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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I’m a pharmacist and when someone says, “Really? That long?” if I’m feeling spicy I’ll retort back, “If you would like the correct medication, yes that long.”
Layman experiences:
i always thought the doctor was the expert and all the pharmacist had to do was count out the proper bills. Not so. Yes, the doctors are aware of the different meds but the pharmacist is the one who finds problems if the med isn’t right for you.
Lots of people mention finding a local pharmacy. Due to walgreens being a “preferred” location I used them for years but when they failed me once too often I moved to a local and my life is much more simple and calm. I’m paying over $60 a month more now, but even though I need to watch my money closely it is worth every penny.
Corporate medicine needs government intervention. The last straw with walgreens is that their suits decided it was more profitable for their stores to stock a bare minimum of medicines and have a regional center fill the prescriptions and send them to your location. My last refill of a very popular prescription taken by millions of people took 8 days to arrive at my store. UPS delivery doesn’t work on Saturdays or Sundays, USPS not on Sundays, throw in a holiday and things become ridiculous. I’ve been on that item for 8 years now and before the store was told to stop stocking more than a bare minimum there was never more than a day delay.
And the poor staff at chains. No, not that most of them are incompetent but I’ve met my share who were. Poor staff refers to me feeling sorry for the conditions they’re forced to work under.
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.
Because you have an insanely inefficient system.
I’m a pharmacist. My mean time spent on a customer is three minutes. That includes getting the prescription, printing the labels, getting the medication and any extra information the patient needs. No messing around with insurance, rarely need verification of scripts. And we don’t count out individual pills to fill in a bottle! Standardized packaging ftw!
Because you are a poopyhead and need to learn patience.
Take the time they need to fill your prescription to go buy them candy and learn how to say the phrase “ thank you for your hard work”
In Europe and Asia the pills come packaged and are not bottled in the pharmacy. Pharmacists need 3 to 7 seconds to grab the box. Why not in America?
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