type, please read this insightful article and leave your experiences on Dr. Fudin's blog or the Drug Topics website, where the article ran on October 15, 2013. It may be easier for you to copy and paste what you wrote if you left a comment on my Walgreens experience. The corporation is taking notice of these complaints across the nation. Someone from a Walgreens Facebook group left a comment on my post asking me to contact them on a general email address or through Facebook. Shortly after I filed a formal complaint with the California State Board of Pharmacy. Leaving a short comment a midst multiple horror stories from patients is not the way a national pharmacy chain should handle business.
A compassionate Pain Management specialist informed me that Walgreens is the top pharmacy that gives them problems filling the patients scripts. This is a large Orthopedic group with multiple offices and established, respected doctors in many specialties. They tell every patient when they leave, to call the doctor's (wonderful) medical assistant directly if they experience any problem filling their medication at any pharmacy. The last time I was in Pain Management, this was never an issue. The pharmacy calls requesting further documentation from the doctor are unnecessary, very time consuming, and may breach the privacy rights of the patient.
How You Can Take Action
Many have written of being denied fills of legitimate pain medications by Walgreens Pharmacy, some refusals--such as mine for the muscle relaxer Carisoprodol--did not include opiate medications. The corporation is losing customers, patients are driving farther, to other pharmacies (albeit inconvenient) that want to be an integral part of our health care. The pharmacy is usually the end-stop for all compliant and very tired patients who are simply trying to complete what the doctor's visit that day began. Along with taking our dollars away, we need to stop and make sure these negative events are documented with the governing board of both pharmacies and the pharmacist.
I filed a complaint with the California State Board of Pharmacy against the pharmacist that denied my prescription, all on the basis of the company's Good Faith Dispensing Policy. I did this online, there is a specific page for this on the Board's site. This takes approximately 20-30 minutes. If you do not have computer access, you may file a complaint by phone.
I was contacted by an investigator from the Board, who is assigned to my case. It has not been long since the online complaint was filed. I was surprised at the quickness of his response. He will investigate (among other things) if the pharmacist acted within his scope of practice. He will investigate if there was harm done to the patient, and if the corporation's GFD was the basis for the action the pharmacist took when he neglected to complete the plan of my treating doctor when he refused to fill the doctor's prescription written for me.
The good pharmacists and other pharmacy employees who are caught in the middle of this corporate debacle, as I noted on Dr. Fudin's blog, are innocent and I feel for them. Not all pharmacists are acting outside the scope of their practice. All pharmacists are, however, aware that they have never been licensed nor trained to perform any prescribing. Prescribing by omission is doing just that.
There are compassionate, conscientious physicians, nurses, dentists, surgeons, etc., etc., and there are those who are not. Compassion does not override professionalism, it lies within it. One can not work with patients, with people that are ill, who are in any state of illness, without having and exhibiting compassion. Illness means the body is not in a state of wellness. The last thing that anyone that is ill needs to deal with is a holdup of their doctor's plan for their treatment, and the stress that stems from being denied their medication.
Please go to your state's Board of Pharmacy site online, and file a complaint. The American Medical Association also wants to hear from you. Those who have been wronged need to stand up and be heard, and more important, take a step towards rectifying the injustices done to innocent patients.
A little compassion can go a long, long way.
Gentle Hugs....and a tolerable pain day.
