What happens between my doctor sending a prescription to the pharmacy and me picking it up?
Does the pharmacy just have every single potential prescription sitting in the back and they count and portion it out as the order is received? Do they “make” any of the medicine on site? Seems unlikely for the pills with designated colors and markings.
And if a significant portion of the job is counting pills why do pharmacists require so much schooling?
In: Other
Doctors and pharmacists have different specializations. Both hold doctorate degrees, as that’s the amount of knowledge you need to not kill people.
Doctors specialize in working with patients to determine what’s wrong with the patient’s body and setting a treatment or management plan. They are not drug experts; they oftentimes will learn that Drug Y is a treatment for disease X, but not how Drug Y works or its alternatives.
Pharmacists are the experts on drugs. They in general would know that Drug Y treats disease X…but aren’t trained to work with patients to determine what disease the patient has. So when the medical doctor sends over a prescription, the pharmacist will check their work; to make sure they sent over the right drug, right dosage, right quantity, and recommend a better drug or cheaper alternative if it’s suitable. They also check to make sure that Drug Y doesn’t interact with any existing diseases or other drugs. And they’ll also tell the patient how to take those drugs; what side effects they need to look out for, and answer any questions.
Lastly, the divide between the two also has a purpose. If a doctor could also dispense drugs or pharmacist write prescriptions, then there’s a single person that can create significant prescription drug abuse. With the divide, it takes two people working in two different practices in two different businesses to coordinate or look the other way. For example, if a dermatologist (skin doctor) keeps writing prescriptions for adderall (a psych med that a dermatologist has no business with) or pain killers, the pharmacist is going to think something is very suspicious. The two part system makes sketchy things like the opioid epidemic much less likely.
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