Submit Rx and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and..

ehBeth wrote:

Don't know about the U.S., but here the pharmacist will check your record for other medications you're taking - what the possible interactions are etc.

That's usually done at the doctor's

ehBeth wrote:
They may call the doc to confirm the appropriateness if there are doubts.

Mostly they can read their writings. But in doubt they phone as well.

ehBeth wrote:
They will determine if your plan covers generics or only name brands.

It's already on the prescription.

ehBeth wrote:
If it's the first time you're getting something from a particular pharmacist, they'll print out pages of information to give to you - and the pharmacist comes out to discuss new medications with each customer.

Done by the doctor.

ehBeth wrote:
Things like asthma puffers they demonstrate and make you show them what you understood of how to use it.

That's if they have the particular medication on file.

Here, they then have to scan the prescrition and the prices for the meds, tell you what you actually have to pay yourself (if) - if no-one is talking about the latest town gossips with the pharmacist = 5 minutes all together.

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Walter--

The twenty-minute wait is manditory browse-the-drugstore line. People with more money than mind do a lot of impulse buying.

The Customer Bonding was mostly about the glorious spring weather, the faults of Medicare D and the notion that muffin-top girls should keep their muffin tops bagged.

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Noddy24 wrote:

The Customer Bonding was mostly about the glorious spring weather, the faults of Medicare D and the notion that muffin-top girls should keep their muffin tops bagged.

Sorry Noddy, I certainly didn't mean you were complaining....didn't mean it to come out that way.

I get my prescriptions online too, delivered to my home...but for the odd script you have to pick up, I'd rather wait and be patient than risk getting the wrong meds/dosage etc.

a 20-40 minute wait is nothing in the big cosmic wheel of life.

It's not that I'm so complacent, just don't need to get aggravated by a lot of stuff that won't mean a thing in the morning.

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It bugs me when I go to the pharmacy at Walgreen's, and there is a long line. I do like ordering on the internet, and the fact that you can bring up a list of all your drug expenses, in detail on the net, that you can print out.
It is also open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

There is a local family drug store that my mom's assisted living facility uses, and I was considering switching. It is like I would imagine that a store in a small town would have been, years ago. The same people are there, (unlike the constant turnover at Walgreen's)they deliver, and you really can get personal service. But their hours are limited, and they are not open on the weekends. So I decided to stick with Walgreen's.

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Our Walgreen's is next to Whole Foods. I drop off my prescription, tell them I'm waiting to have it filled, walk over to Whole Foods, and then return for my order when I'm done.

If it's off-hours and only Walgreen's is open then I'll hang out in the magazine aisle and read magazines I'd never think of buying.

Until a few years ago we had an independent family-run pharmacy that also had an ice cream counter. I took most of my prescriptions there because I like supporting small business over big box and I liked eating ice cream while waiting for my order. Unfortunately they couldn't compete with the Walgreen's across the street and went out of business.

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Damn! Well weird. Neither in Holland nor in Hungary do you ever have to wait more than 5 mins.

Ever so rarely they might not have something in stock, but then you can come back later for it (or go to another pharmacy, which shouldnt be more than a 10-min walk (downtown Budapest) or 10-min bike ride (urban Holland) anyway.

ehBeth wrote:

Don't know about the U.S., but here the pharmacist will check your record for other medications you're taking - what the possible interactions are etc. [..]

If it's the first time you're getting something from a particular pharmacist, they'll print out pages of information to give to you - and the pharmacist comes out to discuss new medications with each customer.

Things like asthma puffers they demonstrate and make you show them what you understood of how to use it.

Thats all the doctor's job here.

ehBeth wrote:

They will determine if your plan covers generics or only name brands.

Not an issue in Holland; all covered. Pharmacists are actually being pushed by recent legislation to prescribe generics whenever available, so as to push health care costs down.

(Dont know about Hungary, Ive got intern'l insurance, but it looks like they give out either freely here as well).

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Well, again my questiuon: why do you have to wait?

Same thing I was thinking Walter. Do they make the pills? All I've seen pharmacists ever do was transfer the pills from big bottles to smaller bottles, or put the label on a pre-packaged packet.

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Wilso wrote:

Do they make the pills?

I've met by pure chance an old school friend this morning (leading pharmacian for four rather big hospitals) who actually talked to my mother's pharmacian and I addressed that question: they could close their pharmacy after a short while if such happened here since no customers would come anymore (and the hospital would look for a new employee).

When pills et. al. are "home made", it does take some while, depending on what it is (up to a day).
But this actually rarely happens since eveb the most complicated medicamentation is industrially produced.

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Wilso- The medications business is VERY big in the US. It is very streamlined, and here, in most cases, the pharmacist simply takes pills from a big bottle, and puts them in individual containers for the customers.

We do have, to a smaller extent, what is known as "compounding pharmacies" ( I would bet that there are a lot of people who have never realized this). These pharmacies are usually not one of the big chains, but an old-fashioned, individual operation.

The compounding pharmacy will custom make medications for people. For instance, I know of a case where a person found it impossible to take pills. She had her medications made up in a liquid suspension by a compounding pharmacy.

Quote:

Physicians often prescribe compounded medications for reasons that include (but are not limited to) the following situations:

When needed medications are discontinued by or generally unavailable from pharmaceutical companies, often because the medications are no longer profitable to manufacture;
When the patient is allergic to certain preservatives, dyes or binders in available off-the shelf medications;
When treatment requires tailored dosage strengths for patients with unique needs (for example, an infant);
When a pharmacist can combine several medications the patient is taking to increase compliance;
When the patient cannot ingest the medication in its commercially available form and a pharmacist can prepare the medication in cream, liquid or other form that the patient can easily take; and
When medications require flavor additives to make them more palatable for some patients, most often children.

http://www.iacprx.org/site/PageServer?pagename=What_is_compounding

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Pharmacy chains are not allowed by law in Germany (they'll going to change this), and all are small, mostly family run.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Pharmacy chains are not allowed by law in Germany (they'll going to change this), and all are small, mostly family run.

In a way, that is a shame, but that is progress.

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Ech coin has two sites: pharmacies store at least 250,000 different medicaments - quite some financial adventure for some.

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Submit Rx and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and..

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