eli5: Why does filling a prescription take so long?

1.99K viewsOther

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?

In: Other

36 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

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.

You are viewing 1 out of 36 answers, click here to view all answers.