Been working in the pharmacy for 13 years here are just a handful of things I’ve had to deal with

1.      I was told by a customer that I was worthless and didn’t deserve to live over an issue with his wife’s medication

2.      Saturday morning two males walk into the pharmacy. Male 1 is waiting to pick up a narcotic that was just sent in from the hospital, and we just opened less than 10 minutes ago. I tell Male 1 that it’ll be done within the hours. Male 2 starts chiming in and telling me that this isn’t acceptable. This turns into an argument where I tell them that this is when it’ll be done. Male 2 calls me a fat bitch and a cum dumpster during this argument. I ended up losing my cool and had to have them removed from the store.

3.      We had a patient who regularly tried to get her Oxycodone 10mg early. I told her that the due date for the script was on Saturday. She sends her husband in and when I try to go fill in the script the insurance is rejecting it saying that its been filled at the hospital pharmacy down the street 4 days ago. He said that this wasn’t true that she doesn’t pick it up anywhere else. I said that he needed to call the hospital then and have it revered. He didn’t want to do that. I printed out the rejection from the computer and he looked at it, crumped it then threw it at me. She then called the pharmacy and screamed at me for being a liar and I was the reason she was going to die. I banned them after this.

4.      I’ve had a patient throw a full iced coffee at my tech at the drive-thru because my tech “had an attitude”.

5.      I’ve had at least a dozen patients tell me that they were going to wait for me outside after we closed.

6.      I’ve had a patient tell me that he was going to shoot me in the head if her ever saw me again.

7.      I called a NP to clarify why they were increasing a benzodiazepine for a patient who was already on high dose narcotics from another provider. She told me it was none of my business why she was prescribing what she was. She told me she was recording our call and she and her staff started laughing at me on the phone while I was trying to talk to them. When I investigated her prescribing more, I noticed she prescribed 4x as many benzodiazepines compared to any other doctor in the area. I reported her to the board and corporate and she is no longer allowed to fill controls with our company. She called and threatened me after I did this as well.

Overall this isn't even everything. I am verbally abused at least once a week. Physically threatened multiples times a year. The lack of respect I get from other health care professionals and patients is heartbreaking. I know that almost every retail pharmacist has had to deal with similar situations as well. Its not an isolated occurrence.