- Joined
- Dec 5, 2020
- Messages
- 2,786
I agree. Yesterday I messaged my cardio and suggested that I don't need to be under the care of the Coumadin Clinic anymore and asked if he could remove me. And, actually, when I spoke to the assistant at the clinic I told him the same thing and he agreed that there was not really a need for their services anymore. So, we'll see if I get get out from under their "care".
Hopefully they will just fill it and leave you alone. A couple of weeks ago I had a warfarin prescription snafu that I did not fully understand until I clarified with the clinic during my phone call yesterday.
So, my cardiologist knows that I self manage and am doing a good job staying in a tight range. He'll write me any prescription for warfarin that I ask him for. This is how it should work for folks who self manage INR. So, at my visit 5 weeks ago, I tell him that I am currently taking 6.5mg and asked if he could write a prescription for 6mg and also 1mg tablets. No problem.
Usually I get a text within 24 hours from my pharmacy that my prescription is ready. No text comes. Finally, after about 1 week, I get a text that the 6mg pills are ready, but nothing about the 1mg. When picking up the 6mg, I ask the clerk at the pharmacy about the 1mg. He checks the notes in the system and says that the pharmacist had a question for my doctor about that prescription to clarify something. I suggested that if he has a question that perhaps I could help him. I was told thank you, but we need to ask your doctor. Hmmm. It would have taken 30 seconds to clear up if they just asked me.
So, another week passes and finally I get a text that my warfarin 4mg is ready. 4mg? I was waiting for 1mg tablets. So, I go down there and it turns out that the pharmacist saw my 6mg script and 1mg script and got confused because the last script they had in the system said "take 4mg per day" - which was still in their system from my last refil 4 months ago. So, rather than ask me for the clarification, they call "my doctor". However, I learned yesterday that the call did not really go to my cardiologist, who wrote the presctiption, but to the Coumadin Clinic. And, during that "clarification" call, the clinic changes my 1mg prescription to a 4mg prescription, because, in their system it shows that I take 4mg per day, and apparently they felt that I did not need 1mg pills.
So, I ask to speak to the pharmacist about it. It is a very nice woman working this day, and she is not the pharmacist that started this chain of miscommunication. She actually was willing to speak to me and within about 60 seconds I fully clarified everything. I told her that it is probably not a bad idea to have some 4mg pills on hand, but that I also need my 1mg prescription filled- despite changing the one above, I still have a bunch of 1mg scrips in the system. She gives it a moment of thought and gives me both. She was actually well versed with home INR testing and understood that in these situation the patient is the best person to seek clarification from. The other pharmacist, who was off that day, not so much.
That all went down a couple of weeks ago, but I did not learn until yesterday that the call for clarification went to the clinic and not to my cardiologist.
Anyway, I now have about 8 months worth of warfarin pills and refills on standby that will take me out for 2-3 more years. As long as I can get the Coumadin Clinic out of the communication loop, I don't expect anymore issues.
" They want $500 for this $20/hr person who spent ten minutes? "
Yes, and it's insane. I asked the assistant at the clinic to please make sure that I don't get billed for their "guidance", which was never requested in the first place. He said that most of their clinic patients are on Medicare, which pays for nearly 100% of all costs, and so they don't care about the billing. It's no wonder our medical costs are out of control.
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