OT. Walgreens Sign On Bonus

[Dean Hoffman]

Walgreens wants help behind the pharmacy counters.

[micky]

I got an email Saturday syaing walgreens was processing my prescription and it would be ready this Tuesday. They've only doen this once before iirc but I don't think it took that long the last time. I only have one prescription med now** and it's only every 3 months, so it will be hard for me to get enough instances for an average.

**since the doctor refused to renew the other one. He said 5 years was long enough and I should try something new. So I have to see the endocrinologist again. I didn't like the last one and the one I called this time, twice, still hasn't called me back a month later. The first time I called during their business hours the recording said, We're running slow but don't call a second time. I have never heard a message like that before, esp. from a doctor.

I called Wednesday, and when I didn't get called back in two+ days, I called late saturday night, to leave another message. This time the auto-switchboard sent me somewhere else with a different recording. It said there woudl be a call back in 24 business hours, but it's been a month.

Are they punishing me for calling twice?

Oh, and later I saw some of her practice's reviews, complaining about never being called back. This is at a major respected hospital here, but they are somehow a separate practice from the hospital, it seems. Renting space I guess. They don't have an email address iirc and the hospital has many, but only for specific departments and endocrinologiy is not one of them!!!!. My upcoming appointment is a doctor at another hospital.

[Dean Hoffman]

Some cut.

I've taken advantage of the local Walgreen's auto renew for my prescriptions. I get a recorded message saying it's time to stop in. The women behind the counter recognize me. It's not unusual for them to say we've got one for you, or we've got two for you. I usually get the call about a week before I'm actually out of whatever.

[micky]

I got another email a few days earlier saying they were going to do this. As you know, they let you chooose whether to get emails or phone calls.

It's pretty good, although there is one small flaw. For privacy they don't say which prescription is being refilled, but they offer to let you set it so they do, but I can't change the setting. No big deal. In stead you can also go to your list of scheduled renewals and it will say which one they're working on.

[micky]

And I got another email just now telling me the prescription will be ready Thursday, instead of Tuesday like the earlier one said. Sounds like they are short staffed.

(I'm in no hurry. Even more so because I skipped 10 days for no good reason.)

[micky]

And I got an email just now telling me it will be ready Saturday, instead of Thursday, instead of Tuesday.

They started this. If they hadn't sent their first email until today, I wouldn't have known they are short-staffed.

[Ed Pawlowski]

They could be out of the medication. Maybe the delivery is late.

I'm going away tomorrow so checked my meds. Put in the refill about 10 this morning, picked it up at 1:15.

[gfretwell]

Usually I can stop by the pharmacy at Publix and put in my prescription order and they are ready by the time I have my groceries. They don't pretend they are in the back room making these drugs to order. We all understand they count out 30 or 90 pills, put them in a bottle and stick on the label the computer printed out. In a lot of cases, the drugs are already in the bottle or box and they just put on the label. (anything in a tube or bottle and some of the pills)

[micky]

That may well be. I got another email today, saying it will be Monday (instead of Saturday, instead of Thursday, instead of Tuesday).

[micky]

That's up to them! I got still another email today, saying it will be Wednesday (instead of Monday, instead of Saturday, instead of Thursday, instead of Tuesday).

Delayed 4 times, with nothing in the email to acknowledge that. That's because the form-email was written when they thought it would only happen once.

They get scheduled 2 days later each time, and get rescheduled a day before that, so I may get another email on Tuesday saying Friday.

[angelica...]

Any chance the e-mail was sent without human intervention? Why would a computer program acknowledge repeated delays?

Cindy Hamilton

[gfretwell]

I always get a phone message when my scripts are due and it is a robot.

[micky]

That may well be. I got another email today, saying it will be Monday (instead of Saturday, instead of Thursday, instead of Tuesday).

[micky]

That is, originally composed years ago.

Exactly. That's what I meant.

Originally iit was to be the 3rd and now it's the 20th. Longer than I thought.

But I don't think it will be the 20th either:

There has been a string of ATM thefts or attempt at Walgreens, in Portland, Hartford, Hoover Alabama near Birmingham**, NE Baltimore, a mall, etc. and now mine. Someone drove straight through the front door and the whole store is closed for a day or two until they replace it.

**In this one, they got the ATM but were spotted, and they left the truck with the ATM on it. Unlike my Walgreens and a CVS near me (which has not been robbed), this one has those thick concrete/steel 3-foot posts out front, so I don't think they used the truck to drive through the door but the door was still missing.

[micky]

I though I already reported this, but I think we're into a second week.

I haven't. 2 months ago I was running out of the other drug and the doctor wouldn't renew it after 5 years without my talking to an endocrinologist again. That took months to arrange, and I ran out.

Somehow that caused me to stop taking everything for two weeks. I think I have more than two weeks of this one left.

The one that is pending is generic lipitor. My last ECG a year ago, don't know who read it, but it might have been a physicians assistant who made 4 mistakes in the 10 minutes I spent with her, after my doctor retired and I hadn't picked another one, and I needed to see someone to renew 1 or 2 prescriptions. If she misread the ECG, that would be five mistakes.

But I'll admit, that only led to a echocardiagram and one other test, by an actual cardiologist, not the PA, who then sent me to a second cariologist for a cardiac catheterization. (Still that might have just been because even if it's only a PA who posts a warning, if the cardiologist ignores it and she was right, he'd look really bad.)

Catheterization was an interesting mildly unusual experience with twilight anesthesia, not allowed to stand up afterwards for at least 30 minutes, have to get a ride home, and have to take it easy for 2 days, because of the hole they put in the femoral artery. That showed that the 3 major blood vessels examined are normal. I asked, does that mean normal for a 74 year old guy, or for a 30-year old guy He was vague but after more reading apparently it's for a 20-year old guy, meaning, and I'm still trying to believe this, that I don't have plaque there, despite my unsupervised diet and pretty long-standing high cholesterol. When my new doctor saw it, he said, I wonder if there is any point to your taking the [generic lipitor]. And I'd missed taking it for two years of the previous 5 also. My cholesterol is still high, but maybe it doesn't matter. Everyone is a little different. I shouldn't say this. It will make readers think they can ignore high cholesterol, but I must be unusual.

The cardiologist said the earlier test(s?) were misleading.

My father died of heart failure when he was 63 and I was 8. He had rheumatic fever as a child, so it's not comparable, but it still hits home.

I'm still taking the lipitor, because I try to be a good boy, but if I run out for a few days, I don't care much.