URxProbablyRxight
Meds & Counsel without Patience for Patients
Ever heard of Dick’s Last Resort? Never been to the restaurant myself, but I love the concept. It’s like the court jester in medieval times being able to tell the King the harsh truth since everything he said was in—you guessed it—jest. Why has no pharmacy taken up this business practice? If patients expect harsh but fair truth from the pharmacy team, they’ll accept it readily.
Welcome to URxProbablyRxight. The pharmacy of the future where we provide “Meds & Counsel without Patience for Patients.”
Rounding Up
[Tech]: “Why’d you decline this one, Marianne?”
[Rph]: “Wrong days’ supply.”
[Tech]: “No it’s not. Getting 20 tablets. Taking 6 per day. That’s 3—what is it—3.33 days.”
[Rph]: “Yeah, good math.”
[Tech]: “Mental math’s my secret superpower.”
[Rph]: “Okay. Then why’d you type it as a 3-day supply?”
[Tech]: “What else would I put it as?”
[Rph]: “Four.”
[Tech]: “Why would I do that? Even if you’re rounding, you’d round down to 3, not up to 4.”
[Rph]: “With controls, you should always round up. Even if it comes out to a 3.001-day supply, make it 4 days.”
[Tech]: “That just doesn’t seem right. You gotta round down to 3.”
[Rph]: “Alright, think about it this way, Dillon. If someone got this Norco script for a quantity of just 1 tablet with the SIG of 1 po q4h PRN, what would you use as the days’ supply?”
[Tech]: “Ahh . . . 1.”
[Rph]: “Why? By your logic, it would only last 1/6 of a—”
[Tech]: “0.1666, etc.”
[Rph]: “Alright, ‘Triple-M.’ In that case, why wouldn’t you round down to a zero-day supply?”
[Tech]: “Well, it’s obviously gotta be at least a 1-day supply. Zero’s ridiculous!”
[Rph]: “Can’t have it both ways. If you round all the way up to 1, you have to round up to 2, and 3, and—as with this Rx—4. You have to stay consistent, ‘Triple-M’.”
[Tech]: “What are you calling me?”
[Rph]: “Triple-M. Your new superhero name: Mental Math Man!”