ComplaintsforCampus Medicine Shoppe #343

• Initial Complaint

  31/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I rcd a prescription in October 2021 for 11 each of my medicated shampoos. I missed filling my Rx for Nov and Dec and when I called was advised I could no longer have those 2 months filled. I said okay can you send me 2 months' worth of treatment for Jan and feb. They sent me 2 months' worth as requested but the balance on the new prescription lables indicates that several treatments are now missing from the balance. I sent an email to ask for someone to clear up the discrepancy in emails several times but no one has responded to my request for a written email reply. It has been approximately 2 weeks since I ifrst noticed the discrepancy and requested attention to it. I do not know how to get the business to respond as requested so am contacting BBB for help.

  Business response

  25/02/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/02/02) */ We are disappointed that this customer filed a complaint against our pharmacy. Our local, independent pharmacy is dedicated to provide a very high standard of pharmacy services to the university community. In this situation, our pharmacy staff tried to reply to the customer email by phone and had been unable to get ahold of this customer by phone. Although we have a pharmacy email, we prefer to discuss medication and prescription files by phone or in person rather than email to reduce further miscommunication and reduce risks associated with providing personal health information via email. Our pharmacy is readily available by phone and in person during our regular business hours. In this case, refills were correct, however we appreciate pharmacy refills displayed are not always intuitive. We have since written an explanation of how pharmacy refills are calculated and displayed on the label to this to this customer. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/02/15) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I am disappointed by the pharmacy and their reply. I have trusted this pharmacy to fill my prescription needs with due diligence since approximately 2010. The owner's explanation for the significant discrepancy in my prescription refills makes zero sense to me and makes me question whether or not similar discrepancies have occurred without my noticing in the past 11 years. At this point I prefer to do a document review and have requested that the pharmacy send copies of what they have submitted to NIHB and I am preparing to move forward with a full audit of services charged to my registry number. Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/02/16) */ Dear BBB, This is the response I emailed to the patient prior to my first reply through the BBB: On Wednesday, February 2, 2022, Team Account wrote: Hi *******, Sorry I have had a child off school sick for the last 3.5 weeks and haven't been able to communicate regularly by email and haven't been able to be at work regularly to access prescription files. Our staff typically check our email daily, but I encourage our staff to typically reply to messages that include health information or pharmacy records by phone to reduce miscommunication and to reduce communication about health specific information by email. I do not have your pharmacy file available at home, but I can see that from the refills appear correct from the refills you are showing and information you have given in your email. Unfortunately refills on pharmacy systems are not always intuitive. Example of how pharmacy systems calculate refills remaining: 120ml filled with 11 refills= 120*11= 1320ml remaining Then 1320ml- 240ml filled= 1080ml remaining which is 1080ml/240ml=4.5refillls But systems round down to full refills, so label would show 4 refills (even though 4.5 refills would be available) I hope this makes sense of how then labels went from 11 refills then dropped to 4 refills on the next fill. Furthermore, I see you have made a complaint against our pharmacy with the BBB. I have been unable to view the actual complaint yet (I am unfamiliar with their process and have never had a complaint against us before). I would be happy to discuss this further with you, ***************************************************************** Again, please contact me if you would be willing to discuss further or for further clarification. I will do my best to respond in a timely manner. Otherwise, you may call the pharmacy for a more immediate response. Regards, *********** Pharmacy Owner Following the above email, the patient emailed our pharmacy requesting a record of prescriptions they filled at our pharmacy, so we emailed the patient the pharmacy software generated report of prescriptions filled for last 13 months (Jan 2020 through Feb 2022) as requested. The patient didn't call or visit the pharmacy to ask for any additional clarification about how refills are calculated, so I assumed the patient was able to understand how the refill were written and their concern was resolved. Therefore I was surprised when we were notified that the patient did not accept our response and continues to question their refills and is now implying that the refills are somehow suspicious. As I replied earlier, I appreciate that prescription refills are not always intuitive. Pharmacy students have labs and calculation questions in their first year to help understand this because it is not always straightforward. I apologize if my first explanation was unclear or confusing. As mentioned in our initial response, we would be happy for the patient to come into the pharmacy or call us, so we can help walk through the math with the patient. I am a pharmacist and own/manage the pharmacy on campus. I am still at home with prolonged covid symptoms, but any of our pharmacy staff would be happy to walk through these calculations if the patient would like to come to the pharmacy. I would also be willing to arrange a phone call with the patient from my home. We would like to be a supportive and welcoming environment for all students who use our pharmacy. We hope the student feels comfortable asking for our help understanding, or if there is anything we can do to help the patient feel more comfortable asking or help understanding, we welcome their suggestions. I also reached out to our pharmacy regulatory body *********************************** and spoke to them today about this complaint (without identifying the patient) to see if they had suggestions of how we can better clarify to the patient to resolve the understanding. I would still like to help the student understand refill calculations, so they understand in the future. Because my previous refill example was unclear, I think it might be easier to understand the refills if I explain in "bottles" rather than "mls". EXPLANATION OF REFILLS: We filled ONE bottle and there were 11 refills remaining. Then we filled TWO bottles (as requested) and there were 4 refills remaining. The question is how to label went from 11 refills down to 4 refills..... The explanation is as follows: When we filled ONE bottle, there were 11 refills (or 11 bottles remaining) Then we filled TWO bottles. There had been 11 bottles, but we filled TWO bottles, so there are now 9 bottles remaining. The refills on the label show how many times we can fill two bottles. There are 9 bottles left, so 9 divided by 2 is 4.5. Refills appear on labels as full numbers, so the refills are 4. That mean that the prescription can be filled four more times with 2 bottles per fill. In other words, if they continue to fill TWO bottles each time, they can fill the prescription 4 more times (2 x 4 =8). The system rounds down to whole numbers, so after their 4th fill, they will see a "part-fill" of ONE bottle remaining to fill (the 9th bottle). HERE IS A DIFFERENT EXAMPLE OF CALCULATING PRESCRIPTION REFILLS: Here is another way to think about prescription refills. This is a general example of a different prescription: Remember that refills are displayed as how many times a prescription can be refilled. Lets say that a prescription is written for a total quantity of 10 bottles. If the patient would like to fill ONE bottle: The prescription label will show ONE bottle filled with 9 refills. However, if the same prescription is written for a total quantity of 10 bottles and the patient would like TWO bottles filled: The prescription label will show TWO bottles filled with 4 refills. This is less intuitive, but it means that the prescription can be filled 4 more times with TWo bottles each time. I hope that these examples will better explain how the refills are calculated. Our pharmacy staff is available at our pharmacy to go through how refills are calculated. If my calculation explanations are still unclear, I would encourage the student to visit the pharmacy where we might be able to better answer their calculation question in person. If the BBB would like to seek any further clarification into this matter, please don't hesitate to contact me.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩