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These are the thoughts of a cantankerous ol' gynecologist who remembers when things were a little different. I try to find a little humor in my life and the people I meet along the way. Come meet the characters in my world.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

Sometimes I’m Just Too Nice

My office, and that of almost every other OB/GYN, has closed around noon on Friday afternoon for at least 20 years.  Patients should know that they need to get their weekend stuff done in the morning on Friday.  I tell them all when they first come here as patients.  No golfing on Wednesday afternoons.  I have kids with band and football games on Fridays. 

I’m finishing up my paperwork and getting organized to leave on Friday, when my cell phone rings.  It’s a patient I had seen earlier in the week.  She has been having issues with her insurance.  We had to switch her medications to something that didn’t work as well until she could get her insurance straightened out. 

She has it fixed now.  Can I call in a prescription for the other medication?  It’s a medication that has to have a written prescription.  I’m still at the office, so I told her to come on over, and I would do it for her. 

Prescription written, I figure I’m free and clear.  Not so fast.  I get another phone call about two hours later.  Now I’m in line at the pharmacy for MY medications.  She needs a prior authorization for the medication.  The pharmacy couldn’t fill it.

Fortunately, I’m sitting in the drive through window of the same pharmacy the patient uses.  We live in an area where the pharmacists know most of the doctors, and the docs know most of the pharmacists.  The pharmacist kindly gave me the phone number for the insurance company and the patient’s insurance information so I could take care of this “little issue”. 

I pulled out of the line after getting my medications, pulled into a parking spot and made the call. 

Sometimes I’m just too danged nice.

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