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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It is a policy implemented decades ago to make you sit in the store for some time so that, as you are bored out of your mind, you might look around and shop, to relieve your stress.
They make extra money by making you wait.
This is no denigration to the professionalism of pharmacists. They are doing their jobs well and efficiently. However, the reason they are understaffed and inadequately supported logistically is partly because of a deliberate policy adopted decades ago by major corporations to increase revenue by making customers casuallynwait for prescription medication. The corporation makes the pharmacist explain and take the blame. The insurance companies — idk, but they somehow make money off automatically saying “no” — and by surprise, after they’ve said “yes” for years or months of refills. It presumably has something to do with Medicare fraud perpetrated on a massive scale by private insurance companies, and pharmaceutical and other corporate health care providers.
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
You aren’t really special?
Really it can SOMETIMES take long. My experience at the pharmancy would tell a much different and varied take.
Take for example a mixup I had with a brand name and generic. Pharmacist takes a look, sees the computer went gluey and tried to fill the brand name hence the delay. Goes and see if there’s the generic on hand. So bottle in hand, dispenses my 25 pills, printed a lable, and had me on my way in 5 minutes.
Then you have times where I’ve taken paper copies from an urgent care doc directly to a local pharmacy and they simply say “15 minutes”. Seems reasonable.
Now, on the flip side, another drug I routinely take ALWAYS takes a day or two (sometimes more) because apparently they simply never have on hand. They have to order it. This is no fault of theirs and is something to be understood.
All in all, I find experience with filling Rx’s a slight gamble with (in my experience) more good experience than bad (though trust me I have had my fair share of bad)
IMO if you truly aren’t happy with a pharmacy, try and investigate the WHY. Being informed will help you build patience. And overall, be prepared to wait longer than not. At least that’s the mindset I go into it with.
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!
Almost every other problem listed throughout this thread can be fixed by having sufficient staff
The pharmacy is working in orders called and sent in (by patients and from doctor’s offices and hospitals directly) before you even came to the window. Many have drive through as well.
Yes, so many pharmacies are understaffed. And if I remember correctly, some substances cannot be filled by pharmacy assistants but must be filled by the pharmacist for legal reasons.
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
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?”
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.
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