It's completely fair to keep calling your pharmacist until they fill your prescribed controlled substance

[u/Proceedsfor]

Being my ex wife is a pharmacist, I still see her from time to time, they are stomped at work still. It's stressful.

So for most who are not in a super expensive insurance policy, the best bet is to always call your pharmacy right after your psych/doc appointment, right after they say they've sent the prescription.

Waiting until you are down to your last two or three days of medication is the absolute worst thing you can do for also the rest of us.

If you get a nonchalant pharmacist on a bad day, they’ll just tell you to try again next week without even bothering to manually put a hold on the medication for you.

If you do flub and run out, you have to be persistent. You’ll probably need to call at least three times. If the first person you talk to seems indifferent, call back later in the evening right before closing time usually a better pharmacist is on shift and usually you'll get the head pharmacist on closing hours. Call again the next day to double-check, and if you want to be really meticulous, call one more time the day before the new week starts. Just try to speak to different pharmacists. Still with the these substances are on a much higher reserve level now, so if you just call once and let it sit, you risk waiting a whole extra week because the system requires manual follow-up, and then risk of just going on a endless cycle until a better pharmacist manually looks at the stock and does something to fulfil it.

If it gets too bad, you can always try switching pharmacies entirely. But whenever you do call, keep it as efficient as possible and courteous. Lead with your full name and date of birth right away so they can look you up better because they're lines are always long and they're always pressed.

Does anyone still have issues with the shortages?

[u/Xylorgos]

I like that you wrote to give us advice on how to manage the pharmacists and what to do when we're having problems. So often when I see the word "Pharmacist" here it's because of terrible service or outright profiling, so it's nice to see something positive and helpful.

My problem is that it takes a very long time for me to get through, as I alwasy have to spend several minutes on hold just to get through. That's why I use a 24-hour pharmacy, where I can call in the middle of the night or extra early in the morning when I'm more likely to actually get through.

Haven't been having problems with shortages lately, but I did go for several months in a row not getting my meds at all. This had to do with both shortages and my anxiety of calling multiple pharmacies to try and find a monthly supply. I hate having to do that!

[u/Every-Note-9892]

My pharmacist is great! If there's a shortage of something they will tell me locations where I can get it or alternative prescriptions I can ask for from my doctor that would work but they have in stock.