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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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.
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