Back at work
So I’ve had a weird couple of days. It turns out I’ve committed assault on an oncology pharmacist, and caused an entire hospital to be evacuated.
I’m back at work now. We recently got something called IVR. It stands for Interactive Voice Response which basically means our call volume has decreased tremendously. Instead of calling us to leave their prescription numbers, they just type them into the computer and they show up on our computer to fill. Every once in a while there’s a frustrated customer that figures out how to get through the menu and rings the pharmacy.
For these customers, they end up leaving me their number anyways. It took me 5 minutes to find this annoying when there’s another option for them to leave their prescriptions. Oh well.
I’m a little worried about what this could lead to down the line. Public perception is turning towards the idea that a pharmacist’s job can be completed by a machine. In fact, there was this one guy who asked me how hard my job was. The interaction goes a little like this:
“If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do you do back there?”
“Well sir, we decipher your prescription, fill it, submit it to your insurance, check it versus your profile and other questions we ask you, and assess whether it is appropriate.”
“I thought that’s what the doctor did.”
“Doctors try to do that, but you would be suprised how many mistakes we catch a day from them.”
“Cut the crap. I’m here for the Ambien.” The customer then attempted to climb into the pharmacy. I quickly pulled the gate release and it closed down on his head locking his neck in the contraption. He hadn’t planned for that and fortunately he had not brought back up.
“Now I have you,” I exclaimed. “What do you people want?”
“You have foiled our attempts on three separate incidences. Why won’t you just die?”
The obvious answer was self preservation, but I decided to take a different route. “I refuse to die because I’m the last pharmacist of my profession that will stand up to you people.” I punched the customer in the face. “What are you here for?”
“I’m here to steal your dignity,” as he wrestled free and ran.
“What the hell?”