Those circumstances mean the pharmacist doesn’t necessarily have a lot of time to spend informing customers of things that they may need to know. It’s not that they’re hiding anything or are unfriendly. They just may not be proactive in providing information or are too busy to make sure that the customer fully understands everything about ingesting the medication beyond a few hurried words of advice.
Given the situation, it falls to consumers to pay attention to their medications, ask relevant questions where necessary, and generally take a larger role in making sure they understand the procedures, processes and instructions that will help make their interactions with pharmaceutical professionals much more fruitful.
Seven Pharmacy Secrets
Here are seven things that pharmacists don’t necessarily reveal -- but they're vital for customers to know:
1) Chain drugstore and supermarket pharmacists have order quotas to maintain – The friendly neighborhood Walgreen’s and CVS have strict rules about the time it takes to fill a prescription. In most cases, they have a 15-minute limit on fulfilling orders, even for multiple medications in a single order. Of course, such slam-bang pressures increase the risk of mistakes. No one particularly monitors the speed of pharmacists unless there’s a direct complaint. But make no mistake, they are employees and will face consequences in performance reviews, promotions and bonuses if they fail to meet or maintain the requested quotas.
2) The time of day affects prescription fulfillment speed – It’s universally acknowledged that mornings are the best time to visit the local pharmacist and get a prescription filled speedily. Later in the day for most workers – including pharmacists -- means fatigue and other distractions. If calls are needed to get refill authorization or other variables delay the process, then pharmacists may get behind, meaning wait time will increase.