Friday, February 25, 2011

After winning Jeopardy! Watson goes to work at a pharmacy

And totally screws things up.





And yes I ALWAYS write refills in whole numbers.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

It's because the patient only picked up 30 out of 90, leaving 60 tablets, or .66666..... of a full refill. Watson does reside in pharmacy computers and I have learned to speak his language over the years.

Shalom said...

What's wrong with having 1⅔ refills left?

Grumpy, M.D. said...

I understood it. It just took me by surprise. Never had that show up on a fax before.

MDB said...

I think watson also resides in some of the e-prescribe systems as I've gotten dosages for 1.333mL of amox suspension before from some prescribers. I'd love to have them explain to the parents how to measure that amount out and give to a screaming kid when just 1.5ml would work alot easier on the dosing spoon or oral syringe. Of course most of that comes from idiots who use a program to calculate the dose and just write in the script what ever the number is regardless of the fact that it is not really possible to measure. And I'm not buying the I don't want to give too much of a dose, it is amoxicillin suspension, a little over what the computer program says is good, that extra is probably going to wind up being spit up and dying something pink.

Anonymous said...

Same thing happened to me. I had
.12 left on a RX. When it was refilled after the .12 I received,
yep .12 again, not the original
amt of rx. You would think Watson
would have defaulted back to original amt. It was fun trying to
explain to doc who never had seen this before.

Anonymous said...

Automated systems are great:

Methotrexate 2.5 mg
Dispensing amount: 12.857142857
Take 3 tablets buy mouth once every week.

I know where the flaw is.....but it just looks ridiculous.

WV: guessidl

Kitty~Amber said...

Oh, thanks for that laugh out loud moment of the week. That's hilarious.

Li'l Azathoth said...

Shouldn't that be "1.66666667?"

Moose said...

Actually it should be 1.6666 with a bar over the last 6.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous re Methotrexate 3 tabs once a week : try getting some funders to understand that some months have FIVE Fridays and that 12 tabs just won't do it!

Packer said...

There are 4.3 weeks per month, maybe that has something to do with it.

Frantic Pharmacist said...

Yes, our brilliant computer system does this too when adjusting a script for a 3-month supply to a 1-month supply. Somehow it is unable to make the translation. I don't know why we can make smart phones that practically wipe your butt for you, but we can't do this.

watercolordaisy said...

Oh great. Can't wait for that to happen. lol. Insurance is already confused I take 20x the recommended dose of a med I'm not taking for the regular use, lol.

Texas Pharmacy Chica said...

Anon 6:06 - that's why those are written for a 28 day supply, just like oral contraceptives, Actonel 35 mg and other drugs taken in terms of weeks, not months of varying length. Thus you have to pay 13 copays each year, but no one violates any crazy insurance rules....because it is a misdemeanor (insurance fraud) in most states for pharmacists to dispense 35 days supply of meds if the ins deal is 30 days MAX, but 28 days supply is OK. Or even 12 days (think antibiotics). Check your own member handbook, it is probably in there on page 672 or thereabouts......

The other option is to dispense, say 13 tablets, even when the patient takes 3 each week, so every 3 months it all looks good.
My experience is that most patients, not all, would loose the spare tablet, take the wrong amount of tablets, complain the pharmacy gave them the wrong amount because there is not a correct number of doses in the bottle or a combination of all of the above.

The Mother said...

Finally, a solution to the fact that a month is not always 30 days long. We just write for 1.01 refills on the long ones.

Ashley said...

lol @ The Mother. I'd laugh so hard to rec'v an Rx with that on it. And I'd DEFINITELY know what they meant, now.

Diana said...

I use an insulin pump that recommends 100U insulin but I use 500. Try and get the pharmacist to understand how many bottles of insulin I need per month. I thought for a while the pharmacist and my doc were going to get into a shouting match over the phone!

 
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