(no subject)

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

Note: The clients who I support are representatives from the pharmaceuticals industry. Their job is to get doctors to prescribe their drugs rather than their competitor's, and to give the doctors free samples which the doctors can then give to patients when writing prescriptions. There is, as might be imagined, a lot of big-time federal controlled-substance compliance crap that goes along with this job.

Rep: "Hey. I think I made a sampling error today. I put down on my PDA that I left 3 samples for a doctor, but I don't think I left any. How can I make sure?"

Me: "Well, you could call the doctor and ask him."

Rep: "Oh, he just throws the samples in a closet, he wouldn't know."

Me: "Well, the call you created on your PDA is the official record. If that's wrong and you can't remember, then I guess you have no way to be sure."

If she doesn't remember how many samples she handed him... and the doctor doesn't know how many samples she handed him... and she fucked up her legal record of the transaction... then how the hell does she expect anyone else to know how many samples she handed him?

Comments

[dirtymatt.livejournal.com]

Some form of magic beans?

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

We had just settled on transferring her call to the Psychic Friends Network.

[persephoneflame.livejournal.com]

Oh how I hate drug reps. Hate with a hateyhatehate that knows no bounds.

/former medical assistant

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

I like to quote Kefka from Final Fantasy 6.

"I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hatehatehatehatehatehate HATE YOU!"

[tecie.livejournal.com]

I know where you're coming from... I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get FDA certified.
You could have threatened to report him. That would have jogged his memory REAL fast. :-)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Only threatened?

[tecie.livejournal.com]

The threat of force will cause the salesman to do something he may regret, for example fudge a record or two.
Keeping a watchful eye on his activity, you'll gain far more dirt on him.
And then he will be your bitch. He'll be terrified to call the helpdesk ever again when you drop hints that you know things.

[cs-neo.livejournal.com]

Perse, funny, I work in a hospital and I love Drug Reps...
Then again, it's because I only deal with the food they bring, not the meds or anything else...

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

We're having three drug rep lunches in the next two weeks.

Mmmmmmmmm.

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started on promotional budget questions. Just... trust me. You don't want me to go there.

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

The only reason that I care if drug companies go bankrupt or not is that if they did I would not get free lunch any more.

[cs-neo.livejournal.com]

Here, Here :)

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you're unaware of the industry which backs such charlatans? The industry leading doctors to prescribe medications which the company making them barely understands, let alone the doctors. The natural transformation of a medical service into a billion dollar industry - the only losers of which are us poor patient schmoes.

[persephoneflame.livejournal.com]

And the good doctors, nurses, scrub techs, med assistants, EMTs, etc, who are trying to remain patient-oriented and getting plowed under by big pharma and the insurance agencies. :/

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that side of it but I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating for the people involved..

I've had a few friends who, after being mildly depressed for long periods, were referred to psychiatrists. They are now addicted to a wide-range of clinical drugs and are barely recognisable as the people I originally knew.

[persephoneflame.livejournal.com]

Ugh. They always sent the 'gods gift to women' minded men to our clinic, because the staff was almost entirely female. They touched. And they smiled. And they oozed false charm. And they tried to convince us that we should recommend their drugs because, oh, look how charming, and they gave us free pens. HATE.

Especially when the drugs they're pushing are the same or inferior to the competitors' drugs.

But we had to put up with it, because we did need those samples for our uninsured, living-in-poverty patients.

[duality.livejournal.com]

i've actually trained drug reps to use their computer equipment given to them by their employer. as in their -large- national meeting/training type deals. i called it the barbie and ken convention.

[ace-brickman.livejournal.com]

funny, my other job is delivering all those pizzas, salads, pop, etc...

[duality.livejournal.com]

technically they're only allowed to feed the doctor and his nursing staff, but we used to get free food all the time at the hospital. it's amazing how much food the nurses will throw at you when they know that you control their computers.

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

INVENTORY! :)

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

or 2nd chance: HIRING :) (hey! an new empty position has to be re-filled!)

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

INVENTORY! is indeed the correct answer.

However, it's like herding cats to get them to do their required monthly inventory. An extra one in the middle of the month? Forget it.

Did I say it's like herding cats? I meant that it's like spooning ants.

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

oh c'mon!
i work for an quite big company myself. Those 12.000 PDA's we sell each day worldwide ? C'mon.
that should'nt be a problem to count 2.000.000 PDAs as inventory we have in every stock worldwide :)
shouldnt take much more than 3 to 5 months

[usekh.livejournal.com]

Considering just how dangerous and/or valuable many of those drugs are..aieee o.O

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

some of them left for me ? :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

[ace-brickman.livejournal.com]

::doin handstands on a lion's back::

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

*shakes off the brick*

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

I could offer a rather educated guess as to specifically which drug it is, but that would be revealing client information or something.

[duality.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure if this is for all of them, but for the really dangerous ones (say, oxycotin) the drug reps do not physically have those in position. period. they're actually shipped to the doctors to make sure that none of those little pills "run away."

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

We have one product that's the same way... the reps give the doctors vouchers that they can then redeem to have product shipped directly to them.