Drug of the Day:
Viagra (brand name)
(No generics available as of yet… Other similar drugs include Levitra & Cialis)
Viagra is used to treat erection problems in men. Comes in 25mg, 50mg, and 100mg tablets. For other related information including drug interactions visit www.drugdigest.org or www.webmd.com for more details.
Only in Retail Pharmacy:
While most people get a break from work this past Monday, me and my fellow pharmacy crew slaved away for 10+ hours at work. Usually on holidays, work wouldn’t be as busy but boy was I wrong. We ended up doing over 400+ prescription during the 14 hours we were open with limited help. Lets see, we only had 1 pharmacist on duty, me, an intern from the local pharmacy school here in town, and 2 new trainees who can only work with the cash register at the moment. Somehow we were able to manage through all the chaos and at times extremely impatient customers who just don’t get how a pharmacy works.
The following will give readers a general idea of how long it takes to process 1 prescription from start to finish.
-If its a new patient, we would have to input name, address, birthday, phone number, any allergies, and insurance. (1-3 minutes)
-Next we type in the name of the medication & strength, input the doctors name & make sure the doctor is in our system with the correct DEA number, type in the correct quantity, type in the number of refills, type in the direction of how the patient is suppose to take the medication, type in the date the prescription is written, and finally scan a copy of the prescription into our system. (1-10 minutes)
-If no problems occur with anything above we move on to grabbing the correct medication from the shelf. We count the correct quantity, fill and label it into the proper container and it moves on to be checked by the pharmacist (1-5 minutes)
-After the pharmacist verifies that everything 100% correct, it is packaged into a bag and put into the waiting bin ready for pickup. (1-3 minutes)
Lastly, keep in mind that during any of these steps we are constantly stopped by either other customers dropping off, telephone calls, the 2 inside pickup windows, or the 2 outside drive-thru lanes. Due to our cheap-arse company cutting back our hours and not providing adequate support, we do not have enough staff to cover each of these areas. If a patient brings in multiple prescriptions, the time to fill would take longer of course. If any problems occur with insurance, we would be stuck on the phone for a while also as we all know it takes a long while before getting a hold of a live representative. I’m sure other retail stores aren’t that bad if they have a good team of trained technicians unlike my store. Oh wells, what can you do right? Just got to suck it up and tough it out if I’m going to be a pharmacist.
Joke of the Day:
A young man goes into a drug store to buy condoms. The pharmacist says the condoms come in packs of 3, 9 or 12 and asks which the young man wants. “Well,” he said, “I’ve been seeing this girl for a while and she’s really hot. I want the condoms because I think tonight’s “the” night. We’re having dinner with her parents, and then we’re going out. And I’ve got a feeling I’m gonna get lucky after that. Once she’s had me, she’ll want me all the time, so you’d better give me the 12 pack.”
The young man makes his purchase and leaves.
Later that evening, he sits down to dinner with his girlfriend and her parents. He asks if he might give the blessing, and they agree. He begins the prayer, but continues praying for several minutes. The girl leans over and says, “You never told me that you were such a religious person.” He leans over to her and says, “You never told me that your father is a pharmacist.”