Saturday, June 20, 2009

CVS To The Rescue

I got to work on Friday morning and was going to have some shredded wheat for breakfast. I opened my purse, and, no insulin. Rarely does this happen.

We have no pharmacies within walking distance of my office. It's an hour bus ride to get back home. I needed all the time possible to prepare for a lunch meeting with some people from our corporate headquarters so could not afford to leave the office even for a few minutes.

I get good coverage from my basal insulin, and could easily do without breakfast. And probably lunch, also, for that matter. But, I did not want to draw attention to the db and sit there not eating anything and having to explain that not only do I have a medical condition, but I forgot my insulin.

Called a Walgreens a couple of miles away. No they do not deliver. No, they knew of no pharmacies that did.

Called a couple of independent pharmacies. Same story.

Called CVS and was immediately talking to the pharmacist. "Are you okay at the moment?" I told her I was fine and needed the insulin in about 3 hours for prandial coverage. "Well, normally, if an order is called in prior to 11 a.m., we'll guarantee delivery by 5 that afternoon. But this is a special case and I'll see what I can do and call you back."

Bless her heart. This dear woman phoned back in about 10 minutes and said she had contacted a private courier service that would get the insulin to me. I explaned that I knew Humalog was a prescription item but I was willing to go with Humalin, which is not. I gave her my credit card number and 30 minutes later the courier delivered the little paper sack. Our receptionist called me and said "Kathy, some man brought you something from the drugstore and he said to be sure you knew it had to be refrigerated right away".

So, the day was happily saved by the professional kindness of a stranger. And, there was no additional charge for the courier. On Monday I am going to call the CVS corporate headquarters and see just who should get the letter commending the people for good work.

I guess an obvious question would be why didn't I have the Humalog script transferred to the CVS pharmacy? Well, I had left a message at my pcp's office first thing. They returned it at 2 that afternoon, after the meeting was over. I know them well enough not to expect a time-sensitive response. Aaarrrrgggghhhh!

We work with the facts of the situation. And sometimes are pleasantly surprised.

10 comments:

Lee Ann Thill said...

Wow, that's awesome that CVS was so helpful and accommodating! You just don't hear too many stories like that anymore. When others have good outcomes like that, it gives me hope that if I'm ever in a real bind, things might turn out OK :)

Zazzy said...

Isn't it a wonderful surprise when something works the way it should? I'm so glad! And, btw, I generally count on 3 days for my doctor's office to get a refilled called in.

Sara said...

Wow!
Isn't it a little sad that we are so excited by this because we so rarely hear about people going 'above and beyond'?!

Great job CVS!

HVS said...

That is awesome,I'm so glad to hear CVS could do that for you.They remain my favorite drugstore,even with all the bad press about expired items,they've saved me from complete diabetes disaster too.

Lyrehca said...

That's great that things worked out so well!

meanderings said...

I love it when salespeople go above and beyond. And yeah, writing a note about it to management is a great thing to do.

Scott K. Johnson said...

What a great thing it is when people go above and beyond to help. That is so wonderful!

jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com said...

That's great customer service from CVS!

sheep#100 said...

Good save!

Anonymous said...

Its a wonderful thing..
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Britney
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