Her Concept Of “Unethical” Is… Just Weird

My husband and I have both been diagnosed with severe sinus infections. We go to a local walk-in clinic and the nurse practitioner prescribes us the exact same drugs — amoxicillin and Claritin — because we have similar medical histories and those drugs are generally the normal treatment for sinus infections in the United States. We go to a pharmacy at a major grocery store chain to get the prescriptions filled.

We present the prescriptions to the pharmacy tech on duty.

Pharmacy Tech: “I can’t fill these!”

Me: “Why not?”

Pharmacy Tech: “Because you were both prescribed the exact same medications! It would be unethical for me to fill them!”

Me: “We both have sinus infections, and we have similar medical issues, so the nurse practitioner who prescribed them gave us the same thing.”

The pharmacy tech gets a blank look on her face and she starts to mumble to herself. I finally decide to ask for the pharmacist. The pharmacist comes over.

Pharmacist: *To the pharmacy tech* “Why can’t you put these in to be filled? This is the normal treatment for sinus infections.”

Pharmacy Tech: “But they were both prescribed the same medications! I can’t legally give two people in the same household the same medications!”

Pharmacist: “Where did it say that in any of your training? What would happen if you had two diabetics in the same household who took insulin?”

Pharmacy Tech: “I just assumed that two people in the same household can’t have the same medications. It would be different if they were diabetic because you need insulin to live. You don’t need amoxicillin and allergy medications to live!”

Pharmacist: “These people are obviously in extreme discomfort! Put these in the system to be filled! I will discuss this with you later!”

We ended up getting our prescriptions filled. I later learned from a friend who worked at that same grocery store that the pharmacy tech had always been off mentally and that she caused MANY problems with customers due to her lack of common sense. She was eventually fired after refusing to let a government employee use their insurance plan because she said that it “wasn’t fair” that their copays were so low.