Special order problem

I spent some time today making sure that a mum got hold of some heart medicines for her four year old daughter.

This morning she brought in a prescription for this drug and told me that she had completely run out and needed to get hold of further supplies today in order to give her daughter the required evening dose.

What hadn’t been explained to her was that her daughter’s medication was a ‘special order’ that wouldn’t be with us for at least 3-5 working days.

I rang the hospital pharmacy department (which was 25 miles away) to ask for their advice and they told me it was possible for the patient to obtain further supplies today if she contacted her consultant who could then instruct the pharmacy department to supply it.

The trouble was that the patient didn’t have any transport which I informed the hospital of, but they said that one way or the other they wouldn’t leave the patient with no medication.

So I let mum know and she went home to sort it out.

I rang her this afternoon to check everything had worked out OK and she told me that the hospital had arranged for a supply to be made that evening from a local hospital which was only 5 miles away.

It was great that everyone pulled together to ensure that this lady received the necessary medication on time, but none of this would have happened if she had been told how long it would take to obtain supplies of this medication in the community.