Free Drinks, Free Food, Expensive Drugs

Today I was invited to a "happy hour" courtesy of one of the drug reps. He ran the idea by my preceptor and I to gauge if the staff would be receptive to the idea. My preceptor informed him that the doctors in our practice frown quite heavily on dinners provided by drug reps. He quickly chimed in - "But it's not dinner! It's happy hour at a local pub!" She said she would ask around but didn't think the doctors would go. His reply - "That's ok, just the nurses can come. We won't even talk about drugs." Isn't that cozy? While Ms. Patient cries in my office because she can't afford her AcidBeGone, the company is paying for a doctor's office to have happy hour at a local pub - sans drug talk. I was quite appalled by the idea. When asked if I would go, I quickly replied, "No." Apparently the disdain was written across my face because the drug rep did not pry and stopped addressing me from this point forward. When asked if he would provide us with more samples for AcidBeGone, the rep replied that he would not because the doctors would not speak to him and he was sick of them just giving out samples and not prescribing the drug. What a jerk. He can take his happy hour and shove it. I'll go back to consoling Ms. Patient and tell her that her AcidBeGone will have to cost her $110 this month because the entire tri-state area is having margaritas courtesy of her.