Just holler "Hell NO!"

Here is the most recent pet peeve for me to rave about: pharmacies that barely fill your prescription, place it in a bag, don’t tell you, and charge you full price.
Can I hear an “Oh hell NO!”
Yes, this happens. It’s very irritating. You leave the pharmacy happy you received your medication AT ALL, usually after a couple hour wait, only to discover that you’ve been tricked into paying full price up front for a fraction of the prescription.
Not okay.
Usually, if confronted, there is an excuse, such as “Oh, that’s all we have in stock.”
Okay, then WHY did you not tell me? Were you trying to sneak it by me? Are you banking on the idea that I won’t be back to fill the rest and you’ll make out with an entire payment for partially providing care?
That’s fraud. It’s wrong, plain and simple, black and white.
But the problem here goes far beyond money. Defrauding the ill is a new low to make money off the sick.
From a public health perspective, this behavior could cause a crisis of anti-biotic resistant strains of diseases.
Has everyone heard about MRSA scares? MR stands for methicillin resistant. This disease is a huge problem because antibiotics don’t work. It takes weeks of the strongest, broadest spectrum antibiotics to fix, if it’s fixable at all.
How was this made? Through people partially taking their antibiotic prescriptions. Previously, providers thought that patients were at fault for stopping antibiotics when they feel better giving bacteria the opportunity to adapt and become resistant.
Always take your entire prescription of antibiotics.
Now people are cutting back due to funds and taking partial scripts, and to add insult to injury, THE PHARMACY IS PROVIDING PARTIAL SCRIPTS.
NO! Big pharm is not looking at the big picture here.
Let’s use an example, say a 5 year old with an ear infection who receives a prescription for Amoxillin goes to a pharmacy in VT that does not have the entire dose for the child.
First of all, who let’s this happen during winter in New England?
Now the pharmacy, just doesn’t tell the mom, and fills the script. When they get home she realizes she only has two doses!
Who is going to drag a sick kid out at night after trekking around offices and pharmacies when it is -16 degrees outside?
Not me. Not many people. That sounds like a circle of hell to me.
The kid gets partially treated, not because of the doctor or the parent, but because of the pharmacy.
There is no guarantee that when you go back to the pharmacy they’ll have it in stock. They’ll say “You have to what until Monday when a shipment comes in.” or they may ask you to wait 24 hours to get your refill.
Guess what? That kid could miss 4 doses at a very pivotal point in treatment, and the amoxicillin that may have worked, now doesn’t. Then it’s time to move on to a bigger, badder prescription for the child who has about 70 more years of life expectancy to make more resistant strains of bacteria.
This is going to be a progressing public health care problem. You’ve all been warned.