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Thread: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

  1. #1
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    My 'scrip' is faxed to Wal-Mart from a city twenty miles away. By the time I arrive and wait in a ten minute line, they say they don't have it.

    No, hell no, I insist. You MUST have it. Go check.

    She meanders away, out of sight behind the big row of posts that block all views. Five minutes later, she returns. They found it, but they can't read it.

    Simple, say I. It's Clonazepam, 10 milligrams, 50 count, from Dr. So-and-so at so-and-so address.

    "We have to call the doctor." she deadpans.

    "Well, is that what you're doing?" I ask. "Do you have a Blue Tooth hidden under that hair do?"

    And now she's pissed. "No, I don't. I just wanted to tell you so you wouldn't wonder what I'm doing."

    Well see, the thing is, I counted very carefully. There are nine goddamn people crammed into that tiny little space, and all of them are busy doing something — grabbing bags, counting pills, flipping through cards, rummaging through a computer database that is both bloated and useless. And the thing is, I'm wondering what ALL of them are doing. And why it's taking so fucking long for me to get 50 stupid pills?

    Even once they clear things up with the doctor, I still have to wait a half an hour. A HALF A FUCKING HOUR! For what?

    1. Find pills.
    2. Find bottle.
    3. Pour onto tray.
    4. Count 50, dumping 5 at a time into bottle.
    5. Slap on label.
    6. Put in bag.
    7. Ring me up.

    That's half an hour? For every single person in a twelve-person line?

    And it's not just Wal-Mart. CVS is just as bad or worse. So is Revco. What gives? Is there some fundamental principle so opaque that only two years of pharmaceutical schooling will cause one to undersand? Are they that inefficient? Or am I too demanding?

  2. #2
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    I'm dying to see the answer on this one myself. My girlfriend got sick a while ago and went to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics. She got flaming pissed that she waited almost an hour and a half (she was really sick and running a fever) and made me go and wait for them. We got, when it was all said and done, 7 pills. After two hours it amounts to almost 17 minutes per pill. What were they doing, baking them in a little pill oven?
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

  3. #3
    Elephant CRSP's avatar
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    A two hour wait? That's ridiculous. Whatever the reason is, it's either specific to that pharmacy, or to American pharmacies. I'm in and out in under five minutes, here.
    Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne blessent mon coeur
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  4. #4
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    This topic was covered, in excellent manner, once before, from the position of a pharmacy technician's standpoint. (not sure where) Were it their job to simply put pills A into bottle B, life would be good. But they have to call the physician to verify some scrips, and the doc isn't always there, and phone calls come in for all sorts of sundry BS, so it doesn't work as cleanly as you'd like.
    Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

  5. #5
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by CRSP
    A two hour wait? That's ridiculous. Whatever the reason is, it's either specific to that pharmacy, or to American pharmacies. I'm in and out in under five minutes, here.
    Me too. May have something to do with the fact that pills are prepacked here; you get a prescription for a ten-pack or a fifty-pack or a two-hundred-pack; they never have to count them up and repack them. And prescriptions are usually electronic, these days, too.

  6. #6
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by CRSP
    A two hour wait? That's ridiculous. Whatever the reason is, it's either specific to that pharmacy, or to American pharmacies. I'm in and out in under five minutes, here.
    Not all American pharmacies. We fill all of our prescriptions at a local supermarket, and I've never waited more than 20 minutes, unless the pharmacy was out of a particular medication and needed to order more. Generally, the doctor submits the scrip electronically to the pharmacy, and it's waiting there by the time we can drive to the store. On occasions where we have to take a paper scrip, we do have to wait for the pharmacist to actually 'fill' the prescription, but I haven't needed to do that in some time now.

    Our pharmacy will even contact the doctor's office on their own if we try to refill a prescription that has no refills, and get the prescription extended (on the doctor's approval, of course) without us needing to do a thing.

    Of course, the supermarket in question is consistently rated #1 in the region, and a few years ago was voted the top grocery store in the US by Consumer Reports. That may have something to do with the service (or vice versa)

  7. #7
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    God, I'd love to find a place like that around here, Suburban. There probably is one, but the people who know about it aren't telling anybody! Still, though, twenty minutes is only a 33% improvement over thirty minutes. That still seems like a long time to me. I'm thinking one of two things. Maybe both. The industry desperately need some efficiency studies. And two, if a person could figure out how to do presciptions like fast food, she'd become wealthy really fast.

  8. #8
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by Liberal
    And two, if a person could figure out how to do presciptions like fast food, she'd become wealthy really fast.
    Judging by the order accuracy at typical fast food joints, what you'd actually wind up with is a lot of dead or poisoned patients. AFAIC, the last place I want speed to be the governing performance criterion is at the pharmacy. I'll wait, thanks.

  9. #9
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Here you go.

    It's written by a pharmacist who is, I assure you, just as tired of the bullshit as you are. My father (who is a pharmacist) has estimated that for every patient who has his act together, he's had to deal with five who don't. He's also not thrilled to deal with doctor's offices that don't understand that only certain people can talk to him; the receptionist isn't one of those people, even if she does wear scrubs to work. Having to wait for a doctor or nurse to call back adds to the wait time. (That was my favorite. The discussion he had with the office manager was priceless.) Factor in insurance companies that won't budge from their formularies even if the patient can't take the medication on the formulary, and he used to come home all stabby. He's no longer in retail. He manages a hospital pharmacy and has never been happier because he doesn't have to deal with patients or insurance companies, and the doctors who work there know to treat him with respect.

    Because I understand what pharmacists have to go through, I take my business to my local independent pharmacy. They deal with a lot of business from the nearby hospital, and a lot of the hospital staff take their business there, as well. One of the staff also knows Airman, so we can stand around and BS while he fills my script. I'm also ridiculously polite and patient.

    QED, most pharmacies are about as efficient as they can be. Unfortunately, as the blog post and my comments demonstrate, there are too many variables to really be able to get things moving like clockwork. A hospital pharmacy is different because the procedures are more or less the same for every floor and the staff are more accessible. Billing generally isn't the province of the pharmacist, which also helps.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  10. #10
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    A fascinating read, MsRobyn, thanks. It does explain much, actually verifying that the problem is with efficiency. Nowhere in the pharmacist's lament does he touch on the process of actually filling the prescription. It's all distractions. Phones ringing. Rude customers breaking in line. Unprepared people who act like they've never been to a pharmacy in their lives. Lots and lots of time trying to contact people who have to be contacted to keep insurers happy. And so on. These are things that efficiency studies can correct.

    Your guy presented himself as a one-man show. He answered the phone. He made the calls out. He stayed on hold. If he is the pharmacisit, then he needs to delegate these things. He could also establish a counter for people to pick up prescriptions that are ready. First sign of an ignoramous, and he goes to the retard line. The express counter is for enlightened folk only. Put the guy your pharmacist described on the very lowest priority. Ignore the lady who breaks in to ask about the antacids. There's no reason he should have to hold up God knows how may prepared people just for the sake of one hopeless and clueless Elmer Fudd.

  11. #11
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by MsRobyn
    QED, most pharmacies are about as efficient as they can be. Unfortunately, as the blog post and my comments demonstrate, there are too many variables to really be able to get things moving like clockwork.
    Yeah, uh, you're addressing the wrong person since that was basically my point.

  12. #12
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Sorry, I meant Liberal.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  13. #13
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Ah, that makes more sense, then.

  14. #14
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by Liberal
    A fascinating read, MsRobyn, thanks. It does explain much, actually verifying that the problem is with efficiency. Nowhere in the pharmacist's lament does he touch on the process of actually filling the prescription. It's all distractions. Phones ringing. Rude customers breaking in line. Unprepared people who act like they've never been to a pharmacy in their lives. Lots and lots of time trying to contact people who have to be contacted to keep insurers happy. And so on. These are things that efficiency studies can correct.

    Your guy presented himself as a one-man show. He answered the phone. He made the calls out. He stayed on hold. If he is the pharmacisit, then he needs to delegate these things. He could also establish a counter for people to pick up prescriptions that are ready. First sign of an ignoramous, and he goes to the retard line. The express counter is for enlightened folk only. Put the guy your pharmacist described on the very lowest priority. Ignore the lady who breaks in to ask about the antacids. There's no reason he should have to hold up God knows how may prepared people just for the sake of one hopeless and clueless Elmer Fudd.
    A pharmacist is a service provider. The lady asking about the antacids might need to know if it's safe to take them with her medication, Susie the counter jockey can't answer that. Susie also isn't licensed to do all the phone stuff, either. The first store that sets up a "retard line" might as well just hang a closed sign on their door, since it's offensive and besides, we've all been that guy once in a while. You've never asked a pharmacist a question relating to OTC meds or contraindications? The counter jockeys and techs do a lot, but everything has to be verified by a the person with the actual education and license, for good reasons.

    Maybe the key to not dealing with rude customers, unprepared people, the hopeless and clueless and ignoramuses is to shop at a better store.
    Science flies you to the moon; religion flies you into buildings.

  15. #15
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    A lot of tasks in a retail pharmacy are delegated. Techs, who generally have at least an associate's degree and are certified, are the ones who actually count pills and put them into bottles. But they can't slap the label on the bottle and hand it over to the patient; the licensed pharmacist has to do that, and to do that, they have to verify that the right drug is in the right bottle, and that the drug isn't going to kill the patient because the patient is already on another drug that the first drug will interact with. Pharmacists also catch mistakes that may trigger a call to the doctor, but the pharmacist has to be the one to actually speak to the doctor.

    And, as Queen Tonya pointed out, there is patient education. In addition to the usual questions, my father has had to explain to patients what they're taking, why they're taking it, when they should take it, whether it should be taken with food, whether the pill can be split or crushed, whether they can take it with other pills, and so forth. Often, he'd write out the instructions so the patient could understand and remember all that. He's also had to explain this to doctors, and will make recommendations to improve patient compliance, and to make sure that the drugs prescribed are the most appropriate for the patient. I had a nasty bronchitis and came home with an armload of drugs. Dad mapped out a schedule so I knew when to take each drug, and he told me which ones I could do without.

    Technology has made prescribing and dispensing a lot easier inasmuch as it has reduced some of the guesswork. But there's never a substitute for human judgment, and that's what the pharmacist is there for. If it means getting your medication a little slower than you'd like, remember that the phone call he makes could be about you.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  16. #16
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    It's not an efficiency problem, it's a problem of you not understanding how the process works. Plus the fact that you're not the only one there... there is a queue filled with everyone who is ahead of you that needs to be taken care of first.

    Here's a thread on the subject (post #20 has a good detailed account of the process)

  17. #17
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    I still see a lot of people standing around without much happening. When I go to pick up my sister's prescription even though it was called in that morning and I'm there after 5:00, they almost never have it ready. They have to mix some sort of powder with a liquid.

  18. #18
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by Control-Z
    I still see a lot of people standing around without much happening. When I go to pick up my sister's prescription even though it was called in that morning and I'm there after 5:00, they almost never have it ready. They have to mix some sort of powder with a liquid.
    Some liquids that have to be mixed can't be mixed until the prescription is to be picked up. Powdered drugs are fairly stable, but once they're mixed with water or whatever other liquid, they tend to spoil more quickly. They may also have to be kept refrigerated, and the pharmacy may not have a refrigerator available to store finished medications. So it's easier to wait until you come pick it up. Of course, YMMV and I could be way off base.

    One point I'd also like to make is that there are administrative requirements involved. Pharmacies must keep detailed records on a number of things like narcotics, and those records take time. The FDA and health departments don't care that you're busy; when they ask for the records, you'd better be prepared to hand them over.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  19. #19
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    It takes a long time to explain the prescription to some people. It takes a long time to explain why they can't do what the person wants, and they can't fill prescriptions while explaining so people wait longer. The fastest way to get your medicine is to tell the old people waiting that there is free coffee at the next pharmacy over.

  20. #20
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    I'll back Liberal's campaign to have 'idiot lines' in all major shopping outlets.
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  21. #21
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    I'm sure that there's all sorts of stuff going on behind the scenes that I don't understand, but one of those things is certainly why it would ever take over an hour to slap a label on a package of birth control pills. Yeah, I know... I'm not the only one waiting. But as a customer service provider, I know that you tackle the quick, simple stuff first, and get it out of the way.

  22. #22
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    I asked this in the other thread and didn't get an answer: Pharmacies in the rest of the world have pre-packed medicine, whether it is pills, powders, syrups, whatever. Why in the US you pack the medicine on site?

  23. #23
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    I still don't understand why every 5 weeks we have to go through this again. Liberal, when your fax comes over illegible and it's for a controlled substance, you'd better believe we're not just going to take your word for it that the script is for x number of pills. Anyway, you were wrong, because Clonazepam doesn't come in a 10mg tablet, 0.5, 1 and 2mg. That right there would make her absolutely not take your word for it, you don't even know what the fuck you're taking anyway.

    Cluricaun, your girlfriend's 7 pills of Levaquin take just as long to fill as somebody's 30 count bottle or 90 count bottle because we don't just grab the easiest script to fill, there's a queue system based on when the patient has indicated they want to pick it up or when the fax came in that we go by. When doctors fax or call in prescriptions, they rarely if ever indicate when the patient is going to expect to pick it up. For every person that's leaving directly for the pharmacy, there are 50 faxes that are just routine refills who I won't see for a week. Same for birth control. We don't just pull the easiest to fill script, you have to wait in line and there may be more in front than you expect.

    Oral antibiotics have to be reconstituted at pick-up, because they are usually only good for 10 days after the water is added. Many times people don't return for days to get them.

    Pharmacies are run by corporations and those corporations are concerned with the bottom line, so things are rarely individually packaged because that type of packaging is more expensive. And dosing varies so it would only be sensible for a few dozen medications. That's why I have 500 and 1000-ct bottles of medication, it's cheaper in bulk and part of our success as a pharmacy is based on how much money we can save when we manage our inventory.

    Just because you don't see a lot of people who seem to be running around very busy doesn't mean there are not 200 prescriptions in the queue to be filled that you can't see. Most of the tasks are delegated, but the bottom line is that 90% of what happens you don't see, or if you did see it, you wouldn't understand what was going on. DUR codes, insurance overrides, prior authorizations, prescription clarification, non-formulary medications, deciphering prescriptions. Prescriptions come into the pharmacy 4 different ways, in person (in store as well as drive thru), phone, and fax, and they can only leave once they've all passed the final pharmacist verification. If you think this might create a bottleneck of work, you're right. But everybody thinks theirs is the most important, and the easiest one to do.
    People don't expect fast-food service from any other medical industry, and it continues to baffle me that pharmacy is seemingly the only place where this type of service is not only expected, but demanded.

    That said, you shouldn't have to wait for 2 hours, but 30 minutes isn't that unreasonable in a high volume store like Wal-Mart.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey ... The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

  24. #24
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by ladyfoxfyre
    I still don't understand why every 5 weeks we have to go through this again. Liberal, when your fax comes over illegible and it's for a controlled substance, you'd better believe we're not just going to take your word for it that the script is for x number of pills. Anyway, you were wrong, because Clonazepam doesn't come in a 10mg tablet, 0.5, 1 and 2mg. That right there would make her absolutely not take your word for it, you don't even know what the fuck you're taking anyway.
    What? Jesus, that's a typo. Maybe the pharamacy should upgrade its fax from one of those thermal paper pieces of crap. All these stories about how the pharmacist scoots as quickly as possible from fire to fire only serve to highlight the inefficiencies of these operations. As I said, there were nine people in there. They were all busy with something. Meanwhile, there was a long line consisting of people like me who had faxed in their scrips ahead of driving twenty miles as well as people like Aunt Mabel who can't remember her birthday. (And why the hell do they have to have one's birthday?)

    You know, a lot of the pharmacy defense stories would have more credibility if there were some admission of some problems. Instead, there is nothing but excuse after excuse about why customers have to endure Dante's ninth circle of hell just to get a few pills. No defender admits to any systemic or personnel problems, or even the possibility of same. My faxed scrip was written on gray paper, and as soon as it appeared on their shitty fax, they could have called the doctor or the nurse who faxed it. They hadn't done that yet. The fact that you don't even acknowledge that as a problem or fault with the pharmacy tells me that you believe they can do no wrong no matter what.

  25. #25
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Nowhere in my reply did I indicate that I thought the pharmacy could do no wrong, having worked in many, many locations that is always a possibility. But nowhere in your story did you indicate anything but a disdain for the people in the box, and a huge lack of knowledge about how the whole place runs anyway. I mean really, why do they have to have your birthday? You're really kidding with this one, right? You can't even for a second imagine where a system as chaotic as the one you describe may be bogged down even more without the ability to correctly identify patients using something other than name alone?

    And the "pharmacy defense stories" that are allegedly devoid of admission that there are problems in the system is laughable. Every system has problems, but the worst problem is the expectation that just because McDonalds has a drive-thru and Walgreens has a drive-thru that they offer similar speeds of transacting services.

    I'm not going to defend the particulars of your pharmacy or why they seemingly fucked everything up for you by not doing it as fast or as efficiently as you expected them to do it. I don't work there, they are not my responsibility. But your thread was about why pharmacies are "sooooooo sloooooow" when really it might be that your lack of experience working inside one and the general misconceptions of "just slap a label on it, for christ's sake" lend people to have unreasonable expectations when things do go wrong. If you have no familiarity with the millions of ways that prescriptions can have problems and thus take time to solve, of course everything by comparison is going to seem "too long".
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey ... The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

  26. #26
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    So in short, to answer your question about why pharmacies are soooooo slooooooow, the answer would be "it takes tiiiiiime to maaaaake suuuuure weeeeee'rrrre noooooot gooooiiiinnnggg to kiiiiillllll yyyoooouuuuuu onnnn accccciideeeent."
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey ... The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

  27. #27
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Look, I could understand if I came to the counter without a prescription, but I drove 20 miles AFTER my scrip was faxed in. That took me 30 minutes. Plus 10 more to find a parking spot and walk a mile to the fucking pharmacy. They had a good solid 30 minutes to make a call to the doctor, BUT THEY DIDN'T. Instead, they sat on it, not even knowing if they had it or not until a five minute search by a lady at the register. Only when she inquired did they suddenly discover it was there but was unreadable. That's someone somewhere along the chain passing the buck, and someone eventually just tossing it aside and forgetting about it.

    Forgive me if I don't believe pharmacies have a special need to exercise gross incompetence in order to assure that they don't kill me.

  28. #28
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by dog80
    I asked this in the other thread and didn't get an answer: Pharmacies in the rest of the world have pre-packed medicine, whether it is pills, powders, syrups, whatever. Why in the US you pack the medicine on site?
    Some drugs come pre-packed. Birth control pills, for example. Some liquids, as well. If the number of pills on the prescription matches the number of pills in a new, sealed bottle, the pharmacy is going to slap a label on the bottle and let it go.

    Most pharmacies tend to buy common drugs in bulk. My doctor may prescribe 30 pills, but if the pharmacy buys that drug in bottles of 250 or 500, then they have to count 30, put them into a new bottle, and that's that.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  29. #29
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    I remember reading that pharmacist post and it helped me calm down when I'd have to wait 15 minutes to slap a label on birth control.

    One time I had to get that and my thyroid meds and she said it'd be 15-20 minutes. I figured she had a queue ahead, and I had my New Fancy iPhone at the time, so that wasn't a problem. RIGHT after she gets my scrip from me, like 290385902 people come up to the window. My wait ended up being more like 30, though at 20 minutes she went over to me and apologized and said she was a bit behind. I said, "Oh, I totally understand; a lot of people suddenly ambushed you. Don't worry, I don't have anything to rush to!"

    After I get my scrips, she gives me a $20 gift card for "being so patient" (translation: "not being a huge bitch about waiting longer").

  30. #30
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    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Quote Originally posted by Liberal
    They had a good solid 30 minutes to make a call to the doctor, BUT THEY DIDN'T. Instead, they sat on it, not even knowing if they had it or not until a five minute search by a lady at the register. Only when she inquired did they suddenly discover it was there but was unreadable. That's someone somewhere along the chain passing the buck, and someone eventually just tossing it aside and forgetting about it.

    Forgive me if I don't believe pharmacies have a special need to exercise gross incompetence in order to assure that they don't kill me.
    Maybe I'm just failing to see how getting busy and backed up and not having a person assigned to constantly man the fax machine qualifies as "gross incompetence", but perhaps our definitions differ. You make it sound like the universe convened just to fuck your day up, I just doubt that's the case. As I've said before, yours is not the only problem happening right now and may not be the first one to be fixed.

    Also, you seem to think that fixing the problem is as simple as picking up the phone and within seconds you have a solution. I don't think I've ever called a doctor's office and had it last less than 5-10 minutes. The receptionist has to huff about getting the nurse, the nurse gets on the phone and realizes that she has to pull the chart, she gets her copy of the prescription and can't read it either, but the doctor is with a patient, so she wants you to fax it over and have the doctor look at it, and he'll call you back when he's done.....

    You're right, she probably did just discover it when you'd said that the MD had faxed it in, but like I said, we receive them from 4 different and simultaneous venues. You don't always get to move from typing to check the fax machine every 5 minutes or even every 30.
    My experiences working retail pharmacy make me inclined to sympathize with a busy pharmacy over a rude patient. If you don't have this frame of reference it's hard to explain, kind of like how anybody who's ever worked in a restaurant understands the environment and the patrons and the attitude and sympathizes accordingly.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey ... The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

  31. #31
    Oliphaunt
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    1,102

    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Well, I do empathize to an extent. When I'm doing actual work, as opposed to planning or evaluating, it is programming. And I understand how people want a bug fixed right away when circumstances make doing that next to impossible. And if there were no one there except a pharmacist and maybe a check out clerk, I would be far more sympathetic — even though people's time (those who are waitng) is still valuable regardless. At least in some cases.

    But I'm telling you. I uttersly SWEAR to you that that pharmacy — a Wal-Mart pharmacy — was absolutely PACKED with busy people doing all sorts of work. One lady was counting pills and pushing them into bottles. She was pulling labels off the label printer, and sticking them on the botttles. There were two other ladies, each flipping through clear see-through hanging folders like people flipping through clothes on a rack. They would flip a few bags, and then move elsewhere and flip other bags.

    There were two check-out clerks, serving three registers. There was a morbidly obeses woman walking back and forth from one end of the pharamacy to the other, carrying bags and dropping them into baskets. I mention her size because any time she moved past someone, that person had to stop what they were doing and squeeze forward or backward as the case may have been. This lady should have been assigned a job that kept her in one place.

    There were two pharamacists (or at least, there were two people dressed in white). One man and one woman. The man was indeed on the phone a lot. The woman was being assailed with questions from almost all the others. She seemed to function as information central on everything from drug compatibility to whether von Hauer would be under "V" or "H".

    There were two women (girls — they seemed barely 18) who were taking drop off prescriptions and entering them into a computer system. It looked like DOS. One was smacking gum, and chanting, "Wait a minute..." with alarming regularity. The other was on a cell phone. I do not know whether she was talking to a doctor or to her boyfriend. But she was unable to talk (or hold) and type at the same time.

    Finally, there was a lady who seemed to study the bags. She would pick one up, eye it through her bifocals, set it down. And check it again a time or two. She then proceeded to the next bag and did the same thing. It was as though she were inspecting something. Those are the people I remember.

    Now, as I say, part of the problem clearly was an issue of operations. Inefficient operations. The left hand of that pharmacy had absolutely no idea what the right hand was doing. There was no communication among people. In a large kitchen, which is far less critical to our well being than a pharmacy, the Chef knows what each cook is doing, what orders are in the house, which are more important than the others, and everybody is announcing almost every move they make.

    All I'm saying is that perhaps it is time at least JUST TO LOOK at how a pharamacy operates, and see whether there are some ways to improve. Surely, surely there are.

  32. #32
    Member
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    15

    Default Re: Why are pharmacies sooooooo slooooooow?

    Then that pharmacy is full of idiots. On most days mine is not, so I'm sorry your experience was bad. Many pharmacies do not actually operate the way the one you described does. But the types of problems you described, ("Your prescription was faxed in but illegible" "Why wasn't it called in to be fixed already then?") are universal and not always easily resolved.

    YMMV.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey ... The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."

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