She forged my signature
It is not the first time that a medical representative forged a doctor’s signature. It has happened many times in the past. The only thing that’s new is that it’s the first time it has happened to me.
A medical representative visits a doctor regularly to promote the drug manufactured by his company. The regular visits and constant repetition of the drug’s name in front of the physician makes for an easy recall thus rendering the drug more salable. That is if the representative is doing his job. And that assurance is the job of his immediate supervisor who works with him on certain days every month.
According to some medical representatives, it is the long hours of driving (from one clinic to another) and waiting in a doctor’s clinic for his signature that makes their work so boring. Especially here in the province where a physician’s clinic can be far from another’s prompting them to just forge doctors signatures. Oftentimes they feel like drivers going around the same places in most days of the week.
It’s not that I want them to come to me often. There are just too many poor people who come to our clinic and ask for samples. So I sort out samples from the time I receive them for easy retrieval. It just so happened that Cherry, a medical representative, gives me so much anti-TB medications for children and I was able to send most of them to the health center where they are much needed due to lack of supply from the government. The problem came when Cherry decided to resign and Mary (not her real name) took her place. The people who used to receive Cherry’s samples had to reach for their pockets and buy their own medicines.
For several months (I actually lost count), Mary did not show up. I thought she was transferred, or quit her job and her replacement couldn’t find my clinic. It was just a surprise she showed up the other day with her boss. When I asked her why I haven’t seen her for quite a long time, she denied not going to my clinic in front of her boss. She even reiterated that she covered me even during the Holy Week, that she regularly comes, and that I am being forgetful.
How can I be forgetful when I was actually waiting for her to come just so I can give something to the needy? And how can she cover me during the Holy Week when in fact we did not have clinics because we had our annual vacation in Bicol? It is really irritating to see a person lie and not admit to her fault. If it’s really true that I had my signatures on her lists then that is a very clear act of forgery. I am sane and I very well know what I am doing.
Tags: job, medical representative
April 29th, 2009 at 6:08 am
that’s one person who should be reported. imagine where the expenses of the company goes… the prices are so much dependent also on their promotion and getting signatures is one of them. saying that she covered for you means she got to use company expenses…
April 29th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
of course, smiles4angels. everything is being added to the cost of medicine and the consumer shoulders it.
his boss was listening to us. I hope he makes the appropriate action.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
This is so unfortunate…tsk, tsk, tsk… This rep thinks it is no big deal, but really, it is a matter of integrity.
If you doubt whether the boss will do the appropriate thing or not, you have other avenues to report your concern. If this is a multinational company, they would most likely have an internal ethics committee to deal with such issues. You can also try talking to the Medical Director of the company, doctor to doctor. You should try chase it up with the company. Like your previous commenter said, we owe it to our patients.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Yes it is a multinational company, Pinay MegaMom. And I will see to it that appropriate actions are done. In fact I have the e-mails of her bosses because I had corresponded with them in the past due to a previous concern.