Prescription Reception: This happens at the counter WITH the customer. Even when there are obstacles, I doubt that this is the type of delay that most people are complaining about. Also, this doesn’t apply to most people who’s paperwork is in order. The complaints about wait times are typically for “please come back in 2 hours” type delays. Who gets halfway through the initial paperwork and suddenly shouts “where’re my meds!?” This item is silly, and doesn’t answer the underlying problem.

Data entry: This is either a silly reason or misnamed. While messy handwriting CAN be a problem, that should be a simple solution, ignore that order and move on. Do NOT try to fill a prescription that’s dangerous to fill because of such complications. Deal with that customer separately and move on to the next. Proper information should only take a few minutes to enter into a system. IF the actual problem involves phone calls and insurance checks, then this issue is misnamed. The ACTUAL problem is “verification takes time” and NOT “data entry takes time”. No wonder pharmacists are so slow, they can’t even organize their arguments properly.

Dispensing: WHY DID YOU EVEN INCLUDE THIS? Even your own write-up talks about how quick and easy this step is. At no point is a reason given for why this OUGHT to take a long time. Some of the pharmacists in the comments elaborate by pointing out that double-checking needs to occur, which is fine. The question then becomes “How many times do you ACTUALLY double-check pill counts, and how long does that actually take?”

Verification: This step requires the most time behind the counter. This is where a pharmacists does his actual pharmacist work. He needs to make sure that the prescriptions aren’t stupid, and that the drugs won’t interact badly with each other, etc. etc.. I can completely understand how a single doctored pharmacist would be a bottleneck on a busy day. Of course, even this doesn’t apply in many situations such a repeat customers who’s prescriptions haven’t changed.

Release to Patient: Again, this is NOT part of the “please come back in 2 hours” time frame. This is where people stand in line and wait their turn. If there’s a multi-hour physical line of people for this step, then there are severe problems, but I doubt that most people wait more than 30 minutes here. This is NOT the step that’s being complained about (usually). This step often DOES require the direct presence of the pharmacist, which can add to the previously mentioned bottleneck, though.

So, almost every single point that was made is complete and utter crap. I honestly wonder why most of them were even made. There are only THREE justifiable reasons that were given.

1. If too many idiot patients are in the que, the entire process can bog down. This refers to situations that include poor doctor handwriting, incomplete personal information, improper drug combinations, etc.. Of course, this excuse ONLY applies situationally.

2. External verifications. Doctors, insurance companies, etc. often need to be contacted. This creates phone call delays and problems with paperwork cross checking and such. This is a completely valid excuse … for those to whom it applies. However, even when this step does not apply, long waits are still common.

3. The pharmacist is a bottleneck. This is the most valid excuse that I can see, and seems mostly valid.

My question is why all the pharmacists are making LAME excuses when they could be elaborating on the three ACTUAL excuses?