What happens when you Fill a Prescription
Wondering what the person behind the counter really does when you hand him or her that prescription the prescriber gave you? Take a behind the scenes look at what happen at your local drugstore from a pharmacist's perspective. Here is a hint: we don't just count by fives and place pills in a bootle. But you already knew that right? If not read on and discover some of the duties and responsibilities of pharmacists as they help you with your prescriptions.
So what does happen at the pharmacy counter? It all starts at the drop off window or drive thru window. You or someone dropping off your prescription for you hands the prescription off to a pharmacist or pharmacy technician. At this stage we verify things like whether or not the patient has filled prescriptions before, their date of birth, and verifying current insurance information. If the patient is new to our pharmacy we must gather their personal information including drug allergies and health conditions so we can enter this into their personal patient profile in our computer system.
Information we ask for can include any current prescription or over the counter medications you take, any drug allergies you might have and what types of allergic reactions, and any chronic health conditions. But what if I don't want to give that information out to you? Relax, we need this information to do our job but we keep all patient information private and confidential. We are bound by HIPAA regulations to not share personal health information with anyone. Your information is safe in a password protected computer system. We need to know all your information to make sure that every prescription we fill for you is appropriate and more importantly safe for you to take given your current medication therapy history and health conditions. we want to try and prevent as many adverse drug reaction and drug interactions as possible by gathering pertinent information from our patients ahead of time.
So after we gather all needed information we enter your new prescription in our computer system. This is where the real action starts! We verify that there will be no drug interactions with other medications you take, double check dosages to make sure they are appropriate for you, and then bill your prescription directly to your insurance company. Once that insurance claim is approved we then fill the prescription and verify it is exactly what the prescriber ordered. The licensed pharmacist on duty will make a final check to double check for any errors and verify everything is accurate and what the prescriber ordered. At this stage the prescription is ready for pickup by you the patient or a representative.
When you come to pick up your prescription you may notice the pharmacy staff asking you if there are any questions about your medication. The pharmacist can counsel you about how to take your medication and what side effects or precautions to look for while taking that particular drug. Pharmacists are also available to answer over the counter medication questions and often we now provide other services like selling durable medical supplies or routine vaccinations. In certain situations pharmacist are even granted the ability to prescribe medications under certain conditions. Our role as pharmacists has been expanding in recent years to better serve our customers.
You see your local pharmacist is a valuable part of the healthcare system. We provide goods and services to improve public health. We can act as a safety net for preventing medication errors and we can catch mistakes before a patient is given inappropriate medication therapy. We can provide advice on over the counter medications and counseling on any questions and concerns regarding prescription therapies. And yes, it is a little more complicated than counting by fives. Why else would we have to go to school for so long just to become a licensed pharmacist?
So the next time you drop off a prescription at your local pharmacy keep in mind there is a lot of things going on behind the scenes to ensure you are getting the appropriate medication for your needs and conditions. Please keep this in mind when you are in a rush and must wait for your medicaiton. We will serve you as fast as we can and you will be on your way! I hope this gives you a little insight into what really goes on behind the counter at your local pharmacy.
