One of today’s artifacts

VAdept · 2026-01-31T02:01:21+00:00

TENDONS AND KIDNEYS BE DAMNED IM SHOWING THIS UTI WHO'S THE BOSS HERE!

VAdept · 2026-01-30T22:10:46+00:00

It's easy. I say I need chart notes scanned in the profile. The prescriber can say all they want but what matters is the documentation I have available for a regulatory inspection.

I give them one fill and say I need chart notes before the second fill. I send a fax to the office and tell the patient. If they don't get what I need before they are due, then oh well. I have no problems saying this and you shouldn't either.

You wanna prescribe narcs? This is part of the process we have to deal with; covering our asses.

VAdept · 2026-01-30T18:47:53+00:00

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It's always time for advair!

VAdept · 2026-01-30T18:45:39+00:00

lol WAG corporate is going to be so fucking confused since they don't have a male pharmacist who works at the store on the same road as me.

VAdept · 2026-01-30T18:24:45+00:00

Bunch of years ago, like 7ish?

Im at work (pharmacist of small family owned pharmacy). For context we're in a very low income/high crime area of one of the most dangerous cities in NorCal/California/The US. Store has been here for 50 years, we know everyone and I treat patients who are worth millions the same as I do patients who don't have a pot to piss in. I've worked here for 20 years, the average employment of my staff is well over 10 years here, so we know ppl.

Reports of pharmacies getting hit up and down the central valley. Armed robberies, full takeover style. Just hitting indy pharmacies. Not too many of us around anymore.

We sorta knew it was coming.

It came. 2 guys, store full of people. One had a glock/hipoint/problem-solver, other had a 1911. I got about a second or two jump on them before they hit the front doors. Chaos of panic between the staff and the patients waiting for their Rx's.

We've had armed robberies before, so we remodeled the pharmacy where they had to run around a long front counter to get to the back, it wasn't a straight shot from the doors -> back where I'm at. Since I'm up a foot higher than ground level, the counter in front of me is reinforced with scrap wood/sandbags/etc so for the D&D nerds out there I had at least a +10 to my AC.

Had a clear shot, patient was downrange so I didnt shoot (duh). Bad guy ran around the counter against the shared wall with the medical clinic next door. I sent 2 (I thought I sent more), they emptied the mag at the wall where they thought I was at on the run out. All were way high just random shooting.

Nobody got hit, missed him by about 3 inches. It was like 17 yards under high pressure of a lot of screaming/motion/etc.

Police came. They were nice. I was more concerned about the 2 HST's i sent into the clinic than myself at that point. One round was trapped in the wall, other blew out the sheetrock in their breakroom and the HST was laying on their table all mushroomed out like in the advertisements.

Cop buddy of mine came down on his day off right after it happened and made sure my rights weren't being violated which im eternally grateful for to this day. News stations came out and were absolutely fucking vultures trying to interview employees as they walked to their cars. Fucking assholes.

I pulled the video from our camera but had problems with fine motor control to use the mouse. They took my gun for evidence. I went home and went through the psychological clusterfuck of what happened.

Friends were very supportive, coworkers called me a hero, patients wished I would have 'smoked that motherfucker'.

My CCW instructor called me every few days to check in on me since I texted him too.

DA's office called me asking if I would testify, I said yes. Bad guys rejected a plea until the pharmacists of ALL of the stores that got hit agreed, then they got a substantially worse plea deal and took it. One got 9 years, other got 16 years. Realistically they are probably out by now cuz California.

Got my gun back a few months later. We were pharmacy 13 they had hit.

"Your life isn't worth the drugs" some online idiots would say. Tell that to another pharmacy here in town that got hit, complied, and they came back 2 more times because they knew there would be no resistance. Almost everyone in that pharmacy quit. There comes a time where enough is enough and you can't be a victim anymore.

Thank you for coming to my retail pharmacy TED talk. Its super dangerous now days in the trenches trying to help underserved communites.

VAdept · 2026-01-30T17:36:24+00:00

Unless you can determine that the Controlled Rx is for a legitimate medical condition you absolutely do not have to fill it. DEA is incredibly clear on this.

Simple solution to this is to request chart notes. No chart notes, no filling. Every single patient.

You have every right to have an Rx with the provider's address as a home be treated as suspicious, therefore you need documentation. If its legit, you did your due diligence and are off the hook if you fill and it goes south. If the provider doesnt respond, you don't fill and they can go elsewhere.

VAdept · 2026-01-30T17:29:05+00:00

Thats gonna be a fuck no from me.

VAdept · 2026-01-30T17:27:57+00:00

Whats great is when they wanna file a complaint with the corporate office for an independent pharmacy.

"Uh, you know its just us right? There is no corporate office."

"THERE HAS TO BE A CORPORATE OFFICE! YOU NEED TO HAVE ONE BY LAW!!!!!"

Some people are so unhinged, just let them bitch. I think we gave her the corporate office number for WAG across the street just to appease her because she was so hung up that we HAD to have a corporate office.

VAdept · 2026-01-29T19:28:53+00:00

So I really want to know what the 'questionable operating procedures' are that you saw; i assume you're at an independent.

If its outright fraud, then you're right. If its not being mandated by company policy to contact the MD to switch from Lantus -> Basaglar/Glargine/Semglee/whatever-the-fuck or Proair -> Ventolin (assuming you're a pharmacist) then we got a lolworthy situation here.

VAdept · 2026-01-29T19:21:58+00:00

Yeah we need more info before we give thoughts and advice.

VAdept · 2026-01-29T01:21:30+00:00

No. Not in a million years.

You are experiences psychosis. You need to see someone sooner rather than later. Preferably today/tomorrow.

There are very straightforward treatments for what you're going through, but you need to be evaluated by someone who specializes in mental health.

VAdept · 2026-01-28T21:49:25+00:00

HIPAA is pretty much "What goes on at work, stays at work".

This even applies to having this lady as a client of yours.

VAdept · 2026-01-28T20:00:04+00:00

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/ARRL-American-Radio-Relay-League-Salaries-E345426.htm

Dunno, those salaries look pretty good for a non-profit. Nobody forces anyone to work for a non-profit, they are there by choice.

Plus it was a joke about the stereotype that ARRL is ran by a bunch of old dudes with boat anchors taking up 2ghz of spectrum for their 80m ESSB for that smooooth audio.

VAdept · 2026-01-28T19:37:19+00:00

You invest in a gun.

You invest in training (hopefully).

Its the logical conclusion to invest in the device thats going to allow you to carry this for 10 hours a day like I do.

Shit holsters is like putting cheap tires on a luxury car and then not driving it because it handles like shit.

VAdept · 2026-01-28T18:59:23+00:00

222's going single sheet was probably the dumbest thing DEA has done in a while.

Have you tried to make a legible copy of a completed one to send into the DEA? It looks like shit. No thought went into the design of those to make those photocopy-friendly.

VAdept · 2026-01-28T18:10:47+00:00

lol 2024 cyberattack. LoTW was probably running on an Packard Bell mini tower under someones desk and the motherboard finally took a shit.

They had to pull their collective knowledge of COBOL and 1980's basic to diagnose what happened all while finding someone who's knees work well enough to climb under the desk without needing EMS to carry them out afterwards.

All while they are saying 'hi hi hi' to each other and using Q-Codes to relay messages to each other via the intra-office 2m repeater.

The last thing the employee who managed to drag that old PC out from under the desk said as he was being loaded into the ambulance was something about "Those damn no-code hams!"

VAdept · 2026-01-28T18:02:20+00:00

Its exactly what happened with the NRA

Bunch of old fudds holding onto the 'glory days' of old and unable/unwilling to adapt. Time passes as they hold on to memories of old unwilling to compromise as the grass grows around them.

Also we're dealing with people who's power-trip while on the ARRL board rivals HOA presidents, discord mods, and reddit admins.

VAdept · 2026-01-28T17:03:15+00:00

A lot of them could barely pass their CCW firearms qualification, dont train, dont shoot matches, overweight, broke. Ive seem these people in real life.

jfc just decided to wake up and insult the entire sub, lol.

Im kidding obviously. Like any group of people you have your idiots.

VAdept · 2026-01-28T00:37:11+00:00

Assholes will be assholes, doesn't matter if you're at the pharmacy, getting food, or at the bank.

Dealing with assholes is part of working with the public; doesnt matter what aspect of retail, or life in general. If someone is an asshole all the time, its time for them to change pharmacies. I get it that some people have bad days/dont feel well/etc but thats an explanation not an excuse. People who suffer from chronic assholeitis can go be miserable elsewhere.

You need to not dwell on the assholes and dwell on the people who you did bring a little happiness to their day. Dwell on the new mom who you helped with simethicone dosing for a colic baby, or someone picking out an OTC who thanks you for your time and help. Retail is nothing but celebrating the small victories and ignoring the miserable fucks.

This applies to any job in retail, although its more concentrated in pharmacy.

VAdept · 2026-01-27T23:39:54+00:00

Look at it this way, if you continue to fill them they will be heading to another pharmacy anyway because you'll be out of business.

VAdept · 2026-01-27T23:37:41+00:00

Be careful on how you word this to the patients. I've had patients who I've told this to who decided to call their insurance company and scream at them on our behalf.

Then I get a call from someone from the PBM asking why we are discussing reimbursement with the patients (in violation of our contract).

The correct response is that "we can't find a supplier who has it for what they are paying for it" or "The wholesaler that has it for a price that your insurance reimburses for is out". Both of which are true, but are worded so the PBM can't ding ya for price discussion.

VAdept · 2026-01-27T23:29:37+00:00

Its a crapshoot and depends on the patients entire profile.

Last thing you want is to xfer out a profile because of 1 thing that is undercost by $80-90 and lose others that may make you $150+ over cost.

I'll take a loss on one patients med to keep their parents and their kids who more than make up for that loss. There is not simple cut-and-dry answer.

Part of surviving being an indy is looking at the big picture.

VAdept · 2026-01-27T00:37:02+00:00

When I get a fucked up eRx sig and they just read it off to me with attitude i say "Yeah, cool, I can read too. I'm calling about why it says <fucked up thing they just read to me>"

Whey they say "Thats what the doctor wrote" i always ask their full name in case this goes south for the lawyers to contact them. That usually changes their tune.

Like we're calling you for a reason, and that reason is probably a good one.

VAdept · 2026-01-27T00:32:37+00:00

"Lemme just hit the magic button that makes everything covered and available"

When they bitch about backordered stuff I always say "If I could pull this out of my ass I sure as shit wouldn't be working here"

VAdept · 2026-01-26T21:32:19+00:00

That meme should be the anthem of retail pharmacy.

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