this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024
587 points (98.0% liked)
People Twitter
8032 readers
1788 users here now
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
- Mark NSFW content.
- No doxxing people.
- Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
- No bullying or international politcs
- Be excellent to each other.
- Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I don’t understand how it can possibly take 2 hours to count a couple dozen pills, throw them in an orange tube, and slap a label on it. Maybe a pharmacy tech can enlighten me here.
I have worked in a CVS so I can answer this first hand. The main reason is every CVS is critically understaffed to the point of danger to patients.
Beyond that systemic problem that adds delay, actually dispensing the prescription is not the rate limiting step. When you get a prescription there's a whole list of things you need to do before it can be dispensed. In no particular order:
If it's a controlled substance you need the pharmacist to do about 50% of the steps above and access the safe which is a whole process. In the meantime they are on the phone with a doctor or some insurance trying to get something clarified or approved. Or compounding someone's diaper cream. Or doing vaccinations. Or counseling someone on their antibiotic. Some drugs have mandatory monitoring programs you have to enter information from the doctor before they can be dispensed. Some drugs require a dosage syringe, or intramuscular syringes, or needle tips.
Suffice it to to say it is an involved process.
Wow, that is a lot more manual work than I expected. You have to rewrite the directions too? I imagined the prescribing doctor would do that, then all you have to do is look up the order on the computer and print out the label.
Thank you for the explanation, the whole process seems like it could be made more efficient.
Last prescription I got was antibiotics and steroids for an ear infection. The doctor indeed did give me dosage and schedule. Then the pharmacy also gave me instructions, and they were different. Seeing how each Doctor hopefully keeps up with their field and most likely can't really with others, I'd say the pharmacy instructions are usually safer unless the patient has specific circumstances only the prescribing doctor is aware of.