What Takes So Long at the Pharmacy? Real Explanation by a Pharmacist

This is why AI is taking over jobs because there’s no way that I that you can’t go right in the back, open the the bottle, take the 30 pills out, and put it in another bottle, scan it, and hand it to me in about 5 minutes.

there’s just no way it takes more time than that. So, help me understand. >> Hey, Steve. I’m Ethan, and I’m a pharmacist. I would be happy to explain it to you. So, I really apologize for your parents for a teacher that never told you that the world does not revolve around you. Though it may look like that there is no one waiting for their prescriptions at the pharmacy, there are hundreds to thousands of people who are filling their prescriptions there every single day.

But you know what? I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt because you probably have never worked in a pharmacy before. I want to explain to you and other people who may not know what actually happens behind a pharmacy count. So, I created a nice little outline for you that we can go through together and we can get a little bit more in depth as well.

The Real Reason Your Pharmacy Takes So Long (You’ll Be Surprised)

Step one, you and several other people will drop off your prescription at the pharmacy. This could be either a written prescription. Your doctor could send it via fax or they could call it in. Before we even do anything with your prescription, we need to make sure it’s a valid prescription. So, we have to make sure that it’s a legitimate doctor that’s prescribing it and that you are who you say you are or that you’re dropping off a prescription for one of your loved ones.

And then, if it’s a controlled medication, we need to make sure that that doctor is able to write those. Then, we probably need to update your profile depending on how frequently you visit our pharmacy. If we have a brand new patient who just stopped by, we’re going to need to know all your information, your allergies, your medical history, as well as your insurance information.

And I’m sure you’re wondering, why does my pharmacy need to know all this information? Well, because when you’re getting multiple prescriptions from maybe multiple doctors, they may not all communicate with each other. So, if there is an allergy, we’ll be able to pinpoint it out right away for you.

Pharmacy Secrets: Why Your Prescription Isn’t Ready Yet

Then, the next step, we’re going to try to process your insurance. So, we need to make sure that your insurance is correct. Then once we make sure we have the correct insurance for you because sometimes some patients have no clue what their insurance is, we’re then going to type up your prescription. And we have to be careful when we’re typing that up because if there’s any issues or any errors, you’ll get dispense the wrong medication or the wrong directions.

That’s when after we type the prescription, we’re going to bill your insurance and we’ll either find out if it’s covered or if it needs something what’s called a prior authorization. If it needs a prior authorization, you’re not going to probably get your prescription today because your doctor is going to have to fill out paperwork to tell your insurance that you need to be on this medication.

But if it goes through your insurance, that’s amazing. So, now that we’ve typed it up, now it’s going to be my job to review the prescription that was just typed in. This is to make sure that, you know, there’s no drug interactions, that this medication is okay for you to take, and whoever typed the prescription that they typed it correctly.

If there are any issues, we got to stop that prescription and I need to call your doctor to make sure that everything’s okay and then we can try to fill it. If everything’s okay and then I finish verifying it, it’s going to print out of our printer. Then once your prescription prints out of the printer, we’re going to make sure that we have the correct medication to fill.

But sometimes we don’t have the medication, so we’re going to have to make a note to order it at the end of the day. So then for this time, you’re not going to get your medication today. Then we have a final check.

Why Your Prescription Is ALWAYS Delayed (Pharmacist Reveals the Truth)

So once someone fills the prescription, it’s going to come to me, the pharmacist, and I’m going to make sure, you know, that the correct pills are in the bottle. But for some reason, if it’s the wrong pills, I have to send it back and it needs to get redone. That’s the process for one whole prescription. But of course, other people go to our pharmacy, so they’re going to be picking up their prescriptions. That means when a patient comes in, I’m going to get pulled aside because I need to counsel them on the new medication.

Or if a patient has any questions, I’m going to be there to answer it for them. And then if there’s any vaccines, it may be delayed even more. But then when all said and good, the patient will pay for their medication and they’ll go off on their merry way. So Steve, I wonder if you think AI would be able to replace all of that because when it comes to patient safety and patient health, I don’t think it will.

Also, the amount of times I’ve used AI to give me counseling points, it’s actually very scary the most incorrect information that it’s given. I know that you think AI may be replacing us, but something I forgot to tell you was that there’s boards of pharmacies all across the United States. So every state has their own board of pharmacy.

I can tell you they want to get paid and they’re not going to have AI take over anything. But by all means, if you think you can use AI to create your own pharmacy, then go for it. I am so supportive for people who want to start their own.