{"id":1915,"date":"2016-05-16T07:15:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T14:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2016-05-16T07:15:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T14:15:54","slug":"12-behind-the-scenes-secrets-of-pharmacists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=1915","title":{"rendered":"12 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Pharmacists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\"\"<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Although I’m not a pharmacist and spent less than 1% of my time behind the pharmacy, with over 40 years of experience I can tell you that all of these are accurate. \u00a0 “Labor laws don’t apply” seems to be true as I have rarely (if ever) seen a pharmacist leave and take a 15-minute break (as required by law…) and it’s generally true with the clerks and technicians as well. \u00a0It seems to be an unwritten rule that you don’t get to take breaks back there, which is a shame. \u00a0 And the flu shot quota is definitely true, there is an incredible amount of pressure to make the “target” given to each store and I’m sure there’s a lot of salesmanship going on to convince people to get them. \u00a0And it’s unfortunate that they don’t like electronic prescriptions, because it looks like that’s the way things are going.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Though they often toil in retail settings next to candy bars and magazine racks, pharmacists are fully accredited medical professionals who process, check, and consult on the roughly\u00a04.3 billion prescriptions<\/a> physicians write every year.<\/em><\/p>\n

To find out more about life behind the apothecary counter, mental_floss spoke with a few of the men and women in the nifty white smocks about frustrating quotas, illegible handwriting, and why you might see a little mayonnaise smeared on your pill bottle. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

1. THEY STOP DOCTORS FROM KILLING YOU.<\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jason\u2014he prefers not to reveal his last name\u2014has been a retail pharmacist in the Midwest for more than 20 years. When he hears complaints about slow service from patients who think of the chain stores as glorified drive-throughs for prescriptions, he sighs.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just putting pills in a bottle,\u201d he says. \u201cWith a prescription, there\u2019s a good likelihood of there being wrong information. We catch interactions that could kill you.\u201d On an average day, Jason might see 200 orders. He estimates 10 to 15 percent contain errors<\/a> in quantity, instructions, or dosing that need to be corrected by phoning the physician.<\/em><\/p>\n

2. THEY USUALLY HAVE ABOUT 15 MINUTES TO ACCOMPLISH THAT.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Owing to the volume of prescriptions processed by major chains like CVS and Walgreens, the one or two staff pharmacists on the clock have precious little time to spare. While pharmacy technicians can count pills and perform other tasks, only the pharmacist can double-check a medication is accurate before it\u2019s turned over. \u201cWe have a time limit,\u201d says Aaron, a retail pharmacist in Texas. \u201cReports get printed out at the end of the week and we get reprimanded for not meeting metrics. People ask if there\u2019s anything they need to know about their medication. Yes, lots, but I only have a few seconds to give you the highlights.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

3. DECIPHERING A DOCTOR\u2019S HANDWRITING IS LIKE CRACKING A CODE.<\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One course not taught in pharmacy school: how to decipher the frenzied scribbling of your neighborhood physician. \u201cYou\u2019re expected to learn it on the job,\u201d Jason says. \u201cYou learn traits. Some doctors don\u2019t learn any Roman numeral besides \u2018I,\u2019 so 11 of them means ’11.’ It\u2019s like a puzzle.\u201d Sometimes Jason will phone the doctor\u2019s office to crack the secret of a handwriting habit. \u201cThe funny thing is, you can move 10 minutes away to another side of town and have to learn a whole new set of patterns.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

4. THEY OFTEN DON\u2019T GET A LUNCH BREAK.<\/em><\/h4>\n

After graduating pharmacy school, Megan spent a little over a year at a retail pharmacy counter. \u201cIt was pretty much the worst year of my life,\u201d she says, citing the fast-food pace of the job as a deterrent to continuing. How fast? Orders typically come in so quickly that pharmacists don\u2019t take a lunch break. They have to eat portable meals or snacks while standing. \u201cYou don\u2019t really get any breaks unless you take it upon yourself. Labor laws don\u2019t apply. Employers aren\u2019t saying we can\u2019t, but when you\u2019re in the weeds, it\u2019s hard to make it actually happen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

5. THEY HAVE FLU SHOT QUOTAS.<\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

While it\u2019s no secret pharmacies love to promote flu shots, the even harder sell is happening behind the scenes. \u201cWhen [chains] found out they could get reimbursed by Medicare and make $15 a shot, it went from, \u2018Let\u2019s offer it,\u2019 to becoming mandatory,” Jason says. “Baby on the way? Get a flu shot. On the subway a lot? Get a flu shot.\u201d Pharmacists who fall below parity risk having a percentage of their annual bonus taken away.<\/em><\/p>\n

6. THEY WISH YOU\u2019D STOP HANDING THEM DIRTY PRESCRIPTIONS.<\/h4>\n

Like sweaty money coming from a sock, prescriptions of vague origin can be repulsive to the person who has to handle them. \u201cPeople hand you paper that looks like it\u2019s been through a garbage disposal and act like it\u2019s no problem,\u201d Megan says. As a courtesy, try to avoid spilling food, water, or blood on your prescription. (She\u2019s seen them all.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

7. THEY HATE ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTIONS.<\/h4>\n

According to Jason, they don\u2019t reduce errors\u2014they just make them more legible. \u201cThere are over 200 systems in my state alone,\u201d he says. With no continuity, \u201cThere\u2019s a real disconnect.\u201d Doctors don\u2019t always understand the drop-down menu\u2014advising patients to take a cream \u201cone tablet daily,\u201d for example\u2014and patients think their medication will be ready in seconds. It won\u2019t. \u201cImagine 100 people in your office sending you an email at once, then coming in and asking, \u2018Did you read it yet?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

8. DEFINITELY READ THE PAMPHLET. (JUST DON\u2019T LET IT SCARE YOU.)<\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Many consumers have adopted a management system for the drug information document that typically gets stapled to every prescription bag: They toss it in the garbage. This is not wise. \u201cI stress for patients to read it,\u201d Aaron says, citing time constraints at the pharmacy. But he also cautions not to let the list of possible side effects scare you. \u201cThe side effects aren\u2019t listed by how often they occurred in a clinical trial. 1 percent is different from 10 percent. You might see \u2018psychosis\u2019 and not know it happened in point-five percent of patients.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

9. THEY SOMETIMES DROP PILLS ON THE FLOOR. THEN YOU EAT THEM.<\/h4>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not supposed to happen,\u201d Megan says. \u201cThe counting trays have a lip, but stuff still falls on the floor. Then it\u2019s considered an adulterated drug and people aren\u2019t supposed to put it back in the bottle, but it happens anyway.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

10. THEY KEEP NOTES ON YOUR BEHAVIOR.<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Most pharmacy software has a prompt that lets pharmacists and technicians make a note when a customer is behaving oddly or is otherwise circumspect. \u201cSome people have the same issue every month,\u201d Aaron says. \u201cThey get a narcotic and insist we miscounted and gave them 10 fewer pills than prescribed, even if it was a sealed bottle.\u201d Push your luck\u2014one man got so irate having to wait at a drive-through he began filming on his phone, which is a privacy violation\u2014and you can find yourself banned<\/em>.<\/p>\n

11. YOU\u2019LL BE SEEING MORE OF THEM IN HOSPITALS.<\/h4>\n

Megan left retail to become a hospital pharmacist. \u201cThe last year of pharmacy school, you\u2019rerounding<\/a> with a medical team at a hospital,\u201d she says. \u201cTo have all that knowledge in the wheelhouse and go to a fast-food type environment, I didn\u2019t like it. I want to use those clinical skills. We go into a room and visit with a patient and can manage drug regimens.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

12. THEY TECHNICALLY DON\u2019T NEED A PRESCRIPTION TO HELP YOU.<\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Not on an official prescription pad, anyway. \u201cA pad is just a guide, with space for names and birth dates,\u201d Jason says. \u201cA doctor can technically write something down on a napkin and we have to honor it.\u201d They will, however, still call the office to verify.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although I’m not a pharmacist and spent less than 1% of my time behind the pharmacy, with over 40 years of experience I can tell you that all of these are accurate. \u00a0 “Labor laws don’t apply” seems to be true as I have rarely (if ever) seen a pharmacist leave and take a 15-minute Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-employees"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1915"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1922,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions\/1922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}