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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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.
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.
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.
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.
Since we switched to a community pharmacy (NOT a CVS, Walgreens) service has been so much better! Check and see if you have options.
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.
> 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.
This used to be the single most triggering question I’d get from customers when I used to work as a pharmacy tech.
Yes, your prescription only takes about a minute of work from when they receive it. However, there’s 234 in front of you, and the only techs who can enter it in and fill it are being tied up at the register by people who insisted it was free last time even though they can see you paid $x.xx for it.
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.
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.
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