eli5: Why does filling a prescription take so long?

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Most times I have a prescription filled it take much longer that I would guess. A recent example, at a simplistic level, all that was needed was for 10 pills to be put into a bottle, however, it took nearly an hour. There did not appear to be other customers waiting. Is the delay because there is a complex process with controlled drugs, or they are under-staffed, or are other things going on?

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36 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because the pharmacy you went to is either understaffed, staffed by idiots, or staffed by lazy people pretending to work.

I went to a big chain pharmacy to fill a prescription for medication I needed because it was closer to me on the way home (and I was in major pain and just wanted to pick it up ASAP) and they tried to tell me I’d have to wait over an hour. I laughed in her face and told me to give me my prescription slip back. Walked a little further to the independent pharmacy I usually go to and got that prescription and a refill on my usual prescription in less than 5 minutes.

People need to stop supporting these idiotic big chains. They don’t hire enough staff and they take on way too much shit without caring at all about the customers or how long they’re going to have to wait. Go support your independent pharmacy. They’re usually cheaper too. The independent pharmacy I go to has a discount card they use that gets me medication I take daily at the generic price even though I use the brand name (the brand name in this case is actually better) and it saves me like $220CAD a month. I asked them why the big chains don’t use that discount card once and they told me every single pharmacy has access to it they just don’t use it. Literally they could be saving people hundreds of dollars on meds every month and they don’t because they can’t be bothered.

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