Saturday, January 31, 2009

I'll have two prescriptions, please

Awhile ago, Geoff had suggested that I refill my prescription at Wallyworld, because it is the closest place to our house and we are there all the time. So, since my automatic monthly refills at Place A ran out last month (or so I thought), I took my slip of paper to the Wallyworld pharmacy last Thursday night. I asked the kid behind the counter if they did automatic monthly refills. He didn't know, but pointed me to the older gentlman who said, yes, they did. Then they pointed me over to another kid at the computer who was to set me up - only, he didn't know how. So after verifying again that yes, they do do automatic monthly refills, he got instructions from the older gentleman on how to set me up, getting frustrated and exclaiming, "I'm doing my best!" when prodded by the old guy. He reminded me that, even though it was on automatic refill, it would probably be a good idea to call ahead of time anyway, to make sure they had it ready. He finished up and then closed the shutter without even saying goodbye.

Okay?

In the meantime, I got a call from Place A saying that my prescription was ready for pickup. I didn't know I had another one there? I guessed there was one more that I wasn't aware of, and went to pick it up. I told the pharmacy manager that I'd just set up the same prescription at Wallyworld and asked if he could transfer it back up to Place A, and he said yes. A minute later, I was paged back to the pharmacy at the back of the store, where the manager explained that I already had a whole 'nother year's worth of refills. When I said that should've been my last one, he said that sometimes they call the doctor's office and get the go-ahead for me. ? So, as of that point, I had two open prescriptions in two different places. (It's a good thing I'm not a drug addict or I might try to exploit that little loophole!)

I figured I should call Wallyworld back and cancel my prescription there, on the off-chance that it would mess my insurance up somehow. The girl on the phone asked my name, couldn't find it, then asked for my date of birth. My birthday is in August. She said, "Is that ten?" I said, "huh?" She said, "August, is that the tenth month?" I said, "August is the eighth month of the year." Then she cancelled it for me. I hope. I should never have gone there, I hope nothing gets screwed up. I have to admit, and not trying to be snotty, but I was quite shocked that they are letting that girl count pills. Kind of surprised at the whole operation, actually.

5 comments:

NaDell said...

Don't you love it when you have to explain things like that over and over?
It just makes you want to take your stuff and leave double-checking over and over.
Or, maybe she just had an off day. I don't know about the other kids though. I'm pretty sure the screen just tells them what to type in, doesn't it?

Tisha Morgan said...

That is really weird. I fill my percriptions at Walmart, kinda of nice with one of my perscriptions on their $4 list, and I have never had any problems. Must be a difference in Walmarts or something...

Jax said...

Your whole story and the analysis you go through with it is great. I can't tell you how many aspects of modern life leave me feeling completely flabbergasted like that, and because I'm basically OCD I recycle the details of processes like that over and over in my head. I partially blame the progressive dumbing down of society on the information overload created by technology (especially the Internet), which relates to the scientifically proven hypothesis that multi-tasking makes us stupider.

Cali said...

K wait... huh? Too many thoughts hitting me at once! Does that count as multi-tasking? (just kidding)

That's funny if multi-tasking makes us dumber. I swear I've seen it many times as a skill on job descriptions... must be able to multi-task.

Jax said...

Yeah, it's funny because multi-tasking is now thought of mainly as a myth of modern society. (There's even a book called _The Myth of Multitasking_.) I found this quote from an article on the subject: "The great irony of multitasking [is] that its overall goal, getting more done in less time, turns out to be chimerical. In reality, multitasking slows our thinking. . . . A brain attempting to perform two tasks simultaneously will, because of all the back-and-forth stress, exhibit a substantial lag in information processing." There's also a study I read about, which I just love, that showed that people smoking marijuana score higher on IQ tests than people who had just been multitasking during the day. (The study was done in Europe, obviously.) I see the effects in my own life every day. Multitasking is virtually worthless from a productivity standpoint.