WE AUTHORIZE ROUTINE MEDICINE REFILLS
ONLY DURING NORMAL OFFICE HOURS

     To arrange for a prescription refill, you should call your pharmacy and give them the prescription number off your old bottle.    The pharmacist will then call us for authorization, and your refill will be ready when you arrive at the pharmacy.

     Please don't call our office directly to request a routine medication refill unless you believe some change in the medication dosage or quantity is required.    Calling us directly will only delay your routine refill.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How do I refill my prescriptions if your office is closed?

     When you call your pharmacy for refills (as above), the pharmacist is required to obtain authorization for the refill from my office.    If our office is closed for a few days (while we're on vacation or if I'm away at a medical meeting), the answering machine will give the pharmacist the name and phone number of the doctor covering for me who will gladly authorize your refill.   

     Sometimes, though, if the pharmacist is rushed (or just lazy), rather than call the covering doctor, they'll just give up.    Sometimes pharmacies simply send us a fax requesting a refill authorization; and if they don't receive a return fax from us (because our office is closed), they just give up without ever phoning our office at all.   Then, when you show up to pick up your prescription you'll be told something like, "We couldn't reach the doctor" or "Your doctor's office wouldn't authorize the refill" rather than the truth, "We didn't try very hard to get this authorized."   The best way for you to handle that situation (during normal office hours) is to:

1. Ask to borrow the pharmacist's phone
2. Call our office to get the number of the covering doctor
3. Call the covering doctor's office
4. Then hand the phone to the pharmacist

     If you embarass the pharmacist once like that, the problem probably won't happen again with your prescriptions (at least not with that particular pharmacist).

 

Why won't you authorize my refills for more than three months at a time?

     I know that some doctors write prescriptions that can be refilled for a year (or forever); but I think that's a bad idea; and I've never written refills for more than three months.    Why?    Because there are very good reasons why the FDA has decided that the medicines they designate as "prescription medicines" should be available by doctor's prescription only, i.e., they are safe to take only under a doctor's supervision.   

     There is absolutely no supervision taking place if a patient can keep right on refilling his medicine without communicating with his doctor for a year.    If patients are permitted to go without proper supervision for long periods of time they can develop all sorts of insidious health problems due to their chronic illnesses or their medicines.    There are plenty of horror stories about doctors who wrote long-time prescriptions at a patient's insistence, then didn't see that patient again until a year or two later when they were brought into an emergency room somewhere with a stroke or in diabetic coma (and the malpractice lawyer arrived right behind the ambulance).

     I make it a high priority to try to keep up with the health status of all my patients, even the ones I haven't seen for a while; so, among other things, I feel it's important that I keep track of how they're doing with any medicines I prescribe for them.    I'm usually so busy during the day that once a patient's chart is filed away after a visit, I might not think about that patient's case again until the next time they're in the office.   I have over 1,500 patients to think about; so I have found that I need systems that help me think about each of you from time to time.   

     One way I do this is by monitoring all prescription refills personally.    Every time your pharmacy calls us for a refill authorization, it gets entered into our computer; and at the end of every day I receive a printed report of all the refills that were authorized that day.   This serves to jog my memory about who of my patients is taking which medicines, and that causes me to think briefly about each one.    If it's been more than three months since a patient's last visited our office, the computer also prompts the receptionist to place that patient's chart on my desk along with the refill list; and I then flip briefly through each chart to see if there's anything I need to be doing for them (cholesterol check, blood sugar, an office visit to discuss their antidepressant medicine, overdue physical exam, etc.)

    There is another very important reason why I like to remain "in the loop" when my patients refill their prescriptions.    Sometimes new information becomes available about a medication, for example, unexpected side-effects or complications.    Should you attempt to refill a medicine about which I have a concern, we can simply deny the pharmacist's request for refill authorization and ask him to have you phone us for more information.

     Sure it takes a lot of doctor and staff time for us to look over your record before we authorize your refills on the phone (or handwrite new ones for your mail-in prescription plan), but I'm willing to spend that extra time because I think that's the right way to take care of my patients.    Sure it sometimes means a minor inconvenience for you; but think about it...   Aren't you glad you have a doctor who cares nstead of one who doesn't?