Q: My doctor’s office wouldn’t refill my prescription over the phone; instead, they told me to contact my pharmacy. When I stopped in to pick up my refill the pharmacy told me they hadn’t heard back from the doctor yet, despite it being nearly a week since I’d requested it. When I called my doctor’s office to find out why, THEY told said their records showed it had been faxed 4 days ago, but the pharmacy says they never heard back. Who’s telling the truth?
Both of them are telling you their situation as they see it. Many doctor’s offices now instruct you “don’t call us, call your pharmacy” for any refills, and it’s so frustrating to get caught in the middle, with both sides claiming that it’s not their problem, it’s the other party that didn’t follow through. Trouble is, when you need your medicine refilled, when you run out it becomes YOUR problem.
It seems that today’s doctor’s offices only want to hear from your pharmacy if you need a refill, not you. There are three reasons for this. One reason is that a refill request sent to your doctor from your pharmacy has the important information about your requested refill already organized for the doctor, including which pharmacy to send the refill request to, saving your doctor a lot of time. Second, a faxed refill request doesn’t require a nurse or staff member to stop what they are doing, answer the phone, listen to you state your request, then write it down for the doctor to respond to later. It may not seem like very much time, maybe 3-4 minutes, but multiply that times the number of medicines prescribed by just one clinic and it really adds up.
Another very important reason is that the medication, dose and directions you are requesting may not be the same as what your doctor has on file for you. You might have seen a cardiologist specialist for a heart problem and they changed your medicine, or you may be asking for a refill of medicine that is managed by another doctor, and should be directed at another physician’s office instead. As a pharmacist, I often see medications coming from 2 or 3 doctors on the list of prescriptions we fill for our customers.
What’s supposed to happen when you run out of refills of your medicines? First, you call your pharmacy to request a refill, they then fax your doctor’s office with the details of what you are requesting, your doctor reviews it and responds with any changes and additional refill instructions, and then sends it back to your pharmacy, which fills it in time for you to pick it up or mail it to you before you run out of your medicine.
If only it always worked that way all the time. Why do your pharmacy and doctor’s office get into the blame game of, “I sent it? It’s not my problem?” What goes wrong?
These days, the medical community communicates both by manual and electronic faxing. Manual faxing involves walking up to a fax machine, sticking a piece of paper into it, dialing the number of the fax machine you want it to go to, then listening for a confirmation tone which will tell you that your fax was transmitted successfully to the fax at the destination you requested. With a manual fax, you can tell if your fax arrived or not. Electronic faxing is very different. You only need a computer, and when you click the fax button on your computer screen it your faxed request goes to a central holding area first before being transmitted. The main difference is that an electronic fax will only show that YOU SENT IT, not whether it arrived at its intended destination. And we “lose” electronic faxes every day, sucked into some black hole somewhere, never to arrive at their expected destination.
That’s why you get the “we’ve already sent it” response from both your pharmacy and your doctor’s office when you ask why your refill isn’t ready. It’s SO tempting to just go to the source (your doctor) and avoid dealing with us, your pharmacy, especially when communication breaks down. Instead, call ahead for refills to allow time for your pharmacy and doctor to communicate and re-fax each other if necessary.
