(Note to family members reading this: the below does not relate to anyone in our household).
The following has nothing to do with the current debate, although one suspects that it is an odd result of the evolution of our system. At any rate: one goes to the ER for a medical emergency. One spends hours at said ER and one gets treated. One is given a prescription upon leaving for antibiotics or pain meds or some other item that one needs as a result of one’s emergency. However, since one spent hours at the ER it is now the middle of the night and all the pharmacies (save one) is closed. The one that is open is having computer problems, so it will take at least two hours for the needed medication to be dispensed.
Oh joy.
The bottom line: why is it that the hospital can’t dispense said medication so that after one’s harrowing illness/injury and one’s multiple hours at the ER that one can’t go home and rest? Instead, one has to figure out how to get the bloody medication to help oneself (or, in this case, one’s child)?
It is a rather screwed up process.
And while the above does not relate to anyone in the household at the moment, I can recall having several past experiences where the lack of a 24 hour pharmacy in conjunction with a hospital visit caused problems. It is all quite the mess, really–especially back when we lived in a semi-rural small town.
August 30th, 2024 at 8:36 am
You forgot to mention that the one open pharmacy with computer problems is also invariably across town from the hospital’s location, staffed by a sole and surly worker who seems irritated that you interrupted the shelf-restocking task.
August 30th, 2024 at 10:24 am
To be fair, it is a actually a block from the hospital in question (although across town from the other two hospitals in town).
Although to somewhat make your point anyway, the one with the computer problems ended up being so screwed up that my friend had to go to another town (a suburb, but on the opposite side of Montgomery from where we live) to get the scrip filled for her son.