Managing “the Ask”

You’ve all experienced it one time or another. A friend reaches out to you via email or text and asks if you could call in a prescription for themselves or one of their kids. Now, this may be acceptable if they’re an established patient and have seen you, in your office, within the context of a medical visit, during the last few months. Unfortunately, more often than not, it’s a phone call from out of the blue or message from a Facebook friend from back in the day. The result, you fall victim of “the Ask”.

Not only would most of these request put the practitioner at legal risk, but they are extremely uncomfortable to handle for the provider. This was a friend, who you thought, didn’t want anything more from you than your friendship. It’s not that you don’t want to help, it’s just there are these things called laws and best practices that protect the prescriber and patient alike. Inconvenient? No. Uncomfortable? Yes…and add devaluing.

So what do you do? You can comment below on what you’ve done but here are some guidelines:

Memorize a mantra: “I don’t write prescriptions for patients unless they see me professionally and I know what’s going on…especially for my friends and family.” Put it on a plaque in your clinic, on your voicemail, on your website if you want.

Memorize another: “I’d love to help you, call the office and make an appointment. Doing anything otherwise would get me in a lot of trouble.”

It’s no wonder why many physicians feel they are limited in how deep they can grow in friendships. Realizing that "they should know better" doesn't apply until you establish a boundary will help minimize the feeling of being used. And remember, there are Urgent Cares on every corner. You can kindly redirect the Ask our medical friends around the corner, help your friend, maintain your integrity and uphold the standard of care all at the same time.