You Wouldn't Rush Your Surgeon.. So Dont' Rush Your Pharmacist!

This is for all those people that are in a hell-bent hurry to get their prescriptions the second they drop them off.

I am polite enough to ask, "And when would you like to pick this up?" and you say, "Umm, Now!" as if it was a stupid question. I should know better to think you would give me more than an hour's notice to get your stuff done.

Sometimes this just proceeds as planned, and we rush your prescription through, and I try not to be affected by the fact that you are staring a hole into my forehead as I am checking your 5 refills. I try not to snap when you are jingling your keys on my counter, or even when you roll your eyes as I start to talk to someone about at OTC question. You think I am inconveniencing you on purpose, or that I am just a slow person. And then when it's all done and I see you unpacking your huge shopping cart of toilet paper and maxi-pads, catfood tins and giant milk bags, I wish I could pull you behind the counter and show you the 50 prescriptions waiting to be checked that you just budded ahead of, or the doctor I have to call about a pen allergy, or the elderly lady that has been on hold for me for 5 min, but no, you need your TP now, your Maxipads now, and hell, I better not forget to scan your points card or you will complain to management. Hey, the Catfood is only 53 cents each. But it says so on the sign. I have to call a merchandizer to check because I decided to draw the line at not perusing the cat food section to find out you read the wrong price. Oh, and thank you for taking 10 minutes to count me all your coins so I can help you get rid of your change. You sure don't seem to be in a hurry now, do you?

This is a good-case scenario. It can get a lot worse. Like when your ailing child is in the car waiting for you to fill this Rx. The kid just got out of the ER, and you can't drive him home to rest, but you want to get his liquid antibiotics and inhalers filled in a millisecond on your way home. He can wait in the car, it won't be long. Yeah, don't rush me on anyone's Rx, especially your childs! Pharmacists make more mistakes when pressured. Just let us do our job, take your kid home, or go to another pharmacy, but the time it takes for me to explain why we need more than 30 seconds to do his prescription is taking away from the time we could be using to fill the prescription!

Or when you are in a hurry AND have no refills. And you ran out of everything yesterday. And it's my fault if you miss a dose because I don't advance you one of everything, because the doctor told you to take it every day, and it's your docs fault that you ran out in between appts. AND you are leaving the country tomorrow morning at 5am for 6 months. Yes, this can be a lot worse.

To the general public: We do not write prescriptions. That's what doctors are for. We are not genies, puppets, or magicians. If we had any magical talents we would not be pharmacists. And don't blame doctors or us when you run out. Running out is okay, it's normal, and you don't have to freak out. You can see how many refills you have on your bottle, then when you are low, see you Dr, or get all your meds renewed at each visit. Just like any numerical sequence, they go down by one each time. It's not that hard.

But don't you start to notice your pills are slowly decreasing in number, 5,4,3,2, ooh, only 1 left, better do something. How is it such a big surprise that you ran clean out of pills! Don't you notice the trend.. every day you have one less pill, and eventually they will run out! So plan a week ahead.. even 2 days ahead, just pick up on the trend of decreasing pills and do something about it. In some places we can fill an emergency supply for a week of certain chronic meds, and that's ok, but you do have to pay the fee, because we are doing the same amount of work for 7 pills as we are for 100 pills, even more work because we are probably calling your doctor and listening to you complain.

There is a general rule in my store that one Rx will take 10 min, and 15 minutes for 2. That's just a guideline. Of course it takes us only a few minutes to do it, but there are the following other "Time Sinks" that must be accounted for during the time the pharmacy is open:

1. Phone Calls from Doctors
2. other phone calls
3. Counselling on new Rx's
4. Billing problems
5. Calling insurance providers
6. Faxing for refills
7. Calling for refills
8. All the prescriptions ahead of yours
9. Ringing in prescription pickups
10. Other prescriptions being dropped off
11. ordering stock
12. unpacking stock
13. preparing balances of owed meds
14. OTC consults
15. Screening for problems with your rx (interactions, dose, etc)

So we are not just standing there with an empty counter in front of us twiddling our thumbs. Behind that wall is a gigantic lineup of all the things that are waiting to be done, even if you can't see it, believe me, IT IS THERE!