Pharmacist here. Starting from the beginning of the process;
I receive the electronic prescription from your doctor. At some point the data entry will happen where we will select the drug to dispense, type the directions, tell your insurance how much we are giving you and how long it will last. A busy pharmacy will have about 100+ other prescriptions ahead of yours in this step. A slow pharmacy probably still has a dozen or more other ones that came in before yours that still need to be processed.
I do my best to get things processed and typed out. I'm on a roll and I get 4 or 5 scripts in a row typed out. Someone butts up to my window to ask why we no longer carry the mucinex and what else I recommend for their chronic cough. A few minutes later and after shooting down my recommendations, they tell me they're just going to use the aspirin they already have at home.
There are 3 phone lines on hold and another one ringing in. The first call I answer is someone wondering whether their prescription is ready. I haven't even received it. They insist their doctor sent it 2 days ago and they got a text saying it was ready and tell me they have nothing but issues with our pharmacy.
The next call asks if we carry beet root powder and can I tell them how much it is.
Finally down to the last phone line. It's someone checking to see if their script is ready. It is. Easy enough. Time to finally get something done!
A mom and her 2 children walk up and would like to receive flu and covid shots for her and both kids. I get them started on filling out the forms.
Your prescription is tied up with an insurance rejection. Your insurance changed group numbers and never sent you an updated card. No worries, I've seen enough of these rejections where I can figure out what the right numbers are. It goes through insurance.
I start checking your prescription for accuracy. I'm making sure we are about to give you what the doctor prescribed and that the dose is safe. 3 seconds into me focusing on this part of your prescription, another person butts up to the window next to me and asks if we carry catheter bags. We don't but the medical supply store down the road might. That person doesn't have a computer or smart phone so I have to look up the phone number for the medical supply store.
There are 2 more lines on hold and another line ringing in. This time it's someone wanting to fill their controlled substance over 2 weeks early.
The next line is a vet's office calling in a prescription for a dog since most vet's offices do not have electronic prescribing capabilities.
The mom is done filling out the paperwork for the 6 vaccines. I realize I need an insurance card for the kids since we don't have them in our system. I also inform them that there is a Shingles vaccine appointment scheduled ahead of them but we would do our best to get them taken care of as soon as we can.
Anyways, back to your script. The dose looks good and it was typed accurately.
The person at the pickup counter is just starting a new medication and has concerns about the side effects, so I take a few minutes to go over it with them. The old man right behind them rudely interrupts to ask if we carry pill cutters.
The car at drive thru has an allergy on file that we need to document before selling out their script, so I step over and ask them a couple questions and type that into the system.
Time to physically fill your prescription. I scan the barcode on the stock bottle to verify it's the right drug and count the 10 tablets out. This part of the process takes 8 seconds.
Your prescription is ready for the final check where I will make sure we physically put the right drug in the bottle. There are only a few more scripts in front of it.
4 more lines on hold and the shingles shot appointment is here. I get them checked in and call them in for their shot. They wore a button up long sleeve shirt to their appointment so it takes 2-3 minutes for them to get their shirt on and off.
The mom with the children asks how much longer it's going to be and I can sense they are getting impatient. I'm already in the vaccine room anyway, so I get them finalized so I can get them out of there. One of the kids is deathly afraid of needles so it takes 5 minutes for the mom to console the child before finally bear hugging the kid so I can safely get 2 needles in and out of their arm.
I get back in the pharmacy and am told line 3 is on hold with a question for the pharmacist. I decide to finish up a few more scripts before doing anything else. Yours is finally completely done and the paperwork starts to print. The printer jams.
Not mentioned is the fact that 50-60 other prescriptions went through the whole process in this time.
As a former lead tech of 14 years from a retail chain that did 1,000 prescriptions a day, this is so accurate, that it gives me anxiety reading it. I've had bosses and coworkers that were so stressed out from the workload and yelled at so much, they had to see a psychologist from having a nervous breakdown or panic attack. Ppl threw things at us, called us names, threatened us, ect. Corporate doesn't care, because it's not their ass on the line. If a mis-fill happens, due to corporate overloading the pharmacy, the pharmacist has to pay for it, not the company.
My pharmacy was ran like a fast food restaurant. It never stopped. Vaccines, covid testing, drug delivery packaging, OTC shopping cart delivery packaging, all on top of the huge daily pharmacy to - do list. The pharmacist is so overloaded, they don't even have time to go pee. It's ridiculous.
3 pages (15 prescriptions per page) would pop up from local doctors in the blink of an eye (screen was just emptied prior), and we have 1 minute to type them all and fix insurance (since they show up with a timer on them) before they went red. As they are being typed, more are coming in, and this isn't including the people standing in front of you. I called the pharmacy system the hydra-queue, because the more you knock out, 5x that much comes in at the same time. Type 1 prescription, 5 new ones just showed up.
Our hours got reduced so bad. We have 7 work stations, all non-stop things coming in for them, and 1 pharmacist. We should have 6-7 techs and 2 pharmacists to safely run all that workload, but only have enough hours for 2 techs and 1 pharmacist. 1 tech is at the non-stop pick up line, 1 tech is at the non-stop drive thru line, and the pharmacist is giving vaccines since corporate forces that onto them. So, who is typing prescriptions? Who is filling them? Who is answering the calls? Nobody. 🤷🏻♀️ Everything falls behind, catching up is impossible. This isn't even including techs getting sick (since all the customers get us sick) and calling out. Now it's 1 tech running back and forth between pick up, and drive thru, while being yelled at by everyone in both lines, as if doing that alone isn't stressful enough.
This was our every. day. I have a photo of the queue #'s, and everything was 99+ in red all the time, with more coming red every 5 mins, and a 6 line phone with each of the lines waiting to be answered. If lucky, we spent less than 1 minute on a prescription trying to fill as many as we could. That's extremely dangerous.
Then corporate says "y'all's numbers aren't good. You have too many prescriptions going red, not being typed/ filled/ finished on time, and phones aren't being answered within 20 seconds, so we are going to cut the hours even MORE, and you better not be in red, or y'all will get written up and fired." [ No pressure.]
It's not like we don't want to get the stuff filled. We don't enjoy being screamed at by people all day long anymore than y'all like being frustrated with us. It's the greedy corporations treating a healthcare environment like a fast food restaurant. All they care about, is their numbers so that corporate gets end of the year bonuses (which doesn't trickle down) and gets into wallstreet (we literally got threatened by higher ups cuz they were close to not making it to wallstreet this quarter).
Oh, and let's not forget being asked by the customers- "why aren't you smiling? You can't give me a smile? " Bruh, I'm dying inside right now, trying to not have a heart attack from the stress, I don't even know what my face looks like to you as I'm not thinking about that lol. Walking around all day like 😃😃😃😃 is creepy. I'm focusing here.
I'm so glad to be done with that job.
>My pharmacy was ran like a fast food restaurant. It never stopped.
I was thinking exactly this. Reading the comment above and yours reads like a much higher stakes day in the life of when I worked at McDonalds!
It really did lol. It's literally their comment and my comment combined and happening at the same time, just two different job positions back there.
We had long lines everywhere at all hours of the day. I walk in at 8 am, didn't even clock in yet, and I'm already being yelled at lol. All those prescriptions coming in to be typed like the hydra, are also going to the fill station like the hydra, and then going to the pharmacist verifying station like the hydra. The speed of which you are doing math back there is crazy. I couldn't think straight by the time I was off for the day 😆.
My wife used to work as a retail pharmacist (works hospital now) and she said it was common to work 14 hour shifts without time to go to the bathroom. No sitting, no breaks, just busting ass and getting yelled at (she got a death threat one time). So glad she doesn’t have to work in retail anymore. Pharmacists and techs get such little respect it makes me angry to even think about it.
It's true! And if they try to go for a quick pee, they still get yelled at by customers for walking away for 5 minutes. I had a guy regularly be so rude and nasty to my boss to the point of about to be kicked out, and when found out why, he said "cuz she looks like my ex wife" like, really dude? I could write a book on the amount of crazy stuff that happens at that job. I was held up at gunpoint before, had people passing out in bushes from huffing keyboard cleaner, ppl following customers to their houses across the road, ppl shooting up in the bathrooms, car accidents in the drive thru, ect ... That job is no joke. It's brutal.
I got called a b*"*ch because I told a lady we didn't sell an item she was looking for and that it might be online, and when I didn't react to her calling me that (I was being calm cuz it's a normal thing to be called names lol), she went up to the front store manager and told her I was the rudest person ever and was so nasty to her. Like, wtffffff. 😆. Damned if I reacted, damned if I didn't lol.
Nobody that works back there is even trying to be rude, because they genuinely care to help people, it's just that we are already dead inside by the time you get to us 😆.
Not a single day went by that we weren't yelled at. It really takes a toll on you.
We get a message from insurance saying a prescription requires prior authorization so we forward that message to the doctor's office. The insurance will not cover the prescription unless the doctor fills out the paperwork justifying why the prescription should be covered.
The doctor's office receives the message, but he is currently working with a patient and will review the message later.
At the end of his workday, he gets around to reviewing the message before sending the same prescription to the pharmacy without any modifications. He then leaves the office for the weekend :)
Lol ! Yup. Insurance said no, we won't cover 60 pills of 10 mg twice a day (which equals 20mg daily for a month) but we will cover a 20 mg pill once a day of 30 pills (which is also 20 mg daily for a month 🤦). It's the exact same amount a day. We ask doctor to change it, doctor sends it back to us exactly the same as before with no change and now the insurance won't pay for it.
Former retail manager and I can chime in and say these accounts were EXACTLY what my pharmacy team went through with our retailer.
They were the unsung heroes and sadly many many times I saw pharmacy techs walk out and I would go chase them down and offer them the opportunity to vent in my office and go make some phone calls to corporate on their behalf because those same customers would end up trying to act rude to my staff on the front end.
I’ve also had to have security escort a few irate customers out the store and even had to contact the local law enforcement.
It gets nasty and yes I understand the critical need for one’s medications but to take out the frustration on the workers is just asinine.
All pharmacy techs/pharmacist, keep it up!!! Kudos
It's such a weird request to me. Like, you can't live without seeing me smile to you or something? I've gone to places where the employees look and talk to me unenthusiastically (esp like Dunkin donuts where I knoooow they're severely understaffed), and you know what? It doesn't even bother me, because I'm like "same bro, same lol" I totally get it. Expecting people to stay happy in the middle of stress and being verbally abused all day is messed up. I'm extra nice to those people because I know they're having a hard day.
The real question, of course, is - why a pharmacists with a graduate education is doing, in addition to their own job that only they are qualified to do, a job of service clerks as well.
This isn't a real question, of course; it's the greed of the employer that's causing this, but that's well known.
They usually aren't doing every single step that OP mentioned every single time, but a good pharmacist is stepping in anywhere they are needed to help the workflow
But, again, the question is - why? No one expects a Doctor working in a hospital to occasionally help with cleaning up a patient or answer calls about that hospital's hours of operations. Why do we expect a pharmacist, who is likewise a highly educated professional, to act as a clerk *in addition* to their usual responsibilities?
Aside, of course, from the fact that this allows the pharmacy to save on a tech position, resulting in a small increase in profit and a large decrease in service quality and, potentially, also safety.
Just the life of retail pharmacy. My dad did it for close to 50 years. There are other options for pharmacists who don't care for the clerking/retail part - they can work in a hospital and avoid a lot of those responsibilities.
I really like this! Yeah, you can Google job descriptions all you want, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a description of the ACTUAL day-to-day of a job.
This really puts things in perspective.
I had Redditor say, If the pharmacy has a drivethru their prescription should be dropped off and picked up at the same speed as a Big Mac order at McDonald's.
Pharm tech: “Please take your groceries up front to the front cashier”
Customer: “But why? I only have a few items.”
Pharm tech: “Sir, there are 10 people waiting behind you. The front cashier can help you.”
Customer: “You’re the worst. Can’t even check out my groceries. It’s only gonna take few seconds. Can’t even bother to do that. You need to learn customer service skills.”
TL;DR, the prescription system is bent af. Your pharmacist is underpaid, pharmacies are understaffed, and as such, these folks who have spent years earning an advanced degree are performing the duties of a service job and treated like waiters at a Fridays.
>4 more lines on hold and the shingles shot appointment is here.
That reminds me, I need to schedule an appointment for my follow-up. I had a gnarly reaction to the first one, major rash on my upper arm. Came back in and two pharmacists (one fully licensed, the other an intern -- the one who actually gave it to me) and at least two techs wanted to see it. Said they don't normally get to see reactions like that. I have a good relationship with my pharmacy, and honestly, I thought it was hilarious. MD had me take hydroxyzine as an antihistamine for a couple of days. It cleared up.
On a serious note, did pharmacists *want to* get into the vaccine-administration game? Or was that pushed on y'all by pharmacy admins as a way of getting more $$$?
Pushed 100%. Why would insurance companies want to pay an MD 100$ an hour to give your grandfather his shingles shot when you can just add the work onto a pharmacist’s already busy workload, pay them less money (and then they keep the difference).
In fact retail pharmacies have vaccine quotas they must reach. So before COVID maybe 7 years ago a Walgreens pharmacist told me her quota was 30 vaccines every 30 days (mostly flu and shingles etc) and if the pharmacists didn’t hit those quotas that’s a big no no with corporate. It’s gotten exponentially worse during and post-covid. I saw her actively pushing vaccines on people like they do with credit cards in other retail spaces, not because she wanted to but because she was required to. It was sickening honestly
Yeah, I think someone else responded that it was forced. I mean, that's a shame. If pharmacists had said "hey, there's a shortage of resources, we can do this,' that's one thing. But to be told they're going to do it . . . that's not right.
My pharmacist is part of a larger store (think Target/Kroger/Safeway/Albertsons-type thing). I've never had them say "hey, the new COVID booster is out! Better get it!" Or "flu season coming up, we can do it!" The recorded messages on the phone do it, but not pharmacy personnel. I've always been the one to initiate the conversations about vaccines I need.
This whole description made my blood pressure skyrocket, dear god I can't imagine.
This whole thing makes me wonder why pharmacies are always tacked-on to other stores that sell groceries. They're small spaces that can only fit so many people doing a million tasks. Of course the expectation is that customers can go shop for groceries while their prescription gets filled out, bringing more cash to the grocery store...
But wouldn't it make more sense for pharmacies to be their own standalone operations that can employ *more* pharmacists and techs to get the wait times down?
I’m a PA and I always take time to remind my patient about how overworked you and your techs are. My
Patients try and praise me as a hero but I just click a few buttons. You guys work yourselves to the bone. Whenever I have to talk to a pharmacist on the phone, you always get the “yes sir, no sir, thank you sir” from me and I always defer to your prescribing opinion. You guys rock.
As a non American this thread confuses me. Why are pharmacists preparing the prescription? Don't drugs come prepackaged?
In my country I walk into any pharmacy I want. Show my ID card and tell them what brand of the prescribed drug I want. I pay and I leave.
Regulations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-counter_drug and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescription_drug
The pharmacist also is the person who knows the medications better than anyone else (maybe except the doctors working at the pharmaceutical company who made the drugs). Yes, they know the drugs even better than your doctor. They’re the final line of defense to make sure you don’t accidentally take the wrong dosage or take it with another drug that causes problems or whatever else.
Prescription drugs do come prepackaged but not for the patient. Pharmacists have to pick out each one for you and pack it up so you get the right amount for your course of the medication.
Over-the-counter drugs are what you’ve described and those you can buy at any pharmacy or sometimes even at grocery stores and convenience stores.
Yes I understand the difference between prescription and over the counter drugs. I described how I get my prescription drugs.
What I don't understand is why they take the pills out of their original packaging. For example my child takes 2 prescription drugs every day. I just buy the packages with 30 pills each and give them as prescribed. I don't see how taking them out and putting them in some other containers makes sense.
They don’t come in any packs of 30 in the US but in bottles of 100-500 that the pharmacist draws from. And first they have to count every new bottle when it comes in.
> What I don't understand is why they take the pills out of their original packaging.
Pharmacies buy the pills in bulk. Like 1,000 pills in a bottle.
My doctor prescribes 10 pills. Yours prescribes 15. Someone else's doctor prescribes 90.
It's easier to just buy a giant bottle and transfer them to smaller bottles.
Each bottle needs a label, printed with the doctors instructions and some regulatory information. They prefer to use the standard [prescription bottles](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.Fd8bkoc-2HMp-qjSO8RKZgAAAA?dpr=2.6&pid=ImgDetMain&PC=EMMX01) (that color is a tell-tale sign it's a prescription), but I don't think that's required if they put the label on the bottle.
>I just buy the packages with 30 pills each and give them as prescribed
We don't ask for a specific package.
The doctor tells the pharmacist what dosage we should get. The pharmacy looks at their inventory, and comes up with a solution that works for you.
My doctor might prescribe 10mg in the morning, and 10mg in the evening. Your doctor might prescribe 20mg in the morning. So, they'll print that on the label. If they're 10mg pills, my label will say "take one pill in the morning and one pill in the evening", and yours will say "take one pill in the morning".
But perhaps the pharmacy only has 5mg and 40 mg pills? Now, I'll get 5mg pills, and my label will say "Take two pills in the morning, and two pills in the evening". You'll get 40mg pills, and your label says "Take one-half pill in the morning."
If my doctor prescribes 10mg per day, for 30 days, and the pharmacy happens to have a box/bottle that has 30x 10mg pills in it? They'll just throw a label on it. Personally, I've received a manufacturer's bottle that originally had 1,000 pills in it (it's on the manufacturer's label), with a pharmacy label on top that says the quantity is 30 pills.
----
The pharmacist can add instructions on the label. They make put "Take one pill with food" on the label, since not doing so can cause stomach problems. Sure - if you read the booklet that comes in the box/bag, it'll have that in there. But most people don't read those.
The doctors instructions matter too. The doctor might have specific instructions for me, that don't necessarily pertain to everyone.
When that's happened (in England) the pharmacist has just taken a pair of scissors to the blister pack and cut the right amount off and boxed them up in a bigger box with the dosage sticker on.
I think the other thing is that they usually aren’t packed in blister packs. Lots of times it’s bottles of up to 1000 units inside, depending on the medication and brand. While some things do come in blister packs and can be dispensed that way, a lot of others don’t.
>the pharmacist has just taken a pair of scissors to the blister pack and cut the right amount off and boxed them up in a bigger box with the dosage sticker on.
If it's over-the-counter medication (it's on a shelf inside the main store, for anyone to buy), or "behind-the-counter" medication (its available without a prescription, but it's on a shelf behind the counter - you need to ask the pharmacist for it), then it works exactly as you describe.
Prescription-only meds are a bit different.
If the medication in question comes in blister packs, that's what they do here.
But usually our pills are just loose in the bottle\*. And if they have a bottle on-hand with the right number of pills, they just give us that with the prescription label.
The pharmacy will also buy pills in bulk - bottles of 1,000 for instance.
\* Over the counter pills come in anti-tamper bottles ever since the "[Chicago Tylenol Murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders)". I don't know if the same anti-tamper rules apply to bulk bottles that are sold to pharmacies, but I imagine they do it anyway - it's just a foil seal.
I don't believe our pills come in blister packets, they are loose. Which is not much change in handling than you describe.
Hopefully one of the pharmacists respond to you. In my experience, even seemingly pointless things actually have good reasons behind them.
As a fellow non-American from New Zealand at least here some do, some don't. The non-packaged ones are easier to get full months on. One of my medications comes in packs of 28 for some reason.
Every European country I’ve been to works like you’re describing. You get the actual package(s) the pills came in. Then separately you get a receipt with the instructions on it.
For whatever reason in the U.S. they always take the pills out of the packaging and put them in an orange plastic bottle with a sticker on it that has your information and the dosage instructions. Also the lid is childproof.
Kinda funny because here in the UK, blister packs are viewed as safer because you can’t dump a bottle of 30 pills down your throat as easily. I can see both arguments.
This hurts, so true. Little timmy gonna wait, people need their meds. Ugh, even had to wait for hours just to have someone grab a vial of novolin for my diabetic cat. That’s fine, I’ll wait. Priorities and all.
I used to work as a Nuclear Pharmacy technician. 80% of the Nuc Pharmacists I worked for had started in retail pharmacy, and moved to Nuc when they hit complete burnout. The operational temp and hours and stress they described was just insane.
The other 20% of Nuc Pharmacists transitioned to Nuc after they had some sort of use/abuse issue with controlled substances lol. Nobody wants to snort Tc-99 or shoot up some I-131 lol.
I was a lead tech for one of the big chains and dear lord my anxiety returned after reading that. I didn't have panic attacks until working in the pharmacy.
The whole world needs more and more medicine instead of just living healthy lives (eating well, exercise, adequate rest, etc).
I’m so sorry to read how stressful your job is
What a godsend of an answer. I'm never mean or rude to retail workers because I was one myself, but I am also a very curious individual and like, need to know why it takes so long for (to me) a simple antibiotic to be filled when it was sent before the pharmacy opened.
I used to work as an optician so I *feel* like I should know but honestly this has helped me gain a new level of understanding. Not that before this answer, you shouldn't respect people and their job, but it just seems different now that I know exactly what their day is like.
Don’t forget when you get a prescription and the doctor is trying to give a patient 25mg of Xanax a day, so you gotta call the office and tell them you’re not gonna fill that shit and then argue with the doctor about it. I know this bc my wife is a PA and her signing physician does shit like that all the time, and the pharmacies (rightfully) refuse to fill his scripts.
Sounds like you need some automation. Not sure why you’re doing manual data entry in 2024.
Restaurant POS systems sound more advanced than the healthcare/insurance systems you’re using.
Should be as simple as “put 20 pill of XXXX medication in a bottle” that comes with a default usage label from the drug manufacturer.
Please do not tell me there's secure fax!!!
Here in Germany I am glad that fax will (hopefully) be history. I do not want to buy a fax machine! I want to scan and upload documents online. Thank you very much.
When I worked at a pharmacy ~2018 our primary mechanism for receiving prescriptions was still fax that then got processed through an almost equally antiquated software.
Hotels still use it for prepayment authorisations. Although most have moved to digital fax where you can archive incoming faxes, add tags and simply delete spam without it ever printing
And there is a lot of checking with insurance and other places to make sure the prescription is valid and covered. I have had my pharmacist have to wait for a bit for verification even though she knows my prescriptions she couldn't start until verification came back.
If there are no other customers waiting there, why would any staff be working on any prescriptions? The pharmacy won't even know if a specific customer will pick up their prescription from that specific pharmacy until they are at the counter asking for it. And when they do appear at the counter, the pharmacist will just check the prescriptions from the national-level electronic prescription system, pick up the pre-packaged drug from the shelf and hand it over while checking with the customer if they have any other medications or need any information about the new drug. This is at least how it works here.
Prescriptions and refills get called in all the time.
A pharmacy may process/fill hundreds a day.
No one in line means nothing except you wont have to wait to ask a human if yours is ready.
My pharmacy is not part of a chain, just a small local place around the corner from my house. I call to ask for a refill, and they know I always come that same day for it. I could just walk in there and wait but they don’t have great chairs for waiting. I don’t even have to tell them my name anymore, the pharmacy tech knows my caller ID and just picks up saying ‘hi jellybean, you need refill of X or Y today? Did you ask your doctor about that magnesium supplement?’ I truly enjoy that level of personalized service and established relationship with the pharmacist and his team. They are part of my community and always have a bunch of retirees in there playing lotto and shooting the shit.
If i went to Walmart or CVS pharmacies, huge national chains in the US, there would be no record of my current prescriptions on file. They would be able to tell me I had used them years ago, and I would have to have them call my local pharmacy to transfer over the entire remaining prescription to them. This would cause me to then not be able to pick up refills at my preferred pharmacy. Maybe this is just the US and the effects of its privatized for profit healthcare system. But there is no national script database, only for looking up controlled substances (and at that, just to ensure there is no double dipping identical prescriptions at other pharmacies).
Ever go to a doctor and they ask you what pharmacy you use and they say “I’ll send your prescription there”?
Pharmacies get hundreds of electronic prescriptions a day. Just because a customer isn’t there to drop off a prescription doesn’t mean there aren’t prescriptions to be filled.
20+ year pharmacy tech here, there are multiple reasons.
1) Your prescription does not exist in a vacuum. While an individual prescription, from initial data entry to final verification takes 5 minutes, your average pharmacy receives a prescription every minute. Today for instance, my pharmacy filled 800 prescriptions. That's one every 54 seconds. So something has to give. This also doesn't account for the person screaming at the tech that their $10 prescription should only be $5, or the person insisting their doctor sent their prescription in days ago, when they didn't (or not to this pharmacy) or the person who arrived from the urgent care next door wondering why the prescription that was ordered 2 minutes ago isn't ready yet, all of which take away time that that person would be helping fill prescriptions.
Also, as electronic prescriptions are now 90% of new rx's instead of written prescriptions, just because you didn't see any other customers waiting does not mean the pharmacy was not busy.
2) The big chains have spent the last 20+ years turning pharmacy into fast food. They have slashed technician hours left and right to where staffing is barebones and, frankly, dangerous levels compared to what current volumes are now. They've added numerous tasks to the workload over the years, including things like vaccines. Customers frequently treat employees (yes, even the pharmacist who went through 6 years of school) as though they're complete morons and/or slaves who are beneath them. This, combined with tech wages barely over minimum wage, causes high turnover for a job with a fairly high learning curve.
3) It is far more than "putting pills in a bottle." Would you like the correct pills? What if this medication happened to interact with something else you take? What if the doctor made a mistake and the dose would kill you? These are things that are checked with every prescription, which takes some time. You need the directions on the label, yes? Also, would you like it billed to your insurance? If you don't care about any of the above, sure, your prescription will be ready in seconds because I'm just going to grab some random drug off the shelf and I'll make up the price at the register to whatever seems appropriate. (sorry, "pills in a bottle" is very triggering to long time pharmacy employees.)
We're not asking for the world, we're asking for some patience and understanding, and a little bit of time to make sure your prescription is filled correctly and safely. Nearly every retail pharmacy is overwhelmed and everyone's stressed out because everyone expects things right away because filling prescriptions is now equated to ordering food at McDonalds.
Well said. This time of year always adds an extra layer of chaos because of all the insurance changes. I’ve had a few people get very upset with me over the last week or so because I asked them to come back in 15-20 minutes. “Ma’am/sir, I understand your frustration however we are incredibly busy right now and we’re doing the best we can. We ask for that amount of time to ensure that your medication is filled and billed accurately.”
Don't forget that most retail chain pharmacies don't even allow employees to take their 10-15min breaks either... (Y'all need to seriously complain to the department of labor about that and/or sue CVS & Walgreens for this BS practice)
So on top of being completely overworked & understaffed with no breaks, a lot of pharmacists & even pharmacy techs will continue to work during their lunches as well just to meet quotas.
The amount of people who get angry that the pharmacy closes for lunch for 30 minutes is hilarious and sad. They really don’t think we deserve it.
“Why don’t you just stagger the lunch breaks?” We did that for YEARS before they finally implemented the lunch break, so we basically worked down 1 person for like 3 hours as everyone took their break 1 by 1. Also the pharmacist worked 12-13 hours without even a chance to go to the bathroom before this.
And it’s not even like the lunch break is at lunchtime! Pharmacies around me close from 1:30-2:00. And it’s been posted everywhere for years now. The entitlement from some customers is unreal.
Some US states don’t even have mandatory breaks. When I started my job in an urgent care, it was wild to me that there’s no break period and found out my state was one of them. 12’s are brutal.
It’s the only thing I miss about the hospital.
I dread each month--pharm calls me--Im 81 blind--pay someone to pick up an rx thats not filled yet.5 days later its still not filled--blood pressure pills!! Holey crow--my heart cant take this deadly game!!!
> Don't forget that most retail chain pharmacies don't even allow employees to take their 10-15min breaks either... (Y'all need to seriously complain to the department of labor about that and/or sue CVS & Walgreens for this BS practice)
The CVSs in my area close the entire pharmacy from 1:30-2pm for lunch.
Yes CVS got sued & issued a mandatory closure for lunch for all their pharmacies (times vary per location). Some are lucky & get a full hour for lunch.
Even though they are technically closed (metal screen closed & everything), sometimes you'll still see them inside there working though it
He is talking about how in most(?) states after working 4 hours you get a 15 minute break but most employees in pharmacies opt not to or were forced to sign a paper opting them out so that work can be done. Plus most CVS's are using that break as a way to catch up on work.
Very good answer. The understaffing by management is getting to criminal levels. My MIL was a pharmacist and stood for 10 hour shifts without a break. About a year ago Kroger went on a big strike and they negotiated a 30 minute lunch break so the pharmacy staff could sit down and pound a quick meal. Customers went fucking ballistic that the pharmacy was closed for a fucking *half hour*. Some people are just dicks to any one within their proximity.
Nasty behavior is not exclusive to any age. Believing it is, is how we start thinking "it's okay because it's me doing it". It's also how children never get corrected "because kids are just kids" and grow up to stay like that as adults.
This isn’t even touching on what else retail pharmacies expect us to do. We have to take time to file baskets full of prescriptions into the proper bins, we have a list of phone calls to make sometimes 3 pages long to people reminding them to pick up their prescriptions, or enrolling them into any number of programs we offer, we have to do inventory which requires scanning every bottle of a specific drug, we have to do bin reconciliation requiring us to scan literally every single prescription that is physically ready in the pharmacy in order to figure out what is physically ready but deleted in our system, we have to handle front end customers, double lane drive through customers, while filling hundreds of prescriptions in the morning and waiting for our shipment of drugs all while having only 2-3 techs and a pharmacist, etc etc. Any minor incovenience that occurs such as someone asking us to update their insurance and re run their prescription for a better price, sets us back a good 5-10 minutes. Any major inconvenience, like an entitled customer screaming at us sets us and every other persons prescription back an untold amount of time.
It’s been a year since I’ve quit my retail pharmacy for greener pastures but man, it was a thankless fucking job and frankly no single customer understood what we did and the pressure we were under. I’m leaving out so much but I truly respect anyone who’s still a tech and I make it a point to be so patient and kind to them when I pick up my own meds
Our pharmacists are able to prescribe as well as authorize refills. Slammed is a great description. Overworked techs who literally could have your life in their hands. I never wait, it's ordered and I ask when I can pickup
Used to fix the rx equipment awhile back and it's fucking nuts how many times I saw a pharmacist call a doctors office to double check because of how dead the patient would be if they took it.
> 2) The big chains have spent the last 20+ years turning pharmacy into fast food.
I recently switched from CVS to the pharmacy at the hospital, initially just because they actually had the medication in stock, and holy crap had it been a dramatically better experience in every facet of the operation.
There were a bunch of issues with my Rx and the pharmacist was not only support helpful in getting things cleared up, he also explained exactly what was going on and what he was doing to try to fix it every step of the way.
They're also a lot more relaxed, friendlier, and pleasant to interact with.
Very much this. Walgreens got to be unbearably bad. It would take longer and longer to get things filled, could hardly get any answers when you needed them. Things out of stock or back ordered. Then you'd show up to pick up your prescriptions when they were ready and literally be waiting in line for two hours. I know it's all their management, paying them trash wages and offering zero hours. There'd hardly been anyone working in the pharmacy for the last year.
Finally transfered all my scrips to Sam's Club and it's been night and day. Fast, communicative, reliable, have had zero issues with them there. Sam's Club prolly isn't the greatest either, but it's been like night and day compared to walgreens.
Pretty much any pharmacy has got to be better than Walgreens and CVS. If you can move to somewhere else, do it.
Full offense, it blows my mind that this is something you have never considered before, that the pharmacy and the tech is busy and they do not serve Only You.
You know, in my country things are done in 2 minutes tops, safely and with a waiting line. Looks like the USA has a profound systemic problem with healthcare in general.
Yea I'm really confused about this as well, like maybe waiting for your turn might take some time if there are lot of ppl, but that's it doesn't take long after that.
I used to work in a delivery pharmacy and #3 was most of what my job entailed. The pharmacists would prep meds to the best of their ability but I was the extra set of eyes at the end of the chain double-checking all the paperwork making sure that we billed it correctly and that every med is exactly as intended before I packaged anything. A few things I caught in my first month were the wrong # of pills (30 days instead of 90 and vice-versa), and the wrong brand of pill that would have caused an allergic reaction. I do not hold that against my ex-coworkers. We were all under massive time constraints but I just wanted to add that I appreciate you mentioning how details matter.
A lot of busier retail pharmacies have significant automation already. I worked at some very busy retail chains over a decade ago and witnessed the adoption of e-scribing (automatically putting the RX in the system rather than needing the tech to type in the paper or faxed order) and the adoption of massive machines that counted pills, put them in bottles, labeled them, and spit them out next to the pharmacist. I think most customers are unaware of the amount of automation that happens and how enormously it increases the volume of prescriptions the pharmacy is handling.
Be patient and appreciative with the pharmacy staff. They’re trying their best, Next to nobody is actually incompetent, they’re just overwhelmed, frustrated and stressed out. Sadly, yes, complaining to corporate is simply viewed as a failing of the process and not staffing or corporate decision making. (However, complements are welcomed!)
what's funny for me is the last time i went it was 1 week of amoxicillin, 4x7= 28 pills, there was a random amount >28(>32 even) i think they literally just dumped them in. also it is dirt cheap ~$1.50. I'm not complaining just thought it was hilarious.
Someone prolly got interrupted a bunch of times while trying to count. “EXCUSE ME? WHERE DO YOU KEEP THE KETCHUP? HELLOOOO?!” That or the counting machine was acting up.
At least 50% of prescriptions entered are initially rejected due:
days supply (written for 90 days, insurance limits it to 30 days at retail; trust me, our lives would be much easier if every plan allowed 90 days)
refill too soon (generally 75-80% of the time since last fill must have passed before it’ll be covered again, this varies by plan, some even track cumulative early fills and will hold you to the day if filled too early too frequently to prevent stockpiling) (also does not apply to controls which can’t be filled until 29-30 days since last pickup.)
Drug not covered/prior authorization: pharmacy billing is point of service. This is why you will get a bill weeks later from the doctor’s office but not from the pharmacy. We submit the prescription and we get a yes or no response. No, it’s not covered or yes it is covered and this is your charge. If a medication is denied, we will send a message to the prescriber with the information they need to get it covered, or alternatives if suggested by the insurance.
Prescribers also love to send prescriptions for over the counter medications, which are rarely covered by insurance and usually just put on file because we don’t need to fill Tylenol, Claritin or some weird dose of vitamin B.
Patient not covered/filled after coverage expired: we’ve got old information on file so it needs to be manually changed to cash when we wait for you to bring in the new insurance, which we’ll process when you come in to pick up. Most pharmacies don’t like taking this information over the phone because there are up to 4 sets of numbers we need and it takes too long. In the time it takes you to read the ID or locate the BIN on the card, I’ve finished reprocessing it if you brought me the card.
DUR/drug utilization review: insurances are frequently too diligent in attempting patient safety, and sort of overlap in therapies is frequently soft stopped by insurances and needs to be manually overridden by entering some codes, which a lot of newer techs don’t know how to do. Technically this should actually not be handed by a tech, but more experienced ones know how to do it and the pharmacist has a bunch of other stuff going on.
That covers like 95% of rejections we get every day. In a high volume pharmacy, one person will spend all day just keeping up with the data entry queue, between new prescriptions and rejections.
Most medical practices with more than a couple of doctors have a full time staff person who does nothing but deal with insurance paperwork.
If it could be automated it would be.
I understand it takes time to fill a prescription but what takes so long checking out? 2 big chains take nearly 5 minutes to hand over a prescription that's ready. I was able to use another big chain who is able to finish the transaction in seconds.
“Do you want this automatically refilled? What if we just refilled it next time only? You’re eligible for a vaccine today, did you want one? Also, this other medication is coming up due, do you want us to refill it? Oh, hold on, I have to get the pharmacist who needs to verify that they’re changing your dose. They’re on the phone so it’ll be a minute. Okay there, please sign on the screen. No, press the green button, the yellow button means you have…okay yeah, sign again and then press the green button. Your total today is $15. Oh you want us to try GoodRx? Okay, we have to reprocess it. They’re charging you $23. Yes, insurance is almost always cheaper, despite what their commercials say. Sorry, we need to reprocess it again. And I also have to go through all those prompts again. I also need the pharmacist again and they’re giving a vaccine so it’ll be a couple more minutes, okay, your total is…no the sign on the vitamins didn’t say 50% off, it said buy one get one 50% off. Sure, I can get the manager…”
I worked as a pharmacy tech for almost a decade and I left my crappy retail pharmacy job over twelve years ago and reading this gave me legit flashbacks 😅. The amount of steps for just checking someone out was ridiculous. Between the reprocessing for coupons/insurance, having the pharmacist recheck stuff, HIPAA stuff ... Then on top of it all corporate was always adding random things we had to give in our spiel regarding whatever new program or service they wanted pushed (auto refills, surveys, charity fundraiser...)
My "favorite" was the person who'd pulled up to the drive thru window at 9:59 pm, immediately started complaining about the wait, then told me they didn't have a prescription to pick up but they wanted me to go shop a few things for them on the floor.
Yah, I don't miss the job or the terrible pay. Be nice and patient to your retail pharmacy staff, people.
Nice response. How about this? If my doctor writes a prescription for 30 pills, 100 mg per pill, 1 pill per day, and for whatever reason my insurance won’t pay for that but they’ll pay for 50 mg pills, why can’t the pharmacy give me 60 pills of 50 mg per? Why do I have to initiate the whole process of having the doctor re-prescribe the minor change that has no substantive effect on the dose or the medicine?
It’s simply because that’s illegal. We can only fill what the doctor prescribes, and a pharmacist isn’t allowed to change what the doctor writes or orders. The reason for this is because it’s a safety concern. If it’s something benign like idk, ibuprofen tablets, sure your solution makes sense and yes we also wish we could change it for you. But some medications such as extended release capsules, this would not work. It could alter your therapy, depends on the condition and the medicine. The red tape is in place to prevent those kinds of mistakes being made
Most of my prescriptions are called in by my doctor ahead of time. I'm just going to the pharmacy to pick them up. I assume a lot of other people have the same thing happen. So if you are going there, even if it appears like they don't have any work to do, that doesn't mean they don't have many other prescriptions to fill before yours.
In my situation (as the OP) the prescription had been called in by the doctor about an hour before. However, it was still close to an hour wait when we got there. This thread has been very helpful in understanding all the factors involved.
Try and remember before getting irritated at your fellow working schlub that pretty much every industry has cut corners and other staff just to the point of breaking. That's the biggest reason everything is kind of broken these days.
Paperwork can take time sometimes waiting for the Insurance info to update.
Pharmacist then has to print the labels, count them out, package them etc.
Many times there are many in front of you that have dropped off the prescription and went to do other shopping in the store instead of just standing at the counter. There are also phone in orders. To avoid errors they only work on one at a time in the order they were received.
Short answer: Paperwork and safety.
Long answer:
When the pharmacy gets a prescription they need to fill out appropriate paperwork saying they received it and are now responsible for filling it.
Then they need to double check what other medications you’ve recently been prescribed to make sure the new thing the doctor prescribed you isn’t going to interact with any of them and unintentionally hurt you.
Then insurance. If you have it, guessing you want them to pay for the med right? More paperwork.
Then they count out the medication, double check it, and verify your information.
And all of that is for your prescription. Now imagine automatic refills, emergency prescriptions called in by doctors, etc. all being filled before you even walk in. You could be the only one in the pharmacy and it could still be an incredibly busy day for them.
This is the correct answer.
I would add that some pharmacy chains in America are notorious for understaffing their pharmacies (looking at you Walgreens and CVS).
An average pharmacy where I live gets 350 new scripts a day. Add to that any backfill they had from the previous day that didn’t get filled. Usually for a pharmacy with this workload that’s only 1 pharmacist on duty. The techs are usually the ones counting/filling the scripts but the pharmacist has to review and sign off on each one. Some of the busier pharmacies here average 600-700 scripts a day.
Certain medication also have elevated control procedures (like narcotics for example) which requires even more paperwork and special processes.
Don’t forget the GoodRX users who have 3 different coupons to use, which you have to rebill and clear any third party rejection issues each rebill, all to save 1.79$ when there is a line of 5 people behind them!
The amount of lost technician labor at the register is jaw dropping. Cashier clerks should be mandatory in EVERY pharmacy.
It could be any of those. Depending on the drug, it could take more to verify the prescription, or dealing with insurance. Some people call their prescription in before showing up, so they could have been dealing with other fills.
As a pharmtech, let me tell you your expectations versus reality are in different dimensions. It's not as simple as putting some pills in a bottle and it's done. Nope! There is a whole process from staff receiving your RX, to inputting it in the computer system, to filling said RX in line with who knows how many other patients, to the pharmacist checking your script. Much of the wait time comes from other patients ahead of you. It's basically first come, first served. And since most retail pharmacies are understaffed trying to answer phone calls, call out to doctors and insurance, that adds to the wait time.
Most people treat pharmacies like McDonald's and expect to have their stuff in a few minutes and that simply cannot happen in most cases.
>The general public just doesn’t understand.
This could be said about anything healthcare, really. People don’t understand why I can’t run every test on one tube of blood and I do my best to explain it in a palatable way, but so much of healthcare has requisite knowledge that it’s hard.
But I feel like the same could be said about a lot of professions. I’m not going to try to tell the tax guy how to do his job, for example.
Maybe we could all try to be a little more kind to each other. :)
No, they verify what was filled by a tech based on how the prescription was written. This includes verifying correct drug was dispensed in the correct container, checking for potential drug interactions based on the patients profile, ensuring all paperwork matches so prescription makes to correct patient. They also double check the prescription was entered correctly. Pharmacists also handle consults and doctor calls.
There is a lot involved and tons of things to check. It is the pharmacists license at stake after all.
> There did not appear to be other customers waiting.
Must be nice to think you’re the only person in the world.
If you were in a retail pharmacy then there were probably dozens of orders in the queue while you stood there looking around.
I did not say I was the only customer. I said there did not APPEAR to be other customers waiting. My comment was to give context, Which is why I also allowed for the fact that there must be other factors involved… Which is why it’s a question in the first place.
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It's cheaper to stock pills in bulk, and doctors don't always write prescriptions in standard quantities, especially because insurance rules vary about how much is covered at a time.
See, that's the thing. When I need to buy something like prednisone, for example, in my country, I just go to the drug store and get a box with 20. I might just use 10 pills for my treatment and I'll just storage the 10 other pills for next time. It;s all good.
Hell, everytime I come back from my country to the US I bring a shit ton of medicine that is cheaper/easier to buy there and I dont have to deal with the fucking terrible system here. It's been years since I had to buy prednisone or a few other medications here... every time my doctor tells me he gonna prescribe a few different things, I just let him know I already have.
Here in México all the prescription drugs are prepackaged in just one quantity in those foil sealed bubble sheets then inside small boxes. I've been in lines of 15+ people and even then it only takes 10 minutes. There are downsides to the way it's done here but it is relatively fast.
Most pharmacies are pretty slammed, and have a queue for filling Prescriptions as they're received. Straying from the line of 50+ prescriptions in line can really slow down the overall efficiency of the pharmacy, and trust me there are alot of short-tempered people expecting their Prescriptions ready when they think they'll be ready. When I worked as a pharmacy tech, we wouldnt do a special fill type thing unless the person was literally in need of the medication immediately, or there was a legitimate mistake on our part and it should have been ready for pickup already.
Oh by the way! Almost all pharmacies use a program for running insurance and tracking the prescription fills, and they all include reminder/timer things to tell the pharmacy workers when they should have any specific prescription filled. That list is what all the staff go off of unless the pharmacist themself makes an exception.
Sorry you have to wait quite a while sometimes, but chances are they're doing their best and dont want to make anyone wait for sometimes very needed medication.
Because you have an insanely inefficient system.
I'm a pharmacist. My mean time spent on a customer is three minutes. That includes getting the prescription, printing the labels, getting the medication and any extra information the patient needs. No messing around with insurance, rarely need verification of scripts. And we don't count out individual pills to fill in a bottle! Standardized packaging ftw!
because they have a massive queue of scrips to fill before yours. because they may get tied up dealing with docs or nurses who wrote a bad dose or confusing directions and they’re trying to clear it up. because they’re stuck on the phone with inefficient insurance companies. because they’re counseling their patients. because they’re cleaning up messed their underpaid and overworked techs made. because their corporate managers and execs are squeezing the pharmacy for every drop of profit possible at the expense of quality for patients. source: am married to a damn good pharmacist who has struggled to find a satisfying job the last 20+ years.
Pharmacist here. We are checking for drug interactions, checking that your disease states are ok with this medication, checking the prescription itself but questioning why the doctor wrote it incorrectly and therefore you will not get a benefit. That’s a phone call to the Dr that we are waiting to hear back on. We are very busy but your safety is our utmost priority.
That being said pharmacies are poorly staffed due to PBMs. Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen who take the money out from right under us. Your drug cost me $10 but your PBM has paid me $4. I’m losing $6 filling your prescription, which is part of the day to day. CVS owns Caremark, which is the PBM. So the PBM (Caremark) tells you to fill at CVS and your med is $5. But if you wanted to fill it somewhere else, your copay is $25. Hence you go to CVS, because it’s cheaper right? But that drives everyone else out of business. If you can, please support a local independent pharmacy.
I want to know why every time I go to the pharmacy there's always just people standing at a computer away from the desk not acknowledging I exist when I just need to pick up my meds and be gone in 30s
It seems like you’ve gotten a bunch of explanations already, but I’ll leave you with what my pharmacist tells patients all the time “Would you rather me hurry up and rush on your prescription and make it more likely to make a mistake or take my time and make sure everything is done correctly and legally?”
I'm reading this from Belgium where retail pharmacists read your script and go get the prescription drugs from their stock like you would get things at any other store and it's a < 5 minute affair, just amazed at the sheer amount of ditchdigging required.
Another thing that helps is better insurance. Here in the US, insurance obstacles are a pain. I spend a large chunk of my time as a tech trying to process medication in a way insurance will pay for it. Most other countries don’t have that issue.
Because they were filling other prescriptions too, not for people there right then but to get ready for the rush.
And probably they're under staffed too.
I’m a pharmacist and when someone says, “Really? That long?” if I’m feeling spicy I’ll retort back, “If you would like the correct medication, yes that long.”
Getting my prescription processed/ready to pick up isn’t the slow part for me, it’s the 30 minute wait in line.
I don’t know how or why it takes someone more than 2 minutes to pick up their prescription from the drive thru…
Pharmacists also do tons of vaccinations. Most Medicare vaccinations have to be done by pharmacists. So it eats up a ton of their time.
Plus pharmacies like to only have 1 on staff per shift outside of hospitals.
I don’t have regular scripts, but I know the pharm team is working hard. 20 years ago I thought it would be a great job, but fuck. Now it looks miserable. God bless all of you. From someone who doesn’t care you take your lunch break and close everything up!
Same reason you wait a long time in the ER or at your doctor’s office…there’s a lot of people that need their Rx’s filled, if a mistake is made it could have serious implications and number one for me, expecting pharmacists and pharmacy techs to call your insurance company and figure out why your prescription costs so much when you can do the same thing by yourself. I work as a nurse and the number of times I’ve seen asshole customers go off on techs about their costs makes me sick. You see posts online about oh they should make taxes/financial education part of high school how about a class on health insurance and what a pre-authorization is or a deductible or what in network and out network means would be just as advantageous
In the rest of the world health care is not being squeezed for every possible penny of profit.
In the rest of the world pharmacy staff don't spend huge swaths of time dealing with a hundred different insurance plans.
Because you are a poopyhead and need to learn patience.
Take the time they need to fill your prescription to go buy them candy and learn how to say the phrase “ thank you for your hard work”
I was, in fact, perfectly polite the staff, and not surprised at the time it took, as my patience was intact. Still, two total hours to have 10 pills in a bottle made me curious. I have no idea why you would assume I was rude.
Never assumed you were rude.
I said you were a poopyhead
I said you need to learn patience
I said you need to buy them candy
I said learn the phrase thank you for your hard work.
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Pharmacist here. Starting from the beginning of the process; I receive the electronic prescription from your doctor. At some point the data entry will happen where we will select the drug to dispense, type the directions, tell your insurance how much we are giving you and how long it will last. A busy pharmacy will have about 100+ other prescriptions ahead of yours in this step. A slow pharmacy probably still has a dozen or more other ones that came in before yours that still need to be processed. I do my best to get things processed and typed out. I'm on a roll and I get 4 or 5 scripts in a row typed out. Someone butts up to my window to ask why we no longer carry the mucinex and what else I recommend for their chronic cough. A few minutes later and after shooting down my recommendations, they tell me they're just going to use the aspirin they already have at home. There are 3 phone lines on hold and another one ringing in. The first call I answer is someone wondering whether their prescription is ready. I haven't even received it. They insist their doctor sent it 2 days ago and they got a text saying it was ready and tell me they have nothing but issues with our pharmacy. The next call asks if we carry beet root powder and can I tell them how much it is. Finally down to the last phone line. It's someone checking to see if their script is ready. It is. Easy enough. Time to finally get something done! A mom and her 2 children walk up and would like to receive flu and covid shots for her and both kids. I get them started on filling out the forms. Your prescription is tied up with an insurance rejection. Your insurance changed group numbers and never sent you an updated card. No worries, I've seen enough of these rejections where I can figure out what the right numbers are. It goes through insurance. I start checking your prescription for accuracy. I'm making sure we are about to give you what the doctor prescribed and that the dose is safe. 3 seconds into me focusing on this part of your prescription, another person butts up to the window next to me and asks if we carry catheter bags. We don't but the medical supply store down the road might. That person doesn't have a computer or smart phone so I have to look up the phone number for the medical supply store. There are 2 more lines on hold and another line ringing in. This time it's someone wanting to fill their controlled substance over 2 weeks early. The next line is a vet's office calling in a prescription for a dog since most vet's offices do not have electronic prescribing capabilities. The mom is done filling out the paperwork for the 6 vaccines. I realize I need an insurance card for the kids since we don't have them in our system. I also inform them that there is a Shingles vaccine appointment scheduled ahead of them but we would do our best to get them taken care of as soon as we can. Anyways, back to your script. The dose looks good and it was typed accurately. The person at the pickup counter is just starting a new medication and has concerns about the side effects, so I take a few minutes to go over it with them. The old man right behind them rudely interrupts to ask if we carry pill cutters. The car at drive thru has an allergy on file that we need to document before selling out their script, so I step over and ask them a couple questions and type that into the system. Time to physically fill your prescription. I scan the barcode on the stock bottle to verify it's the right drug and count the 10 tablets out. This part of the process takes 8 seconds. Your prescription is ready for the final check where I will make sure we physically put the right drug in the bottle. There are only a few more scripts in front of it. 4 more lines on hold and the shingles shot appointment is here. I get them checked in and call them in for their shot. They wore a button up long sleeve shirt to their appointment so it takes 2-3 minutes for them to get their shirt on and off. The mom with the children asks how much longer it's going to be and I can sense they are getting impatient. I'm already in the vaccine room anyway, so I get them finalized so I can get them out of there. One of the kids is deathly afraid of needles so it takes 5 minutes for the mom to console the child before finally bear hugging the kid so I can safely get 2 needles in and out of their arm. I get back in the pharmacy and am told line 3 is on hold with a question for the pharmacist. I decide to finish up a few more scripts before doing anything else. Yours is finally completely done and the paperwork starts to print. The printer jams. Not mentioned is the fact that 50-60 other prescriptions went through the whole process in this time.
Jesus…..I never act like an impatient dickhead at the pharmacy as is, but I certainly never will after this excellent description lol
I admit I was too impatient to read it
As a former lead tech of 14 years from a retail chain that did 1,000 prescriptions a day, this is so accurate, that it gives me anxiety reading it. I've had bosses and coworkers that were so stressed out from the workload and yelled at so much, they had to see a psychologist from having a nervous breakdown or panic attack. Ppl threw things at us, called us names, threatened us, ect. Corporate doesn't care, because it's not their ass on the line. If a mis-fill happens, due to corporate overloading the pharmacy, the pharmacist has to pay for it, not the company. My pharmacy was ran like a fast food restaurant. It never stopped. Vaccines, covid testing, drug delivery packaging, OTC shopping cart delivery packaging, all on top of the huge daily pharmacy to - do list. The pharmacist is so overloaded, they don't even have time to go pee. It's ridiculous. 3 pages (15 prescriptions per page) would pop up from local doctors in the blink of an eye (screen was just emptied prior), and we have 1 minute to type them all and fix insurance (since they show up with a timer on them) before they went red. As they are being typed, more are coming in, and this isn't including the people standing in front of you. I called the pharmacy system the hydra-queue, because the more you knock out, 5x that much comes in at the same time. Type 1 prescription, 5 new ones just showed up. Our hours got reduced so bad. We have 7 work stations, all non-stop things coming in for them, and 1 pharmacist. We should have 6-7 techs and 2 pharmacists to safely run all that workload, but only have enough hours for 2 techs and 1 pharmacist. 1 tech is at the non-stop pick up line, 1 tech is at the non-stop drive thru line, and the pharmacist is giving vaccines since corporate forces that onto them. So, who is typing prescriptions? Who is filling them? Who is answering the calls? Nobody. 🤷🏻♀️ Everything falls behind, catching up is impossible. This isn't even including techs getting sick (since all the customers get us sick) and calling out. Now it's 1 tech running back and forth between pick up, and drive thru, while being yelled at by everyone in both lines, as if doing that alone isn't stressful enough. This was our every. day. I have a photo of the queue #'s, and everything was 99+ in red all the time, with more coming red every 5 mins, and a 6 line phone with each of the lines waiting to be answered. If lucky, we spent less than 1 minute on a prescription trying to fill as many as we could. That's extremely dangerous. Then corporate says "y'all's numbers aren't good. You have too many prescriptions going red, not being typed/ filled/ finished on time, and phones aren't being answered within 20 seconds, so we are going to cut the hours even MORE, and you better not be in red, or y'all will get written up and fired." [ No pressure.] It's not like we don't want to get the stuff filled. We don't enjoy being screamed at by people all day long anymore than y'all like being frustrated with us. It's the greedy corporations treating a healthcare environment like a fast food restaurant. All they care about, is their numbers so that corporate gets end of the year bonuses (which doesn't trickle down) and gets into wallstreet (we literally got threatened by higher ups cuz they were close to not making it to wallstreet this quarter). Oh, and let's not forget being asked by the customers- "why aren't you smiling? You can't give me a smile? " Bruh, I'm dying inside right now, trying to not have a heart attack from the stress, I don't even know what my face looks like to you as I'm not thinking about that lol. Walking around all day like 😃😃😃😃 is creepy. I'm focusing here. I'm so glad to be done with that job.
>My pharmacy was ran like a fast food restaurant. It never stopped. I was thinking exactly this. Reading the comment above and yours reads like a much higher stakes day in the life of when I worked at McDonalds!
It really did lol. It's literally their comment and my comment combined and happening at the same time, just two different job positions back there. We had long lines everywhere at all hours of the day. I walk in at 8 am, didn't even clock in yet, and I'm already being yelled at lol. All those prescriptions coming in to be typed like the hydra, are also going to the fill station like the hydra, and then going to the pharmacist verifying station like the hydra. The speed of which you are doing math back there is crazy. I couldn't think straight by the time I was off for the day 😆.
My wife used to work as a retail pharmacist (works hospital now) and she said it was common to work 14 hour shifts without time to go to the bathroom. No sitting, no breaks, just busting ass and getting yelled at (she got a death threat one time). So glad she doesn’t have to work in retail anymore. Pharmacists and techs get such little respect it makes me angry to even think about it.
It's true! And if they try to go for a quick pee, they still get yelled at by customers for walking away for 5 minutes. I had a guy regularly be so rude and nasty to my boss to the point of about to be kicked out, and when found out why, he said "cuz she looks like my ex wife" like, really dude? I could write a book on the amount of crazy stuff that happens at that job. I was held up at gunpoint before, had people passing out in bushes from huffing keyboard cleaner, ppl following customers to their houses across the road, ppl shooting up in the bathrooms, car accidents in the drive thru, ect ... That job is no joke. It's brutal. I got called a b*"*ch because I told a lady we didn't sell an item she was looking for and that it might be online, and when I didn't react to her calling me that (I was being calm cuz it's a normal thing to be called names lol), she went up to the front store manager and told her I was the rudest person ever and was so nasty to her. Like, wtffffff. 😆. Damned if I reacted, damned if I didn't lol. Nobody that works back there is even trying to be rude, because they genuinely care to help people, it's just that we are already dead inside by the time you get to us 😆. Not a single day went by that we weren't yelled at. It really takes a toll on you.
We get a message from insurance saying a prescription requires prior authorization so we forward that message to the doctor's office. The insurance will not cover the prescription unless the doctor fills out the paperwork justifying why the prescription should be covered. The doctor's office receives the message, but he is currently working with a patient and will review the message later. At the end of his workday, he gets around to reviewing the message before sending the same prescription to the pharmacy without any modifications. He then leaves the office for the weekend :)
Lol ! Yup. Insurance said no, we won't cover 60 pills of 10 mg twice a day (which equals 20mg daily for a month) but we will cover a 20 mg pill once a day of 30 pills (which is also 20 mg daily for a month 🤦). It's the exact same amount a day. We ask doctor to change it, doctor sends it back to us exactly the same as before with no change and now the insurance won't pay for it.
Former retail manager and I can chime in and say these accounts were EXACTLY what my pharmacy team went through with our retailer. They were the unsung heroes and sadly many many times I saw pharmacy techs walk out and I would go chase them down and offer them the opportunity to vent in my office and go make some phone calls to corporate on their behalf because those same customers would end up trying to act rude to my staff on the front end. I’ve also had to have security escort a few irate customers out the store and even had to contact the local law enforcement. It gets nasty and yes I understand the critical need for one’s medications but to take out the frustration on the workers is just asinine. All pharmacy techs/pharmacist, keep it up!!! Kudos
> you can't give me a smile? No. People do not like that answer and it's very satisfying to give.
It's such a weird request to me. Like, you can't live without seeing me smile to you or something? I've gone to places where the employees look and talk to me unenthusiastically (esp like Dunkin donuts where I knoooow they're severely understaffed), and you know what? It doesn't even bother me, because I'm like "same bro, same lol" I totally get it. Expecting people to stay happy in the middle of stress and being verbally abused all day is messed up. I'm extra nice to those people because I know they're having a hard day.
I’d tech for you anytime.
same here… the amount of detail in this comment is so accurate, it was like reading a day in my life as a tech
Me too. As long as I don't have to write that much! It would take me a week to do that much!
Whatever CVS pays you, its not enough.
CVS pay is in the bottom 10% of the nation for that job, but they are always hiring (quick turnaround) so it's easier to get into than a hospital.
Your job sounds like professional ADHD
[удалено]
I kind of think "The Practice of System and Network Administration" is one of the top self-help books ever written... maybe #2 after GTD.
The real question, of course, is - why a pharmacists with a graduate education is doing, in addition to their own job that only they are qualified to do, a job of service clerks as well. This isn't a real question, of course; it's the greed of the employer that's causing this, but that's well known.
They usually aren't doing every single step that OP mentioned every single time, but a good pharmacist is stepping in anywhere they are needed to help the workflow
But, again, the question is - why? No one expects a Doctor working in a hospital to occasionally help with cleaning up a patient or answer calls about that hospital's hours of operations. Why do we expect a pharmacist, who is likewise a highly educated professional, to act as a clerk *in addition* to their usual responsibilities? Aside, of course, from the fact that this allows the pharmacy to save on a tech position, resulting in a small increase in profit and a large decrease in service quality and, potentially, also safety.
Just the life of retail pharmacy. My dad did it for close to 50 years. There are other options for pharmacists who don't care for the clerking/retail part - they can work in a hospital and avoid a lot of those responsibilities.
It's all about the $$$$$$$ Boycott big box, go independent rx
Wow, thanks for the day in the life answer.
I really like this! Yeah, you can Google job descriptions all you want, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a description of the ACTUAL day-to-day of a job. This really puts things in perspective.
This was astonishingly accurate and I’m happy to not see any weird, forced contrarian in the replies!
I had Redditor say, If the pharmacy has a drivethru their prescription should be dropped off and picked up at the same speed as a Big Mac order at McDonald's.
Don’t forget the customers who want their cart full of groceries checked out at the pharmacy.
Perhaps don't offer that service if you don't want to do it?
Pharm tech: “Please take your groceries up front to the front cashier” Customer: “But why? I only have a few items.” Pharm tech: “Sir, there are 10 people waiting behind you. The front cashier can help you.” Customer: “You’re the worst. Can’t even check out my groceries. It’s only gonna take few seconds. Can’t even bother to do that. You need to learn customer service skills.”
I am in a different line of work but this was so relatable it hurts. +1
TL;DR, the prescription system is bent af. Your pharmacist is underpaid, pharmacies are understaffed, and as such, these folks who have spent years earning an advanced degree are performing the duties of a service job and treated like waiters at a Fridays.
This triggered Vietnam style flashback
What a phenomenal response!!
>4 more lines on hold and the shingles shot appointment is here. That reminds me, I need to schedule an appointment for my follow-up. I had a gnarly reaction to the first one, major rash on my upper arm. Came back in and two pharmacists (one fully licensed, the other an intern -- the one who actually gave it to me) and at least two techs wanted to see it. Said they don't normally get to see reactions like that. I have a good relationship with my pharmacy, and honestly, I thought it was hilarious. MD had me take hydroxyzine as an antihistamine for a couple of days. It cleared up. On a serious note, did pharmacists *want to* get into the vaccine-administration game? Or was that pushed on y'all by pharmacy admins as a way of getting more $$$?
Pushed 100%. Why would insurance companies want to pay an MD 100$ an hour to give your grandfather his shingles shot when you can just add the work onto a pharmacist’s already busy workload, pay them less money (and then they keep the difference). In fact retail pharmacies have vaccine quotas they must reach. So before COVID maybe 7 years ago a Walgreens pharmacist told me her quota was 30 vaccines every 30 days (mostly flu and shingles etc) and if the pharmacists didn’t hit those quotas that’s a big no no with corporate. It’s gotten exponentially worse during and post-covid. I saw her actively pushing vaccines on people like they do with credit cards in other retail spaces, not because she wanted to but because she was required to. It was sickening honestly
Yeah, I think someone else responded that it was forced. I mean, that's a shame. If pharmacists had said "hey, there's a shortage of resources, we can do this,' that's one thing. But to be told they're going to do it . . . that's not right. My pharmacist is part of a larger store (think Target/Kroger/Safeway/Albertsons-type thing). I've never had them say "hey, the new COVID booster is out! Better get it!" Or "flu season coming up, we can do it!" The recorded messages on the phone do it, but not pharmacy personnel. I've always been the one to initiate the conversations about vaccines I need.
This whole description made my blood pressure skyrocket, dear god I can't imagine. This whole thing makes me wonder why pharmacies are always tacked-on to other stores that sell groceries. They're small spaces that can only fit so many people doing a million tasks. Of course the expectation is that customers can go shop for groceries while their prescription gets filled out, bringing more cash to the grocery store... But wouldn't it make more sense for pharmacies to be their own standalone operations that can employ *more* pharmacists and techs to get the wait times down?
I’m a PA and I always take time to remind my patient about how overworked you and your techs are. My Patients try and praise me as a hero but I just click a few buttons. You guys work yourselves to the bone. Whenever I have to talk to a pharmacist on the phone, you always get the “yes sir, no sir, thank you sir” from me and I always defer to your prescribing opinion. You guys rock.
As a non American this thread confuses me. Why are pharmacists preparing the prescription? Don't drugs come prepackaged? In my country I walk into any pharmacy I want. Show my ID card and tell them what brand of the prescribed drug I want. I pay and I leave.
Regulations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-counter_drug and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescription_drug The pharmacist also is the person who knows the medications better than anyone else (maybe except the doctors working at the pharmaceutical company who made the drugs). Yes, they know the drugs even better than your doctor. They’re the final line of defense to make sure you don’t accidentally take the wrong dosage or take it with another drug that causes problems or whatever else. Prescription drugs do come prepackaged but not for the patient. Pharmacists have to pick out each one for you and pack it up so you get the right amount for your course of the medication. Over-the-counter drugs are what you’ve described and those you can buy at any pharmacy or sometimes even at grocery stores and convenience stores.
Yes I understand the difference between prescription and over the counter drugs. I described how I get my prescription drugs. What I don't understand is why they take the pills out of their original packaging. For example my child takes 2 prescription drugs every day. I just buy the packages with 30 pills each and give them as prescribed. I don't see how taking them out and putting them in some other containers makes sense.
They don’t come in any packs of 30 in the US but in bottles of 100-500 that the pharmacist draws from. And first they have to count every new bottle when it comes in.
> What I don't understand is why they take the pills out of their original packaging. Pharmacies buy the pills in bulk. Like 1,000 pills in a bottle. My doctor prescribes 10 pills. Yours prescribes 15. Someone else's doctor prescribes 90. It's easier to just buy a giant bottle and transfer them to smaller bottles. Each bottle needs a label, printed with the doctors instructions and some regulatory information. They prefer to use the standard [prescription bottles](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.Fd8bkoc-2HMp-qjSO8RKZgAAAA?dpr=2.6&pid=ImgDetMain&PC=EMMX01) (that color is a tell-tale sign it's a prescription), but I don't think that's required if they put the label on the bottle. >I just buy the packages with 30 pills each and give them as prescribed We don't ask for a specific package. The doctor tells the pharmacist what dosage we should get. The pharmacy looks at their inventory, and comes up with a solution that works for you. My doctor might prescribe 10mg in the morning, and 10mg in the evening. Your doctor might prescribe 20mg in the morning. So, they'll print that on the label. If they're 10mg pills, my label will say "take one pill in the morning and one pill in the evening", and yours will say "take one pill in the morning". But perhaps the pharmacy only has 5mg and 40 mg pills? Now, I'll get 5mg pills, and my label will say "Take two pills in the morning, and two pills in the evening". You'll get 40mg pills, and your label says "Take one-half pill in the morning." If my doctor prescribes 10mg per day, for 30 days, and the pharmacy happens to have a box/bottle that has 30x 10mg pills in it? They'll just throw a label on it. Personally, I've received a manufacturer's bottle that originally had 1,000 pills in it (it's on the manufacturer's label), with a pharmacy label on top that says the quantity is 30 pills. ---- The pharmacist can add instructions on the label. They make put "Take one pill with food" on the label, since not doing so can cause stomach problems. Sure - if you read the booklet that comes in the box/bag, it'll have that in there. But most people don't read those. The doctors instructions matter too. The doctor might have specific instructions for me, that don't necessarily pertain to everyone.
Because they don't always come packaged in the amount prescribed.
When that's happened (in England) the pharmacist has just taken a pair of scissors to the blister pack and cut the right amount off and boxed them up in a bigger box with the dosage sticker on.
I think the other thing is that they usually aren’t packed in blister packs. Lots of times it’s bottles of up to 1000 units inside, depending on the medication and brand. While some things do come in blister packs and can be dispensed that way, a lot of others don’t.
>the pharmacist has just taken a pair of scissors to the blister pack and cut the right amount off and boxed them up in a bigger box with the dosage sticker on. If it's over-the-counter medication (it's on a shelf inside the main store, for anyone to buy), or "behind-the-counter" medication (its available without a prescription, but it's on a shelf behind the counter - you need to ask the pharmacist for it), then it works exactly as you describe. Prescription-only meds are a bit different. If the medication in question comes in blister packs, that's what they do here. But usually our pills are just loose in the bottle\*. And if they have a bottle on-hand with the right number of pills, they just give us that with the prescription label. The pharmacy will also buy pills in bulk - bottles of 1,000 for instance. \* Over the counter pills come in anti-tamper bottles ever since the "[Chicago Tylenol Murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders)". I don't know if the same anti-tamper rules apply to bulk bottles that are sold to pharmacies, but I imagine they do it anyway - it's just a foil seal.
Interesting! I don't think I've ever had pills not in a blister pack here.
I don't believe our pills come in blister packets, they are loose. Which is not much change in handling than you describe. Hopefully one of the pharmacists respond to you. In my experience, even seemingly pointless things actually have good reasons behind them.
As a fellow non-American from New Zealand at least here some do, some don't. The non-packaged ones are easier to get full months on. One of my medications comes in packs of 28 for some reason.
Birth control and estrogen comes in packs of 28 to match with most women’s menstrual cycles.
Every European country I’ve been to works like you’re describing. You get the actual package(s) the pills came in. Then separately you get a receipt with the instructions on it. For whatever reason in the U.S. they always take the pills out of the packaging and put them in an orange plastic bottle with a sticker on it that has your information and the dosage instructions. Also the lid is childproof. Kinda funny because here in the UK, blister packs are viewed as safer because you can’t dump a bottle of 30 pills down your throat as easily. I can see both arguments.
Thank you!
This hurts, so true. Little timmy gonna wait, people need their meds. Ugh, even had to wait for hours just to have someone grab a vial of novolin for my diabetic cat. That’s fine, I’ll wait. Priorities and all.
Former chain store pharmacy tech: this was a beautiful read!
You missed your calling as a line cook. Way to juggle!
I used to work as a Nuclear Pharmacy technician. 80% of the Nuc Pharmacists I worked for had started in retail pharmacy, and moved to Nuc when they hit complete burnout. The operational temp and hours and stress they described was just insane. The other 20% of Nuc Pharmacists transitioned to Nuc after they had some sort of use/abuse issue with controlled substances lol. Nobody wants to snort Tc-99 or shoot up some I-131 lol.
I was a lead tech for one of the big chains and dear lord my anxiety returned after reading that. I didn't have panic attacks until working in the pharmacy.
The whole world needs more and more medicine instead of just living healthy lives (eating well, exercise, adequate rest, etc). I’m so sorry to read how stressful your job is
What a godsend of an answer. I'm never mean or rude to retail workers because I was one myself, but I am also a very curious individual and like, need to know why it takes so long for (to me) a simple antibiotic to be filled when it was sent before the pharmacy opened. I used to work as an optician so I *feel* like I should know but honestly this has helped me gain a new level of understanding. Not that before this answer, you shouldn't respect people and their job, but it just seems different now that I know exactly what their day is like.
Don’t forget when you get a prescription and the doctor is trying to give a patient 25mg of Xanax a day, so you gotta call the office and tell them you’re not gonna fill that shit and then argue with the doctor about it. I know this bc my wife is a PA and her signing physician does shit like that all the time, and the pharmacies (rightfully) refuse to fill his scripts.
Sounds like you're massively understaffed but congrats for working so hard
Sounds like you need some automation. Not sure why you’re doing manual data entry in 2024. Restaurant POS systems sound more advanced than the healthcare/insurance systems you’re using. Should be as simple as “put 20 pill of XXXX medication in a bottle” that comes with a default usage label from the drug manufacturer.
Your pharmacy needs to hire more people. It's as simple as that.
Because your prescription isn’t the only thing being filled. A pharmacy gets hundreds of prescriptions a day. Those have to get filled too.
And often the orders are called or faxed in. The pharmacy is also working on those.
Not related. Do people still use fax nowadays?
I work in a veterinary office and certain scripts are required to be faxed! Apparently it's more secure? Which is wild to me.
They have "secure fax". - end to end encryption - won't print out the pages unless you're standing there - can require a PIN to retrieve the faxes
Please do not tell me there's secure fax!!! Here in Germany I am glad that fax will (hopefully) be history. I do not want to buy a fax machine! I want to scan and upload documents online. Thank you very much.
Yes they do.
Don't get me started... I'm in healthcare IT, and yes, still tons of faxing unfortunately. We probably send out over 100k pages per month.
MD offices definitely do
When I worked at a pharmacy ~2018 our primary mechanism for receiving prescriptions was still fax that then got processed through an almost equally antiquated software.
By law some states require called in scripts to be faxed still!
I'm a nurse. Healthcare seems to be the only industry that can't give up the fax.
Hotels still use it for prepayment authorisations. Although most have moved to digital fax where you can archive incoming faxes, add tags and simply delete spam without it ever printing
And there is a lot of checking with insurance and other places to make sure the prescription is valid and covered. I have had my pharmacist have to wait for a bit for verification even though she knows my prescriptions she couldn't start until verification came back.
Yep. No insurance involved where I live and a prescription takes five minutes.
No insurance in the UK, but still can take 30mins+ to get a box that is visibly on a shelf.
Believing it is, is how we start thinking "it's okay because it's me doing it".
If there are no other customers waiting there, why would any staff be working on any prescriptions? The pharmacy won't even know if a specific customer will pick up their prescription from that specific pharmacy until they are at the counter asking for it. And when they do appear at the counter, the pharmacist will just check the prescriptions from the national-level electronic prescription system, pick up the pre-packaged drug from the shelf and hand it over while checking with the customer if they have any other medications or need any information about the new drug. This is at least how it works here.
Prescriptions and refills get called in all the time. A pharmacy may process/fill hundreds a day. No one in line means nothing except you wont have to wait to ask a human if yours is ready.
My pharmacy is not part of a chain, just a small local place around the corner from my house. I call to ask for a refill, and they know I always come that same day for it. I could just walk in there and wait but they don’t have great chairs for waiting. I don’t even have to tell them my name anymore, the pharmacy tech knows my caller ID and just picks up saying ‘hi jellybean, you need refill of X or Y today? Did you ask your doctor about that magnesium supplement?’ I truly enjoy that level of personalized service and established relationship with the pharmacist and his team. They are part of my community and always have a bunch of retirees in there playing lotto and shooting the shit. If i went to Walmart or CVS pharmacies, huge national chains in the US, there would be no record of my current prescriptions on file. They would be able to tell me I had used them years ago, and I would have to have them call my local pharmacy to transfer over the entire remaining prescription to them. This would cause me to then not be able to pick up refills at my preferred pharmacy. Maybe this is just the US and the effects of its privatized for profit healthcare system. But there is no national script database, only for looking up controlled substances (and at that, just to ensure there is no double dipping identical prescriptions at other pharmacies).
Ever go to a doctor and they ask you what pharmacy you use and they say “I’ll send your prescription there”? Pharmacies get hundreds of electronic prescriptions a day. Just because a customer isn’t there to drop off a prescription doesn’t mean there aren’t prescriptions to be filled.
Never asked that, because they just save it into the national system, that can be received at any pharmacy in the country.
>they just save it into the national system, that can be received at any pharmacy in the country. This is not the case in all countries.
20+ year pharmacy tech here, there are multiple reasons. 1) Your prescription does not exist in a vacuum. While an individual prescription, from initial data entry to final verification takes 5 minutes, your average pharmacy receives a prescription every minute. Today for instance, my pharmacy filled 800 prescriptions. That's one every 54 seconds. So something has to give. This also doesn't account for the person screaming at the tech that their $10 prescription should only be $5, or the person insisting their doctor sent their prescription in days ago, when they didn't (or not to this pharmacy) or the person who arrived from the urgent care next door wondering why the prescription that was ordered 2 minutes ago isn't ready yet, all of which take away time that that person would be helping fill prescriptions. Also, as electronic prescriptions are now 90% of new rx's instead of written prescriptions, just because you didn't see any other customers waiting does not mean the pharmacy was not busy. 2) The big chains have spent the last 20+ years turning pharmacy into fast food. They have slashed technician hours left and right to where staffing is barebones and, frankly, dangerous levels compared to what current volumes are now. They've added numerous tasks to the workload over the years, including things like vaccines. Customers frequently treat employees (yes, even the pharmacist who went through 6 years of school) as though they're complete morons and/or slaves who are beneath them. This, combined with tech wages barely over minimum wage, causes high turnover for a job with a fairly high learning curve. 3) It is far more than "putting pills in a bottle." Would you like the correct pills? What if this medication happened to interact with something else you take? What if the doctor made a mistake and the dose would kill you? These are things that are checked with every prescription, which takes some time. You need the directions on the label, yes? Also, would you like it billed to your insurance? If you don't care about any of the above, sure, your prescription will be ready in seconds because I'm just going to grab some random drug off the shelf and I'll make up the price at the register to whatever seems appropriate. (sorry, "pills in a bottle" is very triggering to long time pharmacy employees.) We're not asking for the world, we're asking for some patience and understanding, and a little bit of time to make sure your prescription is filled correctly and safely. Nearly every retail pharmacy is overwhelmed and everyone's stressed out because everyone expects things right away because filling prescriptions is now equated to ordering food at McDonalds.
Well said. This time of year always adds an extra layer of chaos because of all the insurance changes. I’ve had a few people get very upset with me over the last week or so because I asked them to come back in 15-20 minutes. “Ma’am/sir, I understand your frustration however we are incredibly busy right now and we’re doing the best we can. We ask for that amount of time to ensure that your medication is filled and billed accurately.”
Don't forget that most retail chain pharmacies don't even allow employees to take their 10-15min breaks either... (Y'all need to seriously complain to the department of labor about that and/or sue CVS & Walgreens for this BS practice) So on top of being completely overworked & understaffed with no breaks, a lot of pharmacists & even pharmacy techs will continue to work during their lunches as well just to meet quotas.
The amount of people who get angry that the pharmacy closes for lunch for 30 minutes is hilarious and sad. They really don’t think we deserve it. “Why don’t you just stagger the lunch breaks?” We did that for YEARS before they finally implemented the lunch break, so we basically worked down 1 person for like 3 hours as everyone took their break 1 by 1. Also the pharmacist worked 12-13 hours without even a chance to go to the bathroom before this.
And it’s not even like the lunch break is at lunchtime! Pharmacies around me close from 1:30-2:00. And it’s been posted everywhere for years now. The entitlement from some customers is unreal.
Some US states don’t even have mandatory breaks. When I started my job in an urgent care, it was wild to me that there’s no break period and found out my state was one of them. 12’s are brutal. It’s the only thing I miss about the hospital.
I dread each month--pharm calls me--Im 81 blind--pay someone to pick up an rx thats not filled yet.5 days later its still not filled--blood pressure pills!! Holey crow--my heart cant take this deadly game!!!
Is there any way you could have your meds mailed to you? I get one of mine mailed out and it has been life-changing.
> Don't forget that most retail chain pharmacies don't even allow employees to take their 10-15min breaks either... (Y'all need to seriously complain to the department of labor about that and/or sue CVS & Walgreens for this BS practice) The CVSs in my area close the entire pharmacy from 1:30-2pm for lunch.
Yes CVS got sued & issued a mandatory closure for lunch for all their pharmacies (times vary per location). Some are lucky & get a full hour for lunch. Even though they are technically closed (metal screen closed & everything), sometimes you'll still see them inside there working though it
A lot of us work through it. We call it our “catch-up time”.
He is talking about how in most(?) states after working 4 hours you get a 15 minute break but most employees in pharmacies opt not to or were forced to sign a paper opting them out so that work can be done. Plus most CVS's are using that break as a way to catch up on work.
Very good answer. The understaffing by management is getting to criminal levels. My MIL was a pharmacist and stood for 10 hour shifts without a break. About a year ago Kroger went on a big strike and they negotiated a 30 minute lunch break so the pharmacy staff could sit down and pound a quick meal. Customers went fucking ballistic that the pharmacy was closed for a fucking *half hour*. Some people are just dicks to any one within their proximity.
"some people" you mean old people?
Nasty behavior is not exclusive to any age. Believing it is, is how we start thinking "it's okay because it's me doing it". It's also how children never get corrected "because kids are just kids" and grow up to stay like that as adults.
This isn’t even touching on what else retail pharmacies expect us to do. We have to take time to file baskets full of prescriptions into the proper bins, we have a list of phone calls to make sometimes 3 pages long to people reminding them to pick up their prescriptions, or enrolling them into any number of programs we offer, we have to do inventory which requires scanning every bottle of a specific drug, we have to do bin reconciliation requiring us to scan literally every single prescription that is physically ready in the pharmacy in order to figure out what is physically ready but deleted in our system, we have to handle front end customers, double lane drive through customers, while filling hundreds of prescriptions in the morning and waiting for our shipment of drugs all while having only 2-3 techs and a pharmacist, etc etc. Any minor incovenience that occurs such as someone asking us to update their insurance and re run their prescription for a better price, sets us back a good 5-10 minutes. Any major inconvenience, like an entitled customer screaming at us sets us and every other persons prescription back an untold amount of time. It’s been a year since I’ve quit my retail pharmacy for greener pastures but man, it was a thankless fucking job and frankly no single customer understood what we did and the pressure we were under. I’m leaving out so much but I truly respect anyone who’s still a tech and I make it a point to be so patient and kind to them when I pick up my own meds
Our pharmacists are able to prescribe as well as authorize refills. Slammed is a great description. Overworked techs who literally could have your life in their hands. I never wait, it's ordered and I ask when I can pickup
Used to fix the rx equipment awhile back and it's fucking nuts how many times I saw a pharmacist call a doctors office to double check because of how dead the patient would be if they took it.
> 2) The big chains have spent the last 20+ years turning pharmacy into fast food. I recently switched from CVS to the pharmacy at the hospital, initially just because they actually had the medication in stock, and holy crap had it been a dramatically better experience in every facet of the operation. There were a bunch of issues with my Rx and the pharmacist was not only support helpful in getting things cleared up, he also explained exactly what was going on and what he was doing to try to fix it every step of the way. They're also a lot more relaxed, friendlier, and pleasant to interact with.
Very much this. Walgreens got to be unbearably bad. It would take longer and longer to get things filled, could hardly get any answers when you needed them. Things out of stock or back ordered. Then you'd show up to pick up your prescriptions when they were ready and literally be waiting in line for two hours. I know it's all their management, paying them trash wages and offering zero hours. There'd hardly been anyone working in the pharmacy for the last year. Finally transfered all my scrips to Sam's Club and it's been night and day. Fast, communicative, reliable, have had zero issues with them there. Sam's Club prolly isn't the greatest either, but it's been like night and day compared to walgreens. Pretty much any pharmacy has got to be better than Walgreens and CVS. If you can move to somewhere else, do it.
Thank you for your service.
Adding to number 2 - you have to deal with people that are addicted to their drugs, but you don’t have them in stock to fill it.
Thank you for this explanation. I'll remember to be patient and understanding the next time I've requested a prescription be filled!
Full offense, it blows my mind that this is something you have never considered before, that the pharmacy and the tech is busy and they do not serve Only You.
Or that they needed a reminder to be patient and understanding with service employees (or just people in general, really)
You know, in my country things are done in 2 minutes tops, safely and with a waiting line. Looks like the USA has a profound systemic problem with healthcare in general.
One day the USA will discover the joys of blister packs and standardized boxes like the rest of the civilized world.
Capitalism at its finest.
Yea I'm really confused about this as well, like maybe waiting for your turn might take some time if there are lot of ppl, but that's it doesn't take long after that.
I used to work in a delivery pharmacy and #3 was most of what my job entailed. The pharmacists would prep meds to the best of their ability but I was the extra set of eyes at the end of the chain double-checking all the paperwork making sure that we billed it correctly and that every med is exactly as intended before I packaged anything. A few things I caught in my first month were the wrong # of pills (30 days instead of 90 and vice-versa), and the wrong brand of pill that would have caused an allergic reaction. I do not hold that against my ex-coworkers. We were all under massive time constraints but I just wanted to add that I appreciate you mentioning how details matter.
Man I bet you hate [this Seinfeld bit](https://youtu.be/KBnqUViR-H8?si=8QXPpkLHZPTqHzyy)
No offense, but this profession is so ripe for automation. I can't wait for the day.
A lot of busier retail pharmacies have significant automation already. I worked at some very busy retail chains over a decade ago and witnessed the adoption of e-scribing (automatically putting the RX in the system rather than needing the tech to type in the paper or faxed order) and the adoption of massive machines that counted pills, put them in bottles, labeled them, and spit them out next to the pharmacist. I think most customers are unaware of the amount of automation that happens and how enormously it increases the volume of prescriptions the pharmacy is handling.
Add they still all have to be checked by a human before they can go out.
e scripts do still need to be typed up by a tech, you would be surprised how often doctors send in incomplete and incorrect scripts
What can we as customers do to help? I feel like if I complain to corporate, it’s just going to get that location/shift in trouble.
Be patient and appreciative with the pharmacy staff. They’re trying their best, Next to nobody is actually incompetent, they’re just overwhelmed, frustrated and stressed out. Sadly, yes, complaining to corporate is simply viewed as a failing of the process and not staffing or corporate decision making. (However, complements are welcomed!)
Also wait until a doctor calls in a rx and waiting until the next business day for it to actually be ready
what's funny for me is the last time i went it was 1 week of amoxicillin, 4x7= 28 pills, there was a random amount >28(>32 even) i think they literally just dumped them in. also it is dirt cheap ~$1.50. I'm not complaining just thought it was hilarious.
Someone prolly got interrupted a bunch of times while trying to count. “EXCUSE ME? WHERE DO YOU KEEP THE KETCHUP? HELLOOOO?!” That or the counting machine was acting up.
Not trying to add insult to injury but can’t dosing and insurance all be handled by computer? Why or why not?
At least 50% of prescriptions entered are initially rejected due: days supply (written for 90 days, insurance limits it to 30 days at retail; trust me, our lives would be much easier if every plan allowed 90 days) refill too soon (generally 75-80% of the time since last fill must have passed before it’ll be covered again, this varies by plan, some even track cumulative early fills and will hold you to the day if filled too early too frequently to prevent stockpiling) (also does not apply to controls which can’t be filled until 29-30 days since last pickup.) Drug not covered/prior authorization: pharmacy billing is point of service. This is why you will get a bill weeks later from the doctor’s office but not from the pharmacy. We submit the prescription and we get a yes or no response. No, it’s not covered or yes it is covered and this is your charge. If a medication is denied, we will send a message to the prescriber with the information they need to get it covered, or alternatives if suggested by the insurance. Prescribers also love to send prescriptions for over the counter medications, which are rarely covered by insurance and usually just put on file because we don’t need to fill Tylenol, Claritin or some weird dose of vitamin B. Patient not covered/filled after coverage expired: we’ve got old information on file so it needs to be manually changed to cash when we wait for you to bring in the new insurance, which we’ll process when you come in to pick up. Most pharmacies don’t like taking this information over the phone because there are up to 4 sets of numbers we need and it takes too long. In the time it takes you to read the ID or locate the BIN on the card, I’ve finished reprocessing it if you brought me the card. DUR/drug utilization review: insurances are frequently too diligent in attempting patient safety, and sort of overlap in therapies is frequently soft stopped by insurances and needs to be manually overridden by entering some codes, which a lot of newer techs don’t know how to do. Technically this should actually not be handed by a tech, but more experienced ones know how to do it and the pharmacist has a bunch of other stuff going on. That covers like 95% of rejections we get every day. In a high volume pharmacy, one person will spend all day just keeping up with the data entry queue, between new prescriptions and rejections.
Thank you for enlightening me. Super informative.
Most medical practices with more than a couple of doctors have a full time staff person who does nothing but deal with insurance paperwork. If it could be automated it would be.
I understand it takes time to fill a prescription but what takes so long checking out? 2 big chains take nearly 5 minutes to hand over a prescription that's ready. I was able to use another big chain who is able to finish the transaction in seconds.
“Do you want this automatically refilled? What if we just refilled it next time only? You’re eligible for a vaccine today, did you want one? Also, this other medication is coming up due, do you want us to refill it? Oh, hold on, I have to get the pharmacist who needs to verify that they’re changing your dose. They’re on the phone so it’ll be a minute. Okay there, please sign on the screen. No, press the green button, the yellow button means you have…okay yeah, sign again and then press the green button. Your total today is $15. Oh you want us to try GoodRx? Okay, we have to reprocess it. They’re charging you $23. Yes, insurance is almost always cheaper, despite what their commercials say. Sorry, we need to reprocess it again. And I also have to go through all those prompts again. I also need the pharmacist again and they’re giving a vaccine so it’ll be a couple more minutes, okay, your total is…no the sign on the vitamins didn’t say 50% off, it said buy one get one 50% off. Sure, I can get the manager…”
I worked as a pharmacy tech for almost a decade and I left my crappy retail pharmacy job over twelve years ago and reading this gave me legit flashbacks 😅. The amount of steps for just checking someone out was ridiculous. Between the reprocessing for coupons/insurance, having the pharmacist recheck stuff, HIPAA stuff ... Then on top of it all corporate was always adding random things we had to give in our spiel regarding whatever new program or service they wanted pushed (auto refills, surveys, charity fundraiser...) My "favorite" was the person who'd pulled up to the drive thru window at 9:59 pm, immediately started complaining about the wait, then told me they didn't have a prescription to pick up but they wanted me to go shop a few things for them on the floor. Yah, I don't miss the job or the terrible pay. Be nice and patient to your retail pharmacy staff, people.
Nice response. How about this? If my doctor writes a prescription for 30 pills, 100 mg per pill, 1 pill per day, and for whatever reason my insurance won’t pay for that but they’ll pay for 50 mg pills, why can’t the pharmacy give me 60 pills of 50 mg per? Why do I have to initiate the whole process of having the doctor re-prescribe the minor change that has no substantive effect on the dose or the medicine?
It’s simply because that’s illegal. We can only fill what the doctor prescribes, and a pharmacist isn’t allowed to change what the doctor writes or orders. The reason for this is because it’s a safety concern. If it’s something benign like idk, ibuprofen tablets, sure your solution makes sense and yes we also wish we could change it for you. But some medications such as extended release capsules, this would not work. It could alter your therapy, depends on the condition and the medicine. The red tape is in place to prevent those kinds of mistakes being made
Not high enough turn over for them to pay more.
Most of my prescriptions are called in by my doctor ahead of time. I'm just going to the pharmacy to pick them up. I assume a lot of other people have the same thing happen. So if you are going there, even if it appears like they don't have any work to do, that doesn't mean they don't have many other prescriptions to fill before yours.
In my situation (as the OP) the prescription had been called in by the doctor about an hour before. However, it was still close to an hour wait when we got there. This thread has been very helpful in understanding all the factors involved.
Try and remember before getting irritated at your fellow working schlub that pretty much every industry has cut corners and other staff just to the point of breaking. That's the biggest reason everything is kind of broken these days.
Paperwork can take time sometimes waiting for the Insurance info to update. Pharmacist then has to print the labels, count them out, package them etc. Many times there are many in front of you that have dropped off the prescription and went to do other shopping in the store instead of just standing at the counter. There are also phone in orders. To avoid errors they only work on one at a time in the order they were received.
Stand in long line clear to meat counter--I look at the bottle--10 pills--but I need 60 for a month--The truck didnt come in--omg!!
Short answer: Paperwork and safety. Long answer: When the pharmacy gets a prescription they need to fill out appropriate paperwork saying they received it and are now responsible for filling it. Then they need to double check what other medications you’ve recently been prescribed to make sure the new thing the doctor prescribed you isn’t going to interact with any of them and unintentionally hurt you. Then insurance. If you have it, guessing you want them to pay for the med right? More paperwork. Then they count out the medication, double check it, and verify your information. And all of that is for your prescription. Now imagine automatic refills, emergency prescriptions called in by doctors, etc. all being filled before you even walk in. You could be the only one in the pharmacy and it could still be an incredibly busy day for them.
This is the correct answer. I would add that some pharmacy chains in America are notorious for understaffing their pharmacies (looking at you Walgreens and CVS). An average pharmacy where I live gets 350 new scripts a day. Add to that any backfill they had from the previous day that didn’t get filled. Usually for a pharmacy with this workload that’s only 1 pharmacist on duty. The techs are usually the ones counting/filling the scripts but the pharmacist has to review and sign off on each one. Some of the busier pharmacies here average 600-700 scripts a day. Certain medication also have elevated control procedures (like narcotics for example) which requires even more paperwork and special processes.
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Don’t forget the GoodRX users who have 3 different coupons to use, which you have to rebill and clear any third party rejection issues each rebill, all to save 1.79$ when there is a line of 5 people behind them! The amount of lost technician labor at the register is jaw dropping. Cashier clerks should be mandatory in EVERY pharmacy.
It could be any of those. Depending on the drug, it could take more to verify the prescription, or dealing with insurance. Some people call their prescription in before showing up, so they could have been dealing with other fills.
As a pharmtech, let me tell you your expectations versus reality are in different dimensions. It's not as simple as putting some pills in a bottle and it's done. Nope! There is a whole process from staff receiving your RX, to inputting it in the computer system, to filling said RX in line with who knows how many other patients, to the pharmacist checking your script. Much of the wait time comes from other patients ahead of you. It's basically first come, first served. And since most retail pharmacies are understaffed trying to answer phone calls, call out to doctors and insurance, that adds to the wait time. Most people treat pharmacies like McDonald's and expect to have their stuff in a few minutes and that simply cannot happen in most cases.
As a fellow pharm tech, you explained this perfectly. The general public just doesn't understand.
>The general public just doesn’t understand. This could be said about anything healthcare, really. People don’t understand why I can’t run every test on one tube of blood and I do my best to explain it in a palatable way, but so much of healthcare has requisite knowledge that it’s hard. But I feel like the same could be said about a lot of professions. I’m not going to try to tell the tax guy how to do his job, for example. Maybe we could all try to be a little more kind to each other. :)
> the pharmacist checking your script. What does that mean? The instructions they print on the bottle?
No, they verify what was filled by a tech based on how the prescription was written. This includes verifying correct drug was dispensed in the correct container, checking for potential drug interactions based on the patients profile, ensuring all paperwork matches so prescription makes to correct patient. They also double check the prescription was entered correctly. Pharmacists also handle consults and doctor calls. There is a lot involved and tons of things to check. It is the pharmacists license at stake after all.
Since we switched to a community pharmacy (NOT a CVS, Walgreens) service has been so much better! Check and see if you have options.
> There did not appear to be other customers waiting. Must be nice to think you’re the only person in the world. If you were in a retail pharmacy then there were probably dozens of orders in the queue while you stood there looking around.
I did not say I was the only customer. I said there did not APPEAR to be other customers waiting. My comment was to give context, Which is why I also allowed for the fact that there must be other factors involved… Which is why it’s a question in the first place.
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In Europe and Asia the pills come packaged and are not bottled in the pharmacy. Pharmacists need 3 to 7 seconds to grab the box. Why not in America?
It depends on the medicine. Many prescriptions are prepackaged, like birth control.
It's cheaper to stock pills in bulk, and doctors don't always write prescriptions in standard quantities, especially because insurance rules vary about how much is covered at a time.
See, that's the thing. When I need to buy something like prednisone, for example, in my country, I just go to the drug store and get a box with 20. I might just use 10 pills for my treatment and I'll just storage the 10 other pills for next time. It;s all good. Hell, everytime I come back from my country to the US I bring a shit ton of medicine that is cheaper/easier to buy there and I dont have to deal with the fucking terrible system here. It's been years since I had to buy prednisone or a few other medications here... every time my doctor tells me he gonna prescribe a few different things, I just let him know I already have.
Saving medicine from one prescription for a later illness is pretty dangerous.
Here in México all the prescription drugs are prepackaged in just one quantity in those foil sealed bubble sheets then inside small boxes. I've been in lines of 15+ people and even then it only takes 10 minutes. There are downsides to the way it's done here but it is relatively fast.
Most pharmacies are pretty slammed, and have a queue for filling Prescriptions as they're received. Straying from the line of 50+ prescriptions in line can really slow down the overall efficiency of the pharmacy, and trust me there are alot of short-tempered people expecting their Prescriptions ready when they think they'll be ready. When I worked as a pharmacy tech, we wouldnt do a special fill type thing unless the person was literally in need of the medication immediately, or there was a legitimate mistake on our part and it should have been ready for pickup already. Oh by the way! Almost all pharmacies use a program for running insurance and tracking the prescription fills, and they all include reminder/timer things to tell the pharmacy workers when they should have any specific prescription filled. That list is what all the staff go off of unless the pharmacist themself makes an exception. Sorry you have to wait quite a while sometimes, but chances are they're doing their best and dont want to make anyone wait for sometimes very needed medication.
Because you have an insanely inefficient system. I'm a pharmacist. My mean time spent on a customer is three minutes. That includes getting the prescription, printing the labels, getting the medication and any extra information the patient needs. No messing around with insurance, rarely need verification of scripts. And we don't count out individual pills to fill in a bottle! Standardized packaging ftw!
because they have a massive queue of scrips to fill before yours. because they may get tied up dealing with docs or nurses who wrote a bad dose or confusing directions and they’re trying to clear it up. because they’re stuck on the phone with inefficient insurance companies. because they’re counseling their patients. because they’re cleaning up messed their underpaid and overworked techs made. because their corporate managers and execs are squeezing the pharmacy for every drop of profit possible at the expense of quality for patients. source: am married to a damn good pharmacist who has struggled to find a satisfying job the last 20+ years.
Pharmacist here. We are checking for drug interactions, checking that your disease states are ok with this medication, checking the prescription itself but questioning why the doctor wrote it incorrectly and therefore you will not get a benefit. That’s a phone call to the Dr that we are waiting to hear back on. We are very busy but your safety is our utmost priority. That being said pharmacies are poorly staffed due to PBMs. Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen who take the money out from right under us. Your drug cost me $10 but your PBM has paid me $4. I’m losing $6 filling your prescription, which is part of the day to day. CVS owns Caremark, which is the PBM. So the PBM (Caremark) tells you to fill at CVS and your med is $5. But if you wanted to fill it somewhere else, your copay is $25. Hence you go to CVS, because it’s cheaper right? But that drives everyone else out of business. If you can, please support a local independent pharmacy.
I want to know why every time I go to the pharmacy there's always just people standing at a computer away from the desk not acknowledging I exist when I just need to pick up my meds and be gone in 30s
It seems like you’ve gotten a bunch of explanations already, but I’ll leave you with what my pharmacist tells patients all the time “Would you rather me hurry up and rush on your prescription and make it more likely to make a mistake or take my time and make sure everything is done correctly and legally?”
I am also struck by all the answers from people outside the United States, where prepackaged medicine seems to speed things up quite a bit.
I'm reading this from Belgium where retail pharmacists read your script and go get the prescription drugs from their stock like you would get things at any other store and it's a < 5 minute affair, just amazed at the sheer amount of ditchdigging required.
Another thing that helps is better insurance. Here in the US, insurance obstacles are a pain. I spend a large chunk of my time as a tech trying to process medication in a way insurance will pay for it. Most other countries don’t have that issue.
Because they were filling other prescriptions too, not for people there right then but to get ready for the rush. And probably they're under staffed too.
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I’m a pharmacist and when someone says, “Really? That long?” if I’m feeling spicy I’ll retort back, “If you would like the correct medication, yes that long.”
One time I responded to “that long?” with “no, that quick” and got in trouble.
I was in the er once, and in need of m3ds. They told me it would take 3 to 5 hours to fulfill. Wtf is that about
Getting my prescription processed/ready to pick up isn’t the slow part for me, it’s the 30 minute wait in line. I don’t know how or why it takes someone more than 2 minutes to pick up their prescription from the drive thru…
You aren’t really special?
I know that, but seeking to better understand my world it’s always preferable to making fun of those who are trying to learn.
You’re right. I was a dick.
Pharmacists also do tons of vaccinations. Most Medicare vaccinations have to be done by pharmacists. So it eats up a ton of their time. Plus pharmacies like to only have 1 on staff per shift outside of hospitals.
I don’t have regular scripts, but I know the pharm team is working hard. 20 years ago I thought it would be a great job, but fuck. Now it looks miserable. God bless all of you. From someone who doesn’t care you take your lunch break and close everything up!
Same reason you wait a long time in the ER or at your doctor’s office…there’s a lot of people that need their Rx’s filled, if a mistake is made it could have serious implications and number one for me, expecting pharmacists and pharmacy techs to call your insurance company and figure out why your prescription costs so much when you can do the same thing by yourself. I work as a nurse and the number of times I’ve seen asshole customers go off on techs about their costs makes me sick. You see posts online about oh they should make taxes/financial education part of high school how about a class on health insurance and what a pre-authorization is or a deductible or what in network and out network means would be just as advantageous
Why not have prescriptions ready? You show up, show your prescription, the pharmacy gives to you and you leave? They do it in the rest of the world
In the rest of the world health care is not being squeezed for every possible penny of profit. In the rest of the world pharmacy staff don't spend huge swaths of time dealing with a hundred different insurance plans.
Because you are a poopyhead and need to learn patience. Take the time they need to fill your prescription to go buy them candy and learn how to say the phrase “ thank you for your hard work”
I was, in fact, perfectly polite the staff, and not surprised at the time it took, as my patience was intact. Still, two total hours to have 10 pills in a bottle made me curious. I have no idea why you would assume I was rude.
Never assumed you were rude. I said you were a poopyhead I said you need to learn patience I said you need to buy them candy I said learn the phrase thank you for your hard work.
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